Foundations of the U.S. Healthcare System

Dr. Spencer  grew up in South Philadelphia,  one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city.  In elementary school, he was given a scholarship to attend a private boarding school, Girard College.  There he learned the value of scholastic rigor as well as formulating career goals.  He decided in middle school that he wanted to be a doctor, attracted to the idea of lifelong learning. In high school, he decided that I wanted to also have a role in healthcare administration after learning of the impact this would have on the health of patients on a more global scale.  Once he graduated from Girard College (high school), he attended Brown University in Providence, RI where he majored in biology. 

He continued his education at Brown Medical School.  During medical school, he decided that he would obtain a Masters in Public Health (MPH) in healthcare management at Harvard University in order to further his education in both finance and management as well as areas of traditional public health. After completing his MPH and then his MD, he began his Internal Medicine residency at Temple University in Philadelphia. This was a very deliberative choice as the hospital is located in an underserved area of the city which allowed him to refine his clinical skills as well as apply his knowledge of public health to a population that was in need.  While there, he was able to submit abstracts focused on infectious and kidney disease as well as to do clinical rotations with the Philadelphia Department of Public Health.

Upon graduating residency, Dr. Spencer joined Abington Health System which would later merge with Jefferson Health.  He spent 15 years there as a primary care physician and hospitalist. For ten of those years, he served as the Medical Director for Population Health for Jefferson Medical Group-North, as well as an Associate Medical Director for the Delaware Valley Accountable Care Organization.  This work allowed Dr. Spencer to focus on quality improvement projects including preventative screening, transitions of care, readmissions, and telehealth.  He submitted presentations for several conferences and publications based on this work including at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. He created and lead a clinical ambulatory pharmacy program that transformed medication and chronic disease management within the system, leading to publications at IHI and the American College of Clinical Pharmacy. He was also honored to be chosen as a content expert by the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) in the area of chronic kidney disease progression.

As the Chief Medical Officer at Onslow Memorial, Dr.. Spencer utilizeed the skills he had honed in his previous roles. Specifically, this included work to deploy standard quality improvement processes with a specific focus on improving infectious disease control. He also had the opportunity to leverage his business experience and a recent Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, to incorporate pay for performance clauses in vendor contracts and expand the hospital’s clinical offerings.  In his current role as the Deputy Chief Health Officer for Cityblock, Dr. Spencer uses the skills he acquired over his career to assist in improving healthcare delivery for some of the most vulnerable citizens in an organization that is progressive and innovative. His role focuses on  leading the population health department which includes the clinical subject matter experts for all clinical service lines. Dr. Spencer provides expertise in the areas of program implementation, health care management, value-based health care, quality improvement, and clinical informatics.