Becker's Health IT + Clinical Leadership + Pharmacy: 3 Questions with Clemens Schirmer, Director of Comprehensive Stroke Center, Residency Program and Cerebrovascular/Endovascular Neurosurgery for Geisinger Health

Clemens Schirmer, MD, PhD, FAANS, FACS, FAHA, serves as Director of Comprehensive Stroke Center, Residency Program and Cerebrovascular/Endovascular Neurosurgery for Geisinger Health.

On May 3rd, Dr. Schirmer will give a presentation on "Unified Data Architectures - Building the Instruments Into the Operation Rather than Adding Them Later" at Becker's Health IT + Clinical Leadership + Pharmacy conference. As part of an ongoing series, Becker's is talking to healthcare leaders who plan to speak at the conference, which will take place May 2-4, 2019 in Chicago.

To learn more about the conference and Dr. Schirmer's session, click here.

Question: Healthcare takes a lot of heat for not innovating quickly. What's your take on this?

Clemens Schirmer: Innovation in healthcare is usual seen through the lens of cost reduction or avoidance. Value is difficult concept to measure, cost is not. Innovation is not always cheaper in the short run but the usual sources of capital in healthcare are small compared to the overall industry and don’t allow meaningful experimentation. Besides that the fact that lives are at stake makes innovation more difficult.

Q: Tell us about the last meaningful interaction you had with a patient.

CS: Yesterday. I am a practicing Endovascular neurosurgeon who performs surgery on stroke patients. My last, 93 year-old patient was left with little to no deficit and the family was concerned about her going home on day 1. I loved to argue about someone having too good of an outcome.

Q: Can you share some praise with us about people you work with? What does greatness look like to you when it comes to your team?

CS: Looking at the core function that contributes to a good patient outcome and satisfaction. I try and foster that sort of simple approach to everyone’s job which is akin to contributing to a formula 1 team. Every small improvement adds up to an unbeatable advantage.

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