MSO Leadership
Officers
Thomas C. Dawson
Executive Director/Chief Executive Officer
Tom Dawson has been active in the healthcare industry since 1989. He has extensive experience in managing both academic and private practice medical groups and is a frequent lecturer on medical group dynamics and practice development. He has demonstrated expertise in practice operations, physician governance, strategic planning, marketing, reimbursement and integration of ancillary services.
Prior to joining Connect the Docs, Mr. Dawson was Chief Executive Officer of CORE Orthopaedic Medical Center where he championed the development of a multi-specialty Center of Excellence. Before coming to Encinitas, Tom was the Director of Physician and Provider Services for Medtronic Sofamor Danek. In this capacity he helped surgeons nationwide analyze and develop their practices and served as an industry advocate for physician reimbursement, management education, and patient satisfaction. He has held leadership positions as both Chief Executive Officer and Practice Administrator for specialty and sub-specialty practices and has served on the Board of Directors for a large multi-specialty medical group.
Tom Dawson currently holds the position of Chief Executive Officer of Connect the Docs Medical Management, LLC and holds a Board Position as the Executive Director/Chief Operations Officer for Connect the Docs, Multi-Specialty Network.
Amber Castro
Chief Operating Officer
Amber J. Castro currently serves as chief operations officer for Connect The Docs, Medical Management, LLC., overseeing all practice management operations and outside vendor relations. Prior to joining Connect The Docs, Amber was the director of management engineering at a large, multi-specialty medical center in the San Diego Area. Under her leadership, the center developed an integrated medicine program, a system to incorporate treatment programs between sub-specialties, and a comprehensive employee development program. Amber’s background includes teaching healthcare classes at a local San Diego College and experience in corporate sales and marketing.
Castro’s core philosophy is based on the belief that success in any area is dependent on the quality of the people behind it. Amber believes the high performance culture at Connect the Docs is driven by having the right people in key management and leadership roles and creating a great place to work for all employees. Simply speaking it is all about hiring and retaining the very best staff.
Castro and her team strive to create an ideal work environment by living the values of the organization – every day. Service excellence is embraced at the very top, supported by all, and ultimately experienced by the patients themselves.
Shing Huang
Chief Financial Officer
Shing Huang currently serves a dual role as Chief Financial Officer of Argus MSO of Long Beach and Connect the Docs Medical Management, LLC of San Diego. She has served as Financial Planning Manager and Director of Finance for Argus since 1977 and has worked with Connect the Docs even prior to its inception. She is responsible for corporate finance, financial and capital planning, revenue cycle, payor contracting, as well as financial operations for all operating entities in Connect the Docs Medical Management, LLC.
Prior to working with Connect the Docs Shing Huang gained public accounting experience with a large local firm working in conjunction with Price Waterhouse and Coopers and Lybrand. She also previously held finance positions with AHI (IPA) and a budget analyst position with King Drew medical Center.
James La Belle, M.D.
Chair of the Board
James E. LaBelle, M.D. MBA, Completed his medical training at the University of Washington, School of Medicine. After an Internship and Residency in Internal Medicine at the University of California at San Diego, Dr. LaBelle served as Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine for UCSD. During this time he was an attending physician in the Department of Medicine at UCSD working with HIV patients. In 1997 Dr. LaBelle returned to school at University of California at Irvine to obtain a MBA in their Health Care Executive Program. In 1998 Dr. LaBelle became the Medical Director of Emergency Services at Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas and from 2001 to 2004 Dr. LaBelle served two terms as Chief of Staff at Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas. In 2005 Dr. LaBelle accepted a position of Medical Director of Clinical Quality at Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas. Currently he is President & CEO of Encinitas Hospitalist Associates and Coastline Emergency Physicians. Dr. Labelle is also an owner in Encinitas Intensivist Associates and is board certified in emergency medicine. As an undergraduate Dr. LaBelle received a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington. His interests include improving the quality of patient care through education and benchmarking, and implementation of an integrated clinical information system.
