David Adinaro, MD, serves as Chief Medical Information Officer at St. Joseph's Healthcare System.
On May 2nd, Dr. Adinaro will serve on the panel "The Evolving Role of CMIOs Today" 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. Adinaro's session, click here.
Question: Healthcare takes a lot of heat for not innovating quickly. What's your take on this?
David Adinaro: The easy answer if that medicine is slow to innovate because of the traditional approach of physicians, large investments in older technology and lack of payment models that support innovation. All of these are contributors but do not tell the whole story. There are really few examples of high complexity, high risk organizations that can also “turn on a dime”. The tightly coupled processes (to borrow a high reliability term) mean that rapid change in one area can significantly impact others. This contributes to the slowness to innovate and change.
Q: Tell us about the last meaningful interaction you had with a patient.
DA: My clinical time is as an emergency physician in our urban department in Paterson, NJ. It is not hard to find meaningful interactions on a regular basis. Recently though I cared for a woman with end stage emphysema and heart failure. She came from home reluctantly because her breathing discomfort was overwhelming her desire to die at home. We were able to keep her comfortable, arrange an urgent palliative care consult that resulted in her transferring to an inpatient hospice unit. We met her goals in a way that would have been difficult years ago. The collaboration between the various services was rewarding to observe and demonstrated the best case scenario for this woman.
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?
DA: Our organization is focused on some areas that have traditionally been very segregated from each other, namely Physicians, and Revenue Cycle. I have an opportunity to work with a wide variety of leaders on these issues daily. Their sense of mission and commitment to collaboration has been extraordinary and I know takes a great deal of effort. I am very lucky to be around some relatively “young” physician leaders. Their ability to see beyond their specialties and see the larger healthcare system is so rewarding. They also are able to have a perspective on the issues as a physician and effectively advocate for it.