Q&A with URMC CMIO Gregg Nicandri: “We need to give our caregivers more information.”

In the past few years, there have been more discussions about the importance of incorporating social determinants into the overall care picture, and for good reason. Factors such as income, education access, and housing “drive a lot more in terms of health outcomes when compared to the different procedures or treatments we offer,” said Gregg Nicadri, MD, CMIO at University of Rochester Medical Center. “As technology teams, we need to give our caregivers more information about the person they are seeing so that they can make sure the care plan they’re offering makes sense.” The question has always been, how can organizations move the needle to better serve their communities?

The answer is by leveraging a multilayered approach. For URMC, part of that approach has been partnering with patients to ask important questions and explaining why the data are being collected — and what will happen going forward.

It’s an area of great importance to Nicandri, who recently spoke with Kate Gamble, Managing Editor at healthsystemCIO about his team’s key areas of focus — particularly in terms of leveraging ambient technologies to ease the documentation burden. He also talked about the role virtual reality can play in improving training, the ever-evolving CMIO role, and what it takes to drive change.

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Key Takeaways



* On Covid’s impact: “Everybody always talks about the telemedicine and telehealth aspect of COVID, but there were a lot of things we did to modernize our overall infrastructure during that period of time as well that were really exciting.”

* On change management: “We’re very good at making people aware that change is coming… Where I think we fall down a little bit is the desire; just because we tell people a change is coming, it doesn’t really mean they want that change.”

* On leveraging ambient technology: “We’re starting to use ambient methods to understand the conversation between the doctor and patient and generate a structured note. From that, they can then be reviewed and it can save time.”

* On the evolving CMIO role: “When COVID happened, we had to rapidly evaluate new technologies and come up with new strategies. I got involved more in a senior leadership discussion where we would work together to figure out what is the appropriate governance and how are we going to execute on change management.”

* On social determinants: “As a technology team, we need to give our caregivers more information about that person that they are seeing that day, so that they can reflect on that and make sure that the care plan that they’re offering makes sense in that situation.”





Q&A with Gregg Nicandri, MD, CMIO, University of Rochester Medical Center

Gamble:  Hi Dr. Nicandri, thank you so much for your time. I look forward to speaking with you.

Nicandri:  My pleasure.

 

Gamble:  So, you are CMIO at University of Rochester Medical Center and you’ve been in the role since 2019, correct?

Nicandri:  Yes. I’m an orthopedic surgeon and I’ve been in practice since 2009. I went to medical school at Virginia Commonwealth University and did my residency at University of Washington in Seattle, did a fellowship in sports medicine in Duke University. I started practicing in 2009 and transitioned into the role of chief medical information officer in 2019.

 

Covid’s Impact

Gamble:  I definitely want to get into that a bit more, but first, I want to talk about Covid-19 and how it transformed the way care is practiced.