Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Driving Pediatric Innovation with AI and Digital Therapeutics at Children’s Nebraska

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Driving Pediatric Innovation with AI and Digital Therapeutics at Children’s Nebraska · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:00
  Welcome to Becker's Healthcare podcast. I'm Chris Sosa,
• 0:02
  your host, and I'm thrilled today to be
• 0:04
  joined by Ryan Cameron. He is the chief
• 0:06
  information and innovation officer at Children's Nebraska in
• 0:08
  Omaha.
• 0:09
  Ryan, thanks for joining us today.
• 0:11
  Oh my goodness. Thanks so much for having
• 0:13
  me.
• 0:14
  I am so excited about 2026
• 0:18
  and the future of of pediatric health care.
• 0:20
  It's gonna be an incredible year. Lots to
• 0:23
  talk about. That is so excellent. We can't
• 0:25
  wait to have you talk about anything and
• 0:28
  everything that your heart desires on that front
• 0:30
  line.
• 0:30
  Before we get running into, that part of
• 0:32
  the podcast,
• 0:34
  let's just take this moment to introduce yourself
• 0:36
  and tell us a bit about your organization.
• 0:38
  Yeah. I'd be happy to. So,
• 0:40
  I have the privilege of of serving Children's
• 0:43
  Nebraska in a pretty unique role.
• 0:46
  We have,
• 0:48
  not only the CIO roles, chief information officer
• 0:51
  as you recognize it, but we also have
• 0:53
  added innovation to that. So we've started,
• 0:56
  within the last, you know, five, six years
• 0:58
  to to call it the c I I
• 1:01
  o role.
• 1:02
  And so what that includes is enterprise IT,
• 1:05
  clinical engineering,
• 1:07
  you know, the data center, help desk, the
• 1:09
  things that you recognize from, you know, health
• 1:12
  care and IT support,
• 1:13
  but also the
• 1:15
  formality
• 1:17
  of an innovation program,
• 1:19
  which in our case means a dedicated innovation
• 1:22
  center. So we have a a space in
• 1:24
  place called the Mammal Innovation Center. It's 10,000
• 1:27
  square feet. It's just over a year old
• 1:30
  and, there's all sorts of programming and great
• 1:33
  things that come of that, to connect with
• 1:35
  our community, to connect with our clinicians and
• 1:37
  our providers,
• 1:38
  and everybody in the ops side to make
• 1:40
  sure we're continuously
• 1:42
  innovating as an organization.
• 1:44
  Children's Nebraska is the only private freestanding,
• 1:47
  children's hospital in the state.
• 1:49
  We've got about two thirty beds today,
• 1:53
  but tomorrow
• 1:54
  we're adding another 40.
• 1:57
  So on the seventh, I'm not sure when
• 1:59
  this will air, but on January 7, we
• 2:02
  will open the doors to our brand new
• 2:04
  behavioral health and wellness center.
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  So we're very, very excited to offer that
• 2:09
  to the community
• 2:10
  and a big deal project for us and
• 2:12
  for our region.
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  And, Children's Nebraska proper,
• 2:16
  also has about 50 specialties
• 2:19
  and primary care as well.
• 2:21
  Wow. You guys are
• 2:23
  incredibly busy and growing, and and that that's
• 2:25
  a great sign. Sure are. Yeah. Organization,
• 2:28
  but, yeah, the community. Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead,
• 2:30
  please. I didn't mean to cut you off.
• 2:31
  No.
• 2:32
  It's
• 2:33
  it's dizzying.
• 2:35
  You know, I've been with the organization,
• 2:37
  just over four years.
• 2:39
  And,
• 2:40
  you know, I'm relatively new to health care.
• 2:42
  I like to say I have a bachelor's
• 2:43
  degree in health care, but, I certainly have
• 2:46
  have cut my teeth on the the technology
• 2:48
  and the innovation side of the house. So
• 2:50
  I'm continuously
• 2:51
  learning and,
• 2:52
  just to be a part of an organization
• 2:54
  that's very growth oriented and focused,
• 2:58
  really getting out there and meeting our patients
• 3:00
  where they're at and and pushing kind of
• 3:02
  pediatric health care as a whole,
• 3:05
  it's just been super exciting. It it is
• 3:08
  not what I expected
• 3:10
  when,
• 3:11
  I first started working in health care, and
• 3:13
  and I'm very pleased to say that. I'm
• 3:15
  pleased to say that
• 3:16
  I have found pediatrics to be just a
• 3:19
  passionate, wonderful place to work in health,
• 3:22
  where a lot of people are really pushing
• 3:25
  hard to make sure that we provide the
• 3:26
  very best care for kids.
• 3:29
  Ryan, you've already mentioned some of the things
• 3:30
  that Children of Nebraska has on its right.
• 3:33
  Let's take a look back just momentarily here.
• 3:36
  So what would you say is the most
• 3:38
  important initiative initiative rather that you led last
• 3:41
  year? I mean, specifically, what it take to
• 3:43
  launch it, and what were the results,
• 3:45
  to date?
• 3:46
  Yeah.
• 3:47
  There's a couple of them, but if I
• 3:48
  if I only can pick one, I know
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  I I'm limited here on time. The the
• 3:53
  one and only I would talk about
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  is, we started
• 3:57
  an initiative that we call Hey Medicaid
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  and,
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  what Hey Medicaid does, it's a agentic AI
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  application
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  and platform
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  that patients can use to navigate the process
• 4:12
  of,
• 4:13
  doing certification and recertification,
• 4:15
  for Medicaid coverage.
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  And, it's the first of its kind that
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  at least we're aware of
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  and we're really really
• 4:23
  enthusiastic and excited to bring this out. Medicaid's
• 4:27
  really critical and important to pediatric providers and
• 4:30
  pediatric hospitals.
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  It does represent kind of a large portion
• 4:35
  of our population, and they do need that,
• 4:37
  as either primary or coinsurance.
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  And so helping really ease the complexity of
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  that process
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  is important for us. When we can shift
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  the conversation
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  about access
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  and make it about care,
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  that really is impactful for parents and for
• 4:54
  families and, of course, for the kids that
• 4:57
  we support.
• 4:58
  Yeah. Certainly.
• 4:59
  Anything
• 5:00
  you can do to say to a patient's
• 5:02
  like, okay.
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  Here are all these changes that are being
• 5:04
  made, but this is how we're going to
• 5:06
  make it easier for you.
• 5:08
  Yeah.
• 5:09
  And, you know, it's it's funny. We we
• 5:12
  benefit
• 5:13
  from this incredible technology on the consumer side
• 5:17
  of of life.
• 5:19
  We've got smart devices and, you know, I
• 5:21
  I have this really tactile memory,
• 5:24
  and it's it's interesting because one of my
• 5:27
  favorite things is reminiscing about going to a
• 5:29
  record store
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  and, you know, using your fingers and thumbing
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  through it. In my generation, it was CDs,
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  but there are still records and tapes out
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  there too. I guess I'm kinda dating myself
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  a bit there, but I miss it. But
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  the magic of today is whatever I wanna
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  listen to, I I don't have to save
• 5:47
  my money to go get an album and
• 5:49
  hope that the whole album is awesome and
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  not just the one song or the two
• 5:52
  songs that I was hoping to hear.
• 5:54
  I just speak into the air. I mean,
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  how how magical is that that I just
• 5:59
  vocalize, hey, I would like to listen to
• 6:01
  this and it happens.
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  And so with with hey, Medicaid, that's really
• 6:06
  our starting vision point is
• 6:08
  how could you have your phone in front
• 6:11
  of you and just use your voice.
• 6:13
  It's got, you know, 17 different languages that
• 6:15
  translates into real time, helps you through the
• 6:17
  entire process end to end.
• 6:20
  And we think it's gonna be really great
• 6:22
  for, you know, young families today who are
• 6:25
  accustomed to this consumer magic that's, you know,
• 6:29
  health care really hasn't delivered quite yet, but
• 6:31
  it's happening, And it's it's exciting to be
• 6:33
  on the forefront of that. That that makes
• 6:35
  total sense. And and, hopefully, it won't be
• 6:38
  long at all before your patients are thinking,
• 6:40
  you know what? Children's Nebraska has our, you
• 6:43
  know, needs in mind, and and this is
• 6:45
  how they're fulfilling them. So that's why Absolutely.
• 6:48
  Alright. So now let's look ahead, into at
• 6:51
  least several exciting things that you and children's
• 6:53
  Rask have coming up.
• 6:55
  Specifically,
• 6:56
  not gonna limit your number, Ryan. So let's
• 6:59
  ask what are the big priorities
• 7:01
  and the headwinds that you're focused on for
• 7:03
  2026?
• 7:05
  Wow. That's a great question.
• 7:07
  You know,
• 7:08
  we want to do our best, not only
• 7:11
  as as an organization serving our region
• 7:14
  and our state, but to be highly collaborative
• 7:17
  with other children's hospitals
• 7:19
  and to really build an innovation ecosystem where,
• 7:22
  you know, all children can really benefit.
• 7:25
  And,
• 7:26
  two key things that come front to mind
• 7:29
  is this notion of digital therapeutics
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  and where that whole
• 7:34
  space of of service is headed.
• 7:37
  It was very limited even, you know, four
• 7:40
  years ago. There really was a strata of
• 7:42
  things, you know, like simple wearables or smart
• 7:45
  stethoscopes,
• 7:47
  maybe some remote patient monitoring tech that was
• 7:49
  emerging.
• 7:50
  But now we're seeing just incredible
• 7:53
  innovations and development,
• 7:55
  for us specifically
• 7:57
  in the behavioral health and wellness center.
• 8:00
  We were fortunate enough to receive
• 8:03
  a significant grant from the James M. Cox
• 8:05
  Foundation
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  that is funding a lot of the work
• 8:09
  that we're doing with virtual reality
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  and looking at that as an essential element
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  in kind of our care and treatment plans.
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  So if you think about,
• 8:19
  trying to manage anxiety,
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  really understanding,
• 8:23
  you know, interplay,
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  with social interactions,
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  You know, virtual reality can be an incredible
• 8:29
  and helpful tool for that. And, you know,
• 8:30
  we've got compelling science and research that's backing
• 8:33
  the effectiveness of that, so we're definitely doubling
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  down.
• 8:37
  What's really great about that is because the
• 8:41
  platform is digital
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  and we live in kind of this, you
• 8:45
  know, iTunes
• 8:46
  esque environment where you can share resources very
• 8:49
  easily with other hospitals,
• 8:51
  we're not building content exclusively for ourselves.
• 8:55
  We are a 100% collaborating with other, pediatric
• 8:58
  institutions across the Children's Hospital Association
• 9:01
  and really being thoughtful and mindful about what
• 9:03
  can we build that is gonna be impactful,
• 9:06
  for children all across the country,
• 9:09
  with digital therapeutics in behavioral health.
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  May I write that that's just fascinating to
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  me, especially the virtual reality part of it.
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  I mean, I don't remember I'm I'm sure
• 9:19
  you told me about this, but I think
• 9:20
  others have mentioned this to me as well,
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  how
• 9:23
  useful virtual reality can be to
• 9:26
  a custom get children accustomed to that environment
• 9:28
  because hospitals.
• 9:30
  Right? And now to hear that it's alright.
• 9:32
  Yeah. Let's adapt this to therapy as well.
• 9:36
  Has the acceleration of that technology in terms
• 9:38
  of how it's being used with therapy, has
• 9:40
  that surprised you at all? I mean Oh,
• 9:42
  yeah. Yeah. It's, I mean, it's astounding.
• 9:45
  You know, earlier, I was talking about this
• 9:47
  notion of of being magical.
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  And I I think that's a fair description
• 9:52
  of where we're at.
• 9:53
  What I what I would share is we
• 9:56
  are living in a future,
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  and and I mean an immediate future, not,
• 10:00
  you know, a five year horizon, I mean,
• 10:02
  within, you know, months
• 10:04
  where everybody is a developer
• 10:07
  and you can utilize,
• 10:09
  you know, prompt based AI technology
• 10:12
  not just to give you text based answers
• 10:14
  from searching a web page, but to generate
• 10:17
  rich media content.
• 10:19
  So,
• 10:20
  when you work with highly skilled and qualified
• 10:23
  clinicians
• 10:24
  who understand the right therapies,
• 10:27
  understand how to help children who are in
• 10:30
  crisis, help them develop new skills,
• 10:32
  We can make as many simulations as we
• 10:35
  would like to make
• 10:36
  and, you know, I'll even open the door
• 10:38
  to a possibility that I think is is
• 10:40
  also coming very quickly and that all of
• 10:43
  that can be customized to the individual patient.
• 10:46
  So, you know, I I think about when
• 10:48
  you take compliance training and it's kind of
• 10:50
  the canned content and,
• 10:52
  everybody is just kind of sitting there hitting
• 10:54
  the buttons and, you know, laughing at the
• 10:56
  the bad acting and the things with that.
• 10:58
  All all of that's going away
• 11:00
  where
• 11:01
  you can interact with a VR device
• 11:05
  and have really important
• 11:07
  content that does more than compliance, but actually
• 11:10
  gets into competency, actually gets into skill development,
• 11:14
  and the things that really help young people
• 11:16
  navigate,
• 11:17
  a really difficult environment right now for for
• 11:20
  behavioral health and wellness. So, it's interesting that
• 11:24
  things like social media and phone time negatively
• 11:27
  impact children,
• 11:29
  but we can also kind of fight fire
• 11:31
  with fire and say let's lean into using
• 11:33
  things like rapid development with AI, virtual reality
• 11:38
  to help children navigate,
• 11:40
  a really difficult kind of environment out there
• 11:43
  now. And so it's it's a weird dynamic,
• 11:45
  but
• 11:46
  it's it's dizzying how fast things are going.
• 11:48
  You can develop apps and simulations almost instantly
• 11:51
  today.
• 11:52
  Well, weird, but certainly very encouraging that there
• 11:55
  are health systems such as yours that are
• 11:57
  saying, you know what?
• 11:59
  Doesn't have to be used in this way
• 12:00
  all the time. Right? Here's how it Right.
• 12:03
  That that's a great way to look at
• 12:04
  it. Yeah. I I we're certainly hopeful.
• 12:07
  You know, we we wanna be mindful and
• 12:09
  careful. You know, we we have lots of
• 12:11
  safeguards.
• 12:12
  You know, there there's a lot of press
• 12:13
  out there about people who, quote unquote vibe
• 12:17
  code their way to success.
• 12:19
  That can be very risky, can be very
• 12:20
  dangerous.
• 12:21
  So,
• 12:23
  balanced with my enthusiasm
• 12:25
  for rapid development and really leaning into digital
• 12:29
  therapeutics. Of course, you know, my advice and
• 12:31
  guidance would be to, as you think about
• 12:33
  investing in those technologies or endeavoring into that
• 12:36
  direction,
• 12:37
  have some great safeguards,
• 12:39
  be very mindful about security and and how
• 12:41
  you kind of develop those things, but it
• 12:44
  it is a very plausible reality.
• 12:47
  It it's crazy that the cost of entry
• 12:50
  to be innovative right now is next to
• 12:53
  zero.
• 12:54
  And to invite
• 12:55
  all of your providers and your ops people
• 12:58
  and and all these great skilled people that
• 13:00
  work in a hospital to be a part
• 13:02
  of that development process is a total game
• 13:04
  changer.
• 13:06
  Excellent.
• 13:06
  Thank you for laying all that out, Ryan.
• 13:08
  I mean, I'm sure our audience is gonna
• 13:10
  love all that.
• 13:11
  It's very easy to understand the way you
• 13:13
  put it. Let's veer into this.
• 13:15
  I don't wanna say it's a bummer of
• 13:16
  a question because it doesn't have to go
• 13:18
  into that territory. But I do wanna ask,
• 13:21
  like, what do you think is the hardest
• 13:22
  thing you're going to do this year? And
• 13:24
  that could be way too exciting project you
• 13:26
  have, but, you know, take it away.
• 13:29
  Yeah.
• 13:30
  You know, I we all health care providers
• 13:32
  have a difficult battle ahead.
• 13:35
  And and that battle,
• 13:37
  it it isn't a different one. It's just
• 13:39
  the scale and the scope and the complexity
• 13:41
  continues to be difficult.
• 13:44
  We are never going to be able to
• 13:46
  recruit our way out of, you know, staffing
• 13:49
  crisis.
• 13:50
  There's never gonna be enough specialists. There's never
• 13:52
  gonna be enough nurses.
• 13:54
  Health care is in really high demand.
• 13:56
  In Nebraska in particular,
• 13:59
  we are very focused on extending our service
• 14:03
  footprint into rural areas so that the quality
• 14:06
  of care that you have access to
• 14:09
  in the state and in our neighboring states
• 14:11
  doesn't waver.
• 14:13
  You know, the
• 14:14
  the kiddos that we serve that are in
• 14:15
  our metro areas,
• 14:17
  should get high quality and so should everybody
• 14:19
  that lives in ag and farming communities as
• 14:21
  well. They should be equal.
• 14:23
  And so that's tough. A lot of rural
• 14:26
  providers are are closing. We're seeing a lot
• 14:28
  of pediatric wards get shut down. You know,
• 14:31
  the the the saying that is a little
• 14:33
  bit trite, but 100%,
• 14:35
  you know, spot on and important for us
• 14:37
  is no margin, no mission.
• 14:40
  And we have to do everything we can
• 14:42
  to be very mindful and good stewards of
• 14:44
  the dollars we have available to provide high
• 14:46
  quality care,
• 14:48
  across a complex landscape with very few providers,
• 14:52
  and hopefully land a perfect 10 at the
• 14:54
  end.
• 14:55
  So,
• 14:56
  it's a high knowledge, high complexity place to
• 14:58
  work, but I think technology can be a
• 15:01
  good catalyst,
• 15:02
  to help you get there
• 15:04
  provided
• 15:06
  your
• 15:07
  with your people and your very people first
• 15:10
  and and focused.
• 15:11
  Children's Nebraska
• 15:13
  has a program. It's our people first promise,
• 15:15
  and we we invest
• 15:17
  in the folks that work in our organization.
• 15:20
  And sometimes that investment means
• 15:22
  let's find a way to upscale. Let's find
• 15:24
  a way to understand, you know, automation and
• 15:27
  AI a little better.
• 15:28
  Let's find a way to understand what, you
• 15:31
  know, the day to day work life is
• 15:33
  for you and just really dig in and
• 15:35
  roll up our sleeves so that we can
• 15:37
  support the folks that are providing care. And
• 15:39
  so I'm hopeful about where we're going,
• 15:42
  but I am under no illusion that the
• 15:45
  landscape of providing care is is very tough.
• 15:48
  No doubt. And you meant you mentioned this
• 15:51
  a little bit. You talked about how
• 15:54
  some
• 15:55
  pediatric departments are closing across the country, and
• 15:58
  that's certainly very difficult. There are many other
• 16:00
  health systems, though, like yours that are expanding
• 16:04
  in whatever they possibly can to still reach
• 16:06
  those patients. Right?
• 16:08
  So on that note, what do you see
• 16:10
  as Children's Nebraska's
• 16:12
  best opportunities for growth in the next year
• 16:15
  or so?
• 16:16
  It won't surprise you to hear me say
• 16:18
  think outside the box.
• 16:20
  You know, another way of saying that is,
• 16:23
  you know, I would say that most people,
• 16:26
  their horizon is way too low.
• 16:28
  You have to be leaning into
• 16:31
  what is work gonna look like, what is
• 16:34
  life gonna look like, what are, you know,
• 16:36
  social economics gonna look like?
• 16:38
  Not only at the end of 2026,
• 16:40
  but, you know, in the next three to
• 16:42
  five years. And it it'll be profoundly different
• 16:44
  for everybody just because this this whole technology
• 16:46
  machine is moving
• 16:48
  at a profound rate.
• 16:50
  So, you know, what we're doing to be
• 16:52
  resilient and proactive
• 16:54
  is thinking about, you know,
• 16:57
  not just building more hospitals.
• 17:00
  Hospitals are really expensive.
• 17:03
  You know, in the metro, it made sense
• 17:04
  for us to to set up a a
• 17:06
  dedicated behavioral health and wellness center. We had
• 17:09
  tremendous
• 17:10
  support and philanthropy
• 17:12
  from Constance,
• 17:14
  and the pediatric mental health, institute there. So,
• 17:18
  like,
• 17:19
  we're very fortunate that we have those opportunities.
• 17:22
  But the larger battle
• 17:24
  is how do we meet patients in their
• 17:27
  home?
• 17:28
  How do we get, you know, access to
• 17:30
  care that's virtual? How do we lean into
• 17:32
  telehealth, telemedicine?
• 17:34
  Those are the things that ultimately are gonna
• 17:37
  help that pressure valve and really help us
• 17:40
  adapt.
• 17:41
  Consider for a moment,
• 17:43
  in Nebraska, in many cases,
• 17:46
  a patient and family may have to travel
• 17:49
  three hours or more one way to get
• 17:51
  from some of our rural communities
• 17:54
  into a a city or a town that
• 17:57
  actually has a Children's Nebraska clinic or facility,
• 18:00
  that's ready to help them.
• 18:02
  So at every opportunity where we can provide
• 18:05
  high quality care,
• 18:06
  in the home using telehealth or telemedicine,
• 18:09
  that's really gonna help us out a lot.
• 18:11
  From the provider perspective,
• 18:13
  it's a little quicker.
• 18:15
  They can see more patients.
• 18:17
  We wanna be mindful that they have really
• 18:19
  good focused time with them and they're not,
• 18:21
  you know, spending all their time in the
• 18:23
  EHR,
• 18:25
  doing multiple clicks and they're actually working on
• 18:27
  care. So it really is about leaning into
• 18:30
  technology,
• 18:31
  shifting our focus in our conversation from access
• 18:34
  and automating those things
• 18:36
  into a conversation that is a 100% care
• 18:38
  focused.
• 18:40
  Ryan, thank you so much for joining us
• 18:41
  today and letting us know how to lose
• 18:43
  Nebraska
• 18:45
  is working through this whole technology machine as
• 18:47
  you progress.
• 18:48
  What you're doing with AI, everything. I mean,
• 18:50
  we can't wait to share this with our
• 18:52
  audience and, you know, we'll see you at
• 18:53
  our upcoming conference. And, honestly, I just look
• 18:56
  forward to next time our pass goes. Yeah.
• 18:58
  Thanks so much for having me and, really
• 19:00
  looking forward to to being at the event.
• 19:04
  I've started to kinda look at the lineup
• 19:06
  and a lot of the folks that will
• 19:08
  be speaking on different panels and the keynotes.
• 19:10
  It is going to be an incredible year.
• 19:12
  So I I hope to see lots of
• 19:14
  friends and colleagues at the event. And, Chris,
• 19:17
  hopefully, you and I can connect this time.
• 19:19
  Yeah. I couldn't put it that better by
• 19:20
  myself. Thanks, Ryan. Thank you.