The Big Unlock

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Jim Beinlich: Inserting data back into the workflow to make it useful is the number one challenge Apr 12, 2021

Show notes

In this episode, Jim Beinlich discusses the current state and maturity level of data and analytics in healthcare.

Healthcare lags other industries when it comes to using new technologies. The industry still needs to apply standardization, governance, and ensure data quality to get the right data at the right time to the right person. Jim states that one of the challenges with data is inserting it back into the workflow to make it useful. One of the important use cases of Penn Medicine’s data and analytics program has been the transition from traditional analytics to cloud-based tools and leveraging data lakes to unlock self-service data models.

Penn Medicine is one of the very few healthcare organizations to integrate genomic testing results into the EMR for diagnosis and treatment. Jim shares their extensive protocols for integrating genomic data into patient records for diagnosis and treatment. Take a listen.

Kash Patel: The hard part isn’t the technology piece but making sure the experience is right enough for patient engagement Mar 30, 2021

Show notes

In this episode, Kash Patel discusses his role as the Chief Digital Technology Officer at Penn Medicine and provides an overview of their digital transformation initiatives covering all aspects of the institution, including research, academic programs, and patient engagement.

According to Kash, the hard part with digital transformation is not necessarily implementing technology but ensuring the patient experience is seamless with the technology and they feel positive about it.

While making technology choices, Penn Medicine’s first and foremost preference is to make the maximum use of their existing EHR infrastructure. Kash also describes the governance process that includes their leadership and subject matter experts to make technology decisions about newer digital tools and platforms. Take a listen

Dr. Rich Parker and Jennifer Polello: Our role is to support community health centers and getting members educated about the vaccine Mar 22, 2021

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In this episode, Dr. Rich Parker and Jennifer Polello discuss their vaccination distribution program, challenges around vaccine hesitancy, and how they have overcome this.

Community Health Plan of Washington is a not-for-profit health plan that caters to the underserved and non-English speaking communities. Their role has been to support the community health centers and getting members educated about the vaccine. One of the most successful vaccination outreach programs has been their text messaging campaign, with a nearly 80% success rate.

Arcadia works specifically with data aggregated from disparate data sources like claims, EHR, lab, state health information exchange, social determinants of health, and others. This longitudinal record of each member helps them risk stratify and identify gaps in care, thereby helping them with their vaccination outreach and distribution priorities. Take a listen.

Josh Goode: Tech firms must build software that aligns with patient demographics, is usable for them, and delivers outcomes. Mar 15, 2021

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In this episode, Josh Goode, CIO of SCAN Health Plan, discusses their digital programs, the patient population they serve, and how they evaluate digital technologies and deploy it at every stage of the care journey for improved outcomes.

Being a Medicare Advantage plan, SCAN Health deals with the senior population. They strive to address the digital divide in the elderly by implementing software that aligns with their requirements, is easy to use, and delivers improved outcomes while taking care of patient privacy and data security. The technology considers the social determinants of health by implementing a robust data and analytics program that has helped develop AI models to predict chronic conditions.

Josh also talks about person-centered design processes and how it helps deploy the right digital technology by looking at the patient’s journey touchpoints. Take a listen.

Dr. Stephanie Lahr and Peter Durlach: The best way for patients to interact with us will be through voice technology opposed to any other UI Mar 08, 2021

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In this episode, Dr. Stephanie Lahr, CIO of Monument Health, and Peter Durlach, Chief Strategy Officer of Nuance Communications, discuss voice recognition technology, its demand and adoption level in the marketplace, emerging use cases, and the next stage of improvements in the technology.

According to Peter, much before COVID-19, the healthcare industry was already going through the pandemic of administrative burden resulting in clinician burnout. Nuance, through their ambient virtual assistant technology, is eliminating that burden by powering virtual consults with clinical documentation that writes itself.

Dr. Lahr states that voice recognition technology is the best way for patients to interact with their providers opposed to any other user interface. She further states that going forward the integration with the EHR and the voice recognition technology is an absolute requirement. Take a listen

Casey Ross: The pace of innovation and development of AI tools is outrunning the FDA and other regulators’ ability to stay on top of AI innovations Mar 04, 2021

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In this episode, Casey Ross, National Technology Correspondent at Stat News, discusses his recently published report on FDA-approved AI-enabled tools. These are Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) tools that work as decision support tools to supply patients’ data to physicians and help them diagnose and treat the patients.

Data is the core ingredient that AI tools use. As per Casey, one of the major issues prevailing in the industry today is that there are inadequate disclosures on data sets used by many medical devices and algorithms approved by the FDA. To improve healthcare outcomes, transparency and disclosure in date sets must be the central agenda in the future. He further states that the pace of innovation, development, and building process of AI tools is outrunning the FDA and other regulators’ ability to stay on top of AI innovations. Take a listen.

Mona Baset: The biggest challenge in digital engagement and its adoption is shifting to a consumer mindset Mar 01, 2021

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In this episode, Mona Baset discusses how SCL is transforming its digital capabilities to provide a seamless digital patient experience just like other industries – retail, travel, and financial services.

According to Mona, one of the biggest challenges in adopting digital engagement is shifting to a consumer mindset. Health systems are now increasingly focusing on their digital front door initiatives. However, one of the biggest challenges in building a robust consumer app is incorporating both outside and native foundational capabilities, and bringing together a single native app.

SCL is a non-profit healthcare system and focuses on patient engagement and technologies to enable better patient experience. Take a listen

Katherine Lusk: Our focus for virtual health is making sure encounters are documented in such a way that it is not burdensome Feb 22, 2021

Show notes

In this episode, Katherine Lusk discusses how AHIMA works at the intersection of healthcare and technology to empower patients with their health information, and ensures to keep the data accurate, accessible, and safe.

Health systems are working towards mapping patient data to the EHR systems so that the frontline care providers have the information readily available to improve healthcare delivery and outcomes. The next step is to standardize the data normalization process and make it interoperable while taking care of patient data privacy, confidentiality, and security.

Katherine says that the industry must now focus on implementing initiatives to reduce social issues such as the digital divide and health inequalities . She further states that AHIMA’s focus is to make sure that patient’s virtual health information is documented in a safe, secure, and convenient way. Take a listen

Harry Fox: A lot of point solutions are emerging, but if they’re not integrated into the EMRs, they’re likely to fail. Feb 18, 2021

Show notes

In this episode, Harry Fox discusses his role at Whitman-Walker Health (WWH) and how as a community-based health center they are serving a diverse patient population with technology disparity and making healthcare inclusive for everyone.

WWH is a federally qualified health center. A significant part of their patient population is the low-income group and LGBTQ community. Harry shares that half of their patient population is below 100% of the federal poverty level, and around 40% are below 50% of the federal poverty level. This automatically creates an issue of digital divide among them where they struggle with technology. Technology providers are addressing these disparities, and several standalone point solutions are emerging. However, the two major issues – interoperability and integration – still exist in the healthcare space. Take a listen.

Bill Krause: Roughly, 30% of total healthcare spend for provider organizations falls into the shoppable category. Feb 15, 2021

Show notes

In this episode, Bill Krause, VP and GM, Experience and Consumer Engagement at Change Healthcare discusses how the CMS’s price transparency rule will affect consumer’s shoppable behavior, the providers, the traditional payers, and the new emerging payers – the employers.

A better functioning healthcare marketplace requires transparency in access to information provided to consumers during their healthcare decision-making time. With COVID accelerating digital health, organizations supporting digital transformation can now drive the digital first approach and provide a seamless digital experience to consumers. Consumers’ journey to care begins with the awareness of their need, understanding the options of where they should go, and knowing their financial responsibility. This is the core of any digital transformation agenda. Access to information regarding price will drive consumer shoppable behavior beyond just going to a provider’s digital front door.

Bill states that, because of the new emerging payer in the marketplace, i.e., the employers, roughly 30 percent of total healthcare spend for providers fall into shoppable tests and procedures. He further projects that this is poised to grow in the future. Take a listen.

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