Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Building Human Centered AI and the Future of Healthcare with Dr. Akram Boutros

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Building Human Centered AI and the Future of Healthcare with Dr. Akram Boutros · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  - There's a small circle of people who truly
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  - understand what it takes to lead a health
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  - system right now. The decisions are enormous.
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  - The variables are constantly shifting, and the stakes
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  - of getting a call wrong don't stay contained.
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  - That's not a complaint. It's a structural reality.
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  - And it's why the most effective c suite
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  - leaders are deliberate about where they go to
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  - pressure test their thinking.
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  - Becker's fourteenth annual CEO and CFO roundtable
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  - brings together more than 1,500
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  - executive level attendees
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  - and nearly 400 speakers for four days built
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  - around growth, financial sustainability,
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  - workforce strategy, and the leadership questions that don't
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  - have easy answers.
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  - Join us November second through the fifth in
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  - Chicago.
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  - For the agenda and event details,
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  - visit beckershospitalreview.com
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  - and click on the events tab in the
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  - upper right.
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  - This is Scott Becker with the Beckers health
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  - care podcast.
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  - I'm thrilled today to be joined by doctor
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  - Akram Boutros.
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  - Doctor Boutros has been a long term CEO
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  - in the health care field,
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  - a tremendous
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  - leader. We watched him closely, laid a ten
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  - year run, ran MetroHealth for more than a
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  - decade, and just a fantastic
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  - leader and person.
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  - Doctor Boutros, so excited to catch up with
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  - you today.
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  - Take a moment and and tell us about
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  - yourself, your career, and and what you're up
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  - to.
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  - Thanks again, Scott. It's great to be with
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  - you.
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  - I've been a physician and health system executive
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  - for over thirty five years.
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  - Today though, I am the cofounder
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  - and CEO of Nexus,
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  - whose mission is to change clinical care for
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  - good by making care more human
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  - and health systems more efficient.
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  - We help health systems redesign care delivery,
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  - deploying the first ever
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  - clinical operating system
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  - designed
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  - for clinicians,
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  - by clinicians.
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  - And I'm very proud of our recent integration
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  - with Telemetrics.
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  - So we've combined acute inpatient care with remote
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  - monitoring and chronic care management,
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  - to deliver a safer,
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  - smoother
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  - care journey,
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  - and reduce administrative burden.
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  - And and talk about, Akram, doctor Butros, how
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  - did you get started with that?
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  - And and give people a little more background
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  - on your just career as a whole. We
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  - spend a magnificent career. And how did you
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  - get started with Nexus?
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  - You know, what what was the inspiration? How
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  - hard was it to get started?
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  - And also, just a little bit more on
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  - your career too.
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  - Well well, thanks, Scott. So I've I've been
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  - a health system executive for many, many years,
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  - twenty of them as CEO
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  - of hospitals and and health systems.
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  - And I've been known as a
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  - not only as an innovator, but I was
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  - really well known for being an,
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  - an operating executive. So I know hospital operations
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  - really, really well.
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  - Well, I I was very proud of that
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  - until
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  - I spent two months in the hospital over,
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  - eight months getting,
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  - chemotherapy
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  - treatments.
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  - And I will tell you that the view
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  - of operations
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  - is vastly different
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  - between spending
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  - an hour or two
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  - in a vertical position on a on a
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  - medical floor
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  - versus spending twenty four hours a day, seven
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  - days a week in a horizontal position
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  - and a and and a and a medical
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  - floor on a,
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  - inpatient unit.
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  - It gave me a perspective
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  - of how broken
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  - our system is, and that we don't have
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  - an operating model
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  - that works today for the clinicians
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  - or for the patients.
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  - And and talk about how can you fix
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  - that? How can you make that? Because all
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  - of us are consumers. Of course, whenever we're
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  - consumers or or in a patient position as
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  - you mentioned,
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  - you mentioned horizontal versus vertical,
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  - it is a very different experience than we'd
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  - like it to be. Not always, but a
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  - lot of times. How can we improve that
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  - with just the daunting supply labor challenges we
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  - have, other problems? How can we improve some
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  - of that? Well well, yeah, I think the
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  - first thing you have to recognize is that
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  - that workforce challenges
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  - isn't temporary. So staffing
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  - shortages and burnout remain among the biggest strategic
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  - issues facing health care. And the winners,
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  - and the way we solve for this is
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  - we redesign
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  - work rather than continue to ask clinicians,
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  - to to do to do more.
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  - One of the thing that you way you
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  - manage all of this stuff is to make
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  - sure that there's a connected operating model.
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  - Look, you you can go back and look
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  - at how manufacturing
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  - was
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  - before
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  - the Toyota production system was widely
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  - adopted
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  - as an operating system for manufacturing.
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  - We are at that,
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  - cusp today. We've never had an operating system
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  - for for, inpatient care.
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  - And that's why we developed an
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  - our model, the Nexus
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  - bedside model.
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  - Hospitals,
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  - need technology
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  - that works inside the clinical workflows and actually
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  - change how care is delivered.
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  - We've been layering on technology
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  - that that has not
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  - has only increased the clinical burden
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  - and every app
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  - just accumulates that. So
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  - most technologies today that, offer effective solutions have
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  - created additional barriers to care
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  - and burdens to clinicians.
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  - I hear it all the time. The the
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  - doctor, the nurse,
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  - the the the respiratory therapist were paid more
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  - attention
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  - to the electronic medical record than made eye
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  - contact with me. So the the the we
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  - we need to be able
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  - to the the real opportunity, counsel, is using
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  - and we do that
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  - AI to identify risk
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  - early for patients. We're doing the administrative burden
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  - and give clinicians
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  - actually more time with patient.
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  - We need the technology to disappear in the
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  - background.
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  - It cannot be the front, etcetera.
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  - Thank you. And and and take a second.
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  - When you look at the future of health
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  - care,
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  - how optimistic or pessimistic
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  - are you about care in The United States,
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  - doctor Boutros?
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  - I am very, very optimistic.
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  - Care is,
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  - becoming more and more connected.
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  - Health systems are increasingly becoming a character for
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  - outcomes
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  - after patients leave, the hospital.
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  - This requires seamless connection between inpatient care and,
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  - remote monitoring, chronic care management, and and and
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  - the like.
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  - I think,
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  - new health system executives are understanding.
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  - There has to be something
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  - that that provides
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  - one clinical
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  - operating system and and that connects
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  - all of these,
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  - parts.
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  - So, look, we believe that orchestration of care
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  - is what has been lacking for the past
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  - three decades.
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  - And I am absolutely confident that with AI,
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  - HOPM, organizations
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  - like Nexus,
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  - are are providing that for health care systems,
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  - and that is where we're headed.
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  - Thank you. Doctor Butros, you've had a great
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  - leadership career. I've had the pleasure of watching
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  - a great deal of it.
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  - Take a moment on what advice that you
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  - would give to emerging health care leaders.
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  - Well, I I you know, now being a
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  - founder of this company and seeing how successful
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  - we've been in a very short period of
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  - time. And and I'm I'll just say this
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  - to you. At,
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  - Oklahoma University Health, our during first six months
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  - deployment,
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  - we had
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  - zero patient falls with injuries, sixty seven percent
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  - reduction in nursing turnover,
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  - twenty six percent reduction in lung disease, and
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  - elimination
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  - of dual sign of medication errors. These all
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  - happened simultaneously
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  - and reinforced one another.
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  - And I think the reason we were able
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  - to do this, and this is my advice
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  - to all these evolving wheeler leaders,
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  - start with the problem,
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  - then find the best way to solve it.
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  - Too many people start with the technology and
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  - look for a problem to solve.
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  - Second piece of advice is, is is do
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  - what I hope you never have to spend
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  - time in in in a inpatient unit in
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  - a horizontal position,
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  - but find people who have who understand this.
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  - Spend time where care is actually delivered. The
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  - best ideas often come from the front line.
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  - And
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  - build solutions that disappear in the background.
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  - If technology creates more frictions, it won't more
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  - friction, it won't succeed. And finally, remember that
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  - health care is so fundamentally human.
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  - Technology should strengthen that relationship rather than replace
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  - it.
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  - Doctor Boutros, what a pleasure to visit with
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  - you as always. Just an absolute pleasure. You're
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  - one of the best in the business, a
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  - great leader, a great person. Do you miss
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  - practicing medicine at all or not at all?
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  - I I I don't. I was a I
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  - was a I was a good doctor by
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  - a much more effective
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  - health care leader. I I measure,
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  - what I do by the number of people
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  - that are positively impacted.
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  - And in one year of running a health
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  - system,
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  - I've helped I could help more people than
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  - I ever would in a lifetime of practicing
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  - medicine.
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  - Doctor Butchers, a pleasure to visit you. We
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  - look forward to having you back and get
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  - a chance to visit with you again.
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  - Just fantastic. Thank you so much, and congratulations
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  - on the Nexus endeavor. Just fantastic. Thank you
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  - so much, sir. Thank you, Scott.