Shifali Arora, MD, assistant professor of medicine in the division of gastroenterology and hepatology was recently named vice-chief of clinical operations for the division.
“We are fortunate Dr. Arora is willing to serve in this important role,” said Nick Shaheen, MD, chief of the division of gastroenterology and hepatology. “She ran our quality improvement program for the past several years during which time multiple substantial improvements in patient care were introduced under her direction. I am confident she will provide outstanding leadership to the group.”
For the last six months, Arora has been working with Spencer Dorn, MD, to understand the intricacies of clinical services, taking on many of his previous roles as vice-chief while he has transitioned to vice-chair for care innovation in the Department of Medicine.
“We are also thankful to Spencer Dorn for the outstanding job he has done as our head of clinical operations for the past 10 years,” said Shaheen. “He has placed the division in an excellent position to continue to provide outstanding care to our patients. I personally am very grateful to him for all the things he has done for the division and am enjoying seeing all the innovation he is introducing into the department.”
Arora says clinical services comprise a complex ecosystem of scheduling, outpatient clinics and procedures, and she brings a QI perspective to her new role. Working with fellows on quality improvement projects furthered her interest in administrative work.
Arora attended medical school at the University of Illinois at Chicago, followed by residency at Duke and a gastroenterology fellowship at Rush University. Before starting at UNC, a technology and policy fellowship with the National Science Foundation helped Arora understand how policy impacts healthcare.
“I realized how healthcare policy changes can broadly impact patient care, and that experience helped guide me. I realized I wanted to work in a capacity where I could be involved in enacting workflow changes to help improve patient care.”
“Shifali is bright, hardworking, and likeable,” said Dorn. “She has already implemented a program that reduces inpatient procedure delays and shortens length of stays. We are very excited she is moving into this role, and quite confident she will do a great job leading and managing our outstanding GI clinical program.”