“With connected devices, the flow of health and medical information is going through a radical change, which puts patients in an exceptionally powerful and important position,” Topol said in a news release. “I'm honored to work with AT&T as we seek to develop new solutions that will change the trajectory of digital health and impact patient outcomes.”
Chris Hill, senior vice president, advanced solutions, part of AT&T business solutions, said Topol is “a change agent who has dedicated his career to creating awareness and promoting adoption of health IT solutions to improve patient care.” Topol will “help us drive our competitive strategy as we focus on innovative solutions powered by our network.” Those include a line of consumer products and services called AT&T ForHealth.
The company has a suite of wireless home healthcare management tools, an “enterprise mobilization” suite of communication tools for use within a healthcare delivery organization and a “secure text messaging” service among other products that leverage its telecom legacy.
Topol was chosen by readers as No. 8 on Modern Healthcare's list of the 50 Most Influential Physician Executives in 2013—he was No. 1 in 2012—and also made the 2013 list of the 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare at No. 90.
Asked whether Topol's new role posed any potential conflicts of interest with his position with Scripps, a spokeswoman for the health system said in an e-mail that “Scripps would engage and discuss should any issues arise, but we don't see any now.”
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