During the fall of 2011, I was selected to participate in the civic leader fellowship program put on by the Flinn-Brown Foundation. Not having aspirations for political office, I channeled my knowledge of healthcare with my passion for telehealth and jumped in headlong to fulfill the requirements of the program.
Each graduating fellow was charged with the responsibility to develop a common good project that served the citizens of Arizona. Each graduate was also assigned a mentor to help us on our journey. My mentor, Bob Smoldt, is the Chief Administrative Officer Emeritus for Mayo Clinic, Director of the ASU Healthcare Delivery and Policy Program and a great guy.
During initial meeting, I pitched Bob on different ideas that would improve healthcare delivery using telehealth technology. We reviewed existing barriers and quickly realized that to have the biggest impact, we needed a louder single-voice and some additional support. Bob solicited the help of Deni Cortese, Chief Executive Officer and President of Mayo Clinic, and Natalie Landman, PhD Associate Director for Projects at the ASU Healthcare Delivery and Policy Program (HCDPP).
Collectively, we decided to produce a barrier mitigation telemedicine white paper.
