On Healthcare, Always Seeking New Perspectives
Lisa Tompkins
December 2010
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Lisa Tompkins |
Preparing to leave for Guatemala recently, Lisa Tompkins had many loose ends to tie up—including overcoming the language barrier ("I speak enough Spanish to get by on a vacation, but not necessarily to work in a hospital"). But the journey was no vacation. It was a volunteer medical mission to look into how healthcare service delivery can be improved in a country where patients often travel for hours to undergo surgery.
On the eve of her departure, Tompkins looked ahead to seeing Guatemala's hospitals with the same enthusiasm a tourist might muster for a glimpse of the Tikal Mayan ruins. "I actually find hospitals quite fascinating," she says.
That curiosity extends to all aspects of healthcare—and it has served Tompkins well in her work at MITRE. As lead systems engineer and senior healthcare consultant in MITRE's Center for Transforming Health, Tompkins devotes her energies to tackling the challenges involved in using technology to help doctors and patients make better and more informed healthcare decisions.
"Lisa definitely has a lot of passion and drive, which she brings both to her role at MITRE and her volunteer work," says Pamela Thornton, a senior healthcare consultant who works with Tompkins in MITRE's Center for Enterprise Modernization. "Her dedication and her willingness to ask others for input, as well as her openness to change, make her a valuable colleague. And she definitely leads by example."
An Array of Healthcare Choices
Tompkins was practically born to work in healthcare. Her father was a psychiatrist; her sister is a pulmonologist; and her mother does an array of volunteer healthcare work. While attending Hampton University in Hampton, Va.—where she earned a bachelor's degree in biology—Tompkins realized that healthcare had more than one career path. That perspective came in handy in 2005, when, after healthcare work for several organizations (including the Department of Defense), Tompkins reached a career crossroads. Should she stick to healthcare work or focus more on project management in other fields?
In the end, a choice between healthcare and project management proved unnecessary. At MITRE, Tompkins has been able to do both, working on health information technology, strategic management, emergency response, and major IT acquisitions.
At MITRE, Tompkins started out supporting the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology within the Department of Health and Human Services with the aim of promoting the adoption of health IT. This coincided with President George W. Bush's announced goal of bringing a majority of Americans access to electronic health records by 2014; Tompkins worked to advance that transition across 23 federal agencies. She led discussions with partners across numerous federal agencies to determine how systems that share healthcare records should function. Among the topics on the table: how to keep information secure and private and how to identify areas of highest impact for federal agencies.
Another part of Tompkins' MITRE portfolio was her work with HHS's Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response. The office was created in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to bolster the government's ability to respond to public health emergencies. Tompkins focused mainly on strategic management and helped the organization's offices develop a plan and goals. She created a data collection matrix to evaluate the office's programs and developed a program analysis plan to match priorities with available resources.
"I've been fortunate, because I've been able to work on some very interesting and critical projects," says Tompkins. "The tasks I've participated in have allowed me to gain experience in different parts of healthcare.
On a Mission
Tompkins' relaxation consists of traveling (she's been to Mexico, Bermuda, and the Middle East) and, recently, her search for a new dog. But healthcare is never very far away from her mind—and much of what she does after hours has implications for her MITRE work.
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Lisa Tompkins on her volunteer medical mission to Guatemala. |
For example, Tompkins serves as president of the George Washington University Hospital Women's Board, Inc., which supports the charitable interests of the hospital, university, and the community at large. Among other things, the board has provided 15 iPads to medical students as a pilot project. Tompkins explains, "Working on the board, I can take what's in the field, what's really happening, and also apply it here at MITRE so that we can better support our customers."
The George Washington connection also put Tompkins in touch with Dr. Joseph Giordano, lead surgeon for the George Washington Hospital trauma team that treated Ronald Reagan after the 1981 attempt on his life. It was Giordano who approached Tompkins about the Guatemala mission, in which the volunteers offered training in areas ranging from basic hygiene to triaging methods.
True to form, Tompkins will be looking for ways to apply what she learns.
"We don't want to go just on this one trip and help out and pat ourselves on the backs," she says. "We really want to make a commitment to this program and make a big difference that will last for years."
—by Russell Woolard
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