Michael Kurliand has been a member of the California Telehealth Coalition since 2017 when he moved to San Diego from Philadelphia. He currently serves as co-chair of the coalition’s Education Committee and has recently joined MedWand Solutions, Inc. as their Vice President of Clinical Quality and Integration. In Michael’s 25+ years of healthcare, he has served as a clinician, strategist, change agent and leader.
Early in his career, Michael represented over 1400 nurses for a multisite EMR implementation at the University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS). Michael later served as the lead HIT strategist and liaison for the build and opening of the nation’s first high-risk special delivery unit and the UPHS affiliated pediatric proton therapy department for the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Michael then led the launch of the largest and most comprehensive pediatric telehealth program in southeastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware as Director of Telehealth for Nemours Children's Hospital, Delaware. While in this role, Michael served on the Delaware and Pennsylvania Telehealth Coalitions where he helped provide technical assistance to policy staffers, testified on behalf of Nemours, and helped usher in one of the first telehealth payment parity bills in the country.
Michael, his wife Sarah and two young sons then moved to sunny San Diego where Michael became the Director of Telehealth and Process Improvement for West Health, a non-profit dedicated to lowering healthcare costs and to enable seniors to successfully age in place. In this role, Michael serves as a subject matter expert in change management and developing and scaling models of care that use technology in support of older adults. Michael is also responsible for advocating responsible telehealth policy, serving on state committees, and educating community, hospital, clinic and system leaders to the appropriate uses and benefits of telehealth.
Michael received his ADN and BSN at Drexel University School of Nursing. As a Registered Nurse, Michael specialized in oncology, medical and emergency psychiatry. As a front-line clinician Michael worked in small community hospitals as well as large multihospital systems. In his tenure at UPHS, Michael also developed the first Nursing Web Portal, created and co-chaired UPHS’ first Nursing Informatics Committee and was one of UPHS first Magnet Champions. Michael went on to receive his master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University in Organizational Dynamics and Strategic Human Resources and certifications in Nursing Informatics and Product Management.
On the lighter side: although now living in California for over five years, Mike still cannot stand up on a surfboard, but he can tell you where the best tacos are.