Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT / Dr. Deepti Pandita, Vice President & Chief Medical Information Officer at UCI Health

Transcript

Dr. Deepti Pandita, Vice President & Chief Medical Information Officer at UCI Health · Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT

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  See you there.
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  This is Laura Dirda with the Becker's Healthcare
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  I'm thrilled today to be joined by doctor
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  Deepti Pandita,
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  vice president of informatics and chief medical information
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  officer at UCI Health. Doctor Pandita, it's a
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  pleasure to have you on the podcast today.
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  Thank you, Laura, for having me on.
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  I'm excited for our conversation because I know
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  there's a lot of cool things you're doing
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  there at UCI Health, and certainly we'll be
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  excited to learn a little bit more about
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  how you're thinking about the future as well.
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  But before we dive in, I'm wondering, can
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  you tell us a little bit more about
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  UCI Health and what makes it unique?
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  Yeah. Absolutely.
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  So UCI Health is part of the University
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  of California Health Systems.
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  You as you know, University of California is
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  a large academic
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  organization,
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  and we have several universities.
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  However, we have five health systems affiliated with
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  our and
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  University of California Irvine is one of them.
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  We are,
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  six hospital system currently, five operational one that
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  we are building and will be operational in,
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  December of this year, and then we have,
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  perhaps another rehab hospital in the works for
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  next year. So we are soon to be
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  a seven hospital system.
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  We have a very large ambulatory footprint as
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  well. We see about 1,200,000
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  ambulatory visits
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  every year,
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  apart from what we do in the inpatient
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  space. And then we have multiple emergency departments
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  as well.
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  Great. That's amazing to hear, you know, and
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  what an important community that you're serving,
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  in Irvine.
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  From your perspective, what is the accomplishments that
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  you're most proud of from the last year?
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  Yeah. So there are multiple, but I I
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  would say,
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  I would
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  sort of proud to share two accomplishments. One,
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  I have been here close to about,
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  nearly two years now. And when I got
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  here, there was no clinical informatics structure.
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  Or if there was one, it was completely
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  broken. So,
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  in my mind, you know, clinical informatics is
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  that sort of translator role between
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  operational speak and clinical speak versus IT speak.
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  So,
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  getting that,
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  structure up and running was my first task,
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  and I'm proud to say that we now
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  have a very, very functional
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  clinical informatics division within ITS.
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  The other big accomplishment is with all the
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  acquisitions we have had,
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  meeting the needs of our provider and,
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  clinical communities,
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  because we now currently have disparate systems, and,
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  we have made the decision that we are
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  gonna bring everyone onto one system.
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  And just leading all the dis all the
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  disparate systems,
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  and the com the workflows and all that
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  into one
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  system has been challenging, but also rewarding in
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  many ways because it is also
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  what is going to align our cultures together.
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  So whether a patient goes to any of
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  our hospital sites or any of our ambulatory
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  sites, the patient experience is a UCI experience
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  and not an individual hospital or clinic system
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  experience.
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  That's amazing to hear. And, you know, I
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  can imagine,
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  easier said than done. And just a huge
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  feat to bring all those different, hospitals and
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  systems together into,
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  that one,
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  integrated
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  EHR system for one, but then two, just
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  the cultural side of things. Is there anything
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  from your perspective that you've been able to
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  do well to, make that process as seamless
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  as it can be?
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  Yeah. I am a very big stickler for
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  governance, and I think the biggest accomplishment
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  has been,
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  you know, promoting the value of governance to
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  all the stakeholders
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  in the whole process,
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  because,
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  you know, people were doing governance in their
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  own silos. And the
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  what I have been able to accomplish is
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  show them the value of shared governance
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  and shared decision making
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  and transparency in governance so that we are
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  actually able to be more nimble in our
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  decision making and also,
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  be able to,
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  drive decision making more, in a more coordinated
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  manner so that everyone is on the same
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  page and then can, you know,
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  abide by that decision in the future because
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  they were at the table when that decision
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  was made.
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  That makes a lot of sense. Thank you
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  for going a little bit deeper there. Now
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  I'm curious. Looking into the future, where do
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  you see some of the big growth opportunities
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  for you and your team in the next
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  twelve months
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  or so?
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  So I think, you know,
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  the growth opportunity is the same that has
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  been there all this time, which is what
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  are the challenges we are facing. You know,
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  all health systems are facing
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  challenges with narrow margins.
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  How do we make our,
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  care teams more productive, more efficient, more proficient.
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  And these challenges have not changed at least
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  in the last couple of decades. They've always
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  been there. It's just that the tools to
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  meet these challenges are rapidly evolving. And,
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  you wouldn't have a podcast if I didn't
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  mention AI. So I think the future of
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  plugging all the AI tools
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  to driving more administrative
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  efficiency, operational efficiency, and decreasing the cognitive burden
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  of our clinical teams so they can be
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  more free to provide that very,
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  you know, top of line patient care is
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  where everything is moving. So what I am
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  excited about is how do we use
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  AI in the realm of
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  improving,
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  efficiency and proficiency for our clinical teams.
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  That's fascinating to hear. And, certainly,
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  having the AI
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  opportunities with the, more broad clinical teams, I
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  can imagine, as you said, bring, some great
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  efficiencies and great opportunities, but also big challenges.
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  Can you dig a little bit deeper into,
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  some of those challenges that you're anticipating in
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  the next year or so and how you're
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  navigating them?
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  Yeah. So the biggest challenge I would say
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  is,
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  you know, AI cannot solve for broken systems
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  or broken workflows.
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  So if you are designing
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  AI to sort of, you know, be the
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  square background whole approach, it's not gonna work.
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  AI tools, you know, promise efficiency gains but
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  struggle when introduced into real world workflows, and
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  I have several experiences of this.
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  You know, physicians, nurses, other clinical care team
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  members are already overwhelmed with EHR burdens.
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  And if the AI tool doesn't seamlessly integrate,
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  into the workflow, it's gonna, you know, meet
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  resistance and it's going to fail.
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  So my role is how do I make
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  successful AI implementations that are almost invisible,
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  which means that they feel like a natural
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  extension of existing workflows rather than adding,
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  additional burden.
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  And how we do this is, you know,
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  again, having governance frameworks,
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  you know, that
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  can provide explainability of the AI tool or,
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  you know, accountability or
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  ownership of the tools,
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  to make sure that there is trust and
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  compliance with the tools.
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  And then the other thing that's happening
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  is ROI is being overestimated of these tools.
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  There is a lot of hidden costs of
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  AI, including, you know, workflow,
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  training,
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  accuracy issues,
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  data science evaluations,
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  and all of that.
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  So,
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  again, making sure that
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  the ROI will come conversation is happening
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  rather than, you know, falsely touting that the
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  ROI is here now. And then I am
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  a big, big proponent of keeping a human
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  in the loop. So
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  full automation
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  is not the right solution, and keeping people
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  cognizant of that
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  is very important in my view.
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  I think that's incredibly useful and helpful information
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  to think through, especially as you're incorporating
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  AI and trying to figure out the best
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  ways to bring it into the health system,
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  the organization, and then optimize it and and
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  find that ROI that you were talking about
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  as quickly as possible.
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  Could you dig a little bit deeper there
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  in in terms of, what are those conversations
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  look like? What do you have to continuously
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  think about and check-in on as you're starting
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  to implement new technologies or AI into different
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  workflows,
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  to make sure your that message isn't getting
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  lost and that ROI is actually being realized
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  and you have a, a, aligned understanding of
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  how, that will come in the future?
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  Yeah. That's a great question. So let's take
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  the example of AI Scribes, which I think
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  every health care system is looking at and,
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  you know,
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  decision support automation tools that save clinical
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  time,
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  the actual ROI depends on adoption,
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  ongoing maintenance, and integration costs. You know,
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  the tool must be measured by real world
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  impact, not just theoretical
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  savings.
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  So the metrics
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  for measuring that ROI should include clinician adoption
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  rates, reducing cognitive load,
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  improve documentation
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  quality.
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  And this is what I call soft ROI.
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  It's not like a hard cost ROI.
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  However,
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  there is enough, you know, social science behind
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  it to say, if you do all this,
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  if you reduce cognitive load, if you increase
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  the retainability of a clinician when they are
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  less burnt out, if you improve documentation quality,
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  that improved billing, improved engagement with the system,
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  being able to see more patients, that hard
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  ROI will come, but it's not there today.
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  So having that conversation and presenting it in
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  that manner is very important.
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  Got it. That makes a lot of sense.
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  And, you know, it's a really great and
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  timely example as I know there's so many
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  systems that are trying to bring in those
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  AI scribes or doing something along those lines
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  that,
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  you know, trying to figure out exactly what
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  makes the most sense and how they can
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  move forward there in a meaningful way. So
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  I appreciate that. Before we wrap up, I'm
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  curious. What is the number one thing you're
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  doing right now to set up UCI Health
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  for success in the future?
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  So, again, like I said, we have two,
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  big projects. One is, you know, bringing everyone
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  on a single EHR platform,
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  which is, what we are working fast and
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  furious towards,
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  to be have a big bang go live
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  in December.
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  And the second is getting a handle on
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  all of our AI suite of offerings
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  and then,
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  work with our EHR vendor to make sure
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  that we are highlighting, leading,
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  implementing
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  all those solutions.
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  At the same time, standing up AI governance
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  frameworks,
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  that, you know, assign clear accountability,
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  ethical standards, compliance, and trust in those systems.
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  So there are two parallel things going on
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  there.
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  Got it. Absolutely. That is fascinating to hear
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  about. And, you know, I I think especially
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  looking at AI governments governance and those frameworks.
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  I know you mentioned that's something that you
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  really,
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  dig deep into and that is really passionate
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  about that governance. So,
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  something that I know as well a lot
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  of health care leaders mentioned to me, but
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  they haven't figured out how to do it
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  right on their end. Just before we wrap
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  up, is there anything any advice you'd have
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  for them as they're developing AI frameworks, with
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  their broader teams and truly trying to make
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  sure they're hitting all the right notes so
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  they don't have to go back and revise
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  too much in the future, but really truly
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  have a a strong standing to move forward?
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  Yeah. So my my,
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  advice would be, you know, AI implementation
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  is not just about the model. It's not
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  like reaching out to the vendor and getting
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  an AI model. It's still at the heart
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  of it, goes back to the key principles
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  of informatics, which is people, process, and policy,
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  and
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  technology.
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  So the systems that will invest in clinician
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  buy in, robust AI governance
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  with multi stakeholder presence,
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  workflow integration, they are the ones who are
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  gonna see success in deployment of AI
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  and expect
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  gains rather than systems that are just implementing
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  AI
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  because,
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  you know, it is available.
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  Got it. That's such a great point.
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  Thank you so much again for joining us
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  on the podcast today,
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  doctor Pandita. It's been a true pleasure connecting
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  with you and, hearing from you today, and
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  I look forward to speaking with you again
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  soon. Thank you so much, Laura, for having
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  me on.