Health IT, Hospitals

Q&A with the new CIO of Columbia University Irving Medical Center

Erik Pupo, the newly minted CIO of Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City, spoke about his goals at the medical center as well as why simply throwing technology at a healthcare issue won't solve the problem.

Communication and social network technology design with a laptop computer.

Erik Pupo is no stranger to the world of health IT, but he is new to his role as CIO of New York City-based Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Prior to beginning the gig last month, he was a managing director in the Accenture Health Client Service Group. While with Accenture, he also served as the organization’s Healthcare Blockchain lead for North America. Pupo was previously a senior manager with Deloitte as well.

“I’m a big believer in innovation,” he said in a recent phone interview. “I’m a very avid learner about technology.”

Pupo is bringing that curiosity to his CIO job at Columbia, but he remains realistic about what IT can do in the healthcare realm. Imposing technology on a certain behavior or culture in healthcare won’t change the industry overnight, he said.

In addition to touching on tech’s role in the medical field in the interview, Pupo discussed his goals at Columbia, blockchain and the hottest issues facing IT leaders today.

What follows is a lightly edited Q&A.

MedCity: What are your primary goals in your position within the first year or so?

Pupo: For me, a lot of the focus is on our upcoming Epic implementation with NewYork-Presbyterian and Cornell. We’re looking to go live in 2020.

I have a tremendous interest in technology and tying that to all the stakeholders here. We do our academic setting. We also do clinical research. And then there’s the integration we do across the NewYork-Presbyterian system with Cornell and also with other institutions in the area.

There will be a lot of time spent on reorganizing and reshaping our use of technology, as well as changing our posture when it comes to our use of technology in the academic setting. We don’t necessarily have all the tools, equipment and services we need here. There’s also just the day-to-day care provided to patients.

MedCity: How do your previous experiences at organizations like Accenture and Deloitte inform your work at Columbia?

Pupo: For one, it gives me a lot of perspective on the various challenges healthcare organizations experience, as well as the application of technology to those challenges.

I have a perspective I can bring from all different parts of the industry. An example of that would be the experience I’ve had in revenue cycle management. I can look at it from the side of a payer and also a provider.

I also bring listening and being service-oriented. My job is to serve all the different parties here. I’m focusing a lot of my time and energy on that service component, which is directly from my consulting experience.

MedCity: You also worked as Accenture’s Healthcare Blockchain practice lead in North America. What does blockchain have the potential to accomplish in healthcare?

Pupo: I would say blockchain definitely has some promise. Like many technologies, what we need to see more of is its actual application. Blockchain has the potential to break down barriers where transparency may not exist.

MedCity: What does it take to bring a truly innovative way of thinking to the health IT space, as opposed to creating tech for tech’s sake?

Pupo: What I’ve seen a lot is there’s this sense in healthcare that we’re behind in some sense in technology compared to other industries.

My focus is not on tech for tech’s sake. Ninety to 95 percent of the problems I see don’t have anything to do with technology. They tend to be more of behavioral challenges and cultural challenges.

You have to weigh new technologies against, does it really solve a healthcare problem? We’re … going to be pushing forward technologies, but in a way aligned to the interests of all the parties here at the medical center.

MedCity: What are the most pressing issues facing healthcare technology leaders today?

Pupo: We are definitely dealing with quite a bit of change. One example and pressing issue for me is matching patients and being able to deal with patient identification errors.

We deal with a lot of regulatory challenges arising. I have to be aware of rules from CMS that impact technology, but also that impact the hospital itself.

We also deal with rising costs. It’s key to manage costs to make sure I don’t have situations where we have to implement more technology on top of Epic to make it work effectively.

And then I’m taking a look out there at, what is it that other CIOs are worrying about? I mentioned patient identification because of interoperability challenges. We need to be able to interoperate with other systems in the New York area.

MedCity: Which technologies are overhyped and underhyped in healthcare?

Pupo: Blockchain does have very overhyped aspects to it because it’s seen as a tremendous disruptor. There’s not a lot of understanding of what it could potentially do. There are a lot of promises, but no real results yet that have really impacted patient care or costs for the hospital.

I would look at the cutting-edge medical devices or fancy implementations of technology. What we foresee at Columbia is technology supplementing the longstanding relationship between the doctor and the patient. There’s a lot of hype that technology is going to replace doctors. Doctors don’t really believe that. They’re saying, ‘Get me technology that helps me do my job better.’

As for underhyped, I like natural language processing. Doctors are notorious talkers. There’s an underhyped aspect of how I can use AI for cost evaluation and quality evaluation. Rather than trying to focus on everything that providers provide to their patients, those are the areas that are ripe for disruption.

Photo: exdez, Getty Images

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