How did you first learn about CarePort and what drew you to the company?
I heard about this role from a member of the CarePort team, who I worked with previously at PointRight, a company that specializes in post-acute data analytics. Having been in the healthcare industry for a while now, I’d also heard of CarePort and had a sense of what the company is trying to accomplish. I think that bundled payments, ACOs, and other value-based purchasing programs are steps in the right direction to fixing healthcare, to making it more affordable rather than getting more expensive every year. And CarePort is on the right side of that, moving healthcare forward.
What is your role at CarePort?
I’m the Director of Post-Acute Analytics and my job and my team’s function here is going to be to ensure that we are on top of the regulatory and payment landscape that’s impacting post-acute providers. We’ll be thinking about ways upcoming changes such as value-based payment programs shape the attitudes of providers and how they deliver care. We’ll also think about the various data sources that will be generated from these programs and how we can use those to provide insights to our customers and to improve patient care.
What aspect of your work do you enjoy most?
I enjoy storytelling with data wherever possible! It’s always really fun when you can visualize something – a histogram, a trend chart, a model, or correlation. I’m interested in whatever it is that’s surprising in the data. Something you didn’t know. I like using data as a tool to explain how things are working out in the healthcare industry.
Is there any other job, at CarePort or in general, that you’d like to do if you weren’t in this role?
The short answer is no! I like my job, I like what I do, and I often think what other people do is really hard. That being said, if there’s one specific job title I could relate to, if I had the skill set, is a developer. It’s easy for developers to cross industries and work on all different sorts of projects, which sounds interesting. Their skillset is just so transferrable.
What was the last gift that you gave?
I’m a UMass Amherst graduate, and my college roommate, who I’m still in touch with, just had twins. So, my wife and I (my wife also went to UMass Amherst) went to the campus store out in Western Massachusetts and we bought SO MUCH gear and totally decked out these kids! They’re just newborns, but they’ve got hats and all kinds of other UMass stuff. That’s the last gift I gave, and I was pretty excited about it.
Do you have a favorite quote?
Yes, and it’s from Arnold Schwarzenegger (laughs). I know you would not think that to look at me, because I’m not into body building, but my brother and I have always loved Arnold. He gave a commencement speech years ago called “The Six Rules of Success,” and my brother and I always tease that we’re trying to live by these rules. My brother actually does a great Arnold impersonation – he can rattle off key parts of the speech in a really good Arnold voice, so I guess that’s my favorite, even though it’s not exactly a quote.
Tom is hiring! If you’re interested in healthcare and have a background in data analytics, check out the job description and send Tom your resume.
