Chief Medical Informatics Officer (CMIO)

Eastern Virginia Medical School•Norfolk, VA

About The Position

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 position helps EVMSMG use Epic more fully for clinical efficiency, patient care, and practice growth, and 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). Authority is limited to Medical Group clinical operations and to functions and access authorized under the Community Connect arrangement. Sentara retains authority over 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. The role works in clinical and office settings, involving patient care, meetings, computer use, and occasional travel among EVMSMG practices. It requires timely response to significant clinical system issues. Specific patient-care demands follow the clinical appointment, and essential functions may be performed with reasonable accommodation.

Requirements

MD, 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, and 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.

Nice To Haves

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.

Responsibilities

Provide patient care as assigned under a separately documented clinical effort, maintaining appropriate licensure, credentials, and privileges, and bring current physician experience to Epic workflow and change decisions.
Meet with physicians, advanced practice providers, practice leaders, and clinical staff to identify and prioritize ambulatory Epic workflow issues affecting EVMSMG.
Translate clinician needs into clinical requirements and proposed workflow changes, evaluating patient-safety, usability, service, and operational impacts with clinical and practice leaders.
Partner with department champions and superusers to support adoption, collect feedback, and identify opportunities to use approved Epic functions more effectively.
Lead EVMSMG clinical informatics experiences for Medical Informatics fellows, mentor fellows on approved practice-based Epic workflow and clinical improvement projects, and coordinate learning objectives and feedback with fellowship leadership.
Maintain a prioritized EVMSMG Epic improvement queue with clinical owners, expected outcomes, and status, and present requests through Sentara’s intake, change-control, and governance processes.
Work with Sentara 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 when Sentara has granted the necessary access, certification, and approval; ensure changes are tested, documented, and released through applicable host-controlled processes.
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, in coordination with the teams that own training materials and the underlying system.
Work with clinical quality and practice leaders to define measures for usability, adoption, workflow efficiency, and patient safety, and use approved reports to assess interventions.
Provide clinical input on proposed clinical AI tools for EVMSMG practices, including ambient documentation, through Sentara and designated University processes.
Partner with Medical Group analytics, physician compensation, and Sentara teams to define, validate, and improve reproducible Epic-derived clinical practice data and reports for physician compensation planning and management decisions. Supply clinical requirements and interpretation consistent with University data governance requirements; do not approve measures that determine the role holder’s own compensation.
Serve as EVMSMG’s clinical liaison when a clinical system incident affects care: assess workflow and patient-safety impact, communicate approved workarounds, and escalate through Sentara, clinical operations, patient safety, and ETT as appropriate.
Recommend and coordinate across EVMSMG, Sentara, ETT, and designated ODU offices without independently committing the University or Medical Group to new platforms, integrations, security controls, research data infrastructure, or enterprise technology strategy.