Transcript

Gary Lynch · Calm Under Fire

Col. John Boggs: Welcome to Calm Under Fire. I'm Colonel John Boggs, and I'm the president of Fortitude Consulting. And Fortitude Consulting is a executive leadership development and coaching firm. And today we have with us Gary Lynch. Now, Gary spent more than two decades leading digital transformation across health care from providers and payers to life sciences and consumer health. His work is focused on helping organizations prepare for what's coming next. Building the infrastructure and systems needed to support emerging technologies and a more connected, accessible healthcare experience. Today, we're talking about leadership under pressure. When you're making decisions today that will shape outcomes years down the road. Now, after a successful corporate career, Gary stepped away to focus on a mission-driven approach. building Robin Hood Telehealth to bring personalized, accessible, and performance-driven healthcare directly to individuals. And we'll talk about that at the end of the program here. Gary, welcome. I'm really glad to have you, brother. Gary Lynch: Yeah, thank you. I appreciate you. You let me join. Col. John Boggs: Absolutely. Well, Gary, do you mind if we jump right into it? Gary Lynch: Sure, let's do it. Col. John Boggs: Okay, Gary, you spent a career working on what's coming next in healthcare. When did you first realize how much pressure comes with leading ahead of the curve? Gary Lynch: Well, I realized it early on, you know, while working on large scale healthcare transformation initiatives, where the technology was moving faster than the organizations that were adopting it, you know, and working for a large for-profit publicly traded company was interesting because where I had responsibility for innovation, I also had responsibility to return a number. And doing both of those at the same time can typically be challenging, right? Because if you're focused on innovation, you're setting up your company, your organization for the future. So lots of Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Gary Lynch: different types of pressures, you know, with that when you're leading innovation team, but then you also have new business development teams, right? So what that experience taught me was that, you know, leadership, it isn't just about reacting to change. It's about preparing people and organizations for what's coming next, you know, before it becomes obvious. Col. John Boggs: So what's different about leading when the outcomes of your decisions won't be fully visible for years down the road? Gary Lynch: Well, it requires balance and innovation with responsibility, right? So moving fast enough to stay ahead, but thoughtfully enough to build something sustainable and trusted. You you have to have lots of patience, know, lots of convictions and, you know, great leaders in that environment are certainly comfortable operating with uncertainty, right? While still creating clarity and direction for their teams. You know, just kind of building that trust. It's a challenging position to be in. It's one that I was really excited to be in because so much was happening in the healthcare space, right? With Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Gary Lynch: all this artificial intelligence conversations, know, augmented reality, virtual reality, you know, lots of excitement, right? Lots of excitement. But if the hospitals and the health systems don't have the right infrastructure today, you know, they're going to have a tough time. you know, being able to grow and accommodate what's coming next, right? So, fun challenge. Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Okay. Well, that's gotta be a challenge, because there always seems to be a gap between what's possible with technology and what the organization can actually implement. So how do you deal with that? How do you handle that? Gary Lynch: Yeah, you know organizations rarely struggle because the technology doesn't work. They struggle because people workflows and cultures, you know, need time to adapt and the strongest leaders, you know, create alignment early. They communicate the why clearly the built trust throughout the transition process. And the goal is to introduce change in a way that creates momentum instead of resistance while keeping your teams focused on those long-term goals. So. Certainly lots of tension with an environment like that in healthcare, right? Because you always tell everybody, and it's interesting, I was in a role where I was managing teams across the globe, right? So at Verizon, I had Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Gary Lynch: global solutions for healthcare, and it was interesting to see how the different countries approached healthcare. And obviously the US, we were very different, and why are we very different? Well, there's two things that dictated healthcare in our country and it's focused on reimbursements and regulatory changes. mean, every four years it seems like coming out of DC is a different regulatory environment. The reimbursement Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Gary Lynch: typically is always a moving target. So lots of tensions. always feel for all of our health system leaders out there, how they're continued to ask to do more with less. you know, every year. And physicians, our physicians in this country, the same. You they're always asked to do more with less. And then more technology on their plate, and then they have to try to figure out, you know, how to maneuver through that. Because again, regulatory reimbursement is what drives, you know, our healthcare system. So lots of tensions coming from all different perspectives in our system. Col. John Boggs: Okay. Is there ever a situation where they're, you know, you do more with less? that's, is there a point where people underestimate what the capabilities are and they don't use them to their... to the level that they can. Gary Lynch: Yeah, no, that's a great question. They underestimate the infrastructure and the process changes that are needed to accommodate all of those changes. Leaders Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Gary Lynch: often overestimate how quickly organizations can adapt culturally, right? And I always say that being an effective leader, and especially being an effective technology leader, implementing technology, there's a a big focus on change management that comes with that. yeah, definitely leaders often do overestimate how quickly organizations can adapt culturally and then underestimate how those underlying systems of transformative artificial intelligence that connect the data become Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Gary Lynch: once those systems are properly aligned. Technology moves fast and organizational readiness usually moves much, much slower. Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Okay. Well, you've worked on building infrastructure for emerging technologies like AI, AI, AR, VR. What makes those decisions so high stakes for organizations today? Gary Lynch: Yeah, definitely some of my favorite and my funnest areas in healthcare in my career is watching this evolution of augmented reality and virtual reality. I I saw physicians putting on Google Holo lenses and overlaying three-dimensional image on patients to where they could see where the Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Gary Lynch: tumor is, guide his or her incision, use AI-enabled gloves to do digital twins of spines and pull them out, rotate them. So really some amazing, Col. John Boggs: Wow. Gary Lynch: amazing advances. in, you know, when you look at US healthcare system, you know, we're at the top of the list on innovation. So there's no shortage of innovation. There's no shortage of technology. But in healthcare infrastructure decisions are high stakes because ultimately the patient kind of sits at the center of that universe, right? And if the patient isn't, then it certainly should be. Everything that is done in healthcare. is built around the patient at the core center. And I've worked with some big health systems, some of the more progressive health systems in the world. And I actually had this conversation on AI and AR and VR and some things that I wanted to do and I wanted to help kind of get the infrastructure ready for it. And the CIO of this particular health system pushed back and said, hey, we're not ready for that type of technology if it impacts patient care. Because at the end of what we do, it's all about the patient. Our focus is driving better clinical outcomes, better patient outcomes, more of an accessible healthcare system. So when you start talking Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Gary Lynch: about those emerging technologies, you always have to make sure that it's built around what we do in healthcare, and that is put the patient at the center of that universe, if you will. So high stakes Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Gary Lynch: indeed, because we all... Doesn't matter if you're a patient today, we're all consumers of healthcare in the United States, right? At some point, we'll all be more than a consumer. So it's important, it's high stakes for all of us. Col. John Boggs: Yeah, holy smokes. Have you noticed? Well, let me say this the right way. Have you ever seen organizations go too deep, fast with the technology? Yeah, I understand you're saying that. Go ahead. Gary Lynch: I have. I have. Yeah. I have. know, there's lots of trends. You every year I go to the big shows in healthcare, all the big health IT shows, and there's always a new trend, right? And you have to be careful because you need to make sure you're building these adaptable systems instead of chasing these trends. And I have seen some individuals kind of tracing chasing more of these trends in technology, these trends in innovation. And my always, my caution and my counsel to them is let's make sure we're building adaptable systems, right? Because, know, as the technology advances, as it changes, you know, you guys will be prepared for it. You know, if you're, if you're building a brand new hospital, you know, make sure you're laying some pretty big, some pretty big avenues for, you know, future, um, piping, future advancements. So make sure you're building Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Gary Lynch: adaptable systems, because who knows what's going to happen in 10 years. I certainly have my thoughts on what's going to happen in 10 years in this health care system. We've already seen some places across the country that are doing remote surgeries. I think within 10 years, that's going to be the norm in the US, that we are going to be doing a physician on one side of the country that's going to be operating with somebody on the other side of the country. So to do that and to take in And to do it effectively, right? Because the previous question, we talked Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Gary Lynch: about the patient at the center of this healthcare universe and making sure you're building your technology Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Gary Lynch: around it. You also need to build these adaptable systems and this infrastructure that can accommodate, you know, those new bandwidths, right? I mean, can you just imagine, you know, at Verizon, I talked a lot about 5G and the power of 5G, ultra wideband, low latency, what it can do for hospital systems. But can you imagine the bandwidth requirements when we start talking about, you know, virtual surgeries, you know? And so, yeah, but building adaptable systems is essential in today's landscape. Col. John Boggs: That's amazing. The whole thought of this is mind-blowing. So where does good judgment, how does that roll in? Who's making these judgments? Hey, this is what we need. Who's the guy, who's the gal that's making those decisions? Gary Lynch: Yeah. Well, those leaders making those decisions definitely need to focus on governance, scalability, interoperability. I mentioned about building adaptable systems instead of chasing these trends. And that is Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Gary Lynch: good judgment, right? mean, good judgment means building those adaptable systems rather than chasing those trends. So having strong leaders that balance innovation with stability and operational reality, I love that word. operational reality, right? Because we like to talk about innovation and I led an innovation team on my days at Verizon and we talked about some really kind of really exciting areas, you know, and I always had to make sure I threw out that operational reality kind of idea because let's not get too far out there. But it's a Definitely need a strong leader that can balance all that. It's a challenge, you know, and I've certainly met a lot of them in my career, but I think the work that you're doing, John, Col. John Boggs: Wow, operational. Gary Lynch: yeah, I think the work that you're doing in that space is very helpful as well, you know, helping folks kind of balance those areas. Col. John Boggs: Well, thank you. But I mean, this is really amazing stuff. Operational reality. that's this... Is this more of a function of do you need it? How does it work for you? I've heard, I've often heard, and you may have also, that over 90 % of AI projects fail. Now that's my word, fail. I think the word that's used is doesn't have economic value. So is it the Gary Lynch: Yes. Col. John Boggs: same way in healthcare? Gary Lynch: Yeah, you know, it absolutely is. It absolutely is. I I always kind of paint the healthcare picture. You know, when I'm doing talks, I kind of address three different areas, right? You know, where are our biggest challenges in the US healthcare system? And for me, you know, it's access number one. It's affordability number two. And then number three kind of goes along the lines of why I built Robin Hood Telehealth, right? And it's to focus on preventative healthcare. It's precision medicine, it's wellness, those types of things. So I think those three areas are for me the most important, know, access and affordability. I was about to go into a full commercial around Robin Hood Telehealth. I'll pull back on that one. Col. John Boggs: Well, I'm going to ask you about that here before we close this thing out, because that just sounds too interesting. That just sounds too interesting. Gary Lynch: Okay, well that's good. That's good. Yeah, awesome. Col. John Boggs: OK, well, I want to hurry up and get to that myself. health care is one of the most complex systems there is. So how do leaders maintain clarity with all this technology and what you pointed out, regulation? and with the patient staying in the center of this whole thing. I mean, how do leaders maintain clarity with all of this? Gary Lynch: Yeah, yeah, no, it's a lot. It's a lot. You know, you definitely have to stay anchored to the mission, right? And that mission is improving patient outcomes, right? And access to care. I talked about access to care. You know, there's some stats in the, know, depending on where you get your information, where you get your statistics, who's driving those statistics, they can change a little bit. But, you know, there's a lot that say that, you U.S., we kind of lead in innovation and healthcare. But unfortunately, we're not. We're not at the top when it comes to clinical outcomes. And, you know, I get some pushback on that one. So it does depend on how you're analyzing the data and looking at the data. But regardless, Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Gary Lynch: you to, you need to stay anchored to the mission and that's improving patient outcomes and improving access to care. You know, again, that was one of the three that I always focus on that our biggest challenges in our healthcare system is access to care. But it's a complex system, as you mentioned, you know, maintaining clarity with technology. these regulations, patient outcomes, they do all intersect. you know, that clarity comes from, you know, you need leaders that understand the business side and the clinical side, you know, of this space. And I was fortunate in my career, I started out on the payer side. So I worked for, you know, United Healthcare in my first job out of college. And then I switched to the Col. John Boggs: Mmm. Gary Lynch: hospital side, the provider side, I was managing emergency rooms. So was working. So it was an interesting way to begin my career that I started out on the payer side and then I went to the provider side. Col. John Boggs: and Gary Lynch: So I saw these challenges, I saw these dynamics between these two entities that were directing and guiding our healthcare system. And it was eye-opening to me, but certainly it gives you a bit of complete clarity when you understand both of those. And I've worked with lots of leaders in the healthcare space that also have that. You know, lots of really great clinician leaders out there who have the business acumen and skills. And then those are really the leaders that we need, you know, to help kind of drive us into this next evolution of this health ecosystem. Col. John Boggs: You're talking about the leaders that ensure the technology actually improves the human experience. Gary Lynch: Yes. Yes. If it's not improving patient outcomes, it's like, what are we doing? Right? I mean, at the end of the day, you can have the new shiny, fancy little widget, but if it's not improving patient outcomes, then you're kind of wasting your time because that's what it's all about. You know, we need to lower costs, Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Gary Lynch: we need to improve clinical outcomes, and we need to improve access, you know? And if it's not doing one of those three things, then you're probably spending your time in wrong place. Col. John Boggs: So what gets this, you're talking about it. Leaders get lost from focusing on the system, not as much on the people. Is that what I'm, okay. Gary Lynch: That's correct. You certainly need to build strong teams and trusted partnerships. Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Gary Lynch: That's how these leaders avoid getting overwhelmed. Col. John Boggs: So what is working at this where technology and healthcare, it all meets, technology, healthcare, what's that taught you about leading under pressure? Gary Lynch: wow, that's a tough one. Col. John Boggs: Yeah. Gary Lynch: Yeah, you know, I've learned lots of lessons over the years, right? And you know, I've worked for some very large organizations and got pressures from all sides, right? Leading innovation teams Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Gary Lynch: where you're preparing for the future, leading business development teams where you're responsible for a number today. You know, balancing all of that is certainly challenging, Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Gary Lynch: you know. I make sure that, you know, I always say, you know, every good leader is also a good salesman, know, a good salesperson, whether you're talking to customers or you're selling your ideas to the people who report to you, you know, they need to be on the same, the same path with you are as you move forward, you know, kind of Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Gary Lynch: make sure that they kind of understand, you know, the overall mission, you you develop those trusted partnerships. So, but yeah, it's a challenging environment. It's a lot for healthcare leaders to have to juggle, you know, like with just this ever-changing landscape, like I'd mentioned previously, this reimbursement regulatory Col. John Boggs: Amen. Gary Lynch: landscape, it's ever-changing. know, I mean, anytime there's new administration, you know, there's gonna be a new focus when it comes to healthcare. you know, the healthcare leaders out there have to keep their head on a swivel. They have to be an amazing... agents of change, right? Amazing agents of change. Col. John Boggs: I Gary Lynch: Very flexible, you know, in their approach. I was going to say roll with the punches, but I'm not going to say that. I'll pull that one back, but you need to be flexible and adaptable, certainly to handle all those pressures that come at you. Col. John Boggs: Okay, well those companies that aren't flexible, the organizations that, you have organizations that they're successful, they innovate, and then you have those that seem to fall behind. What separates them? Where is the difference? What is it? Gary Lynch: you know, I'd say, you know, adoption drops when technology feels disconnected, you know, from real human needs. And it kind of goes back to that, you know, at the end of the day, the patients at the middle of the universe, everything we do needs to kind of build up around it. I mean, healthcare is, is very personal. It's, it's emotional. It's not just, you know, operational and the best innovation improves both efficiency, you know, and the human experience, you know, kind of all, all at the same time. You know, it's a balancing act. Trust can get lost very quickly. But yeah, it's kind of all goes back to everything that I do when it comes to healthcare. When I think about leadership, I just think about that patient at the center of the universe, building up everything that you do around it. If you're not touching and improving clinical outcomes, you're probably focused on the wrong things. I know I've said that a few times, but it's that important. you know, and so I'll just say it one more time. Col. John Boggs: Yeah, it almost seems as though it's too easy to lose the patient in this. Gary Lynch: Correct. Yeah. Col. John Boggs: Wow, okay. All right, okay, it's killing me. I gotta ask you, can you tell us more about Robin Hood telehealth? And Gary Lynch: Yeah. Col. John Boggs: I mean, that sounds very interesting. Gary Lynch: Yeah, well thank you. And I'm excited about Robin Hood Telehealth because my undergrad degree is clinical dietetics. So I started out focusing on dietetics, clinical nutrition. And sports and nutrition was something very important to me. then in my professional career, I focused on technology. So it was all health care related technology. like I mentioned, when people talk about three issues in healthcare, what are they? For me, it's affordability, it's access, and then it's a lack of prevention. Everybody talks about removing costs from the healthcare equation, and my comment is, what about if you don't even become part of the healthcare equation? We're talking about removing all these administrative costs, but what if people are just healthier? 40 % of America are pre-diabetic. What about if we have more focus on wellness and actual prevention and nutrition? So that's why I kind of stepped away with what I was doing in the corporate space and started Robin Hood Telehealth. I can do, say if I did, John, if I did a cheek swab in you, I could run a methylation test for you. I could tell you how your body processes different nutrients. Can you convert B12 to its methylated active form? And different Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Gary Lynch: things like that. So I've taken more of a scientific approach, if you will, to nutrition and Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Gary Lynch: to wellness. My app just went live in the Apple App Store two days ago. So super, super excited about that. Col. John Boggs: Congratulations. Gary Lynch: Thank you. It's called Robin Hood Wellness Hub. And so what I'm doing is people can fill out a quick health assessment, answer a few questions about what their goals are. And I give them a free meal plan, you know, so a free meal plan focused on any inflammatory foods, antioxidant foods. Now I do make some vitamin and supplement recommendations in there and those things I do sell, so that's where I have to pay the bills. I Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Gary Lynch: make some recommendations on those things. But I wanted an avenue to give people just some free advice around what to eat and how to do that. And with Robin Hood, and the reason I call it Robin Hood is as much as I hate to say Stulf and Merch, give the poor kind of the Robin Hood theme, my plan is to be able to offer virtual care services to our underserved. population in libraries. And so I'm having some conversations here in my backyard in Dallas about, you know, for folks who, know, again, what's the one of the biggest challenges I've mentioned a few times is access. Think about some of the people. Col. John Boggs: Access, yeah. Gary Lynch: Yeah. Think about some of the people who just, who don't have access, who don't know where to go. Anytime they have an issue, where do they go? They go to emergency department. They're, you 40 % of the people in in the ED could have been handled by a virtual care visit. So I want an avenue for those individuals. where they can go get some free virtual care, you know. And my plan initially is in library, so that's why it's Robinhood Telehealth. It's a big health equity focus, if you will, but also going back Col. John Boggs: Mm-hmm. Gary Lynch: to my roots around clinical dietetics, want to give people good recommendations on food, try to prevent people from being one of these cost drivers in our healthcare system. How about we just stay out of this system and keep them healthy, you know? That's why I did that. So thank you for asking me about it. Col. John Boggs: absolutely, absolutely. Well, how do people reach out to you, Gary, if they want to get better, they want to get healthy, they want to stay Gary Lynch: Yeah. Col. John Boggs: healthy, how do they reach out to you? Gary Lynch: Yeah, well my website is Robinhoodtelehealth.com. So just simply www.robinhoodtelehealth.com. I'm in the app store, the Apple App Store under Robinhood Wellness Hub. So download the app, see what you think, get you a free meal plan. If I can help you out with some of the other medical optimizations, vitamins and supplements, I do have a whole line in that space. So I'm a pretty active athlete. I compete in the USAA. cycling. Not the Olympic team. I should be careful when I say that. I'm in the Masters division, so I'm racing against the dudes my age, know, on cycling. So I'm pretty active in that space. Can't compete in Strongman anymore, so you know, not big enough. So I had to... I got to compete in something, so now it's cycling. But yeah, if I can help anyone, would love to try. Col. John Boggs: Outstanding. Wow. Gary, thank you very much. This has been absolutely spectacular. It's been wonderful. And your message is clear about health. Really, your message is clear. Stay healthy. Don't even get in the system because you're healthy. And that's the smartest piece of advice going here. That is it. So ladies and gentlemen, reach out to Gary. Stay healthy. Part of being a good leader is you got to be healthy. You got to be healthy enough to lead You don't want to get out there and suddenly you're in charge and the pressure took you out. No, that's not good at all. So Reach out to Gary Gary Lynch: Right. Col. John Boggs: Robin Hood telehealth comm that's Robin Hood telehealth comm Now he's also got an app which I really love that Robin Hood wellness hub Robin Hood Wellness Hub. All right, folks. Gary, thank you very much. I greatly appreciate you being here today. Your message is really clear, brother, I mean to tell you. Thank you so much. I greatly appreciate it. And to everyone else. Gary Lynch: Thank you. Enjoyed it. Col. John Boggs: Thank you, Gary. Thank you. And to everyone else out there who's listening in, stay healthy, stay solid with your leadership and That's it from here, I'll talk to you later, out here.