Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / AI Governance, Cybersecurity, and Ambulatory Growth with Laura Dyrda

Transcript

AI Governance, Cybersecurity, and Ambulatory Growth with Laura Dyrda · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  - There's a small circle of people who truly
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  - understand what it takes to lead a health
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  - system right now. The decisions are enormous.
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  - The variables are constantly shifting, and the stakes
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  - of getting a call wrong don't stay contained.
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  - That's not a complaint. It's a structural reality.
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  - And it's why the most effective c suite
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  - leaders are deliberate about where they go to
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  - pressure test their thinking.
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  - Becker's fourteenth annual CEO and CFO roundtable
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  - brings together more than 1,500
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  - executive level attendees
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  - and nearly 400 speakers for four days built
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  - around growth, financial sustainability,
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  - workforce strategy, and the leadership questions that don't
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  - have easy answers.
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  - Join us November second through the fifth in
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  - Chicago.
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  - For the agenda and event details,
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  - visit beckershospitalreview.com
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  - and click on the events tab in the
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  - upper right.
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  - This is Scott Becker with the Becker's Healthcare
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  - podcast.
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  - I'm thrilled today to be joined by Laura
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  - Dirda.
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  - Laura's the editor in chief of Becker's Healthcare.
• 1:00
  - She joins us weekly to share with us
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  - a few of the key stories that she's
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  - watching in healthcare. Laura, I'm gonna tee it
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  - up and ask you to take it away.
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  - What are a couple of the stories, the
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  - trends that you're watching currently?
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  - Yeah. Absolutely. Well, thank you so much, Scott.
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  - I think a lot is happening right now
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  - in health care and certainly, you know, one
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  - of the big things that we have been
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  - following over the last couple weeks as additional
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  - news and trends emerge is just looking at
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  - AI, but not just AI, thinking through cybersecurity
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  - and what that means for hospitals and health
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  - systems. I think, you know, all hospital CIOs
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  - and CISOs and C suites in general have
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  - really kept their eye on what's happening in
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  - the cybersecurity space and trying to stay sharp
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  - to make sure that they're evolving as quickly
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  - as the technology is and and the potential
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  - threats coming from a variety of different fronts
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  - as AI proliferates. And so one of the
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  - things that we have been following closely is
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  - just the the types of governance that health
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  - systems are trying to incorporate. There hasn't been
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  - a lot of guidance until recently from the
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  - federal government about what they should be doing.
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  - And on June 2, president Trump signed an
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  - executive order directing federal agencies to strengthen its
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  - AI enabled cybersecurity
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  - across government systems
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  - and expand some of the protections for rural
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  - hospitals as well as critical infrastructure, which is
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  - so important because I I know that's something
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  - the administration hadn't been wanting to do a
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  - ton of, until recently. And it's been helpful
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  - for hospitals and health systems as they're thinking
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  - through their strategy to understand what the federal
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  - government is doing and best practices
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  - in guidance. And so among the most recent
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  - requirements was Homeland Security is now taking the
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  - next thirty days to provide some additional directive
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  - expanding AI powered cyber defenses
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  - across those systems and especially
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  - providing tools to local governments, rural hospitals, banks,
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  - and more so that they'll be able to,
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  - really have a stronger
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  - line of defense against these cyber attacks. I
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  - I know in the past,
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  - especially rural hospitals, community hospitals, and those that
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  - may not have the most resources for the
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  - strongest defensive have have been pretty vulnerable to
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  - cyberattacks.
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  - And so
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  - as we see an increased potential and possibility
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  - with AI to make those attacks more sophisticated,
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  - it's been critical to have that kind
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  - of defenses in place and then knowing what
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  - you need to do. And, again, something we've
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  - been hearing from,
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  - cybersecurity experts and CIOs in general is that
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  - one of the things they really are worried
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  - about in addition to the
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  - technology and being able to identify and, you
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  - know, prevent attacks,
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  - is also making sure that their teams are
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  - ready and prepared to,
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  - withstand
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  - any downtime that they might have because of
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  - cyberattacks
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  - and
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  - revert back to paper records and know what
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  - they need to do if they've been relying
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  - on technology in the operating room and how
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  - they really, can continue operations and providing critical
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  - care for patients,
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  - especially with the workforce
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  - primarily now that a lot of folks, you
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  - know, have never had to operate on paper
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  - records. It's always been electronic records and and
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  - reliant on technology. And so that's something
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  - that organizations are thinking deeply about and and
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  - trying to make sure that they're prepared for
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  - and ready for.
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  - Thank you. And the AI seems to be
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  - both helping the the attackers
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  - and the defense. So so fascinating to watch
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  - that accelerate.
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  - And and I guess the average cost of
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  - a serious data breach at a health system
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  - is a is a crazy amount of money.
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  - So and and, also, as you said, the
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  - concern about system shutdown
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  - versus the ceiling of records, all of those
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  - cause tremendous trouble for health systems and for
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  - patients as well. So we're watching cybersecurity,
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  - watching some new standards come into play, which
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  - will be challenging for people to put into
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  - place but needed.
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  - Tell us what else you're watching, Kelsey, besides
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  - the the continuing evolving threat of cybersecurity
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  - or or cybersecurity? Definitely.
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  - Absolutely.
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  - So,
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  - it it's been interesting. Again, another one of
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  - the the big, pieces of news coming out
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  - of,
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  - the health care space is looking at, on
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  - the technology front, being able to incorporate AI
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  - into the organizations, making people more builders. And
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  - so, you know, a lot of hospitals and
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  - health systems have bought enterprise wide accounts for
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  - their teams to learn how to build agents
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  - and figure out how they can, maximize their
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  - efficiencies. But at the same time,
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  - the token system by which,
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  - the AI companies are charging on,
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  - is just a fascinating
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  - wild west feel right now as some are
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  - potentially overcharging, some are undercharging.
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  - Likely, there'll be a balance in between over
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  - the next
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  - several months or so to to kinda balance
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  - that out. But in in the interim, CIOs
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  - are trying to understand how much use, that
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  - people have and what is actually necessary versus,
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  - you know, what, they might be spending time
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  - and resources and tokens on that aren't actually
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  - gonna return,
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  - much value into the health system. How do
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  - they balance all that, weigh all that, and
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  - then understand too those costs amount quickly? And,
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  - as companies evolve and potentially,
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  - you know, charge more for some of those
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  - tokens or or team members get more comfortable
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  - with AI and start using it for a
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  - good variety and good additional things, that's something,
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  - again, that's top of mind for the whole
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  - c suite as they're thinking about, you know,
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  - making transformational pushes,
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  - trying to be more innovative, and having teams
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  - that are ready for the workforce of the
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  - future and very AI enabled.
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  - It then comes down to, you know, what
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  - are the actual,
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  - use cases that are gonna make the most
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  - sense and how do you find that right
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  - balance. So at the end of the day,
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  - you're not getting huge bills or being surprised
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  - by how much it costs, in order to
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  - do this because oftentimes,
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  - you know, if somebody runs out of tokens,
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  - there'll be
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  - ways that,
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  - they continue to use and and upcharge with
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  - that. So it's been just fascinating,
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  - to kind of hear CIOs and CFOs talk
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  - through those things and,
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  - think through what is their actual strategy, how
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  - can they be smart about it, and,
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  - figure out what the the billing and and
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  - partnerships are gonna be with some of these,
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  - enterprise
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  - AI,
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  - contracts that they're forming.
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  - Right. And some of the enterprise AI contracts
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  - are really expensive. So people are trying to
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  - figure out how to weigh that with other
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  - vendors that aren't as expensive,
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  - and figuring out what's actually working, what's not
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  - working, and what they need. But but, yes,
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  - we're hearing some serious numbers around some of
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  - this stuff.
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  - For sure. And then I think, Scott, to
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  - make kind of a a right turn here,
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  - you know, in addition to all of the
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  - technologies
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  - happenings here, we're also watching very, very closely
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  - a good number of moves that are happening,
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  - just on the broader health care scale, thinking
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  - about, you know, mergers, acquisitions,
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  - what kind of,
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  - you know, where how the landscape escape is
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  - trending and shifting. And one of the big
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  - pieces of news,
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  - from early June has been that Ascension received
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  - the FTC's approval to move forward with its
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  - acquisition of AmSurge, but it does have to
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  - sell some of the ASCs,
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  - six ASCs in particular being divested
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  - in order to move forward with the acquisition.
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  - And so just finding that just interesting on
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  - on how the FTC is thinking about things
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  - and, what approvals it'll have, what what, you
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  - know, that means for the ambulatory strategies of
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  - other health systems going forward. Obviously, when it
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  - was announced, this was a huge deal and
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  - really seeing that Ascension is making investments in
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  - outpatient and ASCs in particular and seeing that
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  - as a huge part of their strategy for
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  - the future. So,
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  - that was another I I guess, big piece
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  - of news coming through is that that ability
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  - to approve the deal, but having to divest
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  - some of those surgery centers in order to
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  - get there.
• 8:26
  - No. That's fascinating. And currently, I think AMSURG
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  - gets 250 plus surgery centers. Mhmm. So having
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  - to get rid of six of them, you
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  - know, never fall on, but I assume that's
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  - a small price to pay to be able
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  - to get the deal done.
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  - I I think as I understand it that
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  - when they combine with Ascension,
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  - and I'm just looking at this, of course,
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  - right now, it's still about 300 centers nationwide.
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  - But, but but fascinating to see this, a
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  - big part of the play of Ascension to
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  - try and really become much more nimble and
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  - much more ambulatory driven.
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  - Fascinating leadership, great leadership, ascension. So fascinating to
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  - watch how this all plays out.
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  - Yep. Absolutely. It is it's just been, you
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  - know, really interesting to hear,
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  - the leaders talk about this and and think
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  - through what is their strategy gonna be as
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  - they're watching Ascension do this, other health systems,
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  - you know, really leaning more into ambulatory. How
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  - do they,
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  - you know, how are they navigating? Are they
• 9:16
  - partnering? Are they trying to build their own
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  - networks? What does it really take in order
• 9:20
  - to to smartly,
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  - build an outpatient ambulatory strategy? So we're keeping
• 9:24
  - a close eye on that, and we'll continue
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  - to see where the the industry goes.
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  - Oh, truly fascinating. Thank you so much. Laura,
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  - always great to visit with you. I always
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  - learn something. I love getting a chance to
• 9:36
  - stay updated. I hope our audience does too.
• 9:38
  - Thank you so much for joining us. I'll
• 9:40
  - see you this week at both the, orthopedic
• 9:42
  - spine and pain management driven ASC conference,
• 9:45
  - plus the Becker's healthcare rural health care transformation
• 9:47
  - summit. So looking forward to visiting with you
• 9:49
  - both. Thank you. Thank you, Scott.