Chair's Spotlight: Sarah Hyder, MD, MBA

By Merin C. MacDonald

In this month’s Chair’s Spotlight, we highlight Sarah Hyder, MD, MBA, associate professor of medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology and director of endoscopy at UMass Memorial Medical Center. We recently sat down with Dr. Hyder to learn about her, her work, and how recent initiatives aim to address the backlog of patients waiting for an endoscopy at UMMH. 

Dr. Hyder completed nearly all of her education and training at Brown University in Providence from her undergraduate degree in neuroscience to medical school, her internal medicine residency, and her fellowship in gastroenterology and hepatology. She did venture north to Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire for an additional fellowship in advanced endoscopy, which is where she developed an interest in endoscopic ultrasound and honed her skills in endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) and advanced therapeutics. After she completed her fellowship at Dartmouth Hitchcock, she joined Brown University as faculty in 2015 where she served as associate program director of the Gastroenterology and Hepatology Fellowship. She later went on to earn her MBA at MIT’s Sloan School of Management in 2020. 

“I loved my job and my time at Brown,” said Dr. Hyder, “but after talking with Dr. McManus and learning about what UMass had to offer, I thought it was an exciting place where I could transition away from just being a clinical physician focused on education. I was excited to have the opportunity to leverage some of the areas of interest that I have in systems design and operations, and apply them as we work to refine processes and grow endoscopy at UMass.” 

Indeed, when Dr. Hyder joined UMMH in the spring of 2023, she faced an immediate critical challenge—a significant backlog of patients waiting for endoscopy. “We have a large backlog of patients waiting for endoscopy due to patient needs increasing and buildup through COVID that many hospital systems are still working on,” said Dr. Hyder. “We're trying to find a way to efficiently take care of our patients, some of whom are very sick, in the safest possible place for their needs.” 

Over the last six months, Dr. Hyder’s team has been utilizing the GI Risk Score Pilot in Epic to leverage machine learning and other AI technologies that can help score patients’ risks based on the data in their medical records. With a scoring range from 1-13, the assessment categorizes patients with a higher score as higher risk. This assessment helps Dr. Hyder’s team move patients at the highest risk forward so that the scheduling team can get them in for their endoscopy at the University campus. Healthy patients with lower scores can be safely seen at outpatient centers, like the Eastern Avenue location. Their goal is to book each patient to the correct location and type of sedation so they are confident that patients will not be rescheduled at the last minute. The patients who have a middle-range score are the most challenging to assess and need follow-up to determine the urgency of their endoscopy. Through a combination of phone calls with patients and primary care providers, along with chart reviews, Jenna L'Heureux, NP, and a growing team of nurse practitioners in the Division of Gastroenterology, help assess the middle-range patients’ risk and schedule them appropriately. 

This initiative has been incredibly helpful in moving through the backlog and establishing an effective protocol moving forward. “The risk score pilot has made a huge impact on the efficiency of the team,” said Dr. Hyder. “With such a big backlog, it can be overwhelming. We are continuing to make adjustments here and there, but ultimately our goal is to make the experience as seamless as possible for the patient.”  

Dr. Hyder is also excited about plans for a new endoscopy unit at the University campus coming in 2025-2026 and stresses the importance of optimizing patient flow in the next couple of years in preparation for its opening. “We want to have all of our systems functioning efficiently, so when we have the new unit and new space, everything will be running smoothly.” 

Dr. Hyder has certainly hit the ground running in her role as endoscopy director making great strides forward for our patients, and she is grateful for the support she has received from the Department of Medicine and her division. After having been at the Warren Alpert School of Medicine at Brown University throughout medical school, residency, and fellowship, and as faculty from 2015-2023, moving to a new institute was initially a challenge. Learning to navigate the new system took some time, but the support she has received from leadership and her colleagues, particularly Christopher Marshall, MD, the clinical chief of the Division of Gastroenterology, has been very helpful. “Chris has been my go-to person helping me navigate the system and I’ve been building a collaborative relationship with him as well,” said Dr. Hyder. “With his collaboration and support, we have already been able to make some small but significant changes for the division as a whole.” 

We thank Dr. Hyder for her contributions to the Department of Medicine and for her leadership and work to ensure our patients are receiving the highest level of care.