Chief Medical Informatics Officer (CMIO)

Overview

The Chief Medical Informatics Officer is EVMSMG’s practicing physician leader for clinical informatics, clinician engagement, and improvement of Epic Community Connect in Medical Group practices. The role identifies clinical workflow needs, sets Medical Group priorities, leads its assigned clinical informatics/Epic support team, and works with Sentara’s Epic teams to obtain, test, and implement approved changes. The Chief Medical Informatics Officer helps EVMSMG make fuller use of Epic for clinical efficiency, patient care, and practice growth. The role also supports the Medical Informatics fellowship through EVMSMG-based teaching and approved clinical informatics projects.

The Chief Medical Informatics Officer represents EVMSMG clinical needs in discussions with Sentara and collaborates with the medical school and ODU’s Division of Enrollment, Transformation, and Technology (ETT). The role’s authority is limited to Medical Group clinical operations and to functions and access authorized under the Community Connect arrangement.

Responsibilities

Essential functions

Clinical practice and physician leadership

• Provide patient care as assigned under a separately documented clinical effort, maintaining appropriate licensure, credentials, and privileges. Bring current physician experience to Epic workflow and change decisions.

Clinician engagement and workflow improvement

• Meet with physicians, advanced practice providers, practice leaders, and clinical staff to identify and prioritize documentation, orders, inbox, patient communication, scheduling, and other ambulatory Epic workflow issues affecting EVMSMG.

• Translate clinician needs into clear clinical requirements and proposed workflow changes; evaluate patient-safety, usability, service, and operational impacts with clinical and practice leaders.

• Partner with department champions and superusers to support adoption, collect feedback after changes, and identify opportunities to use approved Epic functions more effectively.

Medical Informatics fellowship teaching and mentorship

• Serve as the physician lead for EVMSMG clinical informatics experiences within the Medical Informatics fellowship. Mentor fellows on approved practice-based Epic workflow and clinical improvement projects, and coordinate learning objectives and feedback with fellowship leadership. Fellowship curriculum and program administration follow designated medical school processes; fellow access and build work remain subject to Sentara approval.

Sentara partnership and authorized Epic configuration

• Maintain a prioritized EVMSMG Epic improvement queue with documented clinical owners, expected outcomes, and status; present requests through Sentara’s established intake, change-control, and governance processes.

• Work with Sentara’s Epic application and training teams on specifications, validation, testing, release readiness, and post-implementation review for approved Medical Group changes.

• Perform or oversee physician-informed Epic configuration by EVMSMG personnel only where Sentara has granted the necessary access, certification, and approval. Ensure changes are tested, documented, and released through the applicable host-controlled process.

Medical Group team leadership and user support

• Set priorities, assign work, coach, and evaluate designated EVMSMG clinical informatics/Epic support personnel within the approved reporting structure and staffing plan.

• Coordinate local clinical support and superuser activities with Sentara’s service desk, application, and education teams; identify recurring issues and clarify escalation routes for EVMSMG clinicians.

• Help tailor approved Epic education and communications to Medical Group specialties and workflows, working with the teams that own training materials and the underlying system.

Clinical quality, measurement, and incident response

• With clinical quality and practice leaders, define measures for usability, adoption, workflow efficiency, and patient safety; use approved reports to assess whether interventions help.

• Provide clinical input on proposed clinical AI tools for EVMSMG practices, including ambient documentation, through Sentara and designated University processes. Selection, procurement, enterprise AI governance, and technical deployment remain with the authorized owners.

• Partner with Medical Group analytics, physician compensation, and Sentara teams to define, validate, and improve reproducible Epic-derived clinical practice data and reports needed for physician compensation planning and management decisions. The Chief Medical Informatics Officer supplies clinical requirements and interpretation, consistent with University data governance requirements; the designated data and compensation owners retain their approval authority. The Chief Medical Informatics Officer does not approve measures that determine their own compensation.

• When a clinical system incident affects care, serve as EVMSMG’s clinical liaison: assess workflow and patient-safety impact, communicate approved workarounds, and escalation through Sentara, clinical operations, patient safety, and ETT as appropriate.

Authority and coordination

• EVMSMG: owns clinical engagement, local workflow priorities, supervision of its assigned team, clinical interpretation of practice data, and clinical acceptance recommendations for Medical Group changes.

• Sentara: retains authority for the hosted Epic environment, platform-level configuration, production release, access, and support as specified by the Community Connect agreement and operating procedures.

• ETT and designated ODU offices: retain universitywide technology architecture, infrastructure, enterprise systems, security, data governance, technology procurement, and institutional AI responsibilities under applicable university policy.

• The Chief Medical Informatics Officer may recommend and coordinate across these functions but does not independently commit the University or Medical Group to new platforms, integrations, security controls, research data infrastructure, or enterprise technology strategy.

Qualifications

Required qualifications

• MD or DO or equivalent degree from an accredited medical school and eligibility for an appropriate medical school clinical appointment.

• At least five years of experience combining clinical practice with EHR use, clinical informatics, or ambulatory workflow improvement, including experience leading cross-functional clinical initiatives.

• Substantial hands-on experience with Epic clinical workflows and configuration or build; ability to obtain and maintain any Sentara-authorized certification and access needed for assigned build work.

• Ability to elicit clinical requirements, prioritize competing needs, work with a hosted EHR partner, guide change adoption, and communicate effectively with physicians and operational leaders.

• Active, unrestricted Virginia medical licensure, specialty board certification, and eligibility for the clinical privileges needed for assigned patient care.

Preferred qualifications

• Board certification or eligibility in Clinical Informatics; formal clinical informatics training or a relevant graduate degree.

• Current Epic builder certification or proficiency relevant to the assigned work; experience with Epic Community Connect and physician optimization programs.

• Experience supervising an informatics or EHR support team in a multispecialty physician group or academic health setting.

• Experience teaching or mentoring physicians or fellows in clinical informatics and supervising practice-based improvement projects.

Work setting and essential demands

Work occurs in clinical and office settings, with patient care, meetings, computer use, and occasional travel among EVMSMG practices. The role requires timely response to significant clinical system issues. Specific patient-care demands follow the clinical appointment. Essential functions may be performed with reasonable accommodation.

Location : Location

US-VA-Norfolk