Latest / Becker’s Healthcare -- Pediatric Leadership Podcast / Dr. Saima Aftab, Chief Strategy Officer and Vice President at Nicklaus Children's Health

Transcript

Dr. Saima Aftab, Chief Strategy Officer and Vice President at Nicklaus Children's Health · Becker’s Healthcare -- Pediatric Leadership Podcast

• 0:00
  - This is Christos with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast,
• 0:02
  and Jill will be joined by Dr. Simon off top,
• 0:05
  chief Strategy Officer
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  for Nicholas Children's Health System.
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  Dr. Off Top, thank you so much for joining us today.
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  - Thank you for having me.
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  - Wonderful. Could you please introduce yourself
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  and tell us a bit about your background?
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  - Sure. Um, as you just shared, um, my name is Simon Aftab
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  and I serve as the Chief Strategy Officer
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  at Nicholas Children's.
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  Um, I am a physician by training
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  and I've been with Nicholas Children's
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  for about seven years.
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  Um, I've trained as a pediatrician
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  and then as, as a neonatologist.
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  And I started out my,
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  off my career at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
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  where I did all my training
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  and I was a faculty member at the
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  University of Pennsylvania.
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  And then, uh, after 11 years, I moved to Boston
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  and I was at the Harvard School of Medicine.
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  So, uh, you know,
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  my career was started off in clinical medicine
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  and, um, you know, education,
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  the traditional academic track,
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  and then got into healthcare consulting
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  and then, uh, healthcare administration.
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  And I got an MBA
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  and, uh, over time transitioned into more
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  of a strategy, business development role.
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  And, uh, I've been serving in this role at Nicholas
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  Children's for now seven years.
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  And, um, I love what I do
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  and I love the fact
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  that I can bring both the worlds together,
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  both my experience at the bedside as well as
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  that business development, uh, strategy arm
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  that helps us do a better job, you know, connecting the two,
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  um, at, at, at our, at our Children's hospital.
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  - Excellent. Thank you for sharing all of that, doctor.
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  So given your current role,
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  technology definitely plays a huge part of that.
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  So with that in mind, could you let us know
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  what technology shows the most promise in terms
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  of its application over the next 12 to 24 months?
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  And on a related note, everyone is buzzing about AI these
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  days and pretty much any business or any venture.
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  And so how would you describe Nicholas
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  Children's approach to ai?
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  - Absolutely. I think, uh,
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  you pretty much hit the nail on the head.
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  I think everyone's buzzing about ai
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  and we too, um,
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  at Nicholas Children's are very excited about the
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  opportunities it has to offer.
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  So in the short term, I think in the next 12 to 24 months,
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  I think obviously, you know, the, the boost
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  that telemedicine got through covid,
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  I think is only going to continue.
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  And at our healthcare system,
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  really integrating it across the care continuum for patients
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  and for our children, I think is going to be a priority.
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  So how does that translate into better home monitoring?
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  What's our home healthcare strategy?
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  How do we integrate telemedicine
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  for managing population health
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  and keeping our kids healthy at home and in their schools?
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  And then obviously the other sort of big component
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  that I think we're excited about in the short term is going
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  to be the applications for ai.
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  Um, so I think when we think about that, um, you know,
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  the central focus for that would be how can we use AI
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  to improve patient about the quality of patient care as well
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  as enhancing the experience.
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  And even today, there's a lot of solutions
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  for available AI driven solutions that can actually
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  enhance the, not only the quality of patient care,
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  but also the experience.
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  And the, the, the area that we're gonna be focusing on
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  to start is going to be around imaging
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  and radiology services.
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  So we are already doing a pilot where, um, with a,
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  we're using AI technology to determine bone age,
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  and that's going to be our first sort of, you know,
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  dipping our toe in the water, so to speak.
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  But I think there's countless additional applications
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  for AI both in the clinical
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  and non-clinical space that, that we're very excited about.
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  - Thank you, doctor. So beyond that,
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  are there other in innovations rather,
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  that Nicholas Filters is excited about over the next year?
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  - Absolutely. Um, there's, we're, uh, investing in some, uh,
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  AR and VR solutions both for medical training,
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  patient education,
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  and improving the patient experience
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  through difficult procedures,
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  through really creating a very interactive, uh, fun journey.
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  I think the best part of pediatrics is
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  that you can have a lot of fun and,
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  and be creative, um, in, in terms
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  of using these technologies.
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  So one of the things that we've started
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  to implement is using VR technology
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  and, um, sort of the, the, um,
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  and ification to sort of get our patients
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  to be more compliant, um, either through a procedure
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  as we're guiding them through the different steps
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  so they don't get anxious, but also with education.
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  So for kids that, um, have diabetes
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  and need to manage their own health, um,
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  in any other chronic complex condition, you know, using AR
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  and VR to sort of be, um, a very fun interactive tool
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  for kids to actually learn how to take ownership
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  of their own health, um, is is very exciting.
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  - Doctor on that, no, what has the feedback been like
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  for this, uh, program that you've just described for us?
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  - Yeah. Feedback for the program has been great.
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  Um, both our patients, our clinicians
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  and our staff absolutely love it.
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  They've been very open to the, the technology
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  and incorporating it in the workflows.
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  But beyond that, the data that we've collected so far,
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  especially for the, the US using virtual reality for, uh,
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  patients and coming patients through procedure, we found
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  that not only are we more likely
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  to be successful in doing the procedure without any
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  complications, the number of interruptions
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  or the time to complete the procedure is actually better
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  with integrating, um, this VR tool.
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  So the feedback has been excellent across the board.
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  - Excellent. Thank you, doctor. So taking a little bit
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  of a different direction here.
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  So I understand that Nicholas Re's last year, November
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  specifically joined a coalition dedicated to advocacy
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  for underserved populations around the world.
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  This is definitely a noteworthy goal that any health system
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  and should have, but
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  how do you see your own health system role in this effort,
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  and how would you encourage others to get involved?
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  - Absolutely. So Nicholas Children's, um,
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  we're formerly known as Miami Children's,
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  so we're the largest freestanding children's
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  hospital in South Florida.
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  And we also have the privilege of taking care
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  of kids not only in our local community,
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  but a sizable number of kids
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  that are coming from the Caribbean, from the South Americas
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  and from all over the world.
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  So we truly consider ourselves an advocate globally
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  for pediatric healthcare.
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  Um, so Nicholas Children's, um,
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  and our roles as a part of this coalition would be
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  to really be that advocate
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  and that void for, for the health
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  of children all over the world.
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  I think we are uniquely positioned through our experience
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  with our patients that come from a very broad part
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  of the globe for us to be, you know, um, closely keyed into
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  what those issues are for children globally.
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  They may be a little bit different from
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  what we experience here at home in the US
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  but I think there's many common themes.
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  So, um, advocacy around, uh, prevention
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  of communicable diseases, you know, vaccinations,
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  clean water, but,
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  but again, mental health is a theme
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  that we're seeing both not only in our local
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  community but also globally.
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  So a lot of advocacy efforts are going to be focused around
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  recognizing de-stigmatizing and,
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  and really getting kids the, the mental health, uh,
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  support services needed quickly and easily.
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  So I think, you know, we're excited about, um, you know,
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  participating in this amazing coalition
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  and providing, you know, a contribution and, and
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  and providing thought leadership in that space.
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  - Lastly, doctor, I wanted to ask you, so
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  what issue in pediatric care do you think deserves a
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  brighter spotlight this year and beyond?
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  - I think this year and beyond, I think behavioral health
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  or mental health is, I think, the, the most pressing
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  an important issue that we are facing in pediatrics.
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  I think, um, you know, COVID-19, the pandemic
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  really exacerbated, um, mental health
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  challenges in our children, in our, in our, our youth.
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  Um, there's many contributing factors.
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  I mean, overall, I think year over year, even
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  before the pandemic, we had seen rising rates
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  of mental health disorders among children and adolescents,
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  but then adding the isolation, distress
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  and fear from, um, uh, uh,
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  potentially lethal viral infection, um,
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  and then add that with social separation, academic pressure,
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  and then the sort of the, the negative effects
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  of social media with bullying trauma
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  and then also the stress of family dynamics.
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  And, um, at the time of the pandemic,
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  I think really brought things to a boiling point.
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  And not only were it really uncovered the fact
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  that our healthcare systems not only, uh, were ill-equipped
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  and Ill staffed to take care of this,
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  but also really recognizing the whole continuum
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  of mental health illness.
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  I think it became very important.
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  So really a focus on primary prevention.
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  You know, talking about mental health
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  and wellness with parents and having school teachers and,
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  and school systems to recognize their role
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  integrating mental health services in primary care offices
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  or pediatricians offices,
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  and then really up building capacity for telemedicine
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  and inpatient services for mental health.
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  So it's going to need a complete overhaul for us
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  to really make a sustainable impact,
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  and it won't be made possible without really looking at
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  where technology fits in
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  and how we can do better in terms
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  of policy change and advocacy.
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  Um, so I think that that's just the single biggest, I think,
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  challenge for pediatric healthcare.
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  And I think a close second would be childhood obesity.
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  I think obesity, you know, overall
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  for us remains a significant public health concern.
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  I think, um, you know, the, the statistics about only 20%
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  of Americans were considered obese, um, in the 19, in 1960s,
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  but now about 40% of Americans are, are,
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  are in that category.
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  And it's particularly alarming
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  because we're seeing similar rates in our children as well.
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  And as you can imagine, the morbidities and,
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  and the side effects that come with childhood obesity,
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  including diabetes, uh, depression, social isolation,
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  cardiovascular disease, um, and other illnesses.
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  I think, you know, we're setting our kids up for a lifetime
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  of poor health, poor mental health, lack
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  of social relationships, lack of poor,
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  a lack of self-esteem.
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  So I think this in my mind, is another one of those really
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  hot topics that I think we all need to sort
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  of collaborate on and find creative solutions
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  to address in a, in a significant and sustainable way.
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  - Dr. Thank you so much for being so generous
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  with your time and your insights.
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  I know we've covered a lot of ground in this short period
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  of time and we cannot wait to share all your insights
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  with our audience that we look forward
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  to connecting with you soon.
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  - I appreciate the opportunity
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  and thank you so much for taking the time
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  and, uh, as you can tell, I'm very excited personally about,
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  you know, all these new technologies
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  and the opportunities that it, it has to offer
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  that's gonna help our kids.
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  So I appreciate the opportunity to come
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  and speak with you all.