Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Advancing Digital Access and AI Innovation with Joel Vengco of Hartford HealthCare

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Advancing Digital Access and AI Innovation with Joel Vengco of Hartford HealthCare · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:00
  This is Scott Becker with the Beckers Health
• 0:03
  Care Podcast.
• 0:04
  I'm I'm thrilled today to be joined by
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  a brilliant leader from Hartford Health Care. We're
• 0:10
  joined today by Joel Venco,
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  and and Joel Venco
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  serves as a chief information and digital officer.
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  We are so excited to visit with Joel.
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  It's not only is he a great leader,
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  Hartford HealthCare has made this incredible commitment to
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  digital health care
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  over the years
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  and and to being an incredibly
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  adept and accessible system.
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  Joel, we are so thrilled to be with
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  you. Can you take a moment and tell
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  us about both Hartford HealthCare and yourself?
• 0:40
  Sure, Scott. Thank you so much for inviting
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  me, this afternoon. I'm it's really a pleasure
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  to be with you and and talk about
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  our organization and and the work that we're
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  doing for our community. So, Hartford HealthCare
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  is the largest health system in Connecticut
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  with over about, over 500 locations.
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  We have,
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  a number of digital capabilities that I'm sure
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  we're gonna talk about today,
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  and our focus really is about,
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  bringing access to all.
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  Our mission is to improve the health and
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  healing of all, and and our vision is
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  to be the most trusted for personalized coordinated
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  care. And so that really,
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  in many ways,
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  creates that focus
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  of of of access,
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  of, health equity,
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  and also affordability,
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  in terms of achieving, health care for all.
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  So we're we're excited about the the mission
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  and the vision,
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  of that we have that we've been embarking
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  on, for our community and and happy to
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  talk about here today. Also, I'd like to
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  make a plug that, you know, our organization
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  is so proud
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  that, we've had straight a's and leapfrog for
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  the last,
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  three cycles.
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  It's, you know, just certainly something that we've
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  been proud of because,
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  the journey that we
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  have taken on to get to there has
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  not been a short one,
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  and it started out with, fairly,
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  low scores, if you will. But, gosh, it's
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  a it's a it's a team effort.
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  45,000
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  employees have really focused on on quality. And
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  in fact, this last year, we
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  were able, to achieve,
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  the 's quest for quality prize, which is
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  given to only one health system in the
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  country. So we're really proud of the work
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  that's been,
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  done so far and and looking forward to
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  the future.
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  Thank you. And and could you take a
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  second, Joel, on sort of some of the
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  initiatives, some of the things that you've done
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  at Hartford HealthCare
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  to sort of force this concept of access
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  for everybody,
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  taking care of everybody,
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  more convenient access. I mean, it's been remarkable
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  what the system has done over the last
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  decade to two decades
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  under great leadership.
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  Talk about some of the things, some of
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  the things you look at, some of the
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  things you follow, some of the things you're
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  doing.
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  Yeah. So, you know,
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  like many health systems,
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  especially after
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  the great work that folks have done to
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  to get health systems on,
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  you know, digital platforms or or rather the
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  electronic health record,
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  you know, I think it would be a
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  mistake to say, hey. You know, we've digitized,
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  health, and and that's where we stop. And
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  I know a lot of my colleagues haven't
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  stopped there, and we certainly haven't. You know,
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  with our focus on personalized coordinated care,
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  what that means for us is that, look,
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  we have to know our patients.
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  And to know our patients, you have to
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  have data about them, at the very least
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  harness the data, but really use the data
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  to really understand them, personalize their experience,
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  even create the next best action, which is
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  really the coordination part of our vision.
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  And that means that we have to leverage
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  that data
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  using
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  technologies
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  like AI and advanced analytics to really coordinate
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  that journey for our our patients. And so
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  the first thing that we started out with,
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  Scott, was really how do we harness that
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  data, and and it's really about bringing that
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  data into a platform,
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  you know, commingling that data,
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  standardizing that data. And and then we've been
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  talking in health care a lot about, you
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  know, over the last two decades, a lot
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  about interoperability
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  and leveraging
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  data. But, you know, now we've got the
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  horsepower really in the platforms to do that.
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  So data was the first part of our,
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  our journey. You know, cloud, in order for
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  us to actually,
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  leverage,
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  the compute and and,
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  you know, and scale, really, the compute across
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  a number of different initiatives,
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  and that's a very important part of our,
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  you know, backbone.
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  But, really, as we think about,
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  you know, what is it that we need
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  to offer our patients, it's access, it's coordination
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  of care, it's personalization,
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  the work that we've done,
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  you know, for example, on,
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  you know, our our our digital front door,
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  which allows patients to,
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  to to do things from checking in, you
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  know, at home to, you you know, filling
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  out all their paperwork or, actually, there's no
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  lot of paperwork. It's it's it's online,
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  doing the things that you would normally do
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  outside of health care. We've we've done that,
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  you know, across the board to digitize
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  the experience for our patients.
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  And now we're getting into this place where,
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  you know, how do you become truly consumer
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  centric
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  where, you know, I would say things like
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  your electronic health records, your patient portal,
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  even in some of the digital checking capabilities
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  that we've got in place already, those are
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  table stakes.
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  It's really about, you know, how do you
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  match,
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  the experiences of consumers
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  in other industries. Right? When you think of
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  Netflix or or, you know, booking travel,
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  all of that takes,
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  you know, a lot of information,
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  some level
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  of digital twinning or benchmarking, and then certainly
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  some level of,
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  prediction
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  and artificial intelligence to get you what you
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  need and and when you need it. And
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  that's what we're starting to really work on,
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  now in our health system is is how
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  do you leverage the data that we've now
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  harnessed
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  and use
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  AI and digital capabilities to really enhance that
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  experience for patients.
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  Thank you. And and take a moment as
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  as you look at going into 2026,
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  what are you most focused and excited about?
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  What where are the new evolutions? Is it
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  doubling down on what you're doing? What are
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  you most focused on and excited about as
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  we get into the next year?
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  Yeah. You know,
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  I I'd say one of the things that
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  is really exciting,
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  particularly in this this this,
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  age of AI is is really what the
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  agentic era is offering. Now we've been working
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  on agents,
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  or what we actually initially called assistance,
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  for the better part of the last two
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  years.
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  You know, using assistance
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  and I'll differentiate,
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  assistance and agents by just saying that assistance,
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  you know, provide you with,
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  you know, information or insights, answer questions. But
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  an agent does that plus takes an action,
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  like, maybe schedules an appointment for you or
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  or, you know, cancels one or or or
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  or or orders a matter or something of
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  that nature. And so, you know, we're really
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  excited about how,
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  the agentic era can can really become a
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  companion
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  for our patients and for our, clinicians,
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  as well as our colleagues,
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  you know, in the administrative side. So we
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  believe that,
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  you know, this is a way for
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  us to provide a capability to our patients
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  to help them
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  find out more about, the services that, you
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  know, are are there for their care,
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  find out more about their their clinical issues,
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  maybe find out more about wellness,
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  opportunities,
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  really enable them to ask questions and get
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  access to that information,
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  more rapidly and and in the moment. You
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  know, oftentimes,
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  patients will wait
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  days, if not weeks, to get an answer.
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  And sometimes those answers are are just about,
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  you know, what do I do next? You
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  know? Or what is this remind me again
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  what this is,
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  in terms of, you know, the symptoms or
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  my medications. And so we're really excited about
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  the agentic era, and what that can offer
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  our patients as well
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  as our colleagues. And, you know, the other
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  thing too that we're,
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  you know, looking forward to in '26 is
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  to try to understand how do we,
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  redesign,
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  the roles for our workforce.
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  You know, there's a lot of concern about,
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  you know, these these AI agents or or
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  AI just broadly taking people's jobs.
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  And we have to really get in front
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  of that in terms of, you know, how
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  do you
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  really reimagine or redesign someone's
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  role or job,
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  and
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  look for those those
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  skills or tasks that could be automated?
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  And then, you know, begin to work with
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  them
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  in elevating their work,
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  leveraging that AI, but elevating their work to
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  do more,
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  of something different or maybe something more of
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  high value, if you will. So, you know,
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  we're certainly looking at that for '26 as
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  well because we we do believe that our
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  our our workforce and our colleagues are essential
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  to the work in health care. We wanna
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  make sure that,
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  you know, we're looking out for for them
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  and and and how their future
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  roles will will change over time.
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  We look about when we look at sort
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  of agentic AI,
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  and and it's a term that for most
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  of us is a newer term, quite frankly.
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  How quickly and where do you see that
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  having the biggest impact?
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  Yeah. You know, it's I I think the
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  biggest impact,
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  honestly, is
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  on the administrative side,
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  number one, I think for at least for
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  the workforce side. You know, oftentimes,
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  our
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  our work is a lot of hunting and
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  pecking and then, you know, taking
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  action on information that we,
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  have
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  identified or discovered.
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  And there are low level things that, you
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  know, agents
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  could and should do, actually, so that, you
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  know, maybe that takes off five, twenty, thirty
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  minutes, maybe an hour of someone's time
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  hunting and pecking an email or or information
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  to to just sort of take out that
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  next step. So I think, you know, safely,
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  an agent in the administrative side,
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  you know, can certainly,
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  provide that kind of automation and capability. And
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  and at some level,
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  you know, continue to reason,
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  kind of,
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  the next best action,
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  for for that particular task.
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  I think for for patients, you know, we
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  we had we certainly believe that in the
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  future,
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  these agents,
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  should be, you know, personalized for our for
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  our patients for each of our patients because
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  everyone has a unique,
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  obviously, set of of of
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  of of phenotype or genotype,
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  you know, that's that that causes them to
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  have a, you know, a different kind of
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  clinical or or health experience.
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  And we believe that,
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  in the future, these agents
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  will be the the assistant for for for
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  our patients who will help them navigate,
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  the the the health care journey. And so
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  I I think that's where where we're really
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  placing our bet and and and looking, to
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  the future towards
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  having that kind of assistant or colleague for,
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  companion rather for for our patients.
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  Good. Thank you. And and and, Joel, you've
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  had this remarkable career.
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  Can you take people a little bit through
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  the trajectory of your career
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  and when you started doing this role at
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  Hartford
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  and just a little background on how you
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  got to where you are today?
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  Yeah. You know, I it's I've always been
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  in the health care industry. Started out actually,
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  I believe it or out of medical school.
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  And,
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  you know,
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  in my third year of medical school, actually,
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  going into my PhD years,
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  I, you know, got connected,
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  with with a professor
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  at BU who was,
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  my thesis professor, thesis adviser,
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  and he just happened
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  to be working at an organization that one
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  of the early EHRs
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  back in the early two thousands.
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  And, you know, long story short, he's the
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  one that kind of, you know, awakened the
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  sort of creative part of my brain that,
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  you know, really looked, loved to solve problems
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  and and also loved to use data, to
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  solve those problems. And so ever since,
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  you know, I I I
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  was working with him in the early two
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  thousands on my thesis,
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  I discovered that data if we could unlock
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  the data, the data could be
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  a real answer for a lot of the,
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  like, I think, the clinical problems that
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  we use today and and a lot of
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  these even clinical operational problems that we that
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  we face today. And so my my, journey
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  really
• 12:27
  has been about
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  chasing data, Scott. And and in chasing the
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  data, I realized, you know, I had to
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  also own the infrastructure and and, you know,
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  owning the infrastructure
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  just sort of got me to take on
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  a lot more of the of the technology.
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  But along the way, I I I gotta
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  say, you know, I'm so grateful to all
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  of my mentors and,
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  and, you know, my my bosses and CIOs
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  who had believed
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  in my vision of of really leveraging data,
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  to to advance
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  technology
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  and and and and clinical operations.
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  And, you know, they they continued to to
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  fuel that desire. And so, you know, I
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  went from,
• 13:07
  you know, a a sort of a medical
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  student researcher to, you know, quickly,
• 13:12
  an informatician at, at Master General Brigham to,
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  you know, chief applications,
• 13:18
  officer at, Boston Medical Center.
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  And then, I was I did a a
• 13:22
  short stint at GE as a as a
• 13:24
  GM for, really an innovation platform.
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  And then my first CIO job was at
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  Baystate Health,
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  which is a little north of us here
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  at Hartford. And and then I went on
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  to Hartford. I recruited to Hartford, to be
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  the chief digital,
• 13:39
  information officer. And and, really, the focus
• 13:42
  is is kind of the dream. It's, you
• 13:44
  know, leverage the data
• 13:45
  to develop
• 13:47
  capabilities
• 13:47
  that really transform health care. And, and and
• 13:50
  and, really, the the vision of consumerism
• 13:53
  is at the heart of that. So or
• 13:54
  consumer centric,
• 13:56
  experience is at the heart of that. So,
• 13:58
  you know, I wake up every day living
• 13:59
  the dream. This is the this is where
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  we you know, where I was hoping to
• 14:03
  land and,
• 14:04
  I just I just love what I'm doing
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  and I I, you know, I can't wait
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  to to continue to solve problems that we
• 14:09
  have in health care.
• 14:11
  No. It it's really a remarkable thing. I'm
• 14:13
  gonna ask you one more question.
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  And you have to let me know, Joel,
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  if you're prepared for this question.
• 14:20
  K. So so here is the question. You
• 14:22
  may be the first person that we've ever
• 14:24
  had on that has degrees
• 14:27
  from three different Boston based universities.
• 14:30
  About three great universities, Boston College,
• 14:34
  Harvard
• 14:35
  University, and Boston University.
• 14:38
  Yep. Give us thirty seconds
• 14:41
  if you've got a favorite or a least
• 14:43
  favorite, and you don't have to go there
• 14:44
  if you don't want to,
• 14:45
  or you could tell us thirty seconds on
• 14:48
  pros and cons of each of our what
• 14:49
  you loved about
• 14:51
  BU, BC,
• 14:52
  Harvard Medical School. Just give us a moment
• 14:55
  on the three.
• 14:57
  You know, I love all three of them,
• 14:58
  but I'll tell you. So I met my
• 15:00
  wife at Boston College.
• 15:02
  My second,
• 15:03
  child goes to BC now. She's a sophomore
• 15:05
  there.
• 15:06
  So I gotta say Boston College is is
• 15:09
  is my,
• 15:10
  is my university, if you will. And, unfortunately,
• 15:13
  our football team is not doing really, really
• 15:15
  well right now. We're one and eight, but,
• 15:18
  but, hey, there's more than just football at
• 15:20
  BC. But, yeah, I have to say Boston
• 15:22
  College because of those factors.
• 15:24
  And does that make you a Doug Flutie
• 15:27
  fan as well?
• 15:29
  Of course. I mean, he was well before
• 15:31
  my time, but, you know, he's a legend.
• 15:33
  Right? I mean, that's,
• 15:35
  that's an that's just an amazing highlight reel,
• 15:37
  and and without a doubt, that's that's embedded
• 15:40
  in every BC year that goes through that
• 15:41
  school. They they know Doug Flutie,
• 15:44
  and, and that that that reel just,
• 15:47
  is always, shown in every football game, and
• 15:49
  it's just a it's just a wonderful moment
• 15:51
  for us. It is simply remarkable. Joe, what
• 15:54
  a pleasure to visit with you. You're doing
• 15:55
  great work. Hartford HealthCare does amazing work. You
• 15:58
  do amazing work. Thank you for joining us
• 16:00
  today on the Beckers HealthCare podcast. What a
• 16:02
  great pleasure to visit with you. It was
• 16:03
  my pleasure, Scott. Thank you so much.