Dr. Malav Shah on How Technology is Elevating Care at Burke Rehabilitation

We recently connected with Dr. Malav Shah, Director of Medical Informatics, Director of Inpatient Orthopedic and Limb Loss Rehabilitation Medicine, and Associate Program Director of the PM&R residency program to discuss how Burke is enabling technology to strengthen clinical collaboration, support real-time decision-making, streamline workflows, and advance our award-winning, patient-centered rehabilitative care.

What is “medical informatics,” and why is it important?

Medical informatics is the work of making clinical information more useful to the people who need it: clinicians, patients, and families. Medical informatics helps us continually improve how clinical information is organized, shared, and applied throughout each patient’s rehabilitation journey—ultimately creating a more seamless patient experience and improving recovery outcomes.

The goal is to enable clinicians with better information faster, so less time is spent navigating screens and more time is spent with patients. In practice, that means ensuring the right information, whether it is a therapy note, medication update, functional or discharge goal, home-safety recommendation, or equipment need, reaches the appropriate member of the care team at the right point in recovery.

How is medical informatics applied at Burke?

A central part of my role as Director of Medical Informatics is connecting the people who deliver patient care with the teams who design and support the technology behind it. Clinicians are often the first to recognize when a process could work better, whether information is difficult to locate, a workflow that requires too many steps to document a simple task, or information that is not easily accessible when it is needed.

My job is to translate that frontline perspective into practical improvements. By working closely with clinical and IT teams, we can refine systems around the realities of rehabilitation care rather than asking teams to adapt to technology that does not fit their needs. That collaboration is important because the best technology changes are not simply technical upgrades – they are actionable improvements that strengthen communication among care teams to identify what a patient needs next and stay focused on the goals that matter to the patient and family.

How does medical informatics and emerging technology benefit patient care and outcomes?

Many of the outcomes that matter most to rehabilitation patients—such as greater independence, improved recovery, and a successful discharge back to the community—depend on strong coordination across their care teams.

When care teams are working from aligned information and shared goals, they can anticipate a patient’s needs, coordinate decisions, and adapt the care plan as a patient progresses. By streamlining documentation and workflows, medical informatics helps clinical teams make efficient, well-informed decisions while preserving more time for direct patient care.

This close collaboration is a meaningful differentiator at Burke. Physicians and care teams have a clear pathway to raise ideas, helping to shape workflow improvements and ensure that technology evolves alongside the high-quality care we provide. The result is technology that supports more efficient, coordinated care while keeping the patient’s needs and goals at the center of everything we do.

What other advancements in this field excite you?

Medical informatics contributes to the future of how medicine will be practiced and is built around improving patient care, safety, and access. What excites me most about this work is the opportunity to make rehabilitation care more connected, responsive, and centered on what patients need to regain independence and thrive after they return home. The pace of change in healthcare technology and the anticipated direct improvements in how patients will be treated makes this a particularly exciting time to be working in the field.

More specifically, AI has a promising role to help clinicians use information more effectively while preserving human judgement and personal relationships at the heart of rehabilitation. AI can assist with routine, repetitive tasks and help organize complex clinical information, allowing care teams to focus their expertise where it matters most: understanding each patient’s circumstances, goals, and progress.

Ultimately, technology can create opportunities for patients and families to be more active participants in their care. When patients, caregivers, and the full care team understand a shared view of the plan, it supports a smoother transition home and helps patients maintain independence once they are there. Burke is committed to remaining at the forefront of these developments in rehabilitation medicine, using technology and AI to help clinicians provide more effective, evidence-backed care.