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Welcome everyone, to the Becker's Healthcare podcast series. I'm Mara Mohammed,
writer and moderator with Becker's Healthcare,
and I'm absolutely thrilled to have with me today Michael Weiner,
chief Medical Officer at M S U Healthcare. Michael,
it's very nice to have you on the podcast today. How are you?
Really, really well, thank you so much.
Yeah, of course. Well, to get us started,
would you mind please introducing yourself and then telling us a bit about your
background? Michael.
Weiner. I am, uh,
osteopathic physician out of the wonderful college of, uh,
osteopathic medicine in Philadelphia.
I have been an internal medicine physician for about three decades,
and for the majority of that I served in the United States Navy, where I, uh,
served a multitude of roles around the globe,
everything from being an internal medicine physician to being the head of
NATO's, clinical informatic, uh,
systems to being a space shuttle, um,
takeoff and landing physician. And I'm just,
I recently joined the incredible team over at, uh,
Michigan State University and started earlier this year and I'm excited to
help transform healthcare in the Midwest.
Yeah, absolutely. Well, first of all, thank you for your service. Um,
and second, I am a Ohioan, so you know, we have a bit of issues,
but that's okay. Alright, we just.
Met, we can't start off like this.
I know. I'm so sorry, . Um,
but with all your busy experience being in this field for a long time,
the first thing I wanted to ask you is,
can you tell me about your most successful project or initiative from the last
year? What issues were you trying to solve and also what drove the success?
Yeah,
so my last year has really been here at Michigan State
University in, uh, support of their healthcare and the community we serve.
So I will say thus far,
I think one of our biggest collective successes has been in driving,
um, primary care within mid-Michigan. So we,
when I first got here, we started a primary care task force, um,
understanding the needs of the local community of the state,
and really of the nation, um,
to help patients find primary care providers.
So we've been growing out our primary care teams,
we've been reaching out virtually across the state, um,
and we're addressing the needs of primary care physicians around
recruitment and retention in addition to the needs of our patients to
go with, to,
to not be homeless when it comes to having a primary care
provider. And,
and to dive a little deeper into some of their actual clinical needs of
blood, you know, blood pressure control, diabetes control, um,
lipid control in addition to helping solve some of the opioid crisis that,
you know,
we're facing in the state and the nation is facing from coast to coast.
Yeah, that is absolutely incredible. Thank you for sharing that insight.
As you know, the clinical workforce has changed a lot in the last few years.
Mm-hmm. ,
what challenges are you still facing and how do you see the clinical workforce
evolving? Well.
I, I have to tell you, you know, post covid, I, we,
we've seen a retirement, uh, an entire, you know,
generation begin to go into retirement. Um,
and we've seen a new group of providers coming up through the ranks that I,
you know,
that I think are potentially even more altruistic than the generations before
them. With that, though, they grew up, the, the generation of, uh,
providers that we're seeing now, they grew up, you know,
with technology buried in their lives. And as part of that,
the electronic health record is no longer the source subject of
the day for our next generation of providers. And, you know,
they're very comfortable in a more virtual world. So, you know,
when we meet with them, you know, in recruitment and retention, you know,
one of the requests is how, you know,
can I continue to see my patients virtually and how can I have
a, you know, a little bit of a hybrid lifestyle, uh, as a provider. You know,
we saw all of our patients virtually for a few years. So, you know,
I'd like to continue some of that practice, uh, at this particular time.
So I think the new generation of providers, certainly altruistic,
wanting to go out and, you know,
write the injustices that, um,
that we often find within healthcare around health equity and social
determinants of health, and, um,
much more aptt to enjoy and utilize the technology that's
given to them. And that also often will result into just a much more virtual
practice than I think any of us who came up through healthcare, you know,
a few decades ago.
Yes. Wonderful. Thank you so much for giving us that information. And Michael,
before I let you go, being the C m O, the last question I wanted to ask you is,
what is your best advice for aspiring physician and nurse leaders?
Yeah, I, I have to tell you,
things that have helped me over the years have been number one,
learning technology.
So along the way I picked up a master's in information system
technology as seeing how healthcare, I think ultimately,
uh, one of its saving graces was going to be technology. So, you know,
with this aging population and this inundation of this tsunami
of gray hair patients who are not aging gracefully
and you know, a shortage of providers, you know, I think that that gap,
that delta will be filled in through, um, technology advancements.
So, you know, number one, learn technology, learn data,
learn how to analyze the data,
learn how to utilize the data and learn how to act upon the data. And then,
you know, I think for aspiring physician and nurse leaders,
you know, leadership can be taught.
Now I did my undergraduate at the Naval Academy.
I spent years and years in the Navy as a, um,
medical officer leader. And you know,
throughout that I was taught leadership.
And along the way I went out and got a master's in management to also learn
how to manage teams of people, manage a business,
manage an organization. So, you know, I think more education, um,
for those that are aspiring to actually run and lead an organization,
I think, you know, leaders need to continue to see patients.
The provider community is a tough lot. And if you're not there,
elbow to elbow, shoulder to shoulder with them, you know,
I think it's very hard to evoke some of the changes that we are all hoping to
see within healthcare.
Yes, I 100% agree. Um, thank you so much for those final thoughts. Michael,
this has been an amazing discussion. So again,
I wanna thank you so much for coming on Beckers Healthcare,
and I look forward to connecting with you again consumed.
Thank you, Mariah.
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