I t’s hard to believe Michael Shabot, MD, had no early interest in medicine. But maybe it just had to get in line. “I kind of drifted into medical school after I kept looking for challenging things to do like architecture, computer science and law,” says the executive VP and chief clinical officer for Houston-based Memorial Hermann Health System, which includes nine acute care hospitals, a children’s hospital, an orthopedic and spine hospital, two rehabilitation hospitals, 20 ambulatory surgical centers and 180 other ambulatory facilities. He is responsible for Memorial Hermann’s medical groups with 4,000 physicians, its Accountable Care Organization, a primary care residency, Health Information Management, Case Management, Care Management, Medical Informatics, Quality, Safety, Infection Control and Registry Reporting. Dr. Shabot is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Texas at Houston in the Schools of Biomedical Informatics and Public Health. Under his leadership, in 2013 Memorial Hermann received the John M. Eisenberg Award for Patient Safety and Quality at the National Level, presented by the Joint Commission and National Quality Forum. Dr. Shabot is board certified in General Surgery and Surgery Critical Care, with specialties in general surgery, trauma surgery and critical care. Prior to joining Memorial Hermann, Dr. Shabot served as Medical Director of Enterprise Information Services, Director of Surgical Intensive Care and Associate Director of Surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He has published over 350 papers, chapters, books and abstracts on critical care, trauma, physiologic monitoring and the use of computerized information systems for decision support, quality management and clinical research. Dr. Shabot is married to Linda Ann Shabot and they have three children in California and Texas. Oh, yes, his lifelong hobby is building and flying radio-controlled planes.