Dr. Nele Jessel on Clinician Burnout, the Power of HIT and Why She's an EHR Cheerleader

There’s a Better Way: Smart Talk on Healthcare and Technology

In this episode, Melanie sits down with Dr. Nele Jessel, the Chief Medical Officer of athenahealth. With two medical licenses—one to practice in Germany and one to practice in the U.S.—Dr. Jessel is a board-certified clinical informaticist and pediatrician with a passion for improving healthcare delivery and patient outcomes through technology. A self-described EHR cheerleader, she first became interested in clinical informatics as a means to bring the revolutionary potential of HIT to pediatrics, a specialty where its adoption has lagged. During the episode, Melanie sits down with Dr. Jessel for an in-depth conversation about her childhood in Germany, her decision to go into medicine, and why she believes the solution to clinician burnout could potentially lie in more technology, not less. Dr. Jessel also explains why it’s always been her goal to use technology to allow her and the clinicians she supports to practice old-fashioned medicine in a high-tech setting.