Designing for Health: Interview with David K Butler, MD

A health system’s medical record transition, whether from ‘paper to pixels’ or to a new digital solution, can sometimes be a challenging journey. Technology or software can be well-designed, yet still not meet the needs of a every user. One of the keys to a successful implementation is ensuring that customized workflows and designs exist for the wide variety of clinicians that interact with it daily. While allowing customization is vital to ensure buy-in from key stakeholders, giving too much design control can often lead to an environment of overwhelmed and confused clinical staff. Finding the sweet spot between customization and control is paramount for successful implementations and future digital transformation

On this episode of In Network’s Designing for Health podcast feature, Nordic Chief Medical Officer Craig Joseph, MD, chats with David K Butler, MD, interim CMIO at KeyCare and founder of Calyx Partners. They discuss the history of early electronic health record (EHR) implementations, Dr. Butler’s journey from physician to clinical informaticist, and how to win over skeptical clinicians during implementations. They also talk about taking inspiration from other industries for future transformation, striking the balance between customization and control, and building trust within digital solutions.

You can find complete show notes on the originally published article on Nordic’s blog.

Meet the Host

Craig Joseph, MD

Chief Medical Officer
LinkedIn: Craig Joseph MD, FAAP, FAMIA
X: @CraigJoseph
Read his articles

Dr. Joseph is the Chief Medical Officer of Nordic Consulting Partners, a global healthcare management consulting firm. Craig has 30 years of healthcare and IT experience. In addition to practicing medicine as a primary care pediatrician for eight years, he worked for Epic for six-plus years and has served as chief medical information officer at multiple healthcare organizations, using both Cerner and Epic.

Craig is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and American Medical Informatics Association. He remains actively board-certified in both pediatrics and clinical informatics.

About the Show

When it comes to how healthcare works in the U.S., one wonders, who designed it? Well, no one. And that’s the problem. Dr. Craig Joseph speaks with luminaries from across the health ecosystem about how to make healthcare work for humans. The upshot? The way out of the frustrating, expensive, and frequently ineffective quagmire of the U.S. healthcare system is to take a step back and bring intentional, human-centered design to an ecosystem that works for the people giving and receiving care.

Follow the show’s social hashtag #DesigningforHealth.