Ed McCallister, SVP & CIO, UPMC, Chapter 1

There’s a lot of talk about innovation in healthcare IT, but when Ed McCallister says it’s in the DNA of his organization, it’s not just talk. In addition to more than 20 hospitals, 500 outpatient sites and a health plan, UPMC comprises an innovation arm that has launched several products and companies, including an ACO initiative. It’s no wonder McCallister says innovation is a verb — not a noun. In this interview, he talks about the growing trend in consumerism and how his team is leveraging data to transform the patient experience; the partnership that he believes will transform the way care is delivered; and what it really means to be an integrated delivery system. He also shares his thoughts on where the industry is headed, and what he learned from being on the payer side.

Chapter 1



* About UPMC

* Growing trend of consumerism

* “We’re attempting to break down barriers and have a smooth consumer experience.”

* 3 areas of patient engagement

* Applying advanced analytics to leverage data

* “Consumer education is where it all starts.”

* Pittsburgh Health Data Alliance



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Bold Statements

We obviously have to do the mechanics around what it takes for patient care and some of the more traditional Legacy clinical systems, but a big focus has been on how do we have the experience of a person that’s coming through the UPMC environment and have it be a very consistent, very personal experience.

It’s trying to meet the person where they are and guide them through process through the use of transparency tools, quality comparisons, condition management in the portals, and wellness tools.

We’re able to use that data as we collect it to have a more targeted experience for that consumer, whether it be outreach in way of a text message saying, ‘don’t forget to do X,’ or reminder of an appointment, or just a congratulatory text.

We’ve accelerated the education process for the consumer in healthcare over the past five years like no other industry has. We’ve done for healthcare what TripAdvisor did for the hotel industry in putting the side-by-side comparisons out there and arming people with more information to make smart decisions.

Gamble:  Hi Ed, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us today.

McCallister:  Sure. Thank you, Kate.

Gamble:  I’m sure that most of our readers and listeners are familiar with UPMC, but if you could just give a little bit of information, just what you have in terms of number of hospitals and clinical locations, things like that.

McCallister:  UPMC is a $12 billion organization comprised of 20-plus hospitals, about 3,500 employed physicians. We also have an insurance services subsidiary; we have probably over 100 hospitals and 12,000 physicians in the health plan network, along with 2 million members in multiple employer groups across a Medicare, Medicaid, and commercial population.

We also have an international division as well that does business outside of the domestic US. And we also have just embarked on a UPMC enterprises division within UPMC, which is the innovation arm of what we’re doing. So while we’re focused on world-class patient care, we have an innovation arm that we’ve just embarked upon.

Gamble:  That’s something we’ll definitely want to get into. It’s such a big topic now.  Now in terms of your role as CIO, if you could just talk a little bit about the key facets of your role and then the size of the team you’re looking at.

McCallister:  I’m senior VP and CIO for UPMC as an enterprise. The IT organization is comprised of somewhere in the vicinity of 1,400 employees spread across the departments that I outlined earlier. The key areas within UPMC are obviously the insurance services division,