Electronic Health Records Expert Witness

Summary

Expert is a Chief Medical Information Officer for Nuance Healthcare, a speech to text (STT) and artificial intelligence company. Expert is board certified in Family Medicine and Clinical Informatics. He has 23 years clinical experience, 20 years of EHR use, plus managed 14 years of physician leadership, adoption, implementation, and optimization on multiple EHR platforms. He holds an MBA in Health Care Management and a graduate certificate in Medical Informatics. He succeeded at a large regional hospital, a multistate IDN, and a prominent community hospital system with clinical content, quality improvement, optimization, and governance projects. He is a knowledgeable physician executive with direct C-suite and provider engaging work in medical software user interfaces, design, change management and adoption strategy to drive EHR and ancillary solution success. An engaging presentation style, effective communication, teaching, writing, medical staff interaction, negotiation, expert testimony and conflict resolution are some of Expert’s strengths. As an internationally known CMIO, award winning family physician, and international speaker on informatics he demonstrates integrity, professionalism, clinical excellence, executive skills, and meaningful deployment of a wide range of healthcare solutions.

Career goals

To work with major health care organizations aiming to assure safety, aid efficiency, improve outcomes, raise quality measures and enable medical staff excellence. Enhance organizations’ leverage of IT for the benefit of all stakeholders, especially patients.

Work History:

Nuance Healthcare (March 2019 to current)
Chief Medical Information Officer
Atlanta Georgia

Responsibilities & Accomplishments

Direct responsibility for organizational success with Computer Assisted Physician Documentation solutions
Multiple onsite engagements with several large hospital systems improving adoption of STT and artificial intelligence solutions
Presentations at national conferences and internal teaching symposia on clinical documentation improvement, reduction of physician burnout, and improving risk scores and financial goals
Spearheaded reorganizing and reinventing solution adoption success by championing change management, engaging customers’ physician leaders, creation of workflow videos, and deep integration with project teams
Developed on a moments notice a COVID-19 documentation strategy incorporating WHO and CDC clinical and coding guidelines
Created a set of documentation tools supporting HCC compliance to improve RAF scores and reduce denials
Participated regularly on product development and standards calls to drive improvements in solution excellence and software functionality and usability
Recognition by our CEO for efforts extolling and marketing our products

Piedmont Healthcare (July 2015 to March 2019)
Chief Medical Information Officer
PHC Atlanta Georgia

Responsibilities & Accomplishments

System informatics lead for an 11 hospital Epic deployment
Redefined reporting and work efforts of a 60+ clinical analyst team
Created and led executive inpatient and outpatient governance teams
Analyzed and redirected quality & safety goals related to Leapfrog, 6 hospitals are A grade
Leading numerous clinical standardization efforts across the system
Data analysis for break/fix, optimization, and future implementation projects
Successfully re-engineered the sepsis alert and VTE prophylaxis platforms with metrics demonstrating some of the best results in the nation
Championed and lead several innovation developments: EHR Access via mobile apps like Haiku/Canto, system wide voice recognition integration, embedded EHR secure messaging system, eRx program, and promoted CDI artificial intelligence tools
Attended executive leadership development academy (PLA)
Envisioned and produced an extensive e-learning video library

Regional Hospital (July 2012 to May 2015)
Chief Medical Information Officer
Yuma Regional Medical Center

Responsibilities & Accomplishments

Set up and lead a high functioning governance council for EHR decisions
Design, build, optimize and validate numerous modules within Epic EHR
Oversee diverse IT analyst projects and teams, includes hospital & ambulatory
Build, monitor, and attest for meaningful use successfully Stage 1 and Stage 2
Strategize informatics roadmap for content, quality, safety, and usability with substantial improvement in quality reporting numbers driven by IT
Optimized workflows in surgery and emergency department
Executive presentations on projects, EHR initiatives, and informatics
Clinical liaison on EHR use for clinical success and user satisfaction
ICD-10 program development and documentation improvement
Extensive clinical collaboration and physician engagement successes
Participated in yearlong leadership and mentorship program

Corporate Integrated Delivery Network (August 2010 to June 2012)
Director-Clinical Content
Catholic Health East

Responsibilities & Accomplishments

Create standardized order sets for use in Soarian and Meditech
Lead and work with diverse teams including executives, physicians, nurses, analysts, and IT personnel for clinical content and transformation
Revamp and re-engineer order set development and approval process
Meet and exceed order set generation goals (over 100 in just a few months)
Clinical transformation lead for several large hospitals with proven “Go-lives”
Outpatient EHR initiatives with NextGen, Epic and Allscripts
Responsibility to drive quality measure capture and reporting
Clinical documentation excellence leader
Dotted line reporting from regional CMIO’s and CMO’s on transformation efforts

Corporate (December 2007 to August 2010)
Physician executive/clinical liaison/certified informaticist
Medsphere Systems Corporation

Responsibilities & Accomplishments

Direct responsibility for 3 hospital transformations that had successful “Go-lives” and attested for Meaningful Use Stage 1
Demonstrate OpenVista EHR solution to hospital staffs from C-suite to physicians and nurses with several contract wins
Collaborated with a team that built a complete EHR order set and template menu for client end users
Substantially increased sales pipeline several fold through clinical presentations on the positive impact of EHR on workflow and efficiencies to drive outcomes
Created and presented clinically driven adoption models for organizations deploying EHR’s
Presented adoption models at TEPR national meeting
Built a change management and adoption schema for clients
Managed a physician end-user satisfaction and feedback system
Traveled extensively to client sites to meet with clinical and administrative stakeholders
Wrote and certified a CME lecture on informatics basics for physicians without EHR experience

Entrepreneur (May 2008 to July 2010)
Chief Executive Officer
VivMed Communications Inc.

Primary Responsibilities:

Successfully contracted and closed a pilot deal with a 150+ physician medical specialty group.
Invented with executive team a new physician mobile communication tool to facilitate physician collaboration
Negotiated with Angels, VC’s, and attorneys to obtain financing
Assisted in building a comprehensive business plan and financial goals
Wrote mission and vision statements and created an executive summary developing and solidifying the company as a viable startup business
Created a road map for product success and future development

Utilization Review (November 2007 to December 2009)
Physician Reviewer/Auditor
CompPartners Inc.

Primary Responsibilities:

Reviewed complex UR cases for medical necessity and rendered decisions
Established trusting, collegial peer to peer relationships with physicians and nurses on review teams
Direct contact with treating physicians on challenging medico-legal cases
Audited other physicians reviews for clarity, content, and accuracy in decision-making
Learned complex and extensive guidelines for evidence based medical care

Family Physician and Family Practice Chairman (February 2001 to December 2007)
Staff Physician
St. Joseph Heritage Medical Group

Primary Responsibilities:

Attended patients in a full time medical practice
Chairman and leader for 17 family physicians
Scheduled call responsibilities for urgent care coverage
Consistently achieved highest satisfaction ratings in the group
Implemented Allscripts Touchworks EHR and championed workflow changes for improved patient care, specifically visionary for problem lists, medication reconciliation and physician documentation

Employment beyond 10 years

Queensland, Australia Relief/Rover physician 1998-2000
Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines Ship’s Physician 2000
RMS Titanic, Inc. Expedition Physician 1998 Titanic Research and Recovery Expedition
Carnival Cruise Lines Ship’s Physician 1998
Convenient Medical Care Staff Physician 1988-1998
CompHealth Partners Locum Tenens Physician 1987-2000

Education

University of Maryland, College Park, MD 1978-82, BS zoology
Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC 1982-86, MD
University of Phoenix, Costa Mesa, CA 2004-2007, MBA Health Care Management
University of Phoenix, Online, 2009, Graduate Certificate Healthcare Informatics

Hospital Training

Eastern Virginia Graduate School of Medicine, Norfolk, VA 1986-87, Medicine
University of California-Irvine, Orange, CA 1988-90, Family Practice

Professional and Academic Appointments

University of California-Irvine, Orange, CA, Professor of Family Medicine 1991-09
St. Joseph Heritage Medical Group, Family Practice Chairman 2003-08
Independent Medical-Legal Consultation 2008-09
University of Phoenix, Professor in the School of Business, Strategic Decisions

Certifications

American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM), certified through 2023
American Board of Preventive Medicine, certified Clinical Informatics
AHIMA Clinical Documentation Improvement professional, lapsed 2021

Professional Organizations (past and present)

ABFP, ABMS, AHIMA, HIMSS, AMA, CMA, OCMA, AAFP

Speaking engagements

Beckers HealthIT conference
Kyruus ATLAS conference Boston
HIMSS AsiaPac Singapore
HIMSS AsiaPac Taiwan
Connex event Las Vegas and Orlando
iHT2 Conference Phoenix, Atlanta, San Diego
Ohio Linux Conference
mHealth Conference Palm Springs

Published writing

Becker’s Healthcare

PC World

Family Practice Management
Unique Opportunities
LA Times
SurfFlex
Worst Case Scenario
Others upon request

Awards

Orange County Medical Association Physician of Excellence 2007 and 2008
Teacher of the Year, University of California-Irvine Dept. of Family Medicine 1994

Professional References

Salimah Handa, past Executive Director of Informatics Piedmont Healthcare
Richard Pitts, DO, Orange County Medical Assoc. Past President
Barbara Antuna, MD, board certified Emergency Physician