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Michelle Moseman

Michelle Moseman
Michelle Moseman

Healthy software

Michelle Moseman's efforts at Cerner Corporation has resulted in four different pending patents.

It was one of those defining moments that you don't forget.

For Michelle Moseman that defining moment came at the most unlikely of times.

"I was 'hiding' in the corner, trying not to get in the way," said Moseman, a 1998 computer science graduate. "I got what we are doing as a company. The clinicians and clients were getting it. But I didn't know if our 'patients' understood what we were trying to accomplish."

For her defining moment, Moseman was in a doctor's office trying not to be conspicuous while the physician was talking to his patient.

"The patient said 'I'm taking all these medications and I'm feeling worse instead of beter. Do each of my doctors know what medications the other doctors are prescribing?,'" Moseman said, "and the doctor is telling the patient that was exactly what Cerner's software program would now do.

"I felt like I was in the middle of an info commercial for Cerner. To hear a patient understand the value of what we were doing was pretty cool."

Cerner Corporation is a leading innovator of health care information technology solutions headquartered in Kansas City. It's also the firm that Moseman has worked at since graduating from Iowa State.

A rising star at Cerner, Moseman currently serves as the firm's director of development and operations.

While at Cerner, Moseman has submitted four patents that are all innovative technologies that will assist intensive care unit health providers in improving patient safety.

One of those patents was the technology that physician was talking about that day she was "hiding" in the corner.

Moseman says the interesting thing about developing these patents is that Cerner didn't have to invent a new physical device - just write software that no one else has done before.

In this particular case, the new software was an interactive flow sheet, something she refers to as a "flow sheet on steroids."

"We brought together different aspects of health care not previously combined in a single view before," she said.

The new software now allows the clinician to view, trend, document and order from one single screen within the context of patient data such as vital signs or lab results. The patented portion of the software gives health care workers the ability to access and update their tasks within a documentation view.

"A task tells the health care workers still have to do for a patient," Moseman said.

In her role as Cerner's director of development and operations, Moseman has left her coding days behind her for the time being. Now instead of writing code, she queries an internal data warehouse for metrics and measurements needed to run the development organization.

She also co-founded and currently leads Cerner's Intellectual Properties' Ambassador Program. She is a recipient of Cerner's 2000 and 2001 Top Gun recognition as well as Cerner's 2003 and 2005 Millennium Club recognition for being among the top 5% and 1% respectively.

"I never get bored because it's something different every day," she says.

Moseman was back at Iowa State this past fall when she received the ISU Alumni Association's "Outstanding Young Alumni Award."