Becker's Health IT + Clinical Leadership + Pharmacy: 3 Questions with Rod Tarrago, Chief Medical Information Officer for Seattle Children's Hospital

Rod Tarrago, MD, serves as Chief Medical Information Officer for Seattle Children's Hospital. 

On May 3rd, Dr. Tarrago will serve on the panel "Physicians and EHRs: How to Limit Physician Frustration and Burnout" 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. Tarrago's session, click here.

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

Rod Tarrago: The truth, like many things, probably lies somewhere in the middle. When innovating in healthcare, the stakes are often much higher. If an app crashes or data is lost, it can have serious consequences in healthcare, especially when directly tied to patient care. Thus, we need to be much more diligent about making sure things work before letting them loose. That said, the speed with which healthcare advances is too slow, and not just in innovation. We know that the time it takes for newly “accepted” research to be generally put into practice is very long (over 15 years). Some of this is due to culture, some of this is related to technology, and some is communication. If we can address these issues, then we can improve quickness of innovation.

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

RT: In this business, especially informatics, we often focus on how technology can improve the lives of our patients. Sometimes, however, it’s the simple things that can make a big difference. I had a patient recently, an 11 year old boy, who was being treated for a brain tumor. During rounds he called me in to his room, in tears, because he was afraid he’d never get to play soccer again. We spent the next several minutes trading stories about our favorite professional soccer teams. I ended up printing him a poster of his favorite team, writing him a personal message on it, and mounting it on his bulletin board. This really made his day, and it was low tech. He’s making a great recovery and can now focus on getting back to playing soccer.

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?

RT: ​Last year, we developed a custom software solution to a longstanding problem, and we did it using a hackathon model. Rather than traditional project management or even agile methodology, we put a small group of people into a room for two days and handed them a problem. We then let them loose. Because the end goal was simply a proof of concept, there was no pressure. They rose to the occasion. Every team member contributed their core knowledge, and also learned many new skills. They challenged previously accepted limitations, including their and our organization’s boundaries. In the end, they won the hackathon competition, and created a now-standard process and software solution that was able to overcome a problem that had previously seemed insurmountable. I simply needed to get out of the way.

 

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