RubiconMD hired Chief Clinical Transformation Officer. Photo: RubiconMD
Four months after RubiconMD received follow-on funding from the California Health Care Foundation’s Health Innovation Fund to improve access to specialists, the electronic consulting service business has hired a chief clinical transformation officer to establish a West Coast office.
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Dr. J. Nwando Olayiwola will anchor the company’s expansion in California to provide its service to primary care physician groups treating Medicaid patients.
RubiconMD CEO and Cofounder Gil Addo spoke with MedCity News about Olayiwola’s role during the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco this week.
Olayiwola’s role will be to work with primary care groups using RubiconMD’s platform to support the shift to value-based care, according to a company news release. The company’s technology facilitates consults between primary care physicians and specialists with the goal of reducing appointments with specialists that are deemed unnecessary.
One benefit of eConsult programs is that they free up specialists to see the highest acuity patients in a shorter amount of time, which can improve clinical outcomes.
“One of the biggest challenges in California Medicaid is getting patients to the right specialist,” Addo said.
Olayiwola will also oversee product implementation efforts, as well as the company’s network of specialists.
She was previously director of the Center for Primary Care Excellence at the University of California, San Francisco and has been a primary care physician at the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. Prior to UCSF, she set up an electronic consult service at the Community Health Center.
Addo noted that this year, the company plans to expand its product development and sales staff to support growth with health systems. Although its core platform will stay in place, Addo said he wants to add more functionality to it.
He said the company has been able to reduce referrals to specialists by 40 percent to 50 percent. “We have been very consistent with that, ” Addo added.
Photo: Bigstock
