Meet the West Health Accelerator Team: Melissa Martin

Meet Melissa Martin, the Executive Director of @HealthCare65, West Health

Q&A

Can you describe your role on the West Health Accelerator?

Melissa Martin: The Accelerator at Mass General Brigham is one of West Health's flagship collaborations and represents an opportunity to fundamentally rethink how we care for older adults.

For decades, healthcare has largely taken a one-size-fits-all approach to adult care, despite the fact that older adults have distinct needs and typically face the highest risk for complications during hospitalization. Through the Accelerator, Mass General Brigham has created a system-wide, evidence-based standard of care for older adults and has embedded those best practices directly into clinical workflows and the electronic health record. The goal is to improve patient outcomes and make it easier for care teams to consistently deliver the highest standard of care.

My responsibility is to ensure that the model we're building has an impact beyond any single health system. That includes forging the partnerships and national pathways that will enable other healthcare organizations to adapt this approach to their own needs.

Do you have a personal story that connects you to this work?

MM: I started my career as a television news journalist, but after my dad was diagnosed with a rare disease, I saw firsthand how challenging it was for our family to navigate a complex healthcare system and get the right information and the right care.

That experience changed the trajectory of my career. I transitioned into healthcare because I wanted to help improve the experience for patients, families, and the clinicians caring for them. My family continues to navigate many of those same challenges today, and it's one of the reasons I never lose sight of who we're ultimately serving and why this work matters.

What excites you most about the West Health Accelerator at Mass General Brigham?

MM: There's a tremendous amount of innovation happening in healthcare right now. What excites me most is demonstrating that meaningful transformation doesn't always require a massive investment in new technology. By thoughtfully redesigning care and optimizing the electronic health record, we're showing how health systems can unlock greater value from the technology they already have.

At Mass General Brigham, we're hardwiring evidence-based best practices for older adults into the electronic health record so they automatically become part of everyday care. It’s an example of how optimizing existing technology can help establish a consistent, system-wide standard of care that transforms how care is delivered.

What makes this work so important?

MM: We're at an important inflection point in healthcare. As our population ages and people are living longer with more complex needs, healthcare organizations have an opportunity to rethink how care is delivered — not by asking more of clinicians, but by designing systems that consistently support high-quality care.

What makes this work so important is that we already know a great deal about what improves outcomes for older adults; it’s just not happening consistently. By making this level of care the standard rather than the exception, we have an opportunity to fundamentally improve the experience and outcomes for millions of patients.

How would you measure the success of the Accelerator?

MM: Success certainly begins with better outcomes and experiences for older adults, but it's much bigger than any single metric. To me, success is demonstrating that thoughtfully redesigning care, by bringing together clinical expertise, care redesign, technology, and data, can create meaningful, lasting improvements in how care is delivered.

The greatest measure of success will be seeing how what we’re doing with The West Health Accelerator at Mass General Brigham can influence healthcare well beyond a single organization or community. And, while we're starting with older adults, this approach to care has the potential to become a blueprint for how organizations care for other patient populations nationwide.