Dr. Daniel Podberesky, Senior Vice President & Chief Medical Officer, Nemours Children’s Hospital and Specialty Care Practice, Central Florida

Invest: spoke with Dr. Daniel Podberesky, senior vice president and chief medical officer of Nemours Children’s Hospital and Specialty Care Practice, Central Florida, about the organization’s growth in Florida, the challenge of preserving culture at scale, and the role of academic medicine in its long-term strategy. “I think growth is happening, but I really think it’s going to start taking off in a more exponential way over the next 5 to 10 years,” Podberesky said.

What has your professional journey looked like, and how has that led to your current role at Nemours Children’s Hospital, Florida?

I am a pediatric radiologist by training. I was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, and went to the University of Maryland for both undergraduate and medical school. I did my radiology training as an active duty member of the U.S. Air Force at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, and then completed my pediatric radiology fellowship at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. After that, I returned to the Air Force to fulfill my service commitment and worked as a pediatric radiologist there for four years.

I was then recruited back to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital as an attending to create and build their division of body imaging, and I spent six years there. I joined Nemours Children’s Hospital, Florida, in 2014 as Enterprise Radiologist-in-Chief, and I have been chief medical officer for almost four years.

My clinical passion is advanced pediatric body imaging, including the pediatric chest, heart, abdomen, liver, pancreas, and pelvis. Over time, my broader interest in healthcare evolved into the everyday operations of a pediatric healthcare system, including patient outcomes, quality and safety, and how patients move through the system and get to the right place at the right time with the right doctor so they can be diagnosed and treated quickly and excellently.

I still do some research and clinical radiology , but the bulk of my time is spent leading clinical operations and strategy of Nemours’ primary care and specialty practice and hospital in Central Florida.

What do you see ahead for Nemours Children’s Health in the Central Florida market and beyond?
We are entering what I think of as our adolescence phase. We have already grown rapidly, but I do not think the next phase will be linear. I think growth is happening, but I really think it’s going to start taking off in a more exponential way over the next 5 to 10 years.

The reason is that we are adding many new services, more providers and more locations, and we are looking to expand into areas of the state outside Central Florida. We are also starting to get traction in more natural ways.

Our investments and strategic priorities have paid off, but now word of mouth is starting to spread as well. Our name and brand recognition are evolving, and I think the way people in the community think about Nemours Children’s Health relative to the other options in town is starting to change. Families are beginning to say to one another that Nemours Children’s is where they should go for certain kinds of care, and we are starting to see the impact of that evolution.

We have also been very deliberate about our strategic priorities. Our neuroscience strategy took off very quickly. Over the next five years, our orthopedics, cardiac care and oncology areas will also make an even larger impact. We look at the market, identify the areas where we can do better than what’s already being offered, and once we make a decision, go fully after it.

As the organization scales, what core elements of the Nemours Children’s Health care model must remain intact?

That is one of the things that keeps me up at night. As we grow, how do we make sure we do not outpace the culture we have worked so hard to build? For me, the first element is quality and safety. That has to stay front and center in everything we do.

Our quality and safety teams are deeply involved in discussions about growth. If we are opening a new location, they are part of those conversations from the start. They look at how the building is designed, how it is equipped, how patients and employees move through it, and how communication stays strong between that location and the main campus.

That voice has to remain present at every stage of strategy and execution.
The second piece is our patient-family-centered model of care. A lot of organizations say they are patient- and family-centered, but I believe it truly permeates everything we do at Nemours. We have a Family Advisory Council and a Teenage Advisory Council, and they have input into decisions across the organization, including how buildings are designed. As we grow into new communities, we have to make sure that patient and family voices remain a critical component of the decisions we make.

The third piece is our people. As our growth and reputation have increased, we have also been able to recruit more effectively in a difficult labor market. The level of expertise in physicians, advanced practice providers, and other clinical professionals applying for openings has increased significantly, and I think that reflects the opportunity ahead and what people see us building here.

How does Nemours Children’s Health position itself in a competitive healthcare environment?

The first thing I tell my team is not to spend too much time worrying about the competition. If we execute at a very high level on what we need to execute on, we will be successful regardless of what the competition is doing. Part of that is because what Nemours Children’s is trying to do is not exactly
the same as others in the market.

We are an academically oriented, tertiary/quaternary care teaching hospital and, eventually, a top pediatric healthcare system in the country. There are things Nemours Children’s does for children throughout the state, clinically, socially, and through advocacy, that do not result in monetary gain. That makes us different in terms of what we are trying to do and how we are trying to do it. We are trying to improve the well-being of all children in the state of Florida.

What is the intersection of academic medicine and organizational strategy like at Nemours Children’s?

I think of academic medicine as a three-legged stool made up of clinical medicine, teaching and education, and research or scholarly activity. I strongly believe you have to get the clinical side working well first. If you are not providing strong clinical medicine, the other two parts will not work.
We are well on our way in that journey. There are areas of the hospital that are already functioning at a level comparable to some of the top children’s hospitals in the country. Orthopedics is an example. It is our top-ranked specialty right now in U.S. News & World Report, and we feel strongly about where it is headed.

Once the clinical foundation is strong, the education piece becomes easier because you can bring in residents and fellows and train them in a strong, diverse environment. Then the research and scholarly activity side becomes easier as well, because residents and fellows contribute to that work as part
of their training, alongside attendings and scientists.

Are there any additional opportunities you believe deserve more attention?
One area I would highlight is international medicine. Because of our location in Orlando, the growth of the airport and Brightline, and the number of people who travel to and visit Central Florida, we have an opportunity to not just provide our expertise to children in Florida, but also to children who come to the United States for medical care from around the world.