Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Using AI and Connected Care to Improve Primary Care with Katherine Adams

Transcript

Using AI and Connected Care to Improve Primary Care with Katherine Adams · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:00
  - What we wanna do with AI is help
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  - clinicians go from being reactive
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  - to proactive.
• 0:05
  - At Philips, we can recognize patterns in monitoring
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  - data across populations
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  - and apply those insights to specific patients.
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  - Safe and responsible AI can support sharper insights,
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  - pave the way for faster diagnosis,
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  - and help streamline care.
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  - That can benefit clinicians, it can benefit health
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  - systems. And most importantly, it can benefit patients
• 0:29
  - and their families.
• 0:33
  - Phillips.
• 0:34
  - Hi, everyone. This is Gracelyn Keller with Becker's
• 0:36
  - Healthcare. Thank you so much for tuning in
• 0:38
  - to the Becker's Healthcare podcast series. We are
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  - recording live at the eleventh annual IT and
• 0:43
  - revenue cycle conference, the future of AI and
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  - digital health.
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  - Joining me for today's discussion is Katie Adams,
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  - who is the director of clinical operations and
• 0:52
  - primary care at CommonSpirit.
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  - So, Katie, thanks for being here. Thank you
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  - for having me. And let's jump right into
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  - our conversation.
• 0:59
  - So health systems are receiving a growing stream
• 1:02
  - of patient data from bedside monitoring, ambulatory devices,
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  - and care delivered at home.
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  - Where is that data creating actionable insights for
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  - clinicians, and where does it still create more
• 1:12
  - work than insight?
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  - Oh, wow. Well, the sheer volume of patient
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  - data can be incredibly overwhelming right now, and
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  - it often feels like it creates more work
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  - than insight.
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  - However, when we can organize that data and
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  - have it very well organized for the clinicians,
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  - it makes it much easier for them to
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  - complete their
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  - tasks.
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  - We use that quite a bit in our
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  - ambulatory practices and primary care with ambient listening
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  - in the exam rooms.
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  - That really helps our providers
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  - stay patient focused
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  - and paying attention to the patient in front
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  - of them and allowing the technology to do
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  - all of the data collection that they need.
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  - And in fact, they come away with better
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  - notes, more comprehensive notes, and less of the
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  - cognitive burden that they have today.
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  - So it really does a nice job if
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  - it can organize that data well for the
• 1:59
  - providers.
• 2:01
  - And when clinicians are trying to reach a
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  - diagnosis, they often must piece together information from
• 2:06
  - radiology, cardiology,
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  - pathology, urology, all of these other systems.
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  - Where does that fragmentation create the most friction
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  - in your organization? And how do you bring
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  - that to bring together data sources to address
• 2:17
  - the fragmentation or close the gap?
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  - I'm excited to say CommonSpirit is transitioning to
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  - a single unified electronic medical record over the
• 2:25
  - coming years, so we'll all be on Epic
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  - here soon enough.
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  - In the meantime, though, our providers are having
• 2:31
  - to piece together patient data in order to
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  - tell a comprehensive story about the care that
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  - they're
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  - providing. That's an intense amount of time and
• 2:39
  - administrative burden that we do place on our
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  - providers.
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  - So when we do get to a unified
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  - record, I think that'll improve significantly.
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  - It doesn't fix the external providers and the
• 2:50
  - external data issues, but it does mean that,
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  - they'll be able to make better decisions for
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  - their patients downstream
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  - in the future.
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  - And patients increasingly move among the hospital, outpatient
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  - settings, and home.
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  - Where does clinical contacts most often get lost
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  - during these transitions, and what would it take
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  - to give care teams a more continuous view
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  - of the patient?
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  - The biggest gap I see is that transition
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  - from inpatient to outpatient,
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  - especially in our primary care practices.
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  - You know, as a patient, I don't think
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  - of myself as being inpatient or outpatient.
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  - My medical record, my health is
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  - comprehensive to my myself,
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  - and I don't wanna have to do the
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  - work of bringing all that data with me
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  - to every visit.
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  - We haven't
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  - fixed that for our own practice yet at
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  - CommonSpirit. When we move to Unified Medical Record,
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  - we will see that improvement come. However, we're
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  - not waiting for that to come. We're we're
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  - acting now. So in our Phoenix in our
• 3:43
  - Phoenix market where I sit,
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  - we are working very closely with our freestanding
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  - EDs to, coordinate a warm handoff
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  - from our
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  - EDs and our hospitals to the primary care
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  - practice so patients get the comprehensive care and
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  - follow-up that they deserve.
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  - And with so many AI use cases competing
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  - for attention, how do you distinguish a compelling
• 4:02
  - pilot from something ready to become part of
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  - everyday care, and what must be in place
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  - to scale it properly?
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  - It is incredibly difficult to tell the difference
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  - between what is hype and what is actually
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  - a really useful tool.
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  - I, as an administrator, rely heavily on my
• 4:17
  - dyad partners, my physician leaders, my nurse leaders,
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  - advanced practitioners, and all the other clinical staff
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  - who, provide care. I really need them at
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  - my side when we are assessing the different
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  - tools that are out there. I wanna make
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  - sure that what we bring in is actually
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  - solving patient care issues, actually helping our providers
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  - to provide the best possible care. And that
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  - is not only from the point when we
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  - select the software, but it's also when we
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  - go to design and implement and scale that
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  - software up across the organization. I really need
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  - that perspective to make sure we are hitting
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  - the mark when it comes to introducing AI
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  - into the organization.
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  - And as technology relationships move beyond one time
• 4:57
  - purchases, what should a partner remain accountable for
• 4:59
  - after go live to make the relationship genuinely
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  - valuable over time?
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  - Well, prior to go live, I wanna see
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  - our partners, our tech partners,
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  - having the same level of commitment towards patient
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  - safety, not only their information, safety of the
• 5:13
  - data that they hold, but also patient safety,
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  - quality of care that we provide.
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  - Post implementation,
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  - I need their,
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  - ongoing partnership to make sure the AI tools
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  - are continuing to learn. We're continuing to enhance
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  - the quality of the,
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  - outcomes. We're avoiding hallucinations. We're staying fine tuned,
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  - and they really need to be at our
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  - hip throughout that process in order for us
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  - to really be successful long term.
• 5:39
  - And finally, as care increasingly moves beyond hospital
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  - walls, how are you using connected technologies and
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  - AI to identify patients who need earlier follow-up,
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  - support care coordination teams, and close gaps in
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  - post discharge chair care.
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  - Remote patient monitoring
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  - is one of the many tools that we
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  - look to to, track our patients after they've
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  - left the hospital, left our clinic,
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  - and we often are using those tools today
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  - to be able to discern when a patient
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  - has a change in their care that they
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  - may not even know that's happened,
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  - a change in their blood pressure, a change
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  - in,
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  - their,
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  - glucose level. So we use those tools today
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  - to preventively
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  - reach out to patients and make sure they
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  - get care before an incident occurs.
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  - Wonderful. Well, Katie, thanks so much for joining
• 6:23
  - me today and sharing these time and insights.
• 6:26
  - And we also wanna thank our podcast sponsor,
• 6:28
  - Philips. You can tune in to more podcasts
• 6:30
  - from Becker's Healthcare by visiting the podcast page
• 6:32
  - at beccarshospitalreview.com.
• 6:35
  - Thank you.