By: Joshua Finley
Dr. Jason La Marca’s career has been defined by his concurrent passions for medicine and technology. As a physician informaticist, he currently serves as the Chief Medical Informatics Officer for a Southern California healthcare system. In this role, Jason leverages his combined expertise in clinical medicine, computer science, and innovation to directly enhance patient care through technology.
Early Tech Passion Ignites Lifelong Drive
Jason’s interest in technology started early. “I taught myself how to use an early desktop computer my surgeon father brought home when I was just 12 years old. I walked into his office, sat down at the machine, and started reading the manuals,” he recalls. This hands-on introduction sparked a lifelong passion for programming and building computers.
In high school, Jason gained proficiency in early languages like Turbo Pascal. During college at Boston University, he remotely accessed mainframe computers while also building custom PCs. “I was on the path to being in the right place at the right time, just as the online world was first being conceptualized,” he notes. Still, Jason chose to focus his undergraduate studies on cell and molecular biology before pursuing medicine. However, his innate draw to technology never faded.
Bridging the Gap Between IT and Clinical Teams
After finishing medical school, Jason’s combined medical and technical expertise proved invaluable. While working for Prime Healthcare, he served as the company’s webmaster and led electronic health records (EHR) implementations. In these roles, Jason recognized a need for better communication between IT staff and clinical teams.
As Jason explains, “IT professionals wanted to help but didn’t speak the same language as medical practitioners. I gravitated toward bridging the gap between IT and clinical medicine.” He continues, “Even today, physician informaticists who can connect these two worlds are still rare.” With his dual domain knowledge, Jason could translate between the languages of technology and medicine.
Bringing Strategic Innovation to Healthcare
Throughout his career, Jason has remained dedicated to a simple but important goal: to leave every situation better than he found it. He applies this mindset to improving healthcare delivery through the purposeful integration of technologies like AI and cloud computing.
“Technology can help or hinder healthcare delivery. We must carefully implement solutions that clinical staff will readily adopt,” Jason emphasizes. For instance, he advocates for AI-powered medical scribes to reduce the documentation burden for physicians. “Doctors should spend their time with patients, not just charting,” he asserts.
Additionally, Jason aims to unify fragmented health records across different care settings through cloud-based platforms. As he explains, “With universal health records, visibility dramatically improves. Simplifying systems by moving to the cloud is crucial.”
Ongoing Global Impact
Today, Jason continues consulting in medical informatics while pursuing a passion project inspired by his family’s emphasis on honoring elders. He is developing AI-enabled technologies specifically designed to support seniors. “In the U.S., we often push older adults out of sight, but they have so much to offer. It’s a disservice not to provide seniors with solutions that technology can enable,” Jason contends.
Though he began his medical career through traditional channels, Jason now sees a greater purpose in his work as a physician informaticist. “I can impact many more patients and doctors through optimizing healthcare delivery than I ever could as just a lone practitioner,” he reflects. “I bring a unique perspective to every situation by straddling medicine and IT.” Just as his father introduced him to transformative technology as a child, Jason continues to bring the benefits of strategic innovation to healthcare organizations across the globe.
To learn more about Jason La Marca, visit his LinkedIn profile.
Published by: Nelly Chavez
