Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Paul Testa, MD, Chief Health Informatics Officer at NYU Langone Health
Transcript
- 0:02- Every health system executive right now is being
- 0:04- asked to do something that has no useful
- 0:06- precedent,
- 0:07- make durable technology decisions in an environment that
- 0:10- looks meaningfully different every six months.
- 0:13- The pace isn't slowing,
- 0:14- the vendor landscape isn't getting simpler, and the
- 0:17- cost of missteps
- 0:18- keeps rising.
- 0:19- Becker's eleventh annual IT and Revenue Cycle Conference,
- 0:23- The Future of AI and Digital Health, exists
- 0:25- for exactly this challenge.
- 0:27- Here, you'll find more than 2,500 executive level
- 0:30- attendees,
- 0:31- 600 plus speakers, and four days of sessions
- 0:34- built around the questions leaders are actually wrestling
- 0:36- with.
- 0:37- How to scale AI responsibly,
- 0:39- how to protect increasingly complex systems,
- 0:42- how to bring more performance out of the
- 0:44- revenue cycle, and how to make tech investments
- 0:46- that hold up over time.
- 0:48- Join us September fourteenth through the seventeenth at
- 0:51- the Hilton Chicago.
- 0:53- You can register on our events page at
- 0:55- beckershospitalreview.com
- 0:57- by clicking on the events tab in the
- 0:59- upper right.
- 1:01- This is Laura Dierda with the Becker's Healthcare
- 1:04- podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by
- 1:06- Paul Testa, chief health informatics officer at NYU
- 1:09- Langone Health. Paul, it's a pleasure to have
- 1:11- you on the podcast today.
- 1:13- Thanks for having me. Always a pleasure.
- 1:15- Absolutely. Now I'm excited for our conversation. I
- 1:18- know we'll talk through some of the cool
- 1:20- things that you're doing as well as perspective
- 1:22- on the future. But before we dive in,
- 1:24- can you tell me a little bit more
- 1:25- about yourself as well as NYU Langone?
- 1:29- Happy to. Thank you.
- 1:31- So I'm a born and bred New Yorker,
- 1:34- which, you know, really identifies a lot of
- 1:36- who I am, I feel like. I've been
- 1:38- at NYU Langone now for twenty two years,
- 1:41- give or take. I did my residency in
- 1:43- emergency medicine there.
- 1:45- And,
- 1:46- it's it's been home for me for a
- 1:48- very long time, so it's been incredible to
- 1:49- watch it grow and,
- 1:52- and excel.
- 1:55- I,
- 1:55- right now, get to the privilege of leading
- 1:58- health informatics for the system,
- 2:00- which has been really, I think, a strategic
- 2:02- differentiator as we grow, as we expand, as
- 2:04- we bind
- 2:05- ourselves together as a large academic health system.
- 2:10- Informatics is the glue that holds us in
- 2:12- many ways, and it's it's been really incredible
- 2:14- to be able to watch
- 2:16- as we
- 2:18- continue to set quality
- 2:19- standards for ourselves
- 2:21- to leverage all the technologies. And then, you
- 2:24- know, let it let it mark the one
- 2:25- minute moment where I mentioned AI,
- 2:28- how we've sort of heavily leaned into AI
- 2:31- and what that's meant for us as a
- 2:32- health system.
- 2:34- So it's been a great venture, and,
- 2:36- I'm loving what I do.
- 2:39- That's fantastic to hear. And, you know, to
- 2:41- your point, just having that data information informatics
- 2:44- and and translating that into something that's beneficial
- 2:47- across the board,
- 2:48- is so important in health care right now
- 2:50- and something that is a huge unlock for
- 2:52- organizations once they once they can do it
- 2:54- well.
- 2:54- Now what are some of the powerful forces
- 2:57- that you see shaping digital health and IT
- 2:59- at NYU Langone, and how do you anticipate
- 3:01- it'll evolve over the next year or so?
- 3:06- An incredibly powerful force, I think,
- 3:09- has to be the economics of what we
- 3:11- do.
- 3:12- We need to be really conscious stewards
- 3:15- of the resources
- 3:16- that we have access to and deploy.
- 3:20- It's
- 3:21- it's
- 3:22- not as challenging to deploy 10 of something
- 3:25- or
- 3:26- to have a small innovation project that has
- 3:29- great
- 3:30- results in
- 3:32- one location or five locations.
- 3:34- But to steward our resources and to get
- 3:36- the the bang for the buck
- 3:38- as we
- 3:39- are in sort of every facet of the
- 3:41- way we deliver care, you have to do
- 3:43- it at scale. So real innovation in my
- 3:45- book is anything that we can do at
- 3:47- scale successfully.
- 3:49- And
- 3:51- the
- 3:52- the cost of
- 3:55- what it will take to
- 3:57- innovate,
- 3:58- to do AI at scale, to continue to
- 4:01- drive the quality and safety, you know, and
- 4:03- most importantly or or the binding is the
- 4:05- the digital patient experience partnered with the digital
- 4:08- clinician experience.
- 4:10- We have to do that understanding what our
- 4:11- success metrics are and what our return on
- 4:13- investment is. And there are multitude of ways
- 4:15- of measuring both those things.
- 4:17- So we're we're setting out a standard internally
- 4:20- at NYU Langone
- 4:21- to
- 4:22- to measure like for like. So when we
- 4:25- deploy a project, we look at what our
- 4:26- measures of success will be, and then we
- 4:28- try to use the same measures for the
- 4:29- next project where we can so we can
- 4:31- compare apples and apples
- 4:33- and look at the way we spend our
- 4:34- resources.
- 4:36- I think all of that is in service
- 4:38- of our patients and our clinicians
- 4:40- and ensuring that it's an absolute, just incredible,
- 4:43- joyful digital experience
- 4:45- in some of the trying times of our
- 4:46- patients and our clinicians' lives.
- 4:52- That makes a lot of sense. And, you
- 4:53- know, I I think it's so critical
- 4:55- to be able to have that great patient
- 4:58- experience because right now, it seems like there
- 5:01- is more and more of a need and
- 5:02- demand for things to be
- 5:05- seamless across the board. But especially in the
- 5:07- health care space, there could be a lot
- 5:08- of complexity. So how are you seeing, those
- 5:11- solutions being,
- 5:13- driven at NYU lingo and health?
- 5:16- What are the ways that you're seeing patient,
- 5:19- preferences change, and how are you meeting those,
- 5:22- expectations on the technology as well as the
- 5:25- clinical care side?
- 5:27- Oh, I love that question. Thank you. The
- 5:30- simultaneously,
- 5:31- patients expect, rightfully so,
- 5:34- the most cutting edge,
- 5:36- highest quality care. That's their given right and
- 5:39- what they show up at our front door
- 5:41- expecting, and we have to give that to
- 5:42- them each and every time.
- 5:44- But they also expect, and we want to
- 5:47- give,
- 5:48- the most empathic
- 5:49- connections and care.
- 5:51- And sometimes
- 5:52- when technology is deployed,
- 5:55- maybe in less than a thoughtful fashion or
- 5:57- without the patient and the clinician front and
- 5:59- center,
- 6:00- that empathy can suffer.
- 6:02- So we're finding so much, for example, with,
- 6:04- with leveraging AI to create patient friendly versions.
- 6:08- I love us calling it patient friendly. It's
- 6:09- all patient friendly. The fact of the matter
- 6:11- is we've been writing notes for decades.
- 6:14- We never and the patients weren't our primary
- 6:16- consumer, so we're shifting, and we're gonna figure
- 6:18- out what it means. But we created a
- 6:20- rubric
- 6:22- at NYU, went on clear rubric
- 6:25- of defining patient friendliness in five different domains.
- 6:28- So everything we put in front of patients
- 6:31- has to pass that rubric as well as
- 6:33- an AI safety checklist and make sure it's
- 6:35- ethically and safely deployed. We also have to
- 6:37- ensure that it's
- 6:38- ingested the way our patients want it.
- 6:42- Be it
- 6:43- in a you
- 6:44- know, they're finding the patient's report and tells
- 6:46- us quite quickly
- 6:47- that the AI generated summaries
- 6:50- can be,
- 6:51- or and AI generated
- 6:54- versions,
- 6:55- the patient friendly versions, everything from our
- 6:58- e e, our echo results
- 7:00- to our discharge summaries
- 7:02- to every day, giving discharge the the summaries
- 7:05- of a patient's stay in the ED in
- 7:07- the, inpatient setting.
- 7:09- Patients
- 7:10- are finding the
- 7:12- the AI generated versions to be more empathic
- 7:15- scoring. And I'm not gonna say that's a
- 7:18- bad thing from our docs, but we we
- 7:20- optimize for something different with the doctor's outputs
- 7:22- and the nurses' outputs,
- 7:24- and this gives an opportunity to tune in
- 7:26- a different direction.
- 7:27- So I think
- 7:29- meeting both their safety, quality expectations,
- 7:32- as well as the experience, that's our challenge
- 7:34- here.
- 7:35- That makes a ton of sense, and I
- 7:37- love the way you laid that out so
- 7:39- perfectly because it is, such an important thing
- 7:42- to understand what the patients are dealing with
- 7:44- and how they,
- 7:45- are are wanting to have the experience of
- 7:48- health care and then exactly what AI can
- 7:50- do and and how then the caregivers can
- 7:52- lean into that, relationship that they have and
- 7:55- what they can, do to most helpfully,
- 7:58- bring the patients into,
- 8:00- recovery.
- 8:01- Now from your perspective, could you tell us
- 8:03- about something you're doing at NYU Langone Health
- 8:06- that,
- 8:07- has been a big swing you took in
- 8:08- the last year that paid off? What did
- 8:10- you do, and what were the results?
- 8:13- You know, I think the biggest swing we're
- 8:15- taking right now, and I I don't have
- 8:17- I don't have all the outcomes yet, but
- 8:18- I know where we're going,
- 8:20- is,
- 8:22- you know, there's so much,
- 8:24- inches of headline and conversations around ambient documentation,
- 8:28- how important the ambient documentation is for the
- 8:30- experience of patients and the doctors.
- 8:32- But what is
- 8:34- trailing, and I think it'll be more revolutionary
- 8:37- to the experience aspect, is nursing ambient documentation.
- 8:41- So we're deeply involved both with our EHR
- 8:44- vendors as well as third parties and our
- 8:46- own efforts internally with our own AI expertise
- 8:49- of what it's gonna mean for nurses to
- 8:51- be able to practice out loud, to speak
- 8:53- their practice, which they've been doing for centuries.
- 8:57- But capturing that rather than having to run
- 8:59- to flow sheet rows to document.
- 9:01- I think, you know, the
- 9:03- the the space of an exam room
- 9:05- with a physician is a very different experience
- 9:07- than an inpatient setting in a room with
- 9:09- a nurse.
- 9:10- I think it's we we have seen
- 9:12- incredible gains
- 9:14- with ambient documentation
- 9:16- for physicians.
- 9:17- I can't wait to see what we're gonna
- 9:18- have with nurses using this tool at scale.
- 9:21- So we're we are early in that journey,
- 9:25- but I think it's gonna dramatically change the
- 9:28- practice
- 9:29- as well as how nurses are able to
- 9:31- connect
- 9:32- with their patients and manage their day.
- 9:35- So I I have incredibly high hopes. I
- 9:38- think the
- 9:39- the way putting it is, you know, the
- 9:41- the win for Ambien and the physicians, and
- 9:43- it was an easy one to see.
- 9:45- For nurses, it's gonna be a little bit
- 9:46- more it's gonna be a lot more effort,
- 9:48- but I think the, the incremental benefit is
- 9:50- gonna be incredible.
- 9:55- That makes a ton of sense. And, you
- 9:57- know, it is cool to have that opportunity
- 9:58- to then support nurses,
- 10:00- who are such a critical
- 10:02- part of the the patient care journey, to
- 10:05- then have that ambient support there too. So,
- 10:08- you know, when you look at that change
- 10:09- management aspect of it, as you mentioned, doing
- 10:12- nursing out loud and and being able to,
- 10:14- fit within the workflows,
- 10:17- how do you approach that? Obviously, like you
- 10:19- said, with physicians is one thing, but,
- 10:22- what is what do you do to make
- 10:24- sure that, you you know, you're working with
- 10:26- the teams and it's as seamless as it
- 10:28- can be?
- 10:31- Oh, it's a tricky one.
- 10:33- And and yet in some ways, it's incredibly
- 10:35- simple, and that is to meet the nurses
- 10:38- and patients where they live and where they
- 10:40- are.
- 10:41- And the very first thing we learned
- 10:43- is
- 10:44- nurses,
- 10:45- the units that we had been using, our
- 10:48- proof of concept for ambient
- 10:50- documentation
- 10:51- were quieter,
- 10:52- frankly. They were used to engaging in their
- 10:56- practice
- 10:57- in a less out loud way.
- 11:01- I'm not gonna take any hits on that
- 11:03- as an ER doc. I'm I'm kinda I
- 11:04- can get loud myself, but I think we're
- 11:07- more practiced, and there's an expectation
- 11:11- of
- 11:12- speaking as we go.
- 11:13- So,
- 11:14- with our CNO,
- 11:16- and our informatics
- 11:18- nurse leadership,
- 11:20- We engaged on a project essentially, practice out
- 11:22- loud.
- 11:23- And it it
- 11:25- while every one of our nurses has a
- 11:27- clinical mobile companion, an iPad with a suite
- 11:29- of apps,
- 11:30- right now,
- 11:32- it was a step we could pave the
- 11:34- way without any technology, and that was simply
- 11:37- peer to peer engaging
- 11:39- in what it meant to practice out loud
- 11:41- and having nurses
- 11:42- assess themselves
- 11:44- and what speaking their practice and as they
- 11:47- engage in their assessment,
- 11:49- means for them and getting used to it
- 11:51- because some took to it very quickly, and
- 11:53- some are still working on it. So it
- 11:55- it was we we engaged in this practice
- 11:58- out loud program
- 12:00- irrespective of technology, just just just to move
- 12:02- them towards,
- 12:04- reengaging their own voice,
- 12:07- as nurses at bedside.
- 12:09- And it's been incredibly,
- 12:11- enlightening to watch.
- 12:14- I don't wanna say
- 12:16- a a renewed voice because it I don't
- 12:18- think it went anywhere,
- 12:19- but it's stretching different muscles,
- 12:22- flexing different muscles for many of our nurse
- 12:24- colleagues
- 12:26- that are really leaning into it. And it's
- 12:29- it's incredibly transformative
- 12:31- to what we're hearing bedside.
- 12:36- That makes a ton of sense, and thank
- 12:38- you so much for sharing that with us.
- 12:40- I think it's so helpful,
- 12:41- for all health systems as they're going through
- 12:43- some of these changes to understand what's working
- 12:45- well and what can make a difference.
- 12:47- Now that, you know, you you've been working
- 12:50- on these projects and getting technology in the
- 12:52- door for both the patients as well as
- 12:53- clinicians, what's the most important problem that you're
- 12:56- trying to solve next with AI or technology?
- 13:02- The I I I won't say easy wins,
- 13:04- but the early wins,
- 13:06- with the application of artificial intelligence and generative
- 13:09- AI in health care has has had a
- 13:11- lot to do with what we've spoken about,
- 13:13- summarization,
- 13:14- extraction.
- 13:18- But,
- 13:19- you know, as an ED doc, the magic
- 13:21- is in the flow.
- 13:22- So we're beginning to inject models
- 13:25- not just at the extraction point of, why
- 13:28- is this patient in front of me?
- 13:30- But
- 13:31- or or what transpired in the last twenty
- 13:34- four hours to six months with this patient,
- 13:36- be it ambulatory or inpatient.
- 13:38- We're looking for the the wins to be
- 13:40- had in the flow of an ED, the
- 13:42- flow of a hospital, the flow of a
- 13:43- patient in the arc of their care. And
- 13:45- that is sort of I think, you know,
- 13:47- it's it's it's often referred to as longitudinal
- 13:49- decision support. I don't think that really captures
- 13:52- it,
- 13:53- But how do we
- 13:55- have models which are ever present or can
- 13:58- be ever present? And they can be
- 14:00- always,
- 14:03- vigilant
- 14:04- as a copilot, as we often hear the
- 14:07- term, for nurses and doctors
- 14:09- in their day to days and in the
- 14:11- week to weeks. So we've deployed models in
- 14:14- the emergency department that are looking for high
- 14:16- risk diagnoses that can get
- 14:19- missed or
- 14:20- anchored away from with an earlier diagnosis.
- 14:24- And we're reducing that model so it's ever
- 14:25- present watching the documentation,
- 14:27- watching
- 14:29- the inputs from lab results and for imaging,
- 14:32- and then
- 14:33- providing a nudge to say, hey. Maybe it's
- 14:35- time you know, we can see in your
- 14:37- documentation you're thinking the diagnosis is x.
- 14:40- The risk or the likelihood of it being
- 14:42- y has now hit a threshold. And I
- 14:44- wanna just drop you a nudge to say,
- 14:46- reassess.
- 14:47- Now that is that is bread and butter
- 14:49- ER practice.
- 14:50- But I think any any, you know, any
- 14:52- comfortable,
- 14:55- ER doc will tell you that we can
- 14:57- anchor bias. So
- 14:59- we welcome those nudges
- 15:00- when appropriate, when well tuned. And when when,
- 15:03- frankly, they aren't imperfect. We're not looking for
- 15:05- a diagnosis machine. But the opportunity to offer
- 15:09- a nudge away from anchoring bias is incredibly
- 15:11- powerful. And frankly, it's a it's a
- 15:14- blanket of security that the patients and the
- 15:16- nurse and the doctors are finding together in
- 15:18- the ERs.
- 15:22- That's incredible to hear about it. And and,
- 15:24- really, it seems like it'd be helpful,
- 15:27- across the board for folks in in the
- 15:30- clinicians working in the ER as well as,
- 15:32- you know, the the patients too. So, thank
- 15:35- you for sharing that example, and and we'll
- 15:37- be excited to hear more about how it
- 15:38- goes as you continue to roll things out.
- 15:41- And, you know, in in thinking about the
- 15:43- future, what are you most curious about or
- 15:45- or what rises to the top of some
- 15:46- of the things that you're keeping your eye
- 15:48- close on as time goes on?
- 15:54- Most curious about that. That's a that's a
- 15:55- great one. I
- 15:58- as the evidence mounts
- 16:01- that
- 16:03- having a clinician in the loop may degrade
- 16:06- performance,
- 16:08- Inevitable. It will it is inevitable. We will
- 16:10- find circumstances where the addition of a
- 16:13- clinician
- 16:14- degrades an AI model's performance.
- 16:18- And the ethical quandary of when we
- 16:21- maybe need to remove the person in the
- 16:23- loop to ensure higher quality.
- 16:26- We're getting really close to that moment.
- 16:28- Am I suggesting we should set these models
- 16:30- loose right now? Absolutely not. We have a
- 16:32- lot to learn and our patients expect for.
- 16:35- But I'm very curious as to how
- 16:38- the,
- 16:41- frankly,
- 16:42- disruptive
- 16:42- nature to our
- 16:44- definition of professionalism and our definition of who
- 16:47- we are as clinicians
- 16:49- is gonna be shaken
- 16:51- When there are moments we need to step
- 16:53- back and say,
- 16:54- the central thing for me to do is
- 16:56- to let this
- 16:58- process run and mean not to interfere, but
- 17:01- still have the courage to say, I need
- 17:03- to validate. I need to be there.
- 17:05- So
- 17:06- more complex way of things just saying, human
- 17:09- the loop, we're gonna learn isn't always always
- 17:11- the protection we think it is.
- 17:14- And as we're learning with these models,
- 17:17- I'm very curious as to what it means
- 17:19- to be a clinician and how we're gonna
- 17:21- define our role working with these models and
- 17:24- with these tools as is almost every profession.
- 17:27- I'm no word about being replaced.
- 17:29- And if it means to be the provision
- 17:32- of safer care to replace me in that,
- 17:33- then so be it. Replace me.
- 17:35- But I I think what I'm most curious
- 17:38- about in the next one to three years
- 17:41- is how we move into that space of
- 17:44- acknowledging, at times, the performance
- 17:47- of these models
- 17:49- outperform me,
- 17:51- outperform a team,
- 17:53- and therefore, we have to understand what its
- 17:55- role here would be moving forward.
- 17:59- Well, that's such an interesting question. And, you
- 18:02- know, it sounds like you see that horizon
- 18:04- not too far off in the next one
- 18:06- to three years as as the technology continues
- 18:08- to evolve. And, you know, when you're looking
- 18:10- at it,
- 18:12- what types of discussions do you have with
- 18:14- your colleagues around this, or how do you
- 18:15- really see,
- 18:17- the humans in the loop being able to
- 18:20- make that estimation and and figure out what's
- 18:23- gonna be most impactful for patients without putting
- 18:25- them too much at risk?
- 18:29- Well, here's the great thing.
- 18:31- As a profession as professions,
- 18:34- doctors and nurses have been assessing
- 18:36- what tools we bring to bear for the
- 18:38- betterment of our patients for century.
- 18:41- So I think we're we have the rubric,
- 18:44- if not
- 18:45- the line by line assessment tools.
- 18:48- We have a model of questioning,
- 18:51- proving,
- 18:53- obtaining trust,
- 18:55- and deploying.
- 18:57- And that's what I'm hearing from my colleagues
- 18:59- is we're still in the trust building phase,
- 19:01- and I think that's appropriate.
- 19:04- And we've learned a lot from basic CDS,
- 19:07- from EHR implementations,
- 19:09- from radiology
- 19:10- at this for thirty plus years, from
- 19:12- from the digitization of pathology,
- 19:15- in the last year, many of the most
- 19:16- recent years.
- 19:17- So we're we're we're we're reasonably good skeptics
- 19:20- with an ability to prove, and we have
- 19:22- a scientific process to do that.
- 19:24- I think we're definitely still in the in
- 19:27- the trust building phase for both our patients,
- 19:30- and our on our peer clinicians.
- 19:33- And that's what they want is an explanation
- 19:35- of how these things
- 19:37- are doing what they do
- 19:38- and when do they really feel when they
- 19:40- earn the level of trust that we can
- 19:42- hand over some of the control.
- 19:44- Again, we're not there yet, but I'm not
- 19:47- I don't think it's five to ten to
- 19:49- fifteen years away. I think it's it's much
- 19:51- closer than that.
- 19:53- So the reckoning is coming is coming, and
- 19:55- that reckoning will only be,
- 19:58- resolved or acknowledged or moved past once we
- 20:00- build the trust together.
- 20:04- That's fascinating to hear. Paul, thank you so
- 20:06- much for joining us on the podcast today.
- 20:08- This has been such a fascinating discussion. I
- 20:11- think you've shared some really unique examples of
- 20:13- ways technology and AI is is,
- 20:15- helping the organization and really making and and
- 20:18- transforming patient care and then looking into the
- 20:20- future, what the possibilities hold. So
- 20:23- thank you so much for your time, and
- 20:24- I look forward to connecting with you as
- 20:25- well in person at our health IT and
- 20:27- revenue cycle conference coming up in September. I
- 20:30- know you'll be speaking on a panel, and
- 20:32- it'll be great to kinda dig deeper into
- 20:34- some of these themes, and,
- 20:35- I'll enjoy seeing you there.
- 20:38- Thanks for the privilege, Mark.