Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT / Steve Bethke, Vice President Solution Developer Market at Mayo Clinic Platform

Transcript

Steve Bethke, Vice President Solution Developer Market at Mayo Clinic Platform · Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT

• 0:00
  Imagine this. You're in the heart of Chicago
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  mingling with the brightest minds in health IT.
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  to motivating keynotes from some of the biggest
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  Don't wait. You can find the event website
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  and get registered by visiting peckershospital
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  review.com and clicking on the events page. That's
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  the beckershospitalreview.com events page.
• 1:27
  This is Laura Dierda
• 1:29
  with the Becker's Healthcare
• 1:31
  podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by
• 1:33
  Steve Bethke,
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  vice president of solutions develop
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  a market at Mayo Clinic Platform. Steve, it's
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  a pleasure to have you on the podcast
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  today.
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  Great to be here. Thanks.
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  Now I'm really looking forward to our discussion
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  because I know Mayo Clinic Platform just is
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  on the forefront of so much of what's
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  happening in the digital health space.
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  Certainly got a lot happening with data and
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  artificial intelligence and really working towards making health
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  care more accessible and, more precise for patients.
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  But before we dive into our discussion, can
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  you tell me a little bit more about
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  yourself and your background?
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  Yeah. Absolutely.
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  Early in my career, I spent time in
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  technology companies, got an MBA,
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  and then really picked up my head and
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  said, okay. What I wanna do with my
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  life and decided health care? So I spent
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  my career
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  most of my career in healthcare,
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  really interesting problems to solve, interesting market and
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  great and good.
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  We spend a lot of time doing the
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  things we do,
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  so I'm really excited to be in healthcare
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  where it matters.
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  I spent some time at the enterprise as
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  executive
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  at GE and Optum, but really
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  the last decade as an operator in private
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  equity or venture capital backed growth stage companies.
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  And I joined Mayo Clinic Platform about 3
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  years ago
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  and run the solution developer market.
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  Well, that's great to hear. And, you know,
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  really, it sounds like a fascinating position to
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  be in. Based on your role,
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  at Mayo Clinic Platform, what are some of
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  the opportunities and headwinds that you have your
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  eye on right now?
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  It's a great question.
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  At the broadest level,
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  there's really an opportunity to leverage platform thinking
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  and business models to drive innovation and support
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  health care providers.
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  So we've all seen how platforms have really
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  been changing the world around us. So how
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  can Mayo Clinic
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  leverage platform thinking and business models
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  to improve healthcare,
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  to drive innovation,
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  support and enhance the workflow of care teams
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  and to extend the world class care
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  that's already provided by Mayo Clinic to patients
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  around the world.
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  So that's at a high level. Now
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  focusing in a bit,
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  what does that mean? And so really there's
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  a terrific opportunity to unlock
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  and expedite innovation for solution developers
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  so they can drive value and empower
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  healthcare providers.
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  So let me sort of step back for
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  a second. What is a solution developer?
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  So this could be
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  a digital health company,
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  a device company,
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  a pharma company, really it's anyone building AI
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  or data centric solutions.
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  And and maybe I'll take you through an
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  example of some of the challenges that solution
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  developers really have.
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  And and so let's say I'm a solution
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  developer and I have a really good idea
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  to support health care providers.
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  Hey. I wanna teach a computer
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  how to read an EKG
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  to recognize low ejection fraction, or
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  I wanna be able to predict risk of
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  readmission or risk of colon cancer.
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  What do I need to do to accomplish
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  this? So there's a lot of challenges ahead
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  for me.
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  The first is
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  I need data. I need high quality,
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  comprehensive,
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  representative
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  data that's de identified
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  and can be used to build a solution.
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  I need compute data science tools in an
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  environment to do the discovery and development.
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  And then once I go through all that,
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  and I built the model, then I need
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  to validate it. How does it perform?
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  Sensitivity,
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  specificity,
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  bias, and then you see, etcetera.
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  And and once I've done that, I've taken
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  a done a ton of work and taken
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  a huge step forward, but, really, I've just
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  begun
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  because now I have to deploy my solution
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  into workflow,
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  which we all know is very challenging. And
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  and I'm not even done yet because now
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  I have to commercialize and drive adoption.
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  Right? And obviously, these things are are challenging
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  and it creates
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  significant
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  challenges for the solution developer
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  moving forward. And so these are really the
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  challenges
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  we set out to solve.
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  A little more detail,
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  we have 2 programs, Mayo Clinic Platform has
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  2 programs
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  that allows us to meet solution developers where
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  they are in their lifecycle. So first is
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  Accelerate.
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  Help tech start ups are really key to
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  sparking innovation, so we've designed the Accelerate program
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  to help early stage companies advance their solution
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  and get ready to go to market. And
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  then we have Solution Studio Program, which provides
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  capabilities for the challenges I listed before,
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  data, tools for development, validation, deployment and adoption.
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  And these are really for more mature companies,
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  either
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  ready to go to market or
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  possibly already in the market.
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  So appreciate the time. These are really the
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  2 programs that we can solve for reuse
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  to solve for many of the challenges
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  faced by solution developers
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  and and are used to unlock
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  and expedite
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  innovation.
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  That's fantastic to hear. And, you know, I
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  can imagine that many of our listeners appreciate
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  how much of a challenge it is to
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  really
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  stand up programs like that, have the high
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  quality data that you were talking about,
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  and really build into the workflows,
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  everything that needs to be there to successfully,
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  commercialize the company and then drive the adoption
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  across the system wide. And, you know, I
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  can imagine the technology
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  piece of it is, one challenge, but then,
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  the people piece of it is another. When
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  you look at some of the different ways
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  that you've been able to,
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  you know, really tackle the challenges, whether it's
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  on the data side or, you know, really
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  getting people into that space where, you know,
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  they're adopting the new technologies or or new
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  functions,
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  that need to occur in order to make
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  sure that your projects are successful. How do
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  you do that and and really have that
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  culture of innovation
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  across the board with Mayo Clinic Platform?
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  Yeah. That's great.
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  We we work with and so Mayo Clinic
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  Platform connects
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  then the solution developers
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  to the health care providers.
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  And we really provide
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  value in a number of ways. 1, as
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  we just talked about, the technology, the data,
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  and capabilities that the solution developer needs, but
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  then we make the connection to the healthcare
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  provider.
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  And so
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  what we will do is actually go through
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  a qualification
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  process
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  with the solution developer. And you can really
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  think about this as
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  transparency,
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  providing transparency
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  to the health care provider. And we can
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  talk more about what this is.
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  But you can think about it as a
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  nutrition label
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  that provides this transparency to the healthcare providers.
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  And then we also have deploy capabilities
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  and we mentioned that before. But it's a
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  common
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  technology. You can think about it as sort
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  of endpoint
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  last mile connectivity into the EMR for those
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  workloads.
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  So once
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  a solution developer is on the Solution Studio
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  program,
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  They have the deploy capabilities, which is common
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  technology
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  infrastructure
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  and they have qualification,
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  which is provides transparency to healthcare providers.
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  And these things are really important then to
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  drive adoption determinations?
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  What is the
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  the determinations?
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  What is the performance of the solution?
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  And
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  then I can also
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  connect in with common infrastructure
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  of Deploy. So these are two really valuable
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  capabilities
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  that
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  we provide
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  to solution developers that then drive adoption
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  or ease adoption
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  into the health
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  health care provider side of the market.
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  That's fascinating to hear. And thank you so
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  much for digging one bit deeper. Now I'm
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  wondering, how are you thinking about growth and
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  adding value to the organization all overall? Where
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  do you see things headed?
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  Yeah. This is great. So you can think
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  about Mayo Clinic platform as a 3 sided
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  marketplace, and I mentioned some of the sides
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  already solution developer and healthcare provider, but at
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  the base is data.
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  So we've created Mayo Clinic Platform Connect,
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  which is a federated network of the world's
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  leading medical centers enabling access to globally diverse
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  eIdentified data. So this is very real. We've
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  signed partnerships
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  and are implementing
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  with 8 of the world's leading health systems
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  across 3 continents.
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  We have Mercyhealth
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  in UC Davis in
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  the US,
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  Albert Einstein
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  in Brazil, University Health Network in Canada,
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  Chiba Medical Center in Israel, Singh Health in
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  Singapore, and Seoul National University in Seoul.
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  So that is the base, you know, one
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  side
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  that provides data and that's again hugely important.
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  The other two sides and we've talked a
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  little bit about this is the connection
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  between the solution developers on one side and
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  the health care providers on the other.
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  Obviously, healthcare providers are well healthcare providers and
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  again solution developers are on the other side
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  are digital health companies, device companies, pharma, anyone
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  building AI or data centric solutions.
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  And really, Mayo Clinic platform
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  continues to grow each side of this marketplace,
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  connect partners and data, solution developers building innovative
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  solutions
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  and health care providers leveraging those solutions. And
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  then you really see the flywheel
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  network effect
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  start to come into play.
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  Access to broad data drives innovation
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  with solution developers, which drives value
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  the health care provider side.
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  That's great to hear. And, you know, that
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  firewall can be so important and valuable once
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  you have it going. But for organizations that
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  are still at the early stages of developing
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  a platform like this or or trying to
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  get their organizations
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  to,
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  turn that corner to have that data to
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  provide access overall,
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  what's kind of the first step? What do
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  you need to do, initially
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  in order to make sure you've got
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  that data, you've got the right investments in
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  place to achieve that data and then move
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  forward from there.
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  Perfect. Yeah. This is this is really the
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  generation
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  of the 2 programs Mayo Clinic Platform,
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  has created,
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  right? So we're doing the hard work Mayo
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  Clinic Platform is doing the hard work
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  of creating that 3 sided
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  marketplace. So we're going off and creating
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  this data asset and the tools and technologies
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  that solution developers and health care providers need
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  to create and adopt
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  innovative solutions. So as a solution developer,
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  I now have access to 2 programs. If
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  I'm an early stage solution developer and I
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  really have a good idea,
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  maybe I've
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  had some initial
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  funding, seed, etcetera,
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  but I'm really early stage, then I can
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  get access to Mayo Clinic Platform Accelerate.
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  And that's fundamentally
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  access to
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  our product,
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  Mayo Clinic Platform Discover that allows access to
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  the compute and data that we talked about.
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  So these companies can get on early stage
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  companies can get on, get access to that
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  data and start creating their MVP.
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  We also support them with technical, clinical
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  and administrative resources to
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  help them think through the problem. So that's
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  Accelerate and where they can start.
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  If the solution developer is more mature, hey,
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  I have a product, I have a solution,
• 14:04
  I understand what I want to do, then
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  you know, those important capabilities and then access
• 14:22
  the healthcare provider.
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  So we've really tried to create programs
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  inside of Mayo Clinic platform that will meet
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  the solution developers
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  where they are in their lifecycle.
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  That's, you know, really cool to hear and
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  and definitely seems like a great opportunity to
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  take advantage of some of the work, like
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  you mentioned, that Mayo Clinic platform has done
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  and really incorporate that into something meaningful for
• 14:46
  health systems across the country and worldwide.
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  Now I'm wondering, you know, we talked a
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  little bit about some of the different things
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  that are important. Is there any other risks
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  or investments that you see worth making this
• 14:57
  year, especially knowing that for a lot of
• 14:59
  hospitals and health systems, they still have tight
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  margins,
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  budgets are still, you know, somewhat challenging. So
• 15:05
  if they're limited in some of their options,
• 15:07
  what do you think is still something that
• 15:09
  they need to do or risk they need
• 15:10
  to take in order to,
• 15:12
  set themselves up for success going forward?
• 15:16
  Yeah. And so one one risk or challenge
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  for them for health care providers is understanding
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  all the solutions
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  available
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  to them.
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  There there is a cacophony
• 15:27
  of solutions and they're bombarded. And as you
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  said,
• 15:30
  they're under a great deal of pressure around
• 15:32
  margin,
• 15:34
  and they want to provide the best care
• 15:35
  they can for their patients. So
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  how does the health care provider
• 15:40
  understand
• 15:41
  what these solutions are? Hey, AI is this
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  incredible
• 15:45
  thing that's coming that can support healthcare providers,
• 15:49
  enable care teams, etcetera. But as a healthcare
• 15:52
  provider,
• 15:53
  I'm working on my day to day
• 15:56
  and I'm really
• 15:58
  battling,
• 15:59
  how do I understand
• 16:02
  what's real, what's not, what's going to provide
• 16:04
  value. And that's and to solve that problem,
• 16:08
  that's where,
• 16:10
  Mayo Clinic Platform really comes
• 16:12
  in inside the solution studio program includes
• 16:16
  a qualification
• 16:17
  process. So
• 16:19
  as we go through,
• 16:21
  we evaluate
• 16:22
  these solutions so we can provide transparency
• 16:24
  to end users.
• 16:26
  Again, you can think about this as a
• 16:27
  nutrition label
• 16:29
  so that the end users then can make
• 16:31
  informed decisions.
• 16:33
  The qualification
• 16:34
  process
• 16:35
  includes evaluation from teams of physicians, data scientists
• 16:38
  and AI experts.
• 16:40
  They look at a number of the criteria,
• 16:42
  for example, how
• 16:44
  does this solution perform mathematically, what's the evidence
• 16:47
  of claims,
• 16:48
  etcetera.
• 16:49
  And so
• 16:50
  given more information and transparency, health care providers
• 16:53
  can then make informed decisions,
• 16:57
  and adding this layer of transparency
• 17:00
  reduces the risk. Again,
• 17:02
  health care providers
• 17:04
  want to take advantage of all this innovation
• 17:07
  that's taking place in the market, but sorting
• 17:07
  through and understanding really what's going to
• 17:19
  Solution
• 17:20
  Studio, we provide them transparency so they can
• 17:22
  make better decisions.
• 17:25
  Thank you so much for going through that.
• 17:27
  I think, you know, it's always so powerful
• 17:28
  to have that type of clarity in a
• 17:31
  world where you're getting bombarded by so many
• 17:33
  different pitches and offers, and there's a lot
• 17:36
  of information out there. Things are changing so
• 17:38
  rapidly. It seems like a really great benefit
• 17:41
  to have that type of clarity in in
• 17:43
  cutting through some of the noise. Now before
• 17:45
  we wrap up our conversation,
• 17:47
  I'm wondering,
• 17:48
  would you talk to some of the best
• 17:50
  opportunities you see for growth in the future
• 17:52
  overall?
• 17:53
  What's really some of the things that you
• 17:54
  see coming down the pipe that are really
• 17:56
  exciting for you?
• 17:58
  Yes. So this is really the
• 18:01
  power, the
• 18:02
  joy of Mayo Clinic Platform model.
• 18:06
  The Mayo Clinic Platform builds programs and capabilities
• 18:10
  that we offer to solution developers, so they
• 18:13
  can drive innovation
• 18:15
  that supports healthcare providers.
• 18:17
  We empower
• 18:19
  and seek to empower all the brilliant innovators
• 18:22
  to do just that, innovate,
• 18:24
  right? And so, it's actually working. We're seeing
• 18:28
  solutions that are broad reaching
• 18:30
  from image based cancer detection and
• 18:34
  ambient listening to population
• 18:37
  health to
• 18:38
  administrative tasks like scheduling
• 18:40
  and task management.
• 18:42
  And so when you really think about this,
• 18:44
  solutions
• 18:46
  can help
• 18:47
  practitioners more quickly identify the most critical patients,
• 18:51
  prioritizing them for care.
• 18:54
  Solutions can automate or simplify
• 18:57
  administrative tasks, reducing burnout,
• 18:59
  allowing care teams to focus on decision making
• 19:02
  in the human element of care.
• 19:04
  They can
• 19:06
  treat more patients with the same resources, increasing
• 19:09
  capacity,
• 19:10
  enabling more time for patient care.
• 19:14
  And really simply
• 19:15
  they can help providers improve quality and
• 19:19
  decrease cost.
• 19:21
  So the Mayo Clinic platform and Accelerate and
• 19:24
  Solution Studios programs really provide these key capabilities
• 19:28
  and connections
• 19:30
  that allow solution developers then to unlock innovation
• 19:34
  that will benefit
• 19:35
  health care providers and, of course,
• 19:38
  most importantly, patients.
• 19:40
  Well, Steve, thank you so much for joining
• 19:42
  us on the podcast today. This has been
• 19:44
  such a fun conversation. I learned a lot,
• 19:46
  and I look forward to connecting with you
• 19:47
  again soon and seeing you at our health
• 19:49
  IT digital health at revenue cycle conference in
• 19:51
  October.
• 19:52
  Look forward to being there.