Former Penn Medicine CTO Brian Wells joins cybersecurity vendor Merlin International (Q&A)

Author: Erin Dietsche / Source: MedCity News

Brian Wells served in a plethora of positions at Penn Medicine. He joined in 2007 as chief technology officer, then became associate CIO of health technology and research computing. Most recently, he served as Penn Medicine’s associate VP of health technology and academic computing.

But now Wells has taken his talents elsewhere: Merlin International, where he serves as director of healthcare strategy.

The company provides IT solutions to the federal government and is also working to provide solutions to the commercial healthcare market. Merlin’s primary offerings include cybersecurity tools, network performance management solutions and enterprise applications.

In a recent phone interview, Wells discussed his new position at Merlin, which he started in June.

This exchange has been lightly edited.

What led you to pursue this new gig at Merlin International?

The way I ended up at Merlin was somewhat just by chance. A gentleman I would work with at Merlin talked to me about their plans. It seemed very attractive to me and like a hard thing to pass up. It’s fun to go back to the vendor side.

What’s different about your current role compared to your role at Penn Medicine?

One of the things I was working on at Penn towards the end was patient-focused tech on a handheld device. I was starting to see the beginnings of a lot of interest in this technology. That was an area that Merlin was gong to be moving into.

This is an area I think we’re going to be developing very significantly. It’s about being able to provide tech that brings it all together…

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