About

MichaelThomasAbout

Michael Thomas

Ph.D.

Founder of TetraLync

Learn more about our background, past experience, and current leadership roles in the community.

Logo10

"" - Arthur C. Clarke

Background About

Dr. Michael Thomas received his BA in Biology and Psychology from Pacific Lutheran University, his Master’s Degree in Behavioral Neuroscience from the University of New Mexico, and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Science with a concentration in Neuroscience from the University of New Mexico. During his Ph.D. work at UNM, he discovered new evidence on how the neural patterns within the brain’s temporal lobe are filtered. At this time, he also developed an expertise in neural networks, statistical analysis, integrated computing, and neural modeling.

Michael was able to utilize this knowledge during his tenure as a systems administrator for the Department of Public Health (DPH) in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), running the health system’s IT department and writing successful grants. These grants included a multimillion-dollar grant to support the Comprehensive Cancer Control Plan, a grant to start the CNMI’s first federally qualified health center, and a grant to support the implementation of electronic health records at the hospital.

Experience About

As the Director of Technology and Clinical Informatics at a large Federally Qualified Health Center in Central Oregon, Michael was the leader in informatics, telehealth, telemedicine, and remote patient monitoring for ten years. In 2011 he led the implementation of Epic electronic health records (EHR). He has designed and supported the appropriate utilization of shared electronic health records containing medical, oral, mental health, pharmacy, and substance abuse information. In clinical informatics, he led multiple organizations and coordinated community EHR efficiency initiatives for improved population health management, clinical team productivity, patient access, and the lead-up to adopting artificial intelligence (AI) within the system. Many of these initiatives leaveraged the efficiencies gained through sharing information via health information exchanges, including emergency room, social determinants of health, behavioral health information, and by adopting artificial intelligence to ease provider burden. He is six sigma black belt certified and consistently earned the highest leader ratings from all his teams.

He has been on the Central Oregon Health Information Exchange (COHIE) board since its inception in 2010. During this time, he was a strong advocate for the creation of a community health record and helped COHIE form a partnership with Reliance eHealth Collaborative in 2017 to continue the process of facilitating common governance of community health records. He has also worked closely with OCHIN to build single sign-on capability for the Reliance community health record from within OCHIN/Epic. His current work continues with community partners recognizing the value of a community health record, incorporating that record into the EHR, population health metrics, and creating efficiencies in clinical workflows. His ongoing interests lie in the expanded role of AI and analytics to increase the quality of health care while decreasing end-user burden.

Leadership About

Dr. Thomas is a dedicated tactical leader with repeated success in coordinating health information systems and implementing technological solutions to grow business and achieve organizational objectives. He is skilled in evaluating systems for regulatory compliance and designing changes for an efficient end-user experience. Michael has a solid history of policy development to ensure data integrity, security, and privacy in highly regulated environments. He was a leader in setting clinical informatics and governance structures for organizations. He managed cross-functional teams to build advantages in care delivery efficiencies. He has excellent communications skills and is adept at managing multi-disciplinary healthcare support teams. He is highly respected and sought after locally and at the state level for input in strategic decisions regarding progress in healthcare informatics.

contact-image-2
Scroll to Top