Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Transforming Cancer Care Delivery Through Strategy, Access, and Innovation with Nida Shekhani

Transcript

Transforming Cancer Care Delivery Through Strategy, Access, and Innovation with Nida Shekhani · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

0:02
The most important health care decisions don't happen
0:05
in isolation.
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They happen when leaders come together.
0:08
Becker's sixteenth annual meeting brings together more than
0:11
3,500
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hospital and health system executives this April in
0:15
Chicago.
0:16
With 800 speakers from Ascension, Cleveland Clinic, CommonSpirit
0:20
and more, the conversations get real. Leaders will
0:23
share how their scenario planning for policy shifts,
0:26
breaking through value based care barriers and building
0:28
clinical teams that translate new ideas into real
0:31
world care.
0:32
Join top decision makers in the room April
0:35
13 through the sixteenth.
0:37
For the agenda and event details, visit beckers
0:40
hospital review dot com and click on the
0:42
events tab in the upper right.
0:45
Welcome to the Becker's Healthcare podcast.
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I'm Elizabeth Gregersen, a reporter here with Becker's
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Healthcare, and I'm excited to be joined today
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by Nida Sheikani,
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chief strategy officer and deputy COO at Fred
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Hutch Cancer
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Center. Neda, thank you so much for being
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here today. I'm really looking forward to our
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conversation.
1:05
Great. Elizabeth, it's it's my pleasure.
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As you mentioned, I'm Neda Shekani, and I
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serve as a chief strategy officer and deputy
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COO at Fred Hutch Cancer Center.
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And I'd say my role role really sits
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at the intersection of strategy, growth, and transformation.
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So the verticals I oversee include strategic planning,
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clinical business development, marketing communications, government affairs, and
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then our commercialization and tech transfer office.
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Fred Hutch, for those that may not know,
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is an NCI designated comprehensive cancer center and
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one of the nation's leading cancer research and
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care institutions.
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And I'd say what makes us very unique
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is, one, our deep integration between breakthrough science
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and clinical care. We've pioneered bone marrow transplantation.
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We've been leaders in immunotherapy and cellular therapy,
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but, also, our work spans cancer prevention, infectious
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disease research, and vaccine development. So when we
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think about cancer
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and strategies,
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across cancer, we're truly thinking about the full
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continuum from prevention and discovery to treatment and
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survivorship
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and how we move innovation quickly from lab
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to patients.
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Perfect. Thank you for laying all that out.
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I'm always I love covering all the exciting
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news coming out of Fred Hutch.
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So I'm excited to speak to you,
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about it all. I'd love to know
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what you feel has been the most important
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initiative you've led or been a part of
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in maybe this past year.
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What did you do to kinda get it
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off the ground? What have the results been?
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Could you kinda give us a peek into
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that?
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Yeah. So, Elizabeth,
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what what probably should have been,
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what I talked about is our three year
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strategic plan. So we are wrapping up our
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fiscal year twenty four to twenty six strategic
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plan and are actively working on our twenty
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seven to twenty nine strategic plan. And while
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that has been half of my time really
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thinking about
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how we shape future strategy across the organization,
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the other half of my time has been
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around leading enterprise wide transformation
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in a project that we're calling project Redwood.
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Redwood
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is a fundamental re redesign
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of how we deliver care.
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We're in growth mode. Patient volumes continue to
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rise. Complexity is increasing.
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Margins are tightening,
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and our legacy operating models simply just wasn't
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built for the scale we've been in over
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the past couple years and the scale that
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we think we're entering. And so we realize
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that if we wanna continue to lead cancer
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the way we have,
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our infrastructure has to evolve as aggressively as
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our science.
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We've named it Redwood intentionally in case you're
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thinking about why. Redwoods, as you might know,
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are known for their strength and longevity, and
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that's exactly what this transformation is about. It's
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about building a more integrated,
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durable clinical model
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that can sustain growth and support our mission
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long term.
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So the key areas are access and scheduling,
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care team design, capacity management,
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and revenue cycle performance. And, truly, the goal
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is simple but ambitious. It's around
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seamless access for every patient who needs it
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while trying not to, and this is the
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hard part, put an additional burden on our
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care teams and create a more coordinated and
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sustainable experience for our care teams.
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We've had hundreds of people across the organization
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involved over the past, I'd say, year,
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and our work up until now has very
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much focused on making some key decisions.
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We
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kicked off implementation
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last week. So it's very early to say
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what implementation is gonna look like, and we're
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doing it in phases. So So come back
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to me in a couple weeks or a
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couple months, and I'll tell you how things
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are going.
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But we are knee deep in implementation now.
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You know, ultimately,
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Redwood positions us. The way we're looking at
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Redwood is it positions us to care for
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more patients
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and advance our clinical research mission.
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And it's about acting from a position of
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strength when we have the ability to do
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it now and not waiting for a lot
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of the external pressures
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that are
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here and maybe to come that then ultimately
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force that change.
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Absolutely. And I think, you know, even just
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calling it Redwood, right, is such a visual
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Mhmm.
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Example of kind of the foundation
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that you're building to last. Right? I think
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I have a tree visual somewhere, Elizabeth.
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Yeah. I love that.
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I guess then, you know, that's kind of,
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like, the big picture initiative that you've just
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kicked off. Are there any specific maybe priorities
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or headwinds that you're focused on, you know,
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for 2026
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as this begins to roll out? Yeah. So,
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you know,
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one is I I'd stay on that one,
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which is sustaining growth in a margin constrained
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environment. So as I mentioned before,
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the demand for cancer care continues to rise.
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Our patients that are coming in are more
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complex.
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Therapies are more advanced and costly, and our
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reimbursement pressures aren't going anywhere.
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So, truly, what we are very much focused
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on is building our operational infrastructure
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in a way that allows us to expand
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access
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responsibly
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while also protecting
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our financial health to reinvest back into our
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system.
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So that's, I'd say, on the clinical care
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side.
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Secondly, as I think many
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academic
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organizations
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are faced with right now, we're navigating the
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uncertainties in the research funding environment.
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So as you can imagine, the federal funding
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dynamics, the policy shifts, the broader economic pressures,
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they directly impact our ability to to advance
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science.
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We've been very intentional
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about not making drastic changes or decisions,
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around how we think about our science,
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and the key areas,
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that we invest in until we have more
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certainty about the future. But as you can
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imagine,
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protecting our discovery essential
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engine is essential
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because truly today's research breakthroughs are really what
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becomes standards of care. Right? And we're seeing
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that now as well. And so I'd say
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that's the other pretty significant
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area that becomes a topic of discussion as
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we're doing our strategic plan and as we're
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thinking about our budgets and our long range
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financial planning.
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And then the third
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for me
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is data and AI. Mhmm. We have so
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many initiatives across the organization around data and
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AI, but perhaps the most public one that
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folks might know about is our Cancer AI
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Alliance,
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which in the simplest terms, and this doesn't
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sound too simple, but truly in the simplest
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terms is a federated data model that enables
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us to analyze secure,
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private, and large amounts of data quickly.
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So we're spending a tremendous amount of time
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with industry and other peer cancer centers across
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the country in in
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with our cancer AI alliance.
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We're also investing heavily in digital and analytic,
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capabilities that allow us to move from more
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reactive to proactive care delivery.
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So, you know, I'd say the headwinds are
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real, Elizabeth, funding uncertainties,
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capital constraints, regulatory complexity.
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But as you can hear,
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I also see enormous opportunity, and we're actively
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working
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on some of those areas and those relevant,
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I guess, transformations
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to set up for continued success.
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Absolutely. And, you know, when I when I
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listen to your answer, I'm just reminded of,
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you know, the other cancer leaders that I've
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spoken to just in reporting oncology. And I've
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I've always gotten that sense, you know, that
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the headwinds
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you are facing, everyone's facing. And and even
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just hearing you talking about the AI Alliance,
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how, you know, cancer leaders do have that
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mindset of, like, we're gonna figure this out
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together. Like, we're gonna,
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like, kind of move the move our piece
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of the industry forward together. So,
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I'm sure our listeners for sure will be
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able to relate to to everything you said
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that you're facing.
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Speaking of facing things, it's a challenging,
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question to ask, but it's always interesting to
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hear. Is there anything
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hard that you're anticipating you're going to have
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to do in your role in the coming
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year?
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Yeah. So now that we've moved to implementation
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last week, honestly, I think the hardest thing
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will be driving meaningful change and doing it
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at scale and doing it quickly,
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while we have the momentum. So we're in
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the middle of this major clinical transformation as
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and as you can imagine,
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that requires asking high performing teams to work
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differently,
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and often
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changing
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the way we practice in an area that
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isn't entirely broken, but may just not be
9:40
scalable for the future. Right. Change is not
9:43
unknown to health care, but change fatigue is
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real across health care. So
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the, you know, the first year of this,
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the hard part was making sure that we
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did the diagnostic appropriately and we were making
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the right key decisions.
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And now that we're in implementation, that almost
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seems like that was easier because
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we're transformation
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is exciting and it's hard and the decision
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making component is hard, but the hardest part
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about
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the actual transformation
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is disciplined implementation.
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And I think as we implement, it's also
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being very clear to so many people across
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the organization what we're solving for. And sometimes
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that means making tough decisions, making tough prioritization
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decisions,
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and also maintaining trust.
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I've spent a lot of time and the
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leadership of this transformation with me. We've spent
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a lot of time
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bringing people along with us, being transparent about
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why we're changing.
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So it's not just growth for the sake
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of growing. It's growth for all the things
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I talked about to provide enhanced access, to
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enable our clinical research engine, to continue to
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be scalable,
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in an environment that is is volatile.
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But really being transparent about that and then
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showing people what success looks like and how
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it benefits both patients and our team. So,
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really, I think as we continue down this
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path of implementation,
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I think that will be one of the
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harder things,
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not just myself, but really hundreds of people
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within our organization are gonna be working on
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over the next several months.
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Absolutely. And, you know, our podcast audience isn't
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just cancer leaders. They're across all specialties, you
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know, all offices within the executive suite. But
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I think what you said is something that's
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so relatable
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in the fact that change is hard,
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but really communicating that shared why
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and bringing people along with you, I think,
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is just such a leadership kind of strategy
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that,
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the health care industry seems to really be
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employing lately as
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everything changes.
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It is absolutely critical, right, to the success
11:48
of projects like this.
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Absolutely.
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And on that same note, I'd love to
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hear kind of where
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are those best opportunities
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for
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whether it's change or just organizational
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growth? Where are the places where you're seeing,
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you know, that momentum
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kind of take shape?
12:07
Yeah. So, you know, staying on the last,
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piece of this around transformation, the first, I
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think, truly is just expanding access
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and expanding
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it quickly,
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so getting patients in quicker and also
12:21
being able to provide access to patients who
12:24
don't have access to care. There are still
12:26
too many patients who don't have timely access
12:28
to subspecialized
12:29
oncology care. So
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a big portion of our Redwood initiative is
12:34
focused on access, but, truly,
12:37
there are we've been working on access for
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years as, again, to your earlier point of
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this isn't just cancer.
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Organizations across the country,
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are working on ensuring that they are able
12:49
to and we are able to get patients
12:50
in as as quickly and as timely as
12:52
possible.
12:53
I think the second and particularly as we're
12:55
working on the strategic plan is integrating
12:58
is continuing to integrate our research and our
13:00
clinical care enterprise even more tight tightly.
13:03
So as a research driven institution,
13:05
our ability to scale clinical trials is a
13:08
huge differentiator.
13:10
I think across the country,
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we are seeing in many areas
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declining volumes of clinical trials for a variety
13:18
of reasons. Some of it is what I
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talked about earlier, which is many of the
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things that were breakthroughs are now becoming standards
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of care. Mhmm. And we're starting to see
13:27
that shift a little bit. So growth in
13:29
our clinical volumes
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strengthens that research engine and vice versa. So
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really being thoughtful about how that is done,
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I think is critical. And then the third,
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I will go back to AI because I
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do think it's such a big opportunity.
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You know, whether it's predictive analytics that optimize
13:45
operations, to machine learning that accelerates drug discoveries,
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to tools that support clinical decision making.
13:52
We have to be willing to try. We
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have to be willing to be thoughtful.
13:56
We have to be willing to fail.
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We are an excellent cancer center. We continue
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to be an excellent cancer center, But if
14:04
we truly wanna continue to and define the
14:06
future of cancer care,
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we have to take risks in some of
14:10
these areas and be ambitious, but, of course,
14:12
still be disciplined in how,
14:15
we're thinking about them and moving them forward.
14:17
So a lot of the themes around the
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opportunities for organizational growth very much tied to
14:21
what I talked about, but really
14:23
with the idea of ensuring that we continue
14:27
to provide access to all patients that needed
14:30
for cancer care,
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not just here in Seattle and the Pacific
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Northwest, but across the country.
14:36
Perfect. Yeah. I loved I think you said
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disciplined ambition.
14:40
I think that's such a Yes. A nice
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way to put it.
14:44
Thank you again for joining me today. This
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has really been such an engaging and insightful
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discussion, so I just appreciate you taking the
14:51
time to share your perspective with our listeners.
14:54
It's been my pleasure.
14:55
For those of you tuning in, you can
14:57
find more episodes of the Becker's Healthcare podcast
15:01
at beccarshospitalreview.com.
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Thank you for listening. We'll see you on
15:05
the next episode.