James Suliburk, M.D. is an early-career investigator through the foundation’s Patient and Family Engagement initiative.
James is an endocrinologist and assistant professor in the Division of General Surgery at the Baylor College of Medicine, where he conducts research on clinical outcomes in endocrine surgery in underserved and minority populations, as well as outcomes in acute care and trauma surgery.
He also focuses on the application of mobile technology to improve the three phases of surgical care (before, during and after an operation) and communication with patients to detect impending complications.
In this installment of Beyond the Lab, James discusses his work in using mobile technology to support patient-centered care, and the role of “design thinking” in developing technological solutions to patient care.
What inspired you to become a scientist/researcher?
I'm inspired every day to try to improve outcomes for the people that I take care of: the patients themselves. I constantly am thinking to myself, “What if that were me, what if she was my mother or he was my father?” This pushes me to ask, “How can I ensure that the treatment will be successful?”
What problems are you most interested in solving?
I want to redesign the health care experience for surgical patients. To do this, I need to understand how not only to engage the patient, but how to engage the health care system as a whole to align all members of the team for the benefit of the patients.
Patient-centered care, as defined by the Institute of Medicine, is care that “establishes a partnership among practitioners, patients, and their families (when appropriate) to ensure that decisions respect patients’ wants, needs, and preferences and that patients have the education and support they need to make decisions and participate in their own care.”
My goal is to further our understanding of ways that we can use mobile technology to rapidly progress toward patient-centered care.
How do your colleagues and mentors help you achieve your goals?
The team as a whole builds on complementary skills and experiences that focus on patient experiences and patient engagement, technology development/innovation, surgical outcomes and the peri-operative experiences, and improving the quality and safety of surgery and the health care delivery systems delivering surgical care.
Health care is an extremely complex industry. One of the most dynamic leaders in health care is Toby Cosgrove, M.D. of Cleveland Clinic. He notes that around 140 different people come into contact with a patient undergoing a surgery. The ability to deliver customized, curated care plans to all of these people so that they are all on the same page with the patient is a major logistic challenge.
With a “design thinking” approach and mobile technology applications we are working to put the right information at the right moment at the point of care — not just in the hands of the clinical teams but simultaneously to the patient and family as well. This requires a team effort not only for development of technology-based solutions, but also for understanding behavior of the health care system and how to implement solutions to change the system for the better.
Our SyncedCare team is made up of experts from all the necessary fields (surgery, hospital administration, developers, user-centered design experts, business strategists, medical specialists, education and health care literacy specialists) to operationalize a successful solution.
What gets you going every day (besides coffee) and how do you stay motivated?
Looking into the eyes of my patients as they are scared, nervous, vulnerable, and understanding that they are looking to me to help and reassure them is all the motivation I need.
What are your greatest limitations/challenges as a scientist/researcher?
Time and scalability. The health care system is complex. The health care system is typically behind the rest of industry in developing systems that are rapidly adaptable and scalable (and for good reason as we first want to “do no harm” — however this can also create barriers and challenges). I wake up every day knowing it is a privilege to be able to help people and treat disease, as well as a privilege to take part in redesigning how we care for patients. Every day is an opportunity.
Learn more about James’ work here.
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Thank you for sharing.