Keep it Simple: Putting ‘Care’ Back in Healthcare

How do you put the “care” back in healthcare? That's a question Romi Chopra, M.D., a self-described humanist, has dedicated his career and life-mission to answering.

He’s had an impressive career at that: attending Harvard Medical School and later honored with two prestigious awards including the Distinguished Physician Award and U.S. Congressional Medal for Excellence in 2018.

Today, Dr. Chopra serves as the President and CEO of the Midwestern Institute for Minimally Invasive Therapies (MIMIT Health) and shared in a recent podcast his belief that healthcare has become too transactional.

At the Core is Care

In the podcast, Chopra shares what he believes answers the question, “How do you put the ‘care’ back in healthcare?” And it’s much simpler than we might think possible.

"Kindness is a core human value,” said Chopra. "You cannot care if you are not kind."

Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) Business Solutions Podcast: "Putting Patients First with Technology and Holistic Healthcare"

Mission Critical: Transforming Technology and Intelligence Sharing

With kindness at the core, Chopra looks to continue the digital transformation to put care back in its rightful place: between clinicians and their patients.

Healthcare interoperability and the exchange of clinical health information is making it possible to achieve a holistic view of healthcare while eliminating the transactional elements – like phone calls and faxes that take time away from clinicians and those in their care.

Chopra said, "We use AdvancedMD [powered by Surescripts] to get prior authorizations, because we do e-prescribing. Earlier it was a nightmare. We used to have to write all these things, fax it. And now it's all done, without having to touch a piece of paper!"

Intelligence sharing at scale also has the ability to ease clinician burnout, supporting care providers with actionable insights and improve patient care.

A 360-Degree View

Chopra emphasized how his electronic health record (EHR) provider, AdvancedMD, provides a summary of a patient’s care, empowering more informed conversations. He said it provides key details like where a patient has been for care, their doctor, a clinical summary, medications and any problems with those medications. Having this information allows care providers to ask patients about the medications they are taking, for example. Ultimately, this holistic, 360-degree view helps them make better clinical decisions alongside their patients.

“Through that technology, we are able to send information, clinical information exchange to another provider… [using clinical] direct messaging. So, we can look up in our EHR, the particular number, name of the doctor and send the clinical summary over and vice versa,” said Chopra.

If you couldn’t tell by listening, Chopra is truly passionate about this work. He’s not afraid to say it either. At another point in the interview, he even stated, “Wow. See, I get excited about this — I could talk about it for hours.”

We agree — there’s plenty to be excited about in healthcare.

Helping healthcare professionals break through common communication barriers and work across organizations more efficiently is what drives Surescripts to continue innovating, making it simpler to deliver the best possible care to patients.