Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1444560
39 CIO / HEALTH IT Dr. David Feinberg shares strategy for Cerner and the leadership advice that has guided his career By Jackie Drees T hroughout his 25-year career in differ- ent healthcare and technology spaces, Cerner CEO David Feinberg, MD, has maintained a central focus on what he con- siders the most important thing: the patient. Dr. Feinberg, who officially took the helm of Cerner as president and CEO on Oct. 1, 2021, joined the Kansas City, Mo.-based EHR vendor from Google Health, where he had served as vice president of the tech gi- ant's healthcare division since 2019. Before Google, he was president and CEO of Danville, Pa.-based Geisinger, and he also spent more than 20 years at Los Ange- les-based UCLA in various leadership posi- tions, including vice chancellor and CEO of UCLA Hospital System. Here, Dr. Feinberg discusses his leader- ship strategy, his focus on patient care innovation at Cerner and how he wants to improve EHRs. Note: Responses have been edited lightly for clarity and style. Question: When you think back to the beginning of your clinical career, did you ever imagine you would take the helm of major health tech com- panies including Google and Cerner? Was technology always an interest of yours? Dr. David Feinberg: inking back on my career, I have always wanted to make sure every patient that I had the privilege to treat got the best care, and I always wanted to scale the "best care" to everyone, every family, ev- ery community. My passion is helping peo- ple, and I think technology is a great tool to accomplish that. Technology isn't my calling; caring for others is. Q: You're joining Cerner at not just a piv- otal time in the company's workplace strategy but a period of workplace evolution across numerous industries. As Cerner prepares to fully imple- ment its hybrid workplace model in 2022, how do you expect the initiative to set the EHR company apart from competitors? DF: Cerner has a tremendous bench of tal- ent — that can and will help change health- care across the world. To me, it's less about where we get the work done and more about how we get the work done. We see our competition as heart disease, cancer, chronic illness. And we're working to make technology easier to use, more under- standable — so caregivers can more easily fight off the competition. Q: Many point to the pandemic as the push that propelled health IT in- novation, with areas like telehealth and data analytics growing drastically. What would you say is the biggest op- portunity for digital transformation in healthcare today? DF: EHR companies have done a good job of gathering data, automating processes and digitizing medical records, but health technology has yet to meet its full poten- tial. We have an opportunity to not only diagnose more rapidly but also predict and help prevent future health challeng- es. At Cerner, we are working to improve usability, make data understandable and actionable and simplify the billing process — improvements that have the potential to help the world avoid or at least minimize the effects of the next pandemic. Q: You bring extensive leadership ex- perience to your role as CEO of Cerner. What is one piece of leadership advice that you have found the most effective throughout your career? DF: Early in my career, someone I looked up to gave me some advice: "Focus on one thing because a thousand things are go- ing to come your way." I focused on sit- ting with patients, talking with them and understanding them. To this day, the pa- tient remains the most important thing. Healthcare, simply put, is people taking care of people. That's why I'm at Cerner — to continue to seek innovative ways to take care of the patient. Q: What is the biggest EHR user expe- rience challenge clinicians face today, and how is Cerner alleviating it? DF: EHRs are one of the greatest health in- ventions of the last century. But we've not yet realized the true promise of healthcare technology. We have a lot of work to do. Digitized records need to be more usable and provide actual information. ey need to be measured by how they enable caregiv- ers to spend more time at the bedside and less time at the terminal. Improving the us- ability of Cerner solutions is at the top of my list of things to do. Q: After your first few weeks on the job, what has gotten you most excited about leading Cerner, and what can you share in terms of your strategy moving forward? DF: I've been wildly impressed by the pas- sion and enthusiasm of the 25,000-plus Cerner associates. It's clear to me they under- stand our job is much bigger than digitizing records; we are helping patients and care- givers around the world. It's a mission that I have built my career on and a mission I share with my colleagues at Cerner. n "My passion is helping people, and I think technology is a great tool to accomplish that. Technology isn't my calling; caring for others is." Dr. David Feinberg, Cerner