University of California San Francisco has appointed Julia Adler-Milstein, director of the UCSF Center for Clinical Informatics and Improvement Research, to lead its new Division of Clinical Informatics and Digital Transformation.

WHY IT MATTERS
Professor Adler-Milstein was chosen for her work collaborating in research and for her thought leadership in informatics policy, said Dr. Robert M. Wachter, professor and chair of the Department of Medicine at UCSF, said in a statement.

She's "an exceptional academic leader," he said. "She asks crucial questions and answers them with diverse and novel methods," he said, which is critical in the "burgeoning and remarkably dynamic field.

"She is also uniquely skilled at team building, including within UCSF’s complex informatics ecosystem, across the nation and, indeed, the globe," he added.

Prior to joining USCF Adler-Milstein was a faculty member at the University of Michigan. She received her BA in human biology from Stanford University in 2001 and her PhD in Health Policy from Harvard University in 2011.

Plans for the new center include novel partnerships with industry partners and affiliates. Under Adler-Milstein's leadership, it will also guide the continuing digital transformation of the UCSF Health system.

THE LARGER TREND
In 2015, Adler-Milstein testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on healthcare IT transformation about the promise of better care with electronic health records.

Adler-Milstein has been vocal about mergers and acquisitions not leading to promised EHR integration, has addressed the need for a framework for short- and long-term measurements of stakeholder behavior, and shared her insights and research on other issues critical to federal informatics policy.

In 2020, she and others insisted that the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT interoperability rules must include measures for success, and made recommendations for individual data access, bulk data access and information blocking.

ON THE RECORD
"I couldn’t be more thrilled to be taking on this transformative role at this moment in UCSF’s evolution," said Adler-Milstein in a statement. "Since coming to UCSF six years ago, I have been enriched by the wealth of colleagues who are advancing the field of clinical informatics and impressed by UCSF’s commitment to education in this rapidly evolving and exciting field."

Andrea Fox is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.
Email: afox@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.