Dr. Howard Levy is our new medical director of the Department of Medicine Health IT Optimization and User Wellness.
Dr. Levy is an associate professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine and the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine and co-chairs the Johns Hopkins Medicine Patient/Family Centered Design Team. He earned his medical degree and PhD from the University of Maryland, Baltimore and completed his residency at Boston Medical Center. He then completed a fellowship in genetics at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Levy joined the Division of General Internal Medicine as a primary care internist and clinical geneticist in 2000.
In 2010, he approached the Johns Hopkins Clinical Practice Association to help facilitate the federally required transition to electronic prescribing. That evolved into him serving an integral role in the implementation of Epic to create an integrated, enterprise-wide electronic health record system that connects inpatient and outpatient services throughout Johns Hopkins Medicine. “I love practicing medicine and want our systems to support that practice, not hinder it,” he said.
In his new role, Dr. Levy aims to make Epic and other forms of health information technology as easy to use as possible and help users get the most out of health IT. He plans to start by making sure support pools are set up to handle messages promptly so that providers are only asked to weigh in on messages that truly require their input. He is also working with the Epic Efficiency Sprint team to create webinars and videos designed to help people use Epic more effectively. “There is absolutely a learning curve and an investment of time to become proficient in using health IT efficiently,” he said. “I’m hoping to help people recoup that investment and more in downstream time savings and improved patient care.”
Please join us in welcoming Dr. Howard Levy to his new role. If you have Epic or health IT related questions, feel free to reach out to him at hlevy3@jhmi.edu for support.
