In August, Pandion welcomed Christine Pittman Ballard as our new Director of Quality and Education. As a local healthcare champion, she is passionate about bringing health related services to underserved areas and working with our local hospitals and healthcare systems to increase collaborations and improve patient care.
We sat down with Christine to discuss her background in the healthcare arena and plans for the future at Pandion: Healthcare Education and Advocacy.
What attracted you to this opportunity at Pandion?
I was interested in joining Pandion because of my enthusiasm for improving the quality of healthcare as a collaborative effort with local organizations. Having a diverse network of members at Pandion creates and environment where local hospitals can provide input and feedback about impending challenges in order to develop solutions aimed at improving healthcare.
Pandion’s collaborative culture where employees work together towards a common goal of improving healthcare and lowering costs was very appealing. A family-like environment promotes work-life balance and creates a sense of unity among employees. I am excited to embark on a journey towards developing real-world solutions for improving patient care and lowering costs.
What do you see as the top local issues in 2018-2019 for local hospitals and healthcare providers?
- Opioid Epidemic
- Value-based payment / reimbursement structures
- Chronic illness management
- Technology – Securing technology to support federal requirements such as PCMH, Meaningful use, MIPS, etc., implementing new technology-based solutions aimed at supporting physicians and nurses alike in their day-to-day duties while promoting patient-centered care and improving patient outcomes.
- Managing Population Health
“I believe Pandion has an opportunity to break down the silos between organizations while working together to tackle common challenges among our members.”
What would you most like to accomplish in Pandion in the next 6 months?
I look forward to meeting with each of our member hospitals and learn more about their organization, their challenges, and their needs. My goal is to start developing community collaboratives and networking opportunities for staff and students. I believe that Pandion has an opportunity to break down the silos that exist between organizations while working together to develop innovative approaches to tackling common challenges among our members. I am also excited to showcase Rochester’s healthcare innovations through our Healthcare Innovations Conference on November 14th!
What prompted you to seek a career in healthcare?
I was excited about a career in healthcare to offer solutions to problems I noticed from an early age. Growing up in rural Western New York meant that we had limited access to services that were within a thirty minute drive. I wanted to bring healthcare services to underserved areas.
After graduating from the University of Rochester, I pursued a master’s degree in public health from the University at Albany. Throughout graduate school, I had the opportunity to work with the New York State Department of Health on a variety of issues such as Environmental Toxicology and Maternal Mortality. However, these experiences exposed me to the importance of solving the problems at the local level. After graduate school I started working at the University of Rochester in the Department of Neurosurgery both on clinical research and with a community collaborative on back pain. It was during that time that I became interested in health economics, specifically determining best practices and creating patient-centered care with technology and within general health practice. Working in conjunction with the Center of Translational Science Institute at URMC, I had the opportunity to work on developing population health registries using a tool called Integrated Informatics for Biology and Beside (i2b2). These registries aimed to look across patient experiences and develop evidence-based recommendations for the treatment of back pain. What I realized through this process is that it is critical for physicians to have access to their data easily in order to guide the decision-making processes. I eventually received my certification as an Epic Builder for Healthy Planet and Caboodle and am excited to work with other institutions in making their technology work for them.
My interests lie not only in health policy but creating patient-centered care that allows physicians to improve population health throughout our region. I welcome your thoughts and feedback as I embark on this new venture at Pandion. I can be reached at cballard@pandionalliance.com