Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT / Transforming Healthcare with Pixel Health: A Conversation with Barbara Casey

Transcript

Transforming Healthcare with Pixel Health: A Conversation with Barbara Casey · Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT

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  Hello, everyone, and thank you for tuning in
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  to the Becker's Healthcare podcast.
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  We are thrilled to be joined today by
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  Barbara Casey, president of strategy and transformation at
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  Pixel Health. Barbara, thank you so much for
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  joining us.
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  Thank you, Laura. I'm so happy to be
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  here. Thanks for having me. Absolutely. Now I'm
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  excited for today's conversation.
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  Really, we have a lot to talk about
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  it and so much is happening in health
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  care. It's can be hard to keep up.
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  So that'd be great to jump right in.
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  Can you please tell us a little bit
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  more about Pixel Health? Sure. Sure. We are
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  a digital health consulting services organization.
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  We help design and plan and implement technology
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  based solutions
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  that simplify and improve the way health care
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  organizations operate.
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  We are also very collaborative with our clients.
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  We work with them side by side,
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  and
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  we pretty much have integrated
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  consulting services as well as technology services.
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  We facilitate the use of technology,
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  simplify the process
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  of using it, and help overcome the organizational
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  constraints
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  many times of optimizing its adoption.
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  Absolutely. I know that optimization piece is always
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  easier said than done. So I can imagine
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  a lot of organizations and leaders, you know,
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  would be music to their ears. How is
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  Pixel Health working to address the most pressing
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  issues in health care IT today?
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  So we have 4 distinct areas, Laura, that
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  we focus on.
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  Couple that are more on the,
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  process and people side are connected health care
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  and accessible health care. So in connected health
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  care, we think of that as everything that
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  is related to data, how it flows
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  from the infrastructure
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  to connecting
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  people, devices,
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  you know, business processes,
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  all of those things, let's say, for providers.
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  It's also the staff, you know, supporting doctors,
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  supporting nurses, and inpatient as well as remote
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  locations. How do we do that?
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  Accessible health care really is more about access.
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  So it's about patient access optimization.
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  And as we think about these audiences, we
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  we think about the experiences that people wanna
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  have. So for its staff, it's in the
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  work environment.
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  If it's patients, it's with their caregivers and
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  clinicians, right, their doctors, how they get into
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  the health system.
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  Is it digital? Is it self-service? Is it
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  through a contact center?
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  We do all kinds of
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  consulting that supports those efforts
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  for those different stakeholders.
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  The third area that we cover and work
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  on is what we call our IT foundation
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  services.
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  And this is really to promote resilient, secure,
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  and cost effective
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  IT.
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  We work with our clients and their IT
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  organizations
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  to really help them figure out how to
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  how to just improve and optimize what they
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  do.
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  We also have a lot of deep expertise
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  in infrastructure,
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  mostly on the networking side, I would say,
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  and the telecommunications
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  side.
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  So we we do a lot of work
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  there, and we really have a platform and
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  architectural approach
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  when we work with with our health system
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  clients.
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  The 4th area that we work on is
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  more about the how. So I would say
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  it's innovation and and adoption.
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  In that particular
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  pillar,
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  we end up doing a lot of human
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  centered design work,
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  journey mapping, things like that. You know, really
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  defining the experiences that we wanna have in
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  any of the digital health services that we're
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  providing.
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  We also do organizational
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  design,
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  product thinking type workshops, so really organizing an
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  IT department or even
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  health system by product types,
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  and then really thinking about how to weave
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  in innovation
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  as well as sunsetting some capabilities.
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  So that's really more about
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  product and service development and how to keep
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  that fresh inside of an organization.
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  So that's more almost how how do we
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  how do you run your health system, and
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  we focus on those things as well as
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  we're developing new ideas with our clients.
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  Well, that's amazing to hear, you know, and
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  certainly a really needed service, for most health
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  care organizations.
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  Now looking ahead, what strategic areas is your
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  organization focusing on to enhance your clients' performance?
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  So we do have a couple of areas
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  that we're focused on. In in that connected
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  health care space,
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  we are
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  ideating and working with our clients on what
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  we're calling spaces that care.
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  So that's imagine
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  the actual hospital room
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  as being a member of the care team,
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  if you will.
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  So the hospital room itself is ambient aware.
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  It's sensor rich. It's context aware. It starts
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  automating
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  possibly
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  business processes that nurses don't have time to
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  do.
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  It, you know, it acts almost like a
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  member of the care team if it's doing
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  its job. It's underpinned by AI,
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  and so it's really enabled, and it it
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  becomes a whole new vision
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  for, I think, a lot of what we
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  wanna be able to do in the inpatient
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  setting. So that's one.
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  A second one is really the whole idea
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  of access optimization
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  and, you know, how do we really help
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  health systems increase
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  prioritizing
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  patient access? Or, I mean, it's, I shouldn't
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  say, it's it is a priority for health
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  systems today, for sure,
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  recognizing their critical role in delivering care.
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  However, you know, digital progression,
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  we find, is often hindered by operational constraints
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  in this area.
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  Sometimes if health system wants to go full
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  bore with online scheduling,
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  they are sort of plagued by what's happening
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  in their physician practices in terms of the
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  workflows and the way that doctors want to
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  schedule,
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  you know, and it it is a shared
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  experience. Right? It's a shared experience between a
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  patient and a doctor, so we have to
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  respect
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  both stakeholders in that analysis
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  and really do the work
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  sometimes on operations,
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  to help make some of those digital self-service
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  things happen. So we're we're doing a lot
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  of those things right now to really change
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  the way
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  health care experiences for patients in terms of
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  access can just be a lot more like
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  what we would experience
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  with other industries.
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  You know, being able just to do everything
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  you wanna do on your phone and
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  and not necessarily having to call somebody to
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  make an appointment as an example or or
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  get in to see somebody quickly.
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  That makes a lot of sense. You know?
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  And I can imagine truly,
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  something patients would be excited about too. As
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  we all know, having that access on the
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  phone and seamless ability to have more control
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  over the health care experience certainly is something,
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  patients have wanted and needed.
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  Now from your perspective, can you share an
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  example of where Pixel Health has done this?
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  Sure.
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  I'll go to the connected health care space
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  side. So one of the things that we've
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  done recently and and implemented
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  with is with Boston Children's. We did a
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  about a two and a half year project
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  with them as
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  one of their work streams to upgrade their
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  EHR to Epic. They went all Epic. They
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  had multiple
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  EHR systems, and and they recently implemented Epic
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  in the summer.
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  And as a work stream there, they also,
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  at the same time, mind you, wanted to
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  implement their clinical communications
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  technology stack and have that go live literally
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  at the same time.
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  And so we did a a number of
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  different things with them to make that happen
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  and make it go well for the nurses
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  and doctors treating patients.
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  One of the things we did was really
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  understand their connectivity.
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  So,
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  really making sure that their network was working
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  well so that when a doctor or a
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  nurse went to have a phone call or
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  do a secure text or, you know, put
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  in some documentation
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  that it actually worked,
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  that the connectivity was there, and and it
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  it they didn't drop calls, and they didn't
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  lose their place in their workflow.
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  So we implemented
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  a 5 g private network, a stand alone
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  5 g network with the assistance of T
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  Mobile.
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  That was a big work stream in that
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  project,
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  and it was the first of its kind.
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  And nowhere else had there been a stand
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  alone 5 g network specifically
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  to underpin the clinical care team
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  and all the different things that they're trying
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  to get done. So that was interesting. And
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  we also,
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  implemented
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  several
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  systems to make sure that the technology would
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  work for doctors and nurses the day they
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  showed up. And
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  and that took a long time because it
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  was really, you know, getting those systems to
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  actually go live correctly
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  on the day and be
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  really staggered to do that,
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  as well as just all the work flows.
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  So we worked with them kind of unit
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  by unit to really create what are the
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  workflows that are gonna be optimized, and and
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  then how do we make sure it all
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  works the way they would want it to
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  in the experience that they wanted to have.
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  We we're really big on human centered design
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  work, so we start typically
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  with the experience that that our care teams
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  wanna have. In this case, you know, in
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  a patient, it might be a patient experience
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  that we're really trying to map, like, a
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  journey
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  and understand what that needs to be like.
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  So that's where we've done it recently, and
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  they're they're having a lot of stick of
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  success right now
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  in terms of their clinical communications of work.
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  That's fascinating to hear, and what a great
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  opportunity to be part of something first ever,
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  really in the nation and then to see
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  it be successful as well at a place
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  as important as a children's hospital. I I
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  can imagine that's very gratifying and certainly impressive.
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  Looking ahead, what excites you about the power
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  of information and technology in health care?
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  Well, I know it's probably
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  said often, but
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  AI is is extremely
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  exciting and powerful
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  and, you know, I guess that's the the
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  scary part of it too is that it
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  could be there are risks involved. And so
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  we all have to chart carefully into those
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  waters and and understand, you know, what governance
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  should be there or, you know, what are
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  sort of the the boundaries that we should
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  put on it. But at least from the
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  things that we've seen in working with our
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  clients and really trying to do,
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  I call it augmented intelligence as opposed to
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  artificial intelligence, because I think
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  the augmentation
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  really to the humans
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  is so important. I think that's the piece
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  that that's really going to to be the
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  game changer is that it can hopefully allow
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  us to
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  get more complex or, you know, allow the
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  human to really do what the human does
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  well,
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  and and then alleviate some of the burden,
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  you know, cognitive or otherwise, that individuals are
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  trying to to master
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  on a daily basis and, you know, hopefully
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  do a lot of the rote or repetitive
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  type motions
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  for us or, you know, whether that's writing
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  or
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  business process automation or, you know, whatever that
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  is. That's I think it'll be a game
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  changer, and I know everybody else does too.
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  I also think
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  because of all this advanced tech,
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  there are
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  some basics that we need to go back
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  to
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  in terms of going slower to go faster,
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  and,
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  I think doing just a lot more thoughtful,
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  focused planning,
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  using human centered design, you know, doing
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  a lot of the journey maps up front,
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  you know, defining those experiences we wanna have
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  up front
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  will really help us go faster in terms
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  of how we then implement new technologies
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  in the future. So
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  that's maybe a little twist on your question.
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  I love that. I I think it makes
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  a lot of sense. You know, it's really
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  exciting to be part of that wave of
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  innovation that's happening right now in the health
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  care space and really making very positive changes
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  for health care teams as well as their
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  patients and communities at large. I wanna thank
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  you, Barbara, for sharing your time and insights
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  with us today and Pixel Health for sponsoring
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  today's content. To our listeners, thank you for
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  joining us, and please be sure to check
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  out other Becker's podcasts. Have a wonderful rest
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  of your day. Thank you, Laura. Thanks for
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  having me.