URMC Launches Digital Strategy and Innovation Office
The University of Rochester Medical Center has established a new Digital Strategy and Innovation Office to strengthen how it leads, coordinates, and scales digital technologies across UR Medicine. The new office is intended to help URMC move more quickly and strategically as digital tools, artificial intelligence, automation, and virtual capabilities play a growing role in patient care, research, education, and operations.
“As advances in healthcare accelerate, digital capabilities now touch nearly every part of our organization,” said David Linehan, MD, CEO of URMC and dean of the School of Medicine and Dentistry. “Establishing this office ensures we can move with greater speed and focus, make more intentional investments, and scale what works best across our system.”
Linehan has appointed Gregg Nicandri, MD, UR Medicine’s chief medical information officer, to lead the office as its inaugural chief digital and innovation officer. In this role, Nicandri will lead development of an enterprise-wide digital strategy designed to align innovation and execution across UR Medicine, with a focus on delivering meaningful impact for patients, providers, learners, and staff. “Dr. Nicandri is exceptionally well suited to lead this effort,” Linehan said. “He brings deep experience in digital strategy, clinical informatics, innovation, and the practical application of technology to improve care delivery. He has also been a strong leader in developing tools that reduce administrative burden for providers and create more time for meaningful interaction with patients.”
This is an incredibly important moment for academic medicine. We have an opportunity to move with intention—to not just keep up with change, but help lead it in ways that improve care, support our workforce, and advance our mission.
Nicandri said the office will build on work already underway across URMC while creating a more coordinated approach to digital transformation. “Great work is already happening throughout our medical center, but no single team can keep pace with the volume and velocity of change in AI and digital innovation,” Nicandri said. “This office gives us a stronger enterprise structure to coordinate resources, accelerate implementation, and create greater value across the UR Medicine system.”
Early priorities will include initiatives aimed at improving access and capacity, strengthening clinical informatics, and advancing AI and automation, while laying the groundwork for broader progress across all focus areas, explained Nicandri. “This is an incredibly important moment for academic medicine,” Nicandri said. “We have an opportunity to move with intention—to not just keep up with change, but help lead it in ways that improve care, support our workforce, and advance our mission.”