Q. What are your top priorities as OHA’s chief medical officer?
A. As chief medical officer my top priority is to inform Oregon’s
health policy and the ongoing transformation of Oregon’s health systems by applying
my health care and public health experience. My immediate priorities will be to
inform the continued development of our Coordinated Care Model (“CCO 2.0”) as well
as to address the impact of high-cost drugs on our state’s health care costs. For
the long term, my priority will be to inform strategic decision-making – and to ensure coordination and collaboration across all OHA
divisions – relating to cross-cutting
health issues, such as access to and quality of care, disease prevention, primary
care, behavioral health integration, oral health integration, and beyond.
Q. Are you glad to be back at OHA?
A. I am thrilled to return to OHA after my departure two-and-a-half
years ago. I have tremendous confidence in OHA’s new leadership team and feel
committed to the important work in front of us to continue our achievements in
health system transformation. I am also excited to apply the skills and
experience I’ve gained during the past several years in my new role as chief
medical officer.
Q. How does your policy background and work as a pediatrician
inform your work here at OHA?
I bring six years of policy experience – including four years as OHA’s child health director, plus
public health non-profit leadership and consulting experience – to my new role with OHA. These experiences have helped me
to build the policy analysis, strategic decision-making and communication
skills to support OHA’s new leadership related to complex health policy issues.
As a pediatrician, I bring a deep understanding and dedication to population
health, disease prevention, primary care, the social determinants of health,
and health equity. I am committed to addressing the developmental origins of
health and disease by looking at upstream opportunities to improve health
outcomes such as through quality early learning, childhood nutrition and other
early life experiences. While I am thrilled to return to providing specific
leadership in child and adolescent health at OHA, I look forward to building on
my past work and knowledge to address the needs of all populations that our
agency serves.
Q. Tell us about your life outside of work
A. Life outside of work is busy! My husband and I have three
sons (ages 7, 9 and 11) who enjoy school, music and most things sports-related,
with favorites including skiing, baseball and lacrosse. We feel blessed to live
in the Pacific Northwest and try to take advantage of our surrounding mountains,
rivers and beaches whenever possible. When I have time to myself (it’s rare!), I
can usually be found jogging in our neighborhood or reading a book.
Q. How do you plan to work with OHA’s
health system partners? What do they need from OHA and how can OHA help them be
successful?
A. OHA’s triple aim goals cannot
be achieved without the important leadership and commitment of our health system
partners. With rapid changes constantly afoot with regards to diagnosis, treatments,
quality improvement, electronic health records, changing payment methodologies,
and quality incentives, it is important that we listen to and understand the perspective
and needs of our first-line health providers, public health partners, and health
systems. I am committed to supporting these health system partners as we jointly
work to improve the access, quality and experience of care, and to assess the tools
we can provide – such as through the Transformation Center – to help them address
any barriers to achieving these goals.
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