Dr. Rob Bart

And just continuing to be in the mix clinically when I talked with other physicians about Cerner gave me so much credibility.

because I was still a practicing physician.

And you've interacted with physicians many times who are working for industry.

And the fact that they're in industry or clinical practice but not doing both, there's sometimes this credibility gap that gets created.

And by actually continuing to do both, and even today, I continue to practice clinically,

Which I think is very important in this role.

It's odd because you could do clinical care for 30 years.

You could stop today and then tomorrow walk into the same facilities with a different hat on.

And the same physicians you were talking to as a colleague yesterday will look at you and say, you have no idea what we do.

And so the loss of credibility is very rapid from those that continue to deliver clinical care.

And so I think it's really important in this type of role to be able to not only represent the clinicians that you work with, but also to be part of that community in delivering care.

Yeah.

So first, you know, I actually never thought I'd leave LA County once I started working there.

I was a CMIO there, as you said, the second largest public urban healthcare system in the country, doing good work, you know, for underserved people.

And, but part of my, I'm a lifelong learner, like many of us are.

And there were just new opportunities to learn about things, particularly here at UPMC.

One is,

I hadn't really had as much contact with the payer side of the industry as I would like.

UPMC has a health plan.

And then UPMC also has a technology business development incubator group called UPMC Enterprises.