Latest / Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast / Dr. Matthew Sullivan, Chief Medical Information Officer (Southeast) at Advocate Health

Transcript

Dr. Matthew Sullivan, Chief Medical Information Officer (Southeast) at Advocate Health · Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast

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  - Prepare to dive into the forefront
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  of healthcare innovation at our 14th annual meeting coming
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  up on April 8th
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  through 11th at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago, with thousands
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  of industry leaders converging over four dynamic days
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  of discussions on crucial topics from health IT
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  to executive leadership.
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  It's where the future of healthcare takes shape.
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  We can't wait to connect with you in person
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  and engage in these important conversations.
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  - This is Laura Dedo with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
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  I'm thrilled today to be joined by Dr. Matthew Sullivan,
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  chief Medical Information officer of ADV Health Southeast,
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  Dr. Sullivan, it's a pleasure
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  to have you on the podcast today.
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  - Yeah, thank you so much for having me.
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  - Now, I know we've got a lot to talk about, you know,
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  especially thinking through what you're looking at
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  for the next 12 months or so
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  and just, you know, really what you're excited about.
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  But before we can dive into that conversation,
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  could you tell me a little bit more
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  about yourself and your background?
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  - Yeah, I'm, uh, one of our, uh,
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  chief Medical Information Officers.
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  I've been, um, with our legacy Atrium Company
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  for my entire career in medical training.
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  I'm an emergency physician, um,
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  board certified emergency medicine and informatics.
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  I'm, I'm grateful to be part of a, uh, a large IT team
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  that's now across our entire Advocate Health Enterprise.
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  And, um, I'm really looking forward to, um,
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  this next upcoming year as we continue to, uh, grow
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  and continue to scale, uh,
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  projects across now a very large geography.
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  - Well, that's great to hear. And you know,
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  definitely exciting to see how advocate has grown.
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  From your perspective, what are the biggest issues
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  that you're following in healthcare right now?
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  - Well, I think it would be, uh, awkward to ignore, uh, two
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  of the large, uh, elephants in the room, cybersecurity
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  and artificial intelligence, which you can't attend any kind
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  of a conference, uh, on, on virtually any, any area of,
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  of informatics
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  or information technology without hearing a large
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  chunk on both of those things.
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  Uh, we've had a number of cyber events, uh,
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  recently in the news that have been very troubling
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  and it should really raise concern for everybody in health.
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  It, um, it's, it's really troubling.
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  And, um, and so as a result of that, I think we have
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  to think about how our focus is ever changing, not just
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  for the next upcoming 12 months,
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  but for beyond what's the next threat, uh, so
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  that we can ensure that the safety of our information
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  and the safety of our patients is, is really preserved.
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  So that's one of the major issues. And the second is ai.
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  I, I think everybody's been talking about AI
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  as if it's a buzzword
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  and, um, there's various levels of,
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  of artificial intelligence, machine learning,
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  everything from simple to,
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  to really aggressive, uh, computing.
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  And, and I'm very interested in that.
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  But I think the challenge there is how do we,
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  how do we identify it, ensure that it's safe,
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  make sure it's ethical,
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  and then understand the cost that comes with it
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  and what that cost is as it relates to an ever-growing cost
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  of healthcare in the United States.
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  So I think we've got a lot on our plate.
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  If we take, if we take just those two, um,
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  that's over the top of what I think has been
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  what multiple decades of EMR rollout,
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  where we're still looking very closely at how
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  to make a physician and nurse and,
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  and advanced provider everybody's job, try to make
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  that more efficient and bring joy back to the medicine
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  that we've, we've all, uh, grew up learning.
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  I think that's really going to continue to be a challenge
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  for every healthcare organization.
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  Um, and how to do that, uh, effectively is really still
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  right there on our mind.
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  So those are the big things.
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  Um, I hope that, I hope that helps.
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  - Yeah, I think that's fascinating, especially
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  as you mentioned, looking at cybersecurity, obviously trying
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  to figure out what the next thing is going to be
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  and then, um, the various stages of AI and,
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  and what that means for healthcare organizations.
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  I know so many different leaders across the country are
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  taking various approaches to how the aggressive
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  or not aggressive, they're approaching AI and,
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  and what their teams can really do
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  to make sure it's done safely.
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  Um, it is just been fascinating to see that in addition
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  to it, as you were talking about the EHR, um, how
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  to make them more efficient, I think I've heard some
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  leaders, you know, saying that 2024 is going to be, um,
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  the era of optimization in terms of, you know,
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  how do we really focus in on the few areas
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  where we can make a big difference
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  to optimize what we already have.
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  And so it's just, it's really interesting
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  to put all those things together.
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  And from your perspective, do you see, um, you know,
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  how do you, I guess, approach that strategy and,
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  and really zero in on the spaces
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  that are gonna be most effective, um,
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  for the next 12 months or so?
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  - Well, I think that, um, that's a very,
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  it's a hard question to answer as it relates to generically,
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  uh, from the advocate health perspective.
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  It's a little bit easier in so much that we know
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  where we have our strategic goals
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  and we, we know where we want to deliver better healthcare,
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  a higher quality of healthcare in a way
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  that is in some ways unique because of who we are.
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  Um, it, it, it, it is not a holding company of lots
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  of different variations of healthcare
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  that are all cobbled together under one brand.
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  We're really looking to deliver care in a single,
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  unified way and to provide that care equally
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  and effectively for all.
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  And that, that is a very interesting challenge for us.
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  So not only are we trying to figure out how
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  to make it standard across, uh, the environment so
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  that no matter if you are to hit rural Illinois
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  or uh, central Georgia, it,
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  you get the same exact healthcare
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  that you would get in downtown Chicago
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  or downtown Charlotte.
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  Um, so I think we are really trying to make sure that we
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  look at where we can impact that healthcare delivery.
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  And so that excites me and
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  and how we do that is, is multifactorial.
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  You have to have the operational buy-in for that.
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  And, and I'm excited, uh, that our leaders are, our,
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  our operational leaders are very excited about that.
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  Um, and you have to have a really good data strategy,
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  and we have great folks working, uh,
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  to deliver data across the enterprise, which, uh,
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  is getting better and better
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  and allows us to be really insightful as to where we,
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  where we try to make that impact.
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  So I, I think it is really going
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  to be a year of optimization.
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  I would agree with that. And then the question is, is
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  where do you make your optimization?
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  Clearly, I don't think any healthcare organization
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  of our size has the ability
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  to make optimization changes in every space,
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  but being targeted and strategic as to
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  where you make those changes is really
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  what's exciting to me.
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  - That makes a lot of sense. And you know, it's a lot
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  to be excited about, I think, for the future.
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  Is there anything that makes you nervous?
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  - Well, I think that, um, both the cybersecurity
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  and healthcare finance makes
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  everybody in healthcare nervous.
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  Um, I think we saw coming out of a conference, um, a couple
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  of weeks ago, like, there's going
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  to be a lot of change in healthcare.
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  I think that's would be foolish to be
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  getting yourself.
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  You really have to be ready for change.
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  Um, my hope is that we're able to change in a positive way
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  that continues to help us, um, be financially viable.
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  We've obviously watched over the last decade a number
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  of hospitals, uh, particularly in our rural areas, close
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  because they can't make ends meet.
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  Um, so healthcare finance makes me a little nervous.
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  I wanna make sure that we are very mindful about
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  how we deliver care
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  and deliver it in a frugal way that
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  that has the best outcomes for patients.
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  Um, and, and obviously anything like in the cybersecurity
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  realm that that takes away from that just slows us down
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  and harms, harms healthcare as a whole.
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  So I think those are the two things that make me nervous.
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  The rest of it I think is just challenging and exciting and,
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  and I look forward to that.
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  - That's absolutely, I I think that would certainly align
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  with a lot of, uh, um, other executives in,
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  in looking at especially, um, finances
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  and cybersecurity as areas, you know,
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  that keep a good number of people up at night.
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  Uh, when, you know, kind
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  of considering all these trends we've talked about, um,
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  in looking ahead, what do you think most successful
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  healthcare leaders will need over the next two
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  to three years or so to really continue
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  to grow the organizations and, and be successful?
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  - I think the first, uh, thing I would
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  respond is resilience.
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  I think there will be a tremendous amount of change.
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  Not all of it, uh, , not all
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  of it you might sign up for.
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  And so to have the fortitude to hang in there
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  and really set a strategic direction
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  and be a little bit adaptable in the process
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  takes a lot of resilience.
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  Um, I, I think that, um,
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  specifically from the IT perspective, it's going
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  to take a lot of partnership work, um, both
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  with vendors and internally.
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  So when you look at trying
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  to scale a simple thing across three
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  or four hospitals, that's, that has a number of challenges.
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  Scaling that over 67 hospitals in a number of states
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  is very difficult.
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  And so you have to have a really great
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  operational partnership.
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  You have to have a lot of trust within our leadership
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  and, um, I really think that will will drive
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  healthcare systems to be successful over the next two years.
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  Uh, anything short of that.
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  And I think they're gonna struggle.
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  And so that would be my advice
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  and my hope, um, in the same sentence.
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  - Dr. Sullivan, thank you so much
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  for joining us on the podcast today.
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  This has been a really fun and fascinating conversation
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  and I look forward to connecting with you again soon.
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  - Laura, thank you so much for having me.