Dr. Richard Paula

Medical Director at IWC

Dr. Richard Paula is the CMIO at Shriners Hospitals for Children Headquarters in Tampa, Florida. Shriners Hospitals for Children is a network of 22 pediatric hospitals in the U.S., Canada and Mexico providing specialized care for orthopedic conditions, burns, spinal cord injuries and cleft lip and palate. All services are provided at no charge. Eligibility for care is not based on financial need or relationship to a Shriner. As Chief Medical Information Officer (CMIO), he directs the medical informatics plan for the 22 hospital system. This includes the implementation of an integrated EHR system in each hospital as well as formulating and implementing the clinical decision support and business intelligence components for the system. Dr. Richard Paula was a practicing board certified Emergency Medicine physician for 10 years, and Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of South Florida while at Tampa General Hospital. Dr. Paula has been a leader in Applied Medical Informatics for over 10 years. He has authored numerous textbook chapters and online articles on Emergency Medicine and informatics. Over the past 5 years, he was Director of Research and Evidence Based Medicine for the Emergency Medicine Residency at Tampa General Hospital with the University of South Florida division of Emergency Medicine. In March of 2010, he accepted the position of Chief Medical Information Officer for the Tampa General Hospital. He led the “big bang” go-live of their Epic EMR implementation in 2011. While there he was instrumental in the 1000 bed hospital quickly being awarded HIMSS level 6 then level 7 status 2 years later in 2014. In January 2014 he accepted the CMIO position at Shriners Hospital System for Children. His hobbies include running, science fiction, good wine and travel. Richard Paula MD