Cassara selected as SMD of Peaks Medical Specialities service line
Michelle Cassara, MD, has been selected for the role of Senior Medical Director of the Medical Specialties service line in the Peaks Region.
Dr. Cassara began her career in the 1990s at Lutheran ER before pursuing medical school and later returned in 2008 to lead the Endocrinology clinic and serve as Medical Director of Diabetes Education.
Under her leadership, the department has expanded across the Front Range to three locations with twelve providers. She has played a vital role in enhancing telehealth services and has received Patient Experience awards for the past three years consecutively. Additionally, Dr. Cassara chairs the Provider Leadership Council Front Range.
Dr. Cassara obtained a bachelor's degree in Spanish literature from the University of Colorado, Boulder. She attended the University of Vermont College of Medicine and completed her Internal Medicine residency at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where she also served as Chief Medical Resident. After completing her Endocrinology and Metabolism Fellowship at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, she joined the faculty there before returning to Colorado.
As senior medical director, Dr. Cassara will provide leadership, oversight, and support for the development of a culture of high reliability and the measurement of care, identifying opportunities, building relationships, and executing on strategies to drive the performance and measured improvement of the service line.
Dr. Cassara will operate in a dyad leadership structure with key organizational relationships across Intermountain Health collaboratively with all assigned region disciplines including Medical Group, peer service lines and markets, as well as Enterprise disciplines, including Clinical Programs, Clinical Shared Services, Clinical Excellence, Research, Medical Education, and the clinically integrated network.
"My vision for the Medical Specialties service line is to align our clinical practices with high-quality evidence-based best practices in partnership with the Clinical Programs team, unify our teams across the region in a supportive and collaborative practice model, and partner in strategy and growth of the services we offer to our communities," said Jennifer Davenport, MD, and Associate Chief Medical Officer for the Peaks Region.
"Dr. Cassara's joy is infectious,” said Jennifer Davenport, MD, and Associate Chief Medical Officer for the Peaks Region. “Her creative focus on innovative practice models and delivering care where, how, and when, patients need will be key to elevating all the Peaks region medical specialties to be essential in the communities we serve."