Conversation with Dr.Michael Pfeffer

Michael A. Pfeffer, MD, FACP serves as Chief Information Officer and Associate Dean for Stanford Health Care and Stanford University School of Medicine. Michael oversees Technology and Digital Solutions (TDS), responsible for providing world class technology solutions to Stanford Health Care and School of Medicine, enabling new opportunities for groundbreaking research, teaching, and compassionate care across two hospitals and over 150 clinics. TDS supports Stanford Medicine’s mission to improve human health through discovery and care and strategic priorities to be value focused, digitally driven, and uniquely Stanford. Michael is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Medicine and Division of Hospital Medicine with a joint appointment in the center for Biomedical Research (BMIR) in Stanford University School of Medicine. As such, Michael continues to provide clinical care as a Hospitalist Physician as well as teaching medical students and residents on the medicine inpatient wards. Prior to joining Stanford Medicine, Michael served as the Assistant Vice Chancellor and Chief Information Officer for UCLA Health Sciences. During his tenure, Michael served as the lead physician for the largest electronic health record “big bang” go-live of its time, encompassing over 26,000 users. Michael subsequently became the first Chief Medical Informatics Officer for UCLA Health before transitioning into the Chief Information Officer position. Under his leadership, UCLA Health IT achieved numerous industry awards including the HIMSS Analytics Stage 7 Inpatient, Ambulatory, and Analytics Certifications; the Most Wired designation for eight consecutive years; US News & World Report’s Most Connected Hospitals; the Top Master’s in Healthcare Administration 30 Most Technologically Advanced Hospitals in the World; and the prestigious HIMSS Davies Award. Michael also implemented of one of the first ACGME-accredited Clinical Informatics Fellowship Programs and served as its Associate Program Director. Michael has lectured worldwide on health information technology; served on the national HIMSS Physician Committee and as a HIMSS Stage 7 international site surveyor; and has published numerous peer-reviewed articles on health IT. Michael was featured in Becker’s Hospital Review as 10 physician CIOs to know and 12 standout healthcare CIOs and was one of LA’s top doctors in Los Angeles Magazine.