Chutes & Ladders—Stanford Medicine Children's Health taps new chief quality officer; LifeBridge welcomes new CMIO

Welcome to this week's Chutes & Ladders, our roundup of hirings, firings and retirings throughout the industry. Please submit the good news—or the bad—from your shop, and we will feature it here at the end of each week.


Stanford Medicine Children’s Health

Stanford Children's
(Stanford Children's)

Grace Lee, M.D., has been named the chief quality officer at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford.

Lee will oversee the faculty and care teams with the overall goal of elevating their levels of quality, safety, service and value beginning Dec. 12. She will also direct her efforts toward embedding the mission of health equity into all corners of care and research.

Lee began her work with Stanford Medicine Children’s Health in 2017 as the associate chief medical officer of practice innovation. During her tenure in the position, she worked closely with nursing and infection control teams to tackle central line–associated bloodstream infections.

Her experience in safety and quality control became applicable during the COVID-19 pandemic where she addressed infection control response along with the implementation of testing, treatment and prevention.

She is the chair of the U.S. Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and was recently elected to the National Academy of Medicine.


LifeBridge Health

LifeBridge
(LifeBridge)

David Graham, M.D., has joined LifeBridge Health as the health system’s new chief medical information officer.

Graham is board-certified in family medicine and clinical informatics with 25 years of experience in health IT. He will lead a team of physician informaticists to interface between the IT department and physicians across four hospitals along with community practices.

During the pandemic, Graham worked in Colorado as a consultant to various health organizations to improve digital solutions and care delivery models. Before his work in the Centennial State, he held roles including senior vice president, chief quality and innovation officer for Memorial Health System in Springfield, Illinois.

Graham has succeeded Jonathan Thierman, M.D. Thierman has been promoted to chief medical officer for LifeBridge Health Partners, a position that includes an increased focus on ExpressCare urgent care centers.


CareRev

LinkedIn
(LinkedIn)

Manthan Bhatt has been appointed to the role of head of government affairs at technology platform company CareRev, which provides a marketplace for healthcare facilities and local clinical talent to fill job postings.

Bhatt will work to support healthcare professionals at state and regional levels through engaging legislative leaders and medical associations. He previously held the position of director of state government affairs at AdvaMed and the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons. He also worked as director of public policy for the Colorado Academy of Family Physicians.

The tech company recently announced new hires Patty Bedard as chief people officer, a veteran of Amazon, and Amanda Duke as chief growth officer. Bergen New Bridge Medical Center most recently partnered with CareRev to connect local, qualified nurses and other healthcare professionals with open positions.

Estimates of empty nursing positions in 2025 range from 200,000 to 450,000.


Athenahealth

Athenahealth
(Athenahealth)

Nele Jessel, the current chief medical officer for the software provider, will lead athenahealth's first clinical advisory board.

The board will be comprised of 30 inaugural members including providers and clinical IT administrators. Provider burnout is already being addressed by the group through the improved curation of patient data in charts and the reduction of documentation time.

Members of the board are appointed for a one- to two-year period. During this time, they collaborate with athenahealth’s product team to provide guidance on the company’s product roadmap and clinical features within upcoming releases.

“The members of the Clinical Advisory Board are very invested in influencing the decisions and path of athenahealth’s development, and prioritizing those biggest pain points that are there right now in the workflow,” said Katherine Gregory, M.D., an OB-GYN with San Francisco Gynecology, in a press release. “I also love collaborating with both clinicians and administrators. It takes all of us to help a patient have a simple experience in making an appointment all the way through the visit and beyond, and we need to put our heads together to make that process as smooth and seamless as possible.”


> Vytalize Health has tapped Frank Bordonaro for the role of senior vice president of value-based care and network development.

Nemours Children’s Health, a health system operating in Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Florida, shook up its executive team. Mark Mumford, chief executive of Delaware Valley operations, was promoted to enterprise chief operations officer. Mary Lee, M.D., was tapped for the roles of enterprise chief physician executive and chief scientific officer. Jane Mericle stepped into the positions of enterprise chief nursing executive and patient operations officer. Michael Erhard, M.D., became president of the Nemours Children's Health North Florida region. Martha McGill was promoted to president of the Nemours Children's Health Central Florida region.

PrognomiQ, a healthcare company, announced that it has appointed Brian Koh, M.D., as its chief medical officer.

> Capital Rx, a pharmacy benefits manager, welcomed Lloyd Fiorini to the company as new general counsel and chief compliance officer.

> NYU Langone Health has hired Melissa Fana, M.D., as director of women's health for Suffolk County and chief of service for breast surgery at Long Island Community Hospital. 

> Tehachapi Valley Healthcare District announced that Caroline Wasielewski is no longer CEO of the healthcare district that owns Adventist Health Tehachapi Valley hospital.

> Vaxess Technologies, a life sciences company developing a vaccine patch, welcomed Fenel Eloi to its board of directors.

> Restore Hyper Wellness, a health tech company, announced the appointment of Richard Joseph, M.D., as chief medical officer

> VESTECK announced that Sean Lyden, M.D., assumed the role of chief medical consultant and member of the medical device company’s scientific advisory board.

> CCA Health California, an operator of Medicare Advantage plans, has appointed Laura Mead Clapper, M.D., as medical director.

PrognomiQ, a healthcare company, announced that it has appointed Brian Koh, M.D., as its chief medical officer.

> AvaSure, the inventor of TeleSitter solution, recently welcomed four executives: Chief Financial Officer John Vaillancourt, Chief Marketing Officer David Roth, Chief People Officer Chris Kocsis and Chief Product Officer Jacob Hansen.

> Mainz Biomed, a molecular genetics diagnostic company, announced the hiring of Amy Levin as vice president of regulatory affairs.

BJC HealthCare has named Ann Abad as president of Missouri Baptist Medical Center. She will succeed John Antes, who was recently tapped for chief executive officer of Southern Illinois Healthcare

> Privya, a data privacy startup, tapped Peter Swire to join its advisory board.

> Foresite Labs picked Ian Tong, M.D., as its first chief clinical officer.

> Outset Medical, a medical technology company, named Jennifer Friedman its new vice president of government affairs.

> Joon Care replaced co-founder Josh Herst with Emily Pesce as the mental health startup’s new chief executive officer. Herst will stay on as a strategic adviser and board member.