Cerner Appoints Its First Chief Health Officer
On Nov. 16, the Kansas City-based Cerner Corporation announced that it has announced its first chief health officer. As a press release posted to the company’s website stated, “Cerner today announced Nasim Afsar, M.D., MBA, MHM, as the company’s first Chief Health Officer, effective January 2022. In this new role, Dr. Afsar will lead Cerner’s more than 1,000 healthcare professionals who provide insight and guidance to product development and improving the lives of patients and caregivers. She will also lead the quality and patient safety, regulatory, health policy, government affairs and continuous improvement organizations.”
The press release continued, “Dr. Afsar is an experienced physician and healthcare executive with more than a decade of leadership responsibilities in large complex healthcare delivery systems, including UCLA Health and UCI Health. Previously, she has served as Chief Operating Officer, Chief Quality Officer and Associate Chief Medical Officer, delivering large scale and sustainable outcomes in quality, population health management, operations, finance, contracting, business development and strategy. She is the past president of Society of Hospital Medicine and has served on the Board of Directors for eight years. Dr. Afsar received her MD from UC Davis, School of Medicine and completed her Internal Medicine residency at UCLA Health. She received her MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management.”
In making the announcement, David Feinberg, M.D., CEO and president of Cerner, said, “I am thrilled that Nasim is joining our team to help us realize the true promise of what the EHR can bring. Technology must work better for caregivers and patients. As an industry, we need to decrease the cost of care, improve quality and community health, give more time back to caregivers to spend at the bedside – and Cerner intends to be a key player in driving these efforts. I look forward to Nasim’s guidance and leadership.”
The press release went on to say that, “Throughout her career, Dr. Afsar has led forward-thinking and ambitious healthcare strategies across multiple organizations. She joins Cerner with extensive experience in bringing forth and implementing healthcare technologies that transform care delivery and focus on enhancing health and value to patients, communities and caregivers.”
“I have dedicated my career to driving positive large-scale impact with the goal of delivering high quality care and health outcomes for our patients and communities. I am excited to continue this work at Cerner,” said Dr. Afsar. “We have not realized the full potential of healthcare technologies in supporting health, as well as providing early warning signs for chronic conditions and acute illnesses. I look forward to joining the talented team of leaders at Cerner to enhance our ability to care for patients and free our caregivers to focus on what matters most: the patient in front of them.”
