Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT / Harnessing AI and Tech Innovation in Healthcare: Insights from Dr. Ann Cappellari of SSM Health

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Harnessing AI and Tech Innovation in Healthcare: Insights from Dr. Ann Cappellari of SSM Health · Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT

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  Philips is a health tech leader focused on
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  innovation that improves the health and well-being of
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  people. Our health care technology and informatics solutions
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  help care teams diagnose, treat, and manage more
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  patients with greater precision, speed, and confidence across
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  the care journey. With Philips, clinicians are empowered
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  with streamlined insights in the moments that matter
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  for every patient. Better care for more people.
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  Philips.
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  Hello, and welcome to the Becker's Health Care
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  9th annual health IT digital health and RCM
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  conference.
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  I'm joined today by Ann Cavallari,
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  chief medical information officer at SSM Health. Ann,
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  thank you so much for joining us today.
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  Thank you for having me. To get us
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  started, can you please share a bit about
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  your background and, your current role at your
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  organization?
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  Sure. I am trained as an emergency medicine
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  physician, moved into an information
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  informatics role,
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  almost around 8 or 9 years now. The
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  past 6 of which were at SSM Health.
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  It's a nonprofit Catholic health care system that's
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  based out of St. Louis, but spans
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  across the Midwest in Wisconsin, Southern Illinois,
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  Missouri, and Oklahoma.
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  Well, AI adoption is exploding in health care
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  currently.
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  In your view, what's the most significant or
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  promising application of this technology right now, and
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  how is this informing your organization's innovation strategy?
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  I will say the clinicians always wanna talk
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  about ambient documentation,
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  which is blowing up in interest
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  and utility.
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  I still think the technology
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  is best in automating certain functions that humans
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  have trouble doing repetitively.
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  That is in the imaging space,
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  being a parrot on a provider's shoulder to
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  have overread
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  insights into imaging studies and or in the
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  pathology world where you're looking through slide after
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  slide after slide, looking for different cancer diagnoses,
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  cancer cells that the human eye can catch,
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  but algorithms
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  don't fatigue in the way the human eye
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  or human mind can. So I think some
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  of those
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  applications
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  will be
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  huge and institutions,
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  in the years to come.
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  So on a daily basis, health care leaders
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  are managing greater volumes of data and more
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  devices across a growing number of care settings
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  and populations.
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  In this complex environment, what clinical data integration
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  tools or practices are you seeing drive improvements
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  in patient outcomes and operations? And can you
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  share an example or 2?
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  So I think we have to take care
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  in our
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  lust for
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  the AI and digital
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  in making sure we have
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  definitions of the problem we want to solve
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  and apply the technology to it. Too many
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  people want just technology for technology's
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  sake rather than really filling a niche.
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  And one of our smaller innovations is using
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  a
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  imaging tool to preread
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  radiology, CT scans, MRIs
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  to look for
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  more dangerous
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  diagnoses
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  that one could miss,
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  like pulmonary embolism. And then not only do
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  we have the technology to do that, we
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  craft workflows around that to support the technology.
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  So it isn't just the technology
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  standing alone expecting to do all forms of
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  health care
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  management,
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  but you you it is working within
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  a larger workflow of clinicians,
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  operations,
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  and consult services.
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  How can health care organizations
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  better support IT and clinical teams as they
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  carry out innovation efforts? And what are some
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  of the common pitfalls you see here?
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  So
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  as long as my bosses and my bosses'
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  bosses aren't listening to this,
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  I would love to see
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  some
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  education
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  of senior leadership teams
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  that are not in tech or clinical,
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  where they often struggle or don't have a
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  lot of interest in tech and often have
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  more
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  conspiratorial
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  attitudes sometimes or mistrust
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  of what we are trying to do in
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  tech. And every year I have to take
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  all these modules within my health care organization.
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  What is Stark law? What is compliance? What
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  is HIPAA? I'd love to see some of
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  those teams also have to take what is
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  tech? What is AI?
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  Where are the dangers? Where are the benefits?
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  Mhmm.
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  And that's that's what I'd love to see
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  for better transformation of those services.
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  So with your experience, what's your top piece
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  of advice for health care leaders as they
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  prepare for, further advancements in technology and greater
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  demands for care?
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  Be choose wisely is what I would say.
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  In that
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  too many
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  of the tech spaces are feeding very niche,
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  very singular
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  services,
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  and
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  you can't look at that across the health
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  care system and make that scale. The cost
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  is too high. So once again, what is
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  the problem you're trying to solve? Do you
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  have support around that from operations and clinicians
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  to apply the technology
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  and support the technology long term?
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  And
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  if it is
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  acting poorly, performing poorly, take it out. That's
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  the other thing. We never wanna take things
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  out when they aren't performing well.
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  So that's what I would say about that.
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  Well, before we wrap up today, it's, do
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  you have any final thoughts you'd like to
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  leave with our listeners?
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  I would like to say,
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  as we infuse more and more technology,
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  let's let humans do human things and technology
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  do technology and automated things, and that will
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  bring wellness and humanity back into medicine.
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  And thank you so much for joining us
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  today on the Becker's Healthcare Podcast. It's been
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  an absolute pleasure, and I hope you have
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  a lovely rest of your day. Thank you
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  much for this opportunity. You have a great
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  day also. Thank you.