Digital Health and Continuous Improvement with Dr. Christopher Longhurst

Christopher Longhurst MD, MS, is

the chief medical officer (CMO) and chief digital officer (CDO) at UC San Diego

Health. This dual, complementary role provides leadership to medical staff,

ensuring that standards and protocols are in place to provide the highest

quality of care to patients. He also serves as an associate dean at the

School of Medicine, overseeing and aligning our education and research missions

within the clinical environment, and leading our journey to become a highly

reliable, learning health system.

As CMO, Dr. Longhurst is

responsible for maintaining excellence in clinical care, including regulatory,

patient and clinician satisfaction, quality and safety, and medical affairs. He

works alongside leaders at UC San Diego Health, the School of Medicine, and UC

Health to improve care delivery and oversees UC San Diego Health’s reputation

for delivering safe, innovative, patient-centered care.

Dr. Longhurst is passionate about

implementing innovative digital solutions that help improve the patient

experience. As the CDO, he leads UC San Diego Health’s technology strategy,

overseeing initiatives that advance the infrastructure across UC San Diego and

the UC Health system. In addition, Dr. Longhurst leads the clinical activities

of the academic medical center, working alongside clinical leaders to guide the

planning of quality, safety, and performance excellence of programs.

He is also a key faculty member

in the Departments of Biomedical Informatics and Pediatrics in the UC San Diego

School of Medicine, maintaining an active clinical practice as a newborn

hospitalist and pursuing scholarship in care quality, patient safety, and

health informatics.

Prior to his current role, Dr.

Longhurst served as the chief information officer (2015-2021) and associate

chief medical officer for quality and safety (2018-2021) at UC San Diego

Health, where he provided leadership in key functional areas to continuously

improve efforts around operations, reputation and care.

Before joining UC San Diego

Health, Dr. Longhurst served as chief medical information officer for Stanford

Children's Health. He led strategic efforts to improve children's health and

provider workflow using information technology. He founded and led the nation's

first accredited clinical informatics fellowship at Stanford, where he was a

clinical professor of pediatrics and biomedical informatics. He also staffed

the quality committee of Stanford's hospital board and facilitated national

quality improvement collaborative work.

Dr. Longhurst completed his

residency at Stanford University and earned his medical degree and MS in

medical informatics from UC Davis. He holds a BS in molecular biology from

Revelle College at UC San Diego. He is a board-certified pediatrician and

clinical informaticist.

He is the author and co-author of

many publications on using technology and data to improve quality of care. Dr.

Longhurst is an elected fellow of the prestigious American College of Medical

Informatics.

• Link to claim CME credit: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/3DXCFW3
• CME credit is available for up to 3 years after the stated release date

Contact CEOD@bmhcc.org if you have any questions about claiming credit.