Up & Comers - 2016

Eric Weaver has always tried to stay a step ahead of the healthcare industry.

When all of his colleagues were going into hospital administration, he decided to become a physician practice administrator. Seeing that the future of healthcare would soon be in big data, he went back to school for a graduate certificate in health information management. And recently, hoping to better interpret performance data, he finished his doctorate in health administration.

Weaver says he got into healthcare IT because he saw it as a "catalyst for transforming practices."

"He absolutely refuses to stay complacent," said Cristian Lieneck, an associate professor of health administration at Texas State University, where he and Weaver were master's of health administration classmates. "As the healthcare industry continues to change, Eric changes with it."

Today, Weaver is a president of Innovista Health Solutions, overseeing the central Texas market for the firm that manages over 30 accountable care organizations in Illinois and Texas. Weaver, who previously led Austin, Texas-based Integrated ACO, said he decided to move into IT from practice management because he saw it as a "catalyst for transforming practices" and moving them into the post-Obamacare world.

Weaver said his biggest challenge in leading ACOs has been empowering primary-care physicians who often feel undervalued while also being honest with them about the steps they need to take to survive in the new paradigm of value-based care.

"I'm very proud to have been a part of the primary-care transformation in Texas and really showing results -- and leading primary-care physicians in our state into success in the long term," Weaver said.--Adam Rubenfire