The Anniversary Spotlight highlights an employee celebrating a significant work anniversary at UPMC every month.
Many employees at UPMC cite their passion for patient care as a reason why they love their jobs. For Yimin Nie, who recently celebrated her 20-year anniversary at UPMC, this rings especially true when she reflects on her past role in health care – as a doctor.
“Nearly 27 years ago when I lived in China, I was actually an attending physician with my own practice,” Yimin said. “After I moved to the U.S., I changed my career a couple of times and finally ended up in a completely different job area that still focuses on and helps to improve patient care.”
Yimin’s extensive medical background has given her the opportunity to have a well-rounded perspective when carrying out her duties at UPMC over the years. Her journey in the hospital system started in the Department of Biomedical Informatics (DBMI) in 2002 as a Systems Programmer.
After working at DBMI on a variety of different projects for 10 years, she joined UPMC Enterprises – known then as the Technology Development Center – in 2012. When she started at the TDC, she was the first software engineer on the CDRIS project, which eventually became Alexandria Charts.
Brian Kolowitz, Senior Director of Technology Solutions at UPMC Enterprises and Yimin’s manager, is familiar with Yimin’s early performance at UPMC Enterprises.
“During that time, she refined her software engineering expertise and found a niche in data modeling and backend system development, where she earned the respect of her peers as a go-to individual for these needs,” Kolowitz said.
Amid a global pandemic in 2020, Yimin shifted gears to join the COVID-19 Contact Tracing application, followed by the Safar TeleCare initiative. Both of these projects have offered support and protection to individuals throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, which speaks directly to Yimin’s passion for patients.
“The last two projects I’ve been working on are especially related to patient care,” Yimin said. “I’m very excited about this kind of work.”
Aside from getting to support a wide range of projects and focus areas, Yimin – who now works at UPMC Enterprises as a Tech Lead – loves implementing user stories. These are high-level descriptions of software features that are written from the end user’s perspective to provide context for software developers.
“I always would like to have a big picture and fully understand the requirements before I start implementing a user story,” Yimin said. “This will help me to complete my work in a seamless manner.”
When it comes to empathizing with the user experience, this is where Yimin’s prior experience as a physician begins to shine.
“I have a lot of medical perspective that gives me a solid sense of what the patient might need, as well as what the doctors might need to take care of the patient,” Yimin said.
For Brian, Yimin’s work ethic and ongoing dedication to the field are both admirable and commendable.
“Yimin continues to demonstrate UPMC’s guiding principles, a customer-centered focus, and a relentless pursuit of self-growth,” said Brian. “Her past and present team, leaders, and peers truly appreciate all of her contributions and look forward to great things to come.”
The support and appreciation that Yimin has consistently received from Brian and the rest of her team at UPMC Enterprises have made the past 20 years all worthwhile.
“What I love the most about working at UPMC Enterprises is my team,” Yimin said. “I am so lucky because my teammates are so great. There is always someone there to help.”
