BALTIMORE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–CRISP Shared Services, the nonprofit providing innovative and industry-leading technology and other critical collaborative support services to health information exchanges (HIE) across the nation, has named Marc Rabner, MD, MPH as its first-ever chief medical officer (CMO).
Dr. Rabner, who has extensive experience in public health and pediatric medicine, has served as clinical advisor to the organization for the past three years. He’s been a key driver in the organization’s work across affiliates and local governments to advance coordinated, cross-agency social determinants of health data projects for vulnerable populations, including CRISP Maryland’s Medicaid Redetermination project. As CMO, Dr. Rabner will expand the positive impact interoperability has on patient outcomes and its ability to address complex issues across the entire spectrum of health care – including clinical, community and public health – through breaking down data siloes.
“Being able to work upstream to drive changes in patient outcomes and minimize healthcare disparities is what originally drew me to pediatrics,” Dr. Rabner said. “It was through my clinical experience as a pediatrician that I realized the main driver of disparate, often preventable outcomes was the fragmented healthcare delivery system itself. We must address the complex factors that lead to poor health outcomes at their root causes.”
The organization will ensure its affiliates have the tools and systems in place to effectively operate as a trusted and secure health data utility (HDU). Dr. Rabner will work closely with internal teams to ensure CSS’s platforms provide immense value to users and positively impact patients’ lives. He will also collaborate with key healthcare and public health leaders to ensure HDUs continue to deliver and expand capacity to improve the healthcare delivery system.
“As the inaugural CMO, he will be key in bridging partnerships across public and clinical health systems, ensuring critical perspectives are thoroughly incorporated to solve real-world problems,” said Craig Behm, President and CEO of CSS. “Dr. Rabner’s appointment is a pivotal moment as we forge new ground with our partners. During his time as clinical advisor, he repeatedly connected with clinicians and patients in pinpointing new ways to tackle systemic problems at the community level. He has the drive to build momentous change across the care delivery system to advance health and wellness through interoperability, which is the foundation of our mission.”
Dr. Rabner is a practicing pediatrician at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington DC where he cares for hospitalized children. Previously, he was a pediatric hospitalist at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where he cared for general pediatrics patients and children with medical complexity.
During his time as clinical advisor, Dr. Rabner steered the vision and implementation of social needs interoperability that allows better coordination between clinical care and social care resources in the community. He has led dozens of new projects across affiliates including two notable and innovative projects in Maryland he hopes to expand: A foundational partnership with Department of Human Services that facilitates enhanced and coordinated care for youth experiencing foster care and an Asthma Home-visiting project that supports children with unmanaged asthma and connects them to services that provide environmental health support and practical interventions to eliminate many of the triggers for asthma in the home.
“I am fortunate to be joining CSS in a more foundational role where I can ensure community voices are centered in everything we do,” Dr Rabner said. “We are supporting nearly one million patient queries and 45,000 active users across our systems every month and I’m looking forward to driving new fundamental changes that improve the quality of care those users are able to give across the communities we serve.”
Dr. Rabner completed his general pediatrics training at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and his residency in General Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health where he also received a Master of Public Health (MPH). He obtained a Doctor of Medicine (MD) from University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and completed his Bachelor of Science (BS) at Emory University.
About CRISP Shared Services
CRISP Shared Services (CSS) is a nonprofit support organization that provides technology infrastructure and other core services to Health Information Exchanges (HIEs) across six states, serving more than one million unique user inquiries per month. CSS works with affiliates to develop industry-leading tools and programs designed to meet the specific needs of local jurisdiction and populations. CSS aims to help every HIE become an integral part of the state’s healthcare ecosystem. CSS supports HIEs across the country including CRISP, CRISP DC, West Virginia Health Information Network, Virginia Health Information, Alaska’s healtheConnect and Connecticut’s Connie. To learn more, visit: https://www.crispsharedservices.org.
