Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT / Dr. Feby Abraham, Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy and Innovations Officer at Memorial Hermann Health System

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Dr. Feby Abraham, Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy and Innovations Officer at Memorial Hermann Health System · Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT

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  - Welcome back to the Becker's Healthcare Podcast, vote
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  of the people who power us healthcare.
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  I'm Molly Gamble, Becker's
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  and delight to have you join us for another episode filled
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  of insights from healthcare leaders today, from Dr.
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  Febby Abraham, executive Vice President and Chief Strategy
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  and Innovations officer with Memorial Herman Health System.
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  Dr. Abraham, welcome. Thanks so much for joining me today.
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  How are you? And where does the podcast find you?
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  - Hi, Molly. This is very, uh,
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  very glad to be talking to you.
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  Uh, I am in Houston and today
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  and, uh, we just wrapped up a very amazing rodeo season.
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  It was one of the most attended rodeo seasons in Houston
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  after the pandemic, and we saw record visits
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  of people visiting the rodeo.
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  And personally, I just came back from, um,
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  a time in the slopes, uh, right after spring break.
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  Uh, good to be speaking with you today.
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  - Likewise, thank you so much.
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  That's a dynamic update rodeo
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  season and time with the slopes.
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  But outta curiosity, when is the typical rodeo season?
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  Like, when does it start and, and end?
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  - It typically starts with the third week of February
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  and goes on till about the second, third week of March.
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  - March. Okay. Got it.
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  Well, I'm, I'm happy to hear that for Houston
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  and the area that it was a robust one.
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  Um, Dr. Abraham, you know, at Memorial Hermann,
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  can you get us up to speed on what you are spending most
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  of your time and energy on as of late?
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  What's commanding most of your attention lately?
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  - Yeah, as you know, the healthcare environment nationally
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  and within Houston is evolving quite rapidly.
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  We have, um, going, we are going through an environment
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  where we're spending almost four
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  and a half trillion dollars on healthcare expenditures.
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  And as you know, the outcomes
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  that we have in the United States are not among the best.
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  In fact, if you stack us against the top OECD nations,
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  we lag on pretty much most of the critical metrics.
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  So we spend more, we don't get a whole lot
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  of outcomes in relation to that.
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  That said, we are investing a whole lot in innovations,
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  patient experience, and, um,
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  and generally the satisfaction have areas of opportunity
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  as we all can attest to.
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  So those are some of the things that dovetail into
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  where I'm spending most of my time.
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  Uh, and specifically what that means is I'm focused on, uh,
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  for the system and, and to shape its strategy,
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  building healthy, healthier communities for now
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  and generations to come, which is Memorial Hermann's vision.
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  And in support of that vision, uh, we really are sort
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  of focused on a improving access for all the Houstonians
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  and the communities we serve.
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  B, how do we sort of improve our value proposition to, uh,
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  generate the next generation outcomes
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  that the communities have expected of us
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  and we've been doing for several years.
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  But on top of that to, as I was mentioning earlier,
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  to reduce the total cost of care
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  and keep people healthy as opposed
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  to just offering sick care.
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  So expanding the remit of our mandate to go
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  beyond, uh, really awesome clinical care and,
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  and hospitals to have more access points into the community
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  where people can rely on our expertise to take care of them
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  and their health needs, uh,
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  not only when they require, uh, sick care.
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  Mm-Hmm. . Third area that I'm focused on is
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  to really improve digitization and the use of technology
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  and AI in the industry.
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  That can come in many ways, right?
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  One, it can improve, uh, the productivity of our workforce,
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  whether it's a clinical workforce, uh, that is a doctor
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  or a nurse, an administrative workforce,
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  somebody who's working in billing or collections
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  or, uh, you know, in the call center, um,
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  or somebody who's actually doing in the operational
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  workforce, which is, you know, uh, taking care of the, the,
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  the facilities, whether they are clinics or our hospitals.
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  And we can attest that AI technology
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  and digitization can not only improve the productivity
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  of all of that and, and, uh,
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  provide a seamless workforce experience,
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  which can help reduce burnout challenges,
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  which we know is right from the, uh, industry.
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  And as we learn through the pandemic was a big topic
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  that we all as health system leaders have been working on.
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  But at the same time, it can also help improve, uh,
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  the patient experience
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  and their navigation of the, their healthcare journey,
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  both in terms of keeping their health,
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  but also in how they engage with health systems.
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  So we've been making, at Memorial Hermann a lot
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  of investments and partnerships
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  and innovation bets in the leveraging
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  how technology is further integrated across our workflows so
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  that we can improve both our productivity as well as, um,
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  the, the patient experience.
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  Uh, and then the fourth area I'm spending a lot
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  of time on is how do we sort of provide a community health,
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  uh, focus that can improve the health of all, uh,
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  all Houstonians, not just the ones who can come
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  and access to it through a insurance product,
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  but who are underserved, who maybe don't have an, uh,
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  insurance today and are not taking
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  appropriate care of their health.
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  How do we better support them, uh,
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  but through the right tools so
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  that they can take care of their health more?
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  And in order to do all of these things, um, we have defined,
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  you know, what are some of those big
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  priorities that we want to do?
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  How do we do that? And we've, uh, really expanded the range
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  of how we work with, uh, external partners as well
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  as invest in internal capabilities to provide some of these,
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  um, these things I mentioned, uh,
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  we've launched something called an innovation hub where I'm,
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  which I'm truly passionate about in trying to, uh, test some
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  of these solutions, uh, in a small scale
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  and understanding better how they work
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  before we sort of expand them across
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  the platform in a large scale.
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  And we've also launched
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  and, um, really rapidly scaled up a direct investments
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  platform where we support many of these innovation
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  companies, uh, uh, innovative companies in their remit
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  to build products and solutions
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  that solve some of these pain points.
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  - I mean, Dr. Abraham, there's, there's a lot there.
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  And I'm, I'm gonna dig into a few of these things in,
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  in greater detail in just a moment,
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  but I, I should also remind listeners and,
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  and check in with you on the fact
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  that you joined Memorial Hermann
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  and are now heading up innovations and strategy
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  after more than a decade with McKinsey.
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  And I, I was curious too,
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  before we dig into some of the points you raised about
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  where you're spending time, you know, what did you find
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  to be the most noticeable differences
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  about healthcare strategy moving from the consulting
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  or advisor side of the aisle to actually being in the game
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  at a large integrated health system like Memorial Hermann?
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  - I think you, uh, touched on a very, um,
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  critical component of that answer.
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  It's a great question, Molly, in terms of, uh,
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  being in the game, but I, I, I, I fundamentally believe
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  that in my role here relative to, um,
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  an awesome career I had at McKinsey, um,
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  it's really about the skin in the game
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  and sort of being the ability to, um, see end to end,
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  to work with our leaders, our clinicians, our our operators,
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  to understand some of their real unmet needs
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  and pain points, understand the community's needs, um,
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  concept ideas, uh, design programs that will solve some
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  of those, um, challenges or unmet needs and pain points.
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  See how they're working, see which ones we want to scale,
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  um, and which ones are, are working well, that, uh,
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  really we could sort of drive up more focus on which ones
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  perhaps were bets
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  that didn't quite pan out the way we wanted,
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  therefore, we may want to alter, uh, the way we wanna work.
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  That's a, that whole end-to-end journey from soup
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  to nuts is something I'm really passionate about
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  in my current role.
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  Um, at McKinsey, we, we will work with clients a lot, um,
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  in sort of shaping that end-to-end journey and advise them,
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  but there is a lot more ownership in this role that I,
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  that I have, have had to experience.
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  The second, um, thing I would call out is, uh,
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  the change management aspect of it.
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  A lot of what works
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  and does not work in healthcare, as we can all attest
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  among your listener group.
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  And, and Brad, what I personally experience is about
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  the adoption of great ideas
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  and to truly understand, uh, what drives adoption,
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  what are some of the barriers to adoption, how do you work
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  through that, um, is, uh, something
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  that I've truly relished in this role.
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  Um, and it really comes down
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  to setting up the flywheel of innovation.
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  How do you sort of start with some few wins that rally
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  the focus and inspiration
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  and inspire, um, the work, the, the workforce
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  and the, the patients to try out some of these innovations
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  that then creates more momentum for us to sort
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  of scale a further set of ideas that flywheel of innovation
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  and sort of trying to sort of foster that as a mechanism
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  to drive change management, um,
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  is another aspect I've enjoyed in this role, uh, versus
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  what I had in McKinsey.
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  Some of the core components of
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  otherwise thinking about the big value, creative ideas,
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  thinking about what really moves the needle,
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  thinking about a objective
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  and highly critical thinking based analytical, uh, approach
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  to how we come to make decisions, are all those things
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  that I've continued
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  to quote from my prior experience at McKinsey.
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  Um, and which has been, uh, hugely helpful, uh, foundation
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  for me as I've, uh, transitioned into this role.
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  Mm-Hmm, .
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  - And you had also mentioned, I mean,
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  you're touching a lot of different things.
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  You mentioned improving digitization
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  and ai, improving workforce product productivity
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  and new innovation hub, this community health focus,
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  improving the health of all his houstonians.
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  What is your team like behind these efforts?
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  Do you have a distinct team for strategy innovation?
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  Is there one combined unit?
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  Can you, can you talk more about the people
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  around these efforts and then also
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  how you lead them a a glimpse into your leadership
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  style, if you'll let us?
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  - Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
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  So, um, along the way, we've, uh, built a team of, um, uh,
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  just under a dozen practitioners.
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  Uh, they cut across all of those pillars,
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  which are strategy, strategic planning, which defines the
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  what is it that the business is gonna focus on.
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  Um, then when it comes to the, uh, the how, um,
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  and the why, we've got, uh, uh, a few execution arms.
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  One of them is a, uh, corporate development umbrella,
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  which includes, uh, joint ventures, m
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  and a strategic partnerships, working with external parties
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  to bring some of those capabilities on, on the,
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  the work that I defined.
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  Um, second is an innovation hub where we sort of take some
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  of those unmet needs and pain points
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  and sort of really map, um, solutions
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  that solve those unmet needs and pain points.
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  Test them in a small contained capacity,
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  whether it's one hospital or a handful of clinics.
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  Learn from how those, uh, design phases are going
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  to understand or how best to scale them across the platform,
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  and what value do they create, how do they, uh,
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  achieve the objectives that we are seeking.
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  We have a direct investment arm, which is the third arm,
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  which think of it as a venture
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  or a growth equity vehicle that supports great businesses
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  that are creating solutions that are aligned
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  with our core philosophy
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  and how healthcare in the future needs to be, uh,
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  experienced, accessed, and delivered.
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  And from that perspective, we've, um, we've created a,
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  a focus on, uh, not only working with some
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  of those companies to bring those innovations to our market,
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  but also thinking about, you know,
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  how do we support the growth, uh, growth strategic journey
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  as investors and shape the products that we like.
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  So we are having that dual alignment of shaping the strategy
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  for the products that we then eventually
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  bring into the market.
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  Uh, and we also have a focus on strategic market insights,
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  which takes a granular database approach
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  to understanding the various value pools in health
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  and healthcare, how those are evolving, uh,
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  what's shrinking, what's, what's growing,
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  and where best the system needs
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  to be positioned to drive that growth.
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  So these are some of the areas.
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  These are the five areas, the, the strategy
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  and strategic planning at the vanguard of it,
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  the three execution arms
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  and strategic market insights that the team is focused on.
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  Uh, there is an expanded member base of the team as well,
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  which, uh, uh, includes members of our service lines,
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  our operating teams, um, and, uh,
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  and other functional teams who provide a lot of input
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  and passion and energy into a strategic focus area.
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  So it's very much as is any strategy team,
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  a collaborative effort that brings together a range
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  of practitioners, some that are dedicated
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  and some that are brought in, uh, from, uh,
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  various functional groups.
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  And we work collaboratively to shape some of these,
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  um, objectives.
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  As it pertains to the team itself, it's a,
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  it's a diverse team with a range of experience.
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  Some are deep healthcare practitioners with lots
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  of experience, um, in life sciences.
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  And, um, even on the clinical side,
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  we have a physician in the team.
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  Um, some have got very new experiences in healthcare.
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  They, they, they spend their careers in other industries
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  like oil and gas, which we like
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  because we, we like the diversity
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  and fresh eyes that the range of our team members bring.
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  Um, uh, some are relatively early in their journey as,
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  as in their fewer years from college
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  and are sort of starting their journey in healthcare
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  and shaping their long-term aspirations.
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  Some have been in the industry for, uh, long, uh,
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  and they come from diverse range of backgrounds as well.
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  That includes working at health systems,
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  working at in management, consulting firms
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  and investment banking firms.
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  And as I mentioned, even the clinician background
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  as it pertains to my leadership style.
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  Um, for me, the fundamental, uh, uh,
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  way in which I lead is to start with vision
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  and big, hairy audacious goals.
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  It's very important for me
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  and my team to clearly ask, uh, aspire
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  and define what we define as the North star for why,
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  why we are doing what we are doing,
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  and what great looks like.
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  Um, and, uh, it's, it's something that I hold myself
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  and my team accountable for in laying that north star.
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  How are we gonna make a difference in
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  how healthcare is accessed, experienced, and delivered?
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  What are some of those critical objectives that we will fund
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  that will fundamentally change, um,
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  that healthcare experience of the future?
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  Uh, and so start with that vision,
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  which creates a very aspirational
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  and inspirational mindset for the team members
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  that we can then take into, um, you know, defining a,
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  uh, implementation, uh, pathway.
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  And from that implementation pathway, I really want there
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  to be transformative change.
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  So every year we want to look back
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  and say, Hey, what is the major difference?
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  We have not only done in terms of the, the goals and vision,
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  but in terms of actual achieved objectives, how we focusing
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  and prioritizing our, our time in terms of achieving some
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  of those big rocks, um,
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  and how we sort
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  of meaningfully making a difference into
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  those, those objectives.
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  The third area that I, I really sort
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  of focus on is the focus on innovation.
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  Um, we should sort of be willing to lean forward
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  and take risks, make bets, um,
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  and not chase incrementalism in, in the spirit
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  of those big, very audacious goals.
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  So we need to try to come up with an alternative solution
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  and not always be limited by the, uh, by what is available
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  and think beyond and our art of the possible as I,
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  as I frame it to them and, and to myself.
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  And finally, we should do this in a, uh,
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  highly collaborative, uh, way where we are able
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  to challenge each other, challenge all the assumptions.
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  One of the narratives, I, I often go to them
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  and turn to my team and, and, and really want to live by
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  and live by that is around this notion of, uh, you know,
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  the devil's advocate.
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  You always have to think about what are the core assumptions
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  that you're making when you're trying to make a decision?
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  What are those assumptions are most sensitive to?
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  Um, a a a potentially a different type of answer.
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  And understanding how you can critique those assumptions and
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  therefore, uh, you know, really understand the range
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  of possible outcomes and be very
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  deliberate in the path you take.
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  Uh, and as you do that, um, do that in a way
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  that is work hard and play hard, so have fun.
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  Uh, you want to make this, uh, a journey of high impact,
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  but also a journey of, uh, lots of joy and joy and fun.
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  Mm-Hmm, .
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  - Well, I mean, it sounds like, I,
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  I can hear from your response initially, the BHAGs
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  and the vision are very much intact.
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  It sounds like your team is a masterful one, also with a
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  collaborative and then focused on innovation, a leader.
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  But you know, Dr. Abraham,
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  I also just wanna check in with you in closing here.
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  One other question. I had lots of focus on AI,
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  as we've heard lots of focus on virtual capabilities,
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  meeting more people where they are,
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  but I also wanted to see
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  what Memorial Hermann might have planned
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  or in the works around capacity, um,
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  with its facilities in coming years.
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  Are there any current plans of note related
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  to capital investments
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  or expansions that our listeners should know about?
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  - Yeah, as our, and great question.
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  As our communities are growing, as our population is aging,
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  and then here in Texas we are, we are, we're blessed with
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  a good weather, great business,
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  and, um, living environments with the diverse bank
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  of people, we're starting to see, uh,
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  or continuing to see lots
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  of growth in the populations we serve
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  and to support that growing population, um, both in the,
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  the central Houston area and in our suburbs.
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  We are continuing to expand our, our footprint to support
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  that growing, um, population and,
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  and really expanding the access to meet the consumer
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  where they are for critical services.
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  We want to be closer to where they live and where they work.
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  Uh, and for things that are more differentiated,
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  we have options for them to come to, um, you know, uh,
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  a higher level of care, for example,
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  an academic medical center level of care as is required
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  for some of these procedures.
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  So we are really expanding our capacity across the markets
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  we serve when it comes to hospitals.
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  But I'll also add that we are doing the same as it pertains
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  to improving access from all those mechanisms
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  that I was describing.
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  We've, um, tripled our urgent care footprint in
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  the last couple of years.
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  We've created, alongside with one of our partners, one
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  of the largest home health and hospice
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  franchises in south Texas,
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  we've created a very novel population genomics program.
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  So we are trying to meet the consumer
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  and send the right patient to the right side of care, uh,
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  and provide an access point that includes virtual retail,
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  um, uh, urgent care, uh, home-based care, lot
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  of home-based options,
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  and then facility-based care, ambulatory surgical centers,
• 20:15
  um, a lot of outpatient infrastructure.
• 20:18
  Um, so you'll see when you see Memorial Hermann's presence
• 20:22
  in the communities, we, we have 17 hospitals,
• 20:25
  which are continuing to grow to your question.
• 20:28
  But we also have, um, you know, just under 300 K locations
• 20:32
  and over 6,000 physicians practicing as part
• 20:35
  of our clinically integrated network to support
• 20:38
  that growing, uh, population base, leveraging the assets.
• 20:42
  I referred to
• 20:46
  - Dr.
• 20:47
  Fabe Abraham, executive vice President, chief Strategy
• 20:49
  and Innovations officer with Memorial Hermann Health System.
• 20:51
  I wanna thank you so much for being our guest today,
• 20:54
  for getting me up to speed on the big, hairy audacious work.
• 20:58
  You're leading at the system, which, like you said,
• 21:01
  17 hospitals, more than 300 locations.
• 21:04
  Dr. Abraham, any closing thoughts
• 21:06
  or parting thoughts you'd like
• 21:07
  to share with our listeners today?
• 21:09
  - We covered a range of it,
• 21:11
  and one of the things that I'm starting to sort of, um,
• 21:14
  spend a lot of time on, and I'm sure my peers
• 21:16
  and colleagues will find it equally, uh,
• 21:19
  illuminating and illustrating.
• 21:20
  We talked about ai,
• 21:21
  but there is another dimension I'm pretty passionate about,
• 21:24
  which is around this notion of integration of medical care
• 21:28
  with other aspects of how health is gonna be delivered.
• 21:32
  So think about life sciences and the pharmacy side.
• 21:35
  Think about food as medicine, think about transportation,
• 21:37
  access, various social determinants of health
• 21:40
  that are required to keep the, the patient's healthy.
• 21:43
  And as you sort of peel the layers
• 21:44
  of the onion across each one of those buckets,
• 21:46
  there are lots of innovations
• 21:48
  and trends that we
• 21:49
  as leaders at health system will need to integrate.
• 21:51
  And particularly for me this year, the focus is um, uh,
• 21:56
  and um, and uh, uh, uh, inspiration is drawn
• 22:00
  through the life sciences vertical.
• 22:02
  We're seeing a lot of innovation coming in the, uh, on the,
• 22:05
  on the product side with new drugs
• 22:07
  that are solving specific problems like
• 22:10
  what we've heard the GLP one, uh, drugs when it comes
• 22:13
  to obesity, but there's also a lot of great innovations
• 22:16
  and cell and gene therapies
• 22:18
  and drugs that solve, uh, the Alzheimer's challenge.
• 22:22
  And how do we sort of stay at the forefront of bringing
• 22:25
  so those innovations
• 22:26
  and looking at the entirety of the, uh,
• 22:28
  medical experience is important.
• 22:30
  And so we are trying to, uh, understand that space better
• 22:33
  and linking the two as well
• 22:35
  as in the pharmacy benefit management space.
• 22:37
  In order we sort of create a holistic, uh,
• 22:40
  medical plus non-medical IE pharmacy and, and, uh, food
• 22:44
  and other factors that I mentioned to sort of drive
• 22:47
  that total health, uh, narrative.
• 22:49
  - Mm-hmm, a forward looking
• 22:51
  thought for all of us to keep in mind.
• 22:53
  I think if the GLP one is any indicator of
• 22:56
  what can be unlocked through advancements, like you said,
• 22:58
  with gene therapies and other drugs around neuro,
• 23:01
  uh, generative disease.
• 23:02
  And, um, we're in for a really interesting decade
• 23:06
  ahead of us, Dr.
• 23:07
  Abraham. So again, thank you so much for being our guest.
• 23:09
  I hope we can do this again soon
• 23:11
  and check back in with you, uh, again in a year ahead.
• 23:15
  - No, it was a pleasure talking to you,
• 23:17
  and thanks to everyone who tuned in.