Rourke Yeakley named chief innovation officer for Saltzer Health

Dr. Rourke Yeakley, a nationally respected health care innovator and longtime emergency medicine physician, has been named chief innovation officer at Saltzer Health and medical director of the Saltzer Health urgent care clinics. In his new role, he will help direct innovation efforts at Saltzer Health and provide medical leadership for Saltzer Health’s five standalone clinics, including the state’s first 24/7 urgent care clinic.

An entrepreneur who holds patents in North America and Europe, Yeakley has been a founder and consultant for several startups, both for-profit and nonprofit.

Previously, Yeakley was an emergency medicine physician at St. Luke’s Regional Medical Center hospitals in Boise, Nampa and Meridian. He served as the Air St. Luke Medical Director for 14 years and was the medical director of the St. Luke’s maternal/child transport team, which won the 2019 AAMS Neonatal and Pediatric Transport Award of Excellence. As an academician, he serves as regional assistant dean for the Idaho College of Osteopathic Medicine and is a member of the clinical faculty for the University of Washington School of Medicine. Previously, he was a regional dean for the Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences in Yakima, Washington.

A researcher and scholar, Yeakley has published papers in “AI Med” and has given presentations at conferences locally and across the country on subjects including population health, artificial intelligence and precision medicine. He is bilingual, speaking English and Spanish. Yeakley earned a medical degree at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, a master’s degree of health services administration at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and a bachelor’s degree in public administration at the University of Maine in Orono, Maine. He completed his emergency medicine residency and served as chief resident at the University of Arizona.