Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT / Dr. Onyinyechi Daniel, VP of Data & Analytics Strategy at Highmark Health

Transcript

Dr. Onyinyechi Daniel, VP of Data & Analytics Strategy at Highmark Health · Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT

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  - This is Laura Dedo with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
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  I'm thrilled today to be joined by Dr.
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  Ooni Daniel, vice President of Data
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  and Analytics strategy at Highmark Health.
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  Dr. Daniel, it's a pleasure
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  to have you on the podcast today.
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  - Thank you. I really appreciate the opportunity.
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  - Now, I'm looking forward to talking with you deeper about
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  what you're doing at Highmark Health right now
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  and how you're thinking about the future.
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  I, I think you're such a fascinating organization,
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  and certainly a lot to learn from what you're doing in, in
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  how you're growing and developing with the community.
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  But before we dive into my questions,
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  can you tell me a little bit more
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  about yourself and your background?
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  - Yeah, sure thing. So, I'm Daniel.
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  You can call me uni again, vice President of Data
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  and Analytics strategy and partnership at Highmark.
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  I've been at Highmark for almost three years now.
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  And, um, some of my areas of accountability are data
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  and AI governance, um, data
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  and analytics, strategy development, um,
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  DNA product commercialization.
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  I also have accountability for people, analytics
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  and, um, data analytics, uh, business operations.
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  And then one other interesting area that I,
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  that I absolutely love, um, in this role is, um, data
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  and analytics research and strategic partnerships.
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  So some of our strategic partnerships
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  with academic institutions, really focusing on data
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  and analytics and AI capabilities
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  that may not necessarily be part
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  of an existing business need,
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  but things that we need to consider should be on our radar
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  to kind of push the boundaries on innovation
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  and how we can really start
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  to deliver some value in the future.
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  And so I think it's a really great investment area
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  for the, for the organization.
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  So that's kind of, um, backgrounds on, on, you know,
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  my accountability at Highmark.
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  Prior to that, I was at HCSC, um,
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  leading data and analytic strategy.
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  So been in the payer space, been on the healthcare,
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  the hospital side, then also on the vendor side,
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  and, um, just really love healthcare. So ,
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  - That's amazing to hear,
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  and what a great holistic view
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  of all aspects of the healthcare system.
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  And now being at Highmark,
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  I can imagine you can really exercise that experience, um,
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  to, to deliver better care to the community.
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  Now I'm wondering,
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  can you tell me about your most successful
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  projects in the last year or two?
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  What did you do and how did you measure the results?
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  - Yeah, I mean, I would say that one
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  of the most successful projects, uh, that I've,
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  I've worked on has been, um, kind of operationalizing
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  AI governance for the enterprise.
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  Um, and that was a, a huge effort.
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  I think, you know, we have, we've always had a really,
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  a pretty robust data and AI ethics strategy.
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  Um, and it's been something that we've kind of been doing
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  for a while, but given all of the kind of the explosion
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  of generative AI in 2023
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  and just kind of this new excitement over what's possible in
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  the space, um, along with just the, the sheer volume
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  of legislative and regulatory activities, um, even in 2023,
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  I think there were over like 65 regulatory activities
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  or actions that were taken, um, related to ai.
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  It was just really important to get ahead of
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  what we would anticipate as some of the requirements
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  around evaluating
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  and assessing risk, making sure
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  that there was accountability
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  and traceability for the AI that's deployed,
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  um, at Highmark.
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  Um, making sure that the enterprise itself was well
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  positioned to handle, um, discussions
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  and adjudication of AI use cases
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  and submissions in a way that is
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  trustworthy and that's stable.
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  And that is, um, kind of, you know, that ha having
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  that strong infrastructure in place
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  and then codifying everything,
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  making sure we have a robust AI policy.
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  Um, so many different components
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  that required really strong partnerships
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  with our information security teams.
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  Of course, data and analytics, legal privacy, um,
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  social determinants of health, diversity, equity
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  and inclusion, um, our product areas.
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  I mean, just having, you know, needing all of those areas
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  to really lean in.
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  Just the cross-functional nature of it, I think was one
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  of our most successful projects or,
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  or initiatives, um, from 2023.
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  And it continues to be, it continues to be a strong program.
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  So I think that's probably one of the most successful, uh,
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  initiatives over the last year.
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  - That's awesome to hear. And you know,
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  really very timely when you talk about
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  and think through how much AI has evolved and,
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  and really what gen AI can mean for the healthcare system,
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  um, when you're thinking through these very high level
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  and very important aspects of implementing ai,
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  thinking about the regulations
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  and how you can, um, very, you know,
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  mindfully incorporate into it, into
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  what you're doing at Highmark, who's part
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  of those discussions and how do you really make sure
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  that you've got, um, a strong backbone to lean on?
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  I, I know that's something that you've mentioned is having
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  that kind of expertise
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  and being able to call upon people to,
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  to make sure you're doing things the right way.
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  How do you really gather that as an institution?
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  - Yeah, well, I mean, Highmark is,
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  has a really strong perspective.
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  Our living health strategy.
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  We are very, uh, focused on making sure that we, you know,
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  kind of reinventing the healthcare experience,
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  really delighting our members
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  and patients, you know, our customers.
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  And so that's always gonna be the North Star, um, especially
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  as a blended health organization.
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  And I think because the entire organization is totally
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  bought in on that North Star, um,
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  I think folks are just more receptive
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  to strong cross-functional collaboration on something
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  as important as, you know, AI governance and AI innovation.
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  And so, you know, we always say we don't necessarily want
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  governance to drive the pace of the business,
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  and so it does require those strong relationships
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  and cross-functional collaboration.
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  And so the people that we have at the table, um,
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  that are making a decision, we have, you know,
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  an actual voting body come from across the organization.
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  So N Engine, which is our kind of it, uh,
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  technology organization, um, I mentioned our, um,
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  chief Data analytics officer, of course,
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  our chief information security officer, chief legal officer,
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  chief privacy Officer, chief HR officer, um,
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  our Chief Diversity Equity
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  and Inclusion officer, our senior vice President
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  for Social Determinants of health.
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  Um, we also have our chief risk officer.
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  Um, they're all sitting at the table
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  and discussing adjudicating and making decisions
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  and voting on all of the ethical
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  and large strategic issues around data, the use of data,
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  the use of AI for Highmark Health.
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  And because they've, they're all committed
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  and they, you know, they put in the time
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  and they're committed, we are able to make decisions
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  as an organization that can then proliferate
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  through operations.
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  And so we were very intentional when setting up the kind of,
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  um, impetus for that group to say, here,
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  here's the imperative, you know,
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  you're gonna weigh in on these types of issues
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  and this is gonna be a voting body.
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  And because that group was already kind of used to
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  that structure and used to having those discussions,
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  even when Zen AI came onto the scene, we were able
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  to strategically kind of get a head start in terms of, um,
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  you know, being able to start thinking through use cases
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  and like kind of, you know, looking at, you know,
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  how do we source use cases
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  and getting them through the pipeline and adjudicating them.
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  It gave, it gave us confidence to move relatively quickly.
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  And so ultimately, I think the, one
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  of the larger lessons here is when you do the foundational,
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  when you invest in the foundational capabilities
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  and the foundational structure, it enables that innovation
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  and it enables you to move faster as opposed to like,
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  you know, if we just kind of rushed in
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  and, you know, did not invest in that infrastructure,
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  then we'd have a lot more downstream issues in terms of,
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  you know, data leakage
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  and confidence in moving forward use cases, especially
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  with the increased risks associated with,
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  with generative ai.
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  - That's such a good point.
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  Thank you so much for going through all that with us.
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  Now, looking ahead, what are your top priorities
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  for the next 12 months or so?
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  - So there, there are, we have a, uh,
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  several key priorities.
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  I mean, I think primarily just making, being very, uh,
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  customer focused, uh, making sure that we're able
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  to deliver care in a way that is, you know, um, that
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  optimizes our customer experience and engagement.
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  Really making sure that our customers are empowered.
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  You know, our living health strategy has, it, it continues
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  to evolve, but it's really, um,
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  an anchor for the organization.
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  And so a lot of the, the work
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  that we do is centered on, you know, around that.
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  We're also, you know, making sure that we have
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  that community presence.
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  I mean, ultimately everything that we do, we need to have
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  that community relationship, that community presence.
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  So, um, you know, we're really focused on, you know,
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  building those relationships in some of our newer markets,
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  uh, that we've entered into.
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  Um, and then just making sure that we are from a, uh,
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  from a technology perspective,
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  that we're making the right investments so
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  that we are building the company,
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  the organization of the future.
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  And that means investing in our people, making sure
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  that we are fully, um, aware of, you know, kind
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  of the capabilities that we need in the future,
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  and adjusting our teams
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  and making sure that we're, you know, either upskilling
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  training or providing the resources for teams
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  to really stretch and engage in some of those, uh,
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  future state, uh, capabilities so
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  that they can be future ready.
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  I, you know, things just move so fast.
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  And so there we have a really keen interest in making sure
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  our teams are prepared
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  to operate kind of in that future state.
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  And that that's been a real area of focus.
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  Um, and it'll be, it'll be an increasing area
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  of focus in the coming year.
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  So,
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  - Absolutely.
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  That's amazing to hear.
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  And definitely, you know, having that eye of
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  where things are headed, where healthcare is headed,
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  but then being able to, um,
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  strengthen those relationships within the community.
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  Um, and I love how you put it being very consumer focused.
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  Um, is there any, I guess, trends that you're seeing
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  that's driving the consumer demand
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  or the way that you're thinking about how you want
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  to deliver a, a different or,
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  or better, um, consumer experience?
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  - Well, you know, I think one thing
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  that I've seen over the past year, which I,
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  which is a really positive development is, you know,
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  the way the dynamic
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  between like the large healthcare organization
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  and the community, um, there, you just have
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  to have an element of kind of humility when engaging
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  with the community, because it's really important
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  to make sure that the voice, you know,
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  that the community's voice is amplified.
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  And so we're not doing activities too,
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  but we are partnering with and learning from.
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  And so I think I've seen that, you know,
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  not just at Highmark, but across other organizations.
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  And it kind of going back to what are some of the benefits
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  of like getting together with other healthcare leaders
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  and, you know, other leaders in this space to really kind
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  of make that paradigm shift so that the interventions
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  that are recommended
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  and the things that we do are fully aligned with what our
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  consumers actually need, um,
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  and not just kind of what we think what we think is best.
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  And so I, I, I'm starting to see that shift,
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  which is really exciting,
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  and I think it's, it's, um, a significant
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  step towards building trust, um, in an increasingly,
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  you know, volatile environment.
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  And that, you know, that trust is so important.
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  And so that's been encouraging for me.
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  - That's great to hear. And, um, I, I love it.
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  I, I appreciate you sharing that with us.
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  Now, before we wrap up here,
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  how do you anticipate your role on teams will change
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  over the next few years?
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  - Yeah, that's a, that's a great question.
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  Um, you know, sometimes when there's a lot
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  of change happening, we can just be, you know,
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  you could spend time just trying to get your bearings,
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  but one of the principles is you always have
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  to be thinking about the future state,
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  even in current volatile circumstances.
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  And so I think there needs to be,
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  and it's something that we're already considering, um,
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  an emphasis on, you know, enhancing the competencies
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  of your existing team
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  and making sure that the teams have increasing range.
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  And so the days of like very siloed roles where you kind
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  of just do one thing and,
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  and one thing only, those are eventually gonna have to
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  phase out over time.
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  We need to be investing in the skills
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  and competencies that, you know,
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  can produce some range across larger
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  chunks of the organization.
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  And what that does is it helps, um, individuals kind of
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  with more experience, be able to move
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  and navigate through organizations,
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  but it also prepares us for the future.
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  And so really investing in exploring what the capabilities
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  and competencies, you know, the one those
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  that are gonna be important in the coming years,
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  and then saying, how best do we get our teams engaged
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  or trained or upskilled to be able to, you know,
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  become well versed in those capabilities
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  and competencies is gonna be important.
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  And one big thing
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  that you've probably heard a million times, um, by now,
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  and I'm just gonna commit the sin of saying it again, is
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  that , um, our like team members,
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  like AI will not replace the team members,
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  but team members
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  that are well versed in AI will replace the
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  team members that are not.
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  And so we really have to like, take that, you know,
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  seriously, um,
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  because I, I do think that that is gonna be the case.
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  So
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  - Absolutely.
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  It definitely bears repeating.
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  I, I, I think especially in thinking through
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  how quickly everything is moving with AI
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  and certainly having that human element behind it
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  and being able to leverage, um, leverage that, um,
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  within the workforce, within any kind
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  of mission driven organization,
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  it seems like such a powerful tool in way to move forward
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  - Forward.
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  Absolutely. Absolutely.
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  - Dr. Daniel, thank you so much
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  for joining us on the podcast today.
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  This has been a fascinating discussion, uh,
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  certainly talking through so many different things
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  that you're doing at Highmark
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  and um, how you're thinking about AI
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  and then the community relationships piece of it too,
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  which is fascinating.
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  I appreciate your time here
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  and looking forward to seeing you
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  and April at our payer Roundtable.
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  - Absolutely. I'm definitely looking forward to it
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  and I really appreciate the opportunity.
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  It's been a great conversation.