Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT / Dr. Bradley Crotty, VP and Chief Digital Officer at Froedtert & MCW Health Network

Transcript

Dr. Bradley Crotty, VP and Chief Digital Officer at Froedtert & MCW Health Network · Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT

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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. Bradley,
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  karate Vice President and Chief Digital Officer
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  of Froedtert Data Health.
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  Dr. Ate, it's a pleasure to have you on the podcast today.
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  - Thank you, Laura. Happy to be here.
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  - Now, I'm looking forward to learning more about some
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  of the successful projects that you've been doing recently
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  and how you're thinking about the future.
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  But before we dive into my questions,
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  can you tell me a little bit more
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  about yourself and your background?
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  - Sure. I have been in healthcare, uh, for about 20,
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  uh, plus, uh, years,
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  more than half spent in the informatics, uh, space.
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  My focus has always been on how we can use the technology
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  that we have to really make our care processes much more
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  efficient and, and frankly, work better for our patients
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  that we're serving as well as our, as our clinical teams.
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  Uh, you know, currently, uh, my role is
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  as the Chief Digital Officer for, uh, freighter data care,
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  uh, health, and also I serve as the interim president
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  of our, uh, digital subsidiary
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  that we call Inception, inception Health.
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  I also, uh, continue to, uh, see patients
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  as an internist as well.
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  - Well, that's a lot to take on,
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  and I can imagine you're pretty busy and,
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  and you know, it's really cool to hear about, um,
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  your innovation center as well, and,
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  and just, uh, you know, excited, um, that you're able
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  to do all of these things in the healthcare space.
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  Now, given that, what are some of your top priorities
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  for the next year or so?
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  - Well, there's no shortage of things going on,
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  but you know, very clearly, you know, number one priority is
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  to continue to develop out our population health programs,
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  uh, vis-a-vis digital.
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  The way that we've been organizing digital
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  and population health is to really
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  fit very closely to together.
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  And, uh, we're continuing to, you know,
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  develop those programs around virtual nursing, uh,
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  remote patient monitoring,
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  and our digital therapeutics that we, that we have
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  to support, uh, chronic care management.
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  So, and that remains, you know, a, a number one priority.
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  Second priority we have is
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  we're still focusing on making healthcare easier for people.
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  And one of the engineers on our team, you know, reminded me,
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  uh, very astutely sometimes, uh, you can't make things, uh,
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  simple that are complex
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  and, um, we often will say, oh, we need to simplify X,
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  we need to simplify Y.
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  But, but frankly, there's a lot
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  of complexity in, in healthcare.
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  Um, but the engineer went on to say,
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  but you can make it easy.
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  And, and that's what we're focusing on as well.
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  We have a, a large body of work right now
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  around our patient engagement center.
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  And then over top of that, we're overlaying a,
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  a conversational AI program on top to make it really easy,
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  uh, for our patients to be able
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  to make transactions anytime, anywhere, uh, through the web,
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  through voice, uh, uh, through chat.
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  So getting that integrated, getting that developed, uh,
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  getting that, uh, developed in close partnership with our,
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  our operators is a big focus of ours.
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  We have a, a, a fairly broad scope, uh, of that.
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  Um, and then the, the third thing that we're looking at,
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  you know, from a priority perspective is really looking at
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  how we can reimagine some of our clinical care programs now
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  that we have telehealth capabilities, now that we have, uh,
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  such high, uh, connection with our patients through, uh,
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  portal, uh, mobile applications, um,
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  and the like, you know, how, how can we start to
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  evolve the care model so it's less about what we're doing
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  in the clinical, uh, office
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  and more of what we can do together with the patients, uh,
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  at home enabled by technology.
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  So how we develop those programs, you know, coming out
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  of the, the pandemic, we certainly did a lot of telehealth
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  and telemedicine, but our focus right now is really
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  how we can dig in
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  and create sustainable, uh, programs that really provide,
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  uh, high value, uh, for patients.
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  So those are, those are three of our,
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  our top priorities here.
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  - That's so interesting to hear about,
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  and especially, you know, that last point you mentioned, um,
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  about reimagining clinical care
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  and bringing the virtual aspect into it
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  and how that becomes part of the whole, uh,
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  care offerings within the health system.
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  You know, when you look at clinical care
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  and with your background as a physician
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  and continuing to practice physician as well.
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  Um, what do you, I guess, see as being, um,
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  the evolution over the next 3, 4, 5 years or so?
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  How do you really, um,
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  see organizations leaning into change in this kind
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  of reimagined workforce as well
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  as access points within the healthcare space?
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  - I think we've been talking about team-based care for
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  a while, and I think it's now really time that we
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  embrace the best of, of that,
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  and we're working through that internally with our
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  advanced practice providers, with our nurses, uh, with our,
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  uh, m DDoS, you know, what does that care team look like?
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  And then the other aspect is how can we augment
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  and enable the, uh,
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  and support the care team, uh, from a distance?
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  And, you know, I think we're seeing a culture, what I've,
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  what I've witnessed in my own clinical practices,
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  we've had a, a culture from very hyper localized care,
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  you know, really being about the very local,
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  on the ground care team, uh, to really, uh, more
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  of a system systems of care, uh, approach.
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  So, you know, how can we layer in population health
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  programs, uh, for example,
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  how can we layer in centralized resources?
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  And we've been doing this certainly
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  with our own population health efforts as well as our,
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  our digital outreaches.
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  But the, the culture's evolved,
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  and I think a lot of it has to do with just, there's
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  so much on the plate of our clinical care teams right now
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  that it's, uh, not just hard to keep up, it's impossible
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  to, uh, to keep up.
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  And, and I think we have an obligation to, you know,
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  make it easier for our, our care teams to deliver what, on
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  what they do best and to take things off
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  of their plate in, in other ways.
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  So, you know, the conversation around how we
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  share work, uh,
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  are definitely becoming more fruitful and changing.
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  And I, I think that's not just at our organization.
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  I think that's, that's really across
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  the, across the industry.
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  And that means that we do have teams that evolve, teams
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  that change, um, roles that, that change.
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  And we learn how to work in a more, uh, distributed model.
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  We have evolution of, uh, you know, certain roles,
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  and let's take telehealth, you know, for example,
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  and portal messages.
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  Um, you know, people wanna get in touch with their clinician
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  for, uh, advice.
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  And we're seeing, we've been doing this since the,
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  around 1999, 2000 where we've, uh, had, uh, portals
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  that have been available for patients to send in and message
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  and, and now with the penetration of, um,
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  portal access, uh, internet access, uh,
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  on the go smartphone use, uh, this is really the way
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  that patients first want to interact with us.
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  Uh, do I have a problem, uh, if I do, can you see me today?
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  Uh, or can you work me in?
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  And, uh, we don't have a system of care for that.
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  And so right now we're seeing clinicians
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  managing portal messages on lunch breaks, uh,
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  after they put their kids to bed
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  before they start clinic in the, in the day.
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  And this's just not a way to run a service, um,
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  if anything, and it does lead to the contribution of, uh,
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  just the fatigue and burnout that we're seeing across.
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  And, and patients, um, appreciate the, the messages,
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  but also they, they understand
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  that clinicians are doing this sort of outside of, uh,
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  visits and at least our research has shown
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  that they do self-censor and, um, are are respectful.
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  Um, but even with that, there's still a lot of messages
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  that are, are coming forward.
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  Uh, you know, a lot
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  of the conversation in the industry has been about adding a,
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  a fee to, to those messages as a way to either
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  make it more fair to acknowledge the work being done
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  or to, you know,
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  potentially gatekeeper throttle messages coming in, which I,
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  I can understand the fairness.
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  I have a, a challenge with putting up more barriers to
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  access and communication with patients.
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  But all that being said, what if we took an opportunity
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  to reimagine, you know, that how patients interact with the,
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  the, uh, healthcare system and with the clinics?
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  And what if we built a system of care, uh,
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  that started digital first
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  and then brought someone into in-person
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  or got to the specific clinician,
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  if only they could, they could answer.
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  But there's, there's a lot that we could do in this space,
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  and this is what I'm really excited that we're,
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  we're starting to lean in and,
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  and really reimagine how patients can interact, uh, with us.
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  I mean, in, in a way we've been talking about digital front
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  door, you know, for years, uh,
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  particularly in the digital health space,
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  a digital front door is more than building an app, uh,
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  or having a new website.
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  It's really re-imagining how people walk through that door
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  and, and how they interact.
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  And I think we're finally getting there.
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  - That's truly fascinating to think about.
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  And, you know, exciting as you mentioned, that we're getting
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  to a space where, um, that type of mindset and,
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  and, um, ability to connect
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  with patients on the digital front, um, you know,
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  and really thinking through how that integrates
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  with the entire clinical team
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  and experience, um, is, is really great to hear.
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  And digital first too.
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  Um, you know, I can imagine
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  that's much easier said than done in terms
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  of applying the technologies of workflows and whatnot.
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  But, um, I, I really think an exciting way
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  to look at the future.
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  Um, and, and with that in mind, you know, I, I think you,
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  um, mentioned so much there.
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  I, I was wondering if you could talk about your most
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  successful project from the last year or two.
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  What did you do and how did you measure the results?
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  - Absolutely. Well, none of the work that, you know,
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  we have, uh, that we're working through is, is de novo.
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  We're really, you know, taking several incremental steps.
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  I'll just take, you know, our virtual, uh,
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  nursing, you know, for example.
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  Um, you know, this is really an evolution of work
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  that we've had with, uh, an an EICU
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  that we've been able
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  to successfully develop a very talented, uh, nursing team
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  that really fills a lot of gaps and,
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  and really delivers value.
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  They've delivered value.
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  And, um, our covid remote monitoring,
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  they've delivered value in helping patients, uh, stay safe
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  as they transition out of the intensive care units,
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  particularly when our intensive care unit census this are,
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  are high and providing extra support to the, to the units.
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  You know, I was looking over our, our numbers
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  and, you know, last year, uh,
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  we had 10,000 tele hospitalist
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  interventions, you know, by this team.
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  So I think we're really learning how to work,
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  again with a centralized, uh, virtual resource in a way
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  that, um, really respects the, um,
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  the care on the grounds, but really supports
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  and augments provides a additional layer of, of safety.
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  And, uh, and we're really excited to build on that,
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  you know, our building on top of, you know, newer clinical
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  programs and services we're seeing across the industry.
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  Several, uh, try to address that, that problem
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  that I was mentioning earlier around, uh, digital access
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  and portal messages and, and really looking for guidance
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  and advice on, on where to turn.
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  Uh, some organizations have had success, uh,
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  putting bots in front.
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  Uh, we have developed a, a fairly robust, uh,
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  asynchronous care, uh, program,
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  and we continue to see volume, uh, increasing through that.
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  But what I was gonna say is, you know,
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  our investment in our, our digital front door,
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  we wanna make it as easy as possible for people to get
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  where they need to go within the healthcare system safely,
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  effectively, and then to develop that, that relationship.
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  And one of the measures that we've been using, uh, for
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  that in addition to monthly active users
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  and other such utilization metrics is are,
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  are we also bringing in, uh,
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  new unique patients in the healthcare system?
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  And, uh, we're finding that, you know, as we,
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  as we do develop systems that make it easy for people to
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  interact, that we can start to lay that, you know, lay
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  that path for people to, uh, become, um,
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  more connected, uh, with us.
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  Another thing that we've been working on, uh, is, you know,
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  this foundational data layer, uh, in order to be able to,
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  uh, deliver on our population health promises.
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  And we've been working both with
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  Epic as a partner.
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  We're an early adopter of the campaigns, uh, tools
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  to be able to do care gap closure, uh, as well
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  as investing in our own, uh, data lake and,
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  and cloud that we also are using to close, uh, care gaps.
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  And I think, we'll, we'll be continuing to, you know,
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  see development, uh, in these, in these spaces.
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  But we're, we're looking at, you know, efficiency.
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  We're looking at things move from, um, telephone calls
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  to more digital contacts, um,
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  and, uh, looking at how many, for example, care gaps
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  that we can, uh, address, uh, while, um,
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  respecting our patient's time of not keeping them on hold
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  and our staff time of, of, uh, of being able to automate,
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  uh, tasks where we can.
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  Then lastly, I would, you know, point out
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  that our digital therapeutics program, uh, as it relates
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  to population health, is still continuing to make, uh,
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  really important differences are when we see patients
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  that are engaged in our digital diabetes program,
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  they have a sustaining, uh, A1C drop of, uh,
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  of about, uh, 2%.
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  Um, and they have better sustainment when they're digitally
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  engaged, uh, when, when not.
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  Um, we have a, uh, a very lightweight program now
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  that we're doing for hypertension control
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  and management, um, over, uh, SMS
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  and we're seeing patients that, um, consent
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  and enroll in that program with our care coordinators, um,
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  have an 80% higher, uh, likelihood of being under, uh,
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  their gold blood pressure.
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  So we're starting to see, you know, several of these, um,
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  structural investments now turn into, um, real outcomes.
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  And I think as we further develop our, our, uh, care models,
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  um, we can double down and, and get greater gains here.
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  - That's amazing to hear.
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  And, and definitely, you know, a lot of time,
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  effort spent into, um, you know,
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  invested into these types of programs.
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  And so it was awesome to know that, you know,
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  you're starting to see those results.
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  Dr. Karate, thank you so much
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  for joining me on the podcast today.
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  This has been such a fascinating conversation,
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  and I look forward to connecting with you again soon.
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  - Thank you so much, Laura. Pleasure to be here.