The Anniversary Spotlight highlights an employee celebrating a significant work anniversary at UPMC every month.
Michele Mueser knew very early in her career that she was a problem solver. While some people might solve problems through mediation or some sort of abstract managerial mechanisms, Michele prefers to solve problems in the way that makes the most sense to her: with data.
When she began her first job at UPMC as an analyst in 2005, data was at the core of Michele’s day-to-day tasks. As she started mapping and transforming data from different sources and increasing the flow of data across UPMC, this role sparked her passion for years to come.
“I fell in love with the idea of being able to solve puzzles and come up with the strategies or creative solutions for integrating systems,” she said.
Any advanced computer or calculator can automatically process data with the click of a few buttons, but what Michele had to offer was much more than any automation. She was a natural leader, which her team members recognized over the first several years of her tenure at UPMC. This attribute is what quickly launched her from analyst to a team lead, and eventually to a team manager.
“I didn’t come into the organization looking to manage or lead the teams,” Michele said. “I was just happy being an individual contributor, but it sort of organically happened for me. I came in to solve problems, but when my other teammates were having questions or challenges with their work, they would come to me naturally. With that, my manager saw that my leadership ability was blossoming inside of the organization and encouraged me to embrace it.”
In 2010, Michele moved to work with the web sphere process server, which is another integration tool at UPMC, and then eventually to dbMotion, an interoperability application for data from UPMC’s Cerner and Epic medical record systems. She continued this work for the next several years, helping to ramp up the system’s integrations to provide better insight into patients’ records.
In 2017, Michele came to UPMC Enterprises to work on the Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standard to do some proof of concepts, and the rest is history.
“I originally came to UPMC Enterprises to continue to push my limits and knowledge,” Michele said. “I absolutely fell in love with the place, and they seemed to like me too. A couple of years later, here we are.”
Today, Michele works as the Director of Data Engineering at UPMC Enterprises. In this role, she leads a team of analysts and engineers who work with her to provide integrations for the UPMC Health Plan. She said her previous experience, combined with the expertise of her team, makes for a well-oiled data machine.
“As a data expert working with a team of other data experts, we have more than 50 years of combined data experience at UPMC,” Michele said. “We all basically grew up in this company and have the unique ability to take our knowledge and share it with portfolio companies and other teams within UPMC Enterprises.”
As a leader, Michele does not like to stay in the spotlight and refuses to take all the credit. To her, the success she’s had is all because of her team members that continuously support her along the way.
“It wasn’t ever about me,” Michele said. “As a leader, I can see my team members’ potentials and I can give them opportunities to grow or give them the confidence boost they might need. It is really about making it a team effort, making sure everybody stands out, not just one person.”
Overall, Michele is thankful for her experience at UPMC for the past 16 years, not only to provide support as a leader but to make a difference through her passion for the process of collecting and analyzing data.
“Math and science are very tangible in the way that you can see and create patterns, as well as the evolution of issues or solutions through those mechanisms,” Michele said. “My time at UPMC has truly allowed me to take these things to bounds I’ve never even thought of when I first started out as an analyst. I like health care. I like data. I like solving problems. Knowing that I’ve made even a small difference through these things I’m so passionate about is all that matters.”
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