Mark Bowen, MD, is bringing his career full circle with a new role at New York City-based Hospital for Special Surgery.
Dr. Bowen, who completed his residency at HSS, will be its first medical advisor for strategy and business development. He begins the role March 1 and will be a strategic partner for President and CEO Bryan Kelly, MD.
Question: What are you most excited for, and what are some of the biggest opportunities you see ahead?
Dr. Mark Bowen: I think it's just a fantastic opportunity for me at this stage in my career. HSS is an amazing place, and it always has been, and it has grown far bigger than back in the 1980s when I trained there. I'm really excited to work with Dr. Kelly who is a super talented leader. He has a vision to take HSS into the future and capitalize on the opportunities that have been created by HSS' unique position and status in musculoskeletal medicine. Over the course of the last year and a half of conversations with [Dr. Kelly], I became increasingly excited. I feel very honored to be able to return and help develop and define strategic opportunities, new programs and use innovation and technology around improving the patient experience. There's a real transformative approach that HSS is undergoing, and they are looking to optimize musculoskeletal health from the point of view of improvement in prevention and optimization and performance. There is a call for more attention to people's overall musculoskeletal healthspan.
Q: Are there any particular initiatives or projects you've talked about with Dr. Kelly that you're planning to dive into once you start?
MB: I've got a pretty long list. The most important one is to improve the patient experience by offering them a broad range of musculoskeletal care, enabling individuals to become involved in their own health.
There's a number of ways people enter a health system with different musculoskeletal concerns including overall health and fitness and performance. You could have an elite athlete trying to improve his running time or training. An older individual who might be looking to maintain bone health and strength. Or someone who is looking to lose weight and improve their fitness and optimize their performance.
The technology part is to take advantage of all the opportunities that are out there in terms of diagnostics,evaluation and managing information. Communication with patients is super important and as we build out these programs, the ability to interact with their musculoskeletal health coach is going to be crucial. We're working on a platform to do that so there's reinforcement of a plan for wellness and feedback and reevaluation.
Q: What technologies excite you the most when it comes to orthopedics and the healthspan ideas you're talking about?
MB: Traditionally orthopedics has been looking at the pathology after getting injured and identifying a fix. The current opportunity is looking at it more holistically from a multidisciplinary approach involving physiatry, and primary care. I think that it's very exciting to be able to offer more complete and proactive care to patients, and one of the big pushes for us is to help coordinate around that. People definitely will be excited and engage on that line. The other area I frequently find people frustrated with is women's evaluation of treatment options for their bone health. I think HSS has established a great program for that, but we're going to incorporate that into our overall musculoskeletal health program as well. We want to cover the needs of care for all patients as best we can.
Q: How are you also planning to balance the operational needs for HSS with your clinical goals as well?
MB: I think that that's one of the biggest challenges. Alternative sources of revenue from the point of view of musculoskeletal health is important. Programmatically, HSS currently has strong offerings but as we trim and realign things, I think there can be efficiencies, and from the point of view of the future, that's going to be required.
Q: Why is it important to have physician leaders like yourself and Dr. Kelly at the helm? What advantages does HSS have with physician leaders?
MB: I think Dr. Kelly is in a unique leadership position . He moved up from surgeon in chief and was recognized by the HSS Board as being a talented leader with vision that he became president. I think his advantage is that he sees things through the lens of a surgeon, but he's also extremely good at empowering and utilizing the talents around him. He's surrounded himself with a very strong executive team and other physician leaders. HSS has always been highly influenced by physicians, but the real drivers of the day-to-day and planning for the future is the executive team. Where surgeons and physicians can input their experience in a positive way is unique, and Dr. Kelly demonstrated that, as he looks to the future.