Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Shekar Ramanathan, Executive Director, Digital Transformation, Atlantic Health

Transcript

Shekar Ramanathan, Executive Director, Digital Transformation, Atlantic Health · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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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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  This is Gracelyn Keller with the Becker's Healthcare
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  Podcast, and we are recording live at the
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  tenth annual health IT, digital health, and RCM
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  meeting. I'm currently joined by Shekhar Ramanathan, who
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  is the executive director of digital transformation at
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  Atlantic Health. Shaker, thanks for being here today.
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  Let's have you start off by sharing a
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  bit about yourself and your work in health
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  care. Yeah. Absolutely.
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  So I've been in the, health care technology
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  space for close to twenty five years now.
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  I'm in all kind of different aspects of
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  it from
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  kind of the consulting end to the vendor
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  side. I used to work at Epic and
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  then having to work for a number of
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  health systems,
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  in between, really kind of focused on,
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  digital transformation,
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  digital data, AI, and how all that kinda
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  comes together to really
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  transform clinical and business process.
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  Wonderful.
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  And let's start our conversation right there actually
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  with AI because nearly half of medical practices
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  reported using AI in some capacity in the
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  last year. And, obviously, it does remain a
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  key topic for health leaders. So from your
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  perspective,
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  what are the use cases that are making
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  a difference right now, and how are you
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  leveraging them in your organization?
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  Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, the AI is pretty
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  much everywhere that we go nowadays.
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  We go through these conferences and pretty much
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  every vendor is talking about how they're leveraging
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  AI, what they're doing, and all those kind
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  of things.
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  Ultimately, it kinda comes down to where we
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  really able to drive value.
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  And I I think the biggest area, especially
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  right now, is really around areas where we
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  can really remove some of the administrative burden
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  for,
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  the the health system and especially for our
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  providers.
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  The things like Ambient Voice,
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  you know, helping with things like
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  prior authorization,
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  contact center automation,
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  all of those areas where there's really not
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  a lot of,
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  immediate value to the patient, to the provider,
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  or to the health system.
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  There's really no reason for us to not
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  look at ways for us to be able
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  to speed up that process, look at more
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  efficient ways to do those things,
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  and really
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  be able to put more focus back on
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  the patient and clinical care delivery.
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  And as virtual care expands from AI enabled
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  tools and remote monitoring to broader digital health
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  platforms,
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  introducing new technology does bring its own challenges.
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  So what advice do you have for leaders
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  navigating everything from governance to patient engagement? And
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  can you share an example of how your
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  organization has balanced innovation with operational constraint?
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  Yeah. Absolutely. And I think right now, especially
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  where dollars are getting much tighter,
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  and health systems have to be a lot
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  more focused
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  on picking the right opportunities
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  and right areas to focus on.
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  I think governance is incredibly important to being
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  able to understand
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  where are your largest value areas,
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  and really focusing
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  on outcomes and then kinda working backwards from
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  there. What is it that you really wanna
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  achieve? How are you gonna go about doing
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  that? And then picking the technologies and solutions
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  that are really gonna support that. And oftentimes,
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  in the
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  time of, like, financial constraints and operational constraints
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  is usually when we actually see some of
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  the best innovation.
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  You know, we saw a lot of that
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  during COVID. We saw everyone kind of focusing
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  on the same problem,
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  which allows for a greater level of innovation,
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  and a really a greater opportunity for transformation.
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  And shifting gears slightly, how are you seeing
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  recent legislation, both state and federal, affect health
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  care organizations and health care IT specifically, and
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  have you adjusted strategies in response?
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  I I don't think we have an option
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  not to.
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  I I especially right now, I mean, with
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  the current government shutdown
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  and the impact on things like telehealth reimbursement,
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  We really have to then be able to
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  shift and pivot and understand, you know, kind
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  of short term strategies as well as long
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  term strategies of are those type of things
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  going to change.
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  It's important that, we're always staying abreast of
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  what is happening
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  and then having contingency plans
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  that allow us to
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  quickly adopt and being able to stay,
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  focused on clinical care.
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  You know, what we constantly talked about organizationally
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  is the idea of the fact that, no,
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  we're not in the business of making the
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  laws, but we are responsible for following them.
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  So it's important that we're designing plans
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  that, allow us to
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  operate at a high level regardless of what
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  happens.
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  And as we wrap up our conversation, I'd
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  love to know your top needs of advice
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  for health care leaders as they prepare for
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  further advancements in technology and rising demands for
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  care.
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  Yeah. So, I'm gonna be a little bit
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  biased. I'm gonna say data is kinda where
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  you wanna kinda really start. I think it's
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  really important that you're in a position to
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  understand what are those,
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  major value drivers, and how do you understand,
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  where your opportunities
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  are, and,
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  ultimately,
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  how do you weed out the
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  just the good opportunities so you really have
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  the opportune so you have the the time
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  and,
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  ability to really focus on the great ones.
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  And organizations
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  often get caught up in too many things.
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  So being able to be really data driven,
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  understand what's gonna impact your organization,
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  the most is it should be a priority.
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  Wonderful. Well, Shaker, thanks so much for joining
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  me today on the Becker's Healthcare Podcast. Again,
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  we are recording live at the tenth annual
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  Health IT Digital Health and RCM conference.
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  Thank you.