As chief information officer for Jackson Health System, one of the largest public health systems in the U.S., Michael Garcia (MSIS '12) faced one of the biggest challenges of his career: leading his organization through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Garcia shared insights about the agnostic IT infrastructure – and how it gave Jackson the flexibility and agility to quickly deploy new applications during the pandemic – as a keynote speaker at the 2020 International Conference on Information Resources Management, hosted virtually by FIU Business in May.

The onset and spread of coronavirus were swift within the U.S., and Florida has been one of the states to feel its strongest impact. For Jackson, which received its first coronavirus-positive patient in March, "time was of the essence," Garcia said.

Garcia presented some of the challenges his team at Jackson faced and how his education and more than 20 years of experience prepared him to meet them.

Takeaways from the presentation:

• The most immediate changes happened with electronic health records, including changes in registration, scheduling, questionnaires and care plans. In the wake of COVID-19, Garcia and his team had to act quickly to add interfaces reflecting whether patients had traveled, were high or low risk, had tested positive and more.
• The Jackson system expanded its use of telehealth, allowing patients in hospital rooms to communicate with employees using carts with cameras and monitors, increasing communication while minimizing exposure and conserving PPE. Outpatients were able to have their appointments handled remotely.
• COVID-19 demanded a dramatic expansion of Jackson's data capabilities. The need to make real-time data decisions – and report data to the county, state and federal government twice a day – created the need for powerful reporting tools. New applications allowed Jackson to leverage data as an asset in real time to power artificial intelligence (AI) and automate human work to replace human repetitive efforts and alleviate staff.

With the many challenges the Jackson Health System faced, Garcia attributed his experience as a participant in the FIU Business Master of Science in Information Systems program as playing a significant role in developing and managing health data applications and tools he uses in his leadership role.