Latest / Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast / Jawad Khan, Chief Data and Analytics Officer at Tufts Medicine

Transcript

Jawad Khan, Chief Data and Analytics Officer at Tufts Medicine · Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast

• 0:00
  Would you like to exchange best practices and ideas to improve care,
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  enhance operational efficiency,
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  and address financial challenges with your peers?
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  Becker's Healthcare is facilitating these conversations at their eighth annual
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  health IT digital health and RCM meeting.
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  You can check your eligibility for complimentary attendance at the Lincoln,
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  the description. We are excited to welcome you in October.
• 0:22
  This is Laura Ddo with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
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  I'm thrilled today to be joined by Joad Khan,
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  chief Data and Analytics officer at Tufts Medicine. Johan,
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  it's a pleasure to have you on the podcast today.
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  Happy to be here, Laura.
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  Now, I know, uh,
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  is is an exciting time in healthcare technology with all the different evolution
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  of artificial intelligence and,
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  and different ways to connect both clinically as well as operationally.
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  But before we dive into my questions,
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  can you tell me a little bit more about yourself and your background?
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  Yeah, Laura. My name is Jot Khan.
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  I'm Chief Data Analytics Officer at Tufts Medicine. I have been in, um,
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  provider space for or a decade now, working mostly in data and analytics space.
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  I have, um, computer software background, uh,
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  worked in this area for almost 20 years now and bring a lot of
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  expertise into understanding, curating data, data solutions,
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  data warehouses, and now recently a lot of, um,
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  data science related work using ML and ai.
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  So I'm very happy to be here to have this discussion and, um,
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  talk about what we are doing at Tufts Medicine with respect to understanding our
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  data and analytics and how we can bring about positive change in healthcare
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  using data and analytics.
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  Fantastic. Well, I'm excited to, to learn more now, given your role,
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  uh, chief Data Analytics Officer,
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  what are some of the big opportunities that you're seeing at Tufts as well as
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  the headwinds that you have your eye on?
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  We are focused,
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  first of all to provide frictionless access to our patients.
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  What I mean by that is understanding our patient populations more
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  intimately, what modalities of care they would prefer,
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  and how they would like to access services that Tufts medicine provides with
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  respect to their care, their wellness, and in unfortunate cases,
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  even for sickness.
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  So that's really our focus has been our focus and will be our focus for some
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  time to provide the right access to our patients,
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  understand how we can do capacity optimization or for,
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  for a patient so that they have access when they need and how they need,
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  understanding what best works for them in terms of touchpoints in the health
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  system. How is, how are our referrals working today?
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  How can we make that more efficient for people to get the right care at the
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  right time?
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  And also understand how we can provide a good fully integrated,
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  um, care transition plan for our,
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  if in their journey,
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  they would need different types of care,
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  whether it is care within our four walls of prosperous systems,
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  or whether it is care that we can provide them through our ambulatory services
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  and for some of our patients, how we can provide care for them at home.
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  So along this journey, there's several touchpoints and transitions that happen.
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  We are really focused on making sure that we understand how that journey is,
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  how that best fits and works for our patients,
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  and provide them in a very frictionless fashion. That's our focus right now.
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  We see a lot of opportunity in that area. And also, like you said,
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  headwinds meaning how do we do that? How do we integrate technology?
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  What type of right, uh, interventions we provide for the patients?
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  How do these transitions work? What, how smooth these transitions are?
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  What information needs to become available for our physicians and our providers
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  to make informed decisions about the transitions of care overall, we are really,
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  really focused on making sure access to care is frictionless for our patients.
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  Absolutely. I know that's so important and, and certainly being able to access,
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  um,
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  care in especially for those who traditionally have had a hard time accessing
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  healthcare or have had a, a large number of barriers. I know that, um,
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  is so important today, leveraging technology and, and other means, partnerships,
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  et cetera, to do that. So, um,
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  it's great to hear that's been such a focus area of yours. Now,
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  when you look right now, um, going forward,
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  how are you thinking about growth and development and adding value to the
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  overall organization technology? And it touches pretty much every department,
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  every initiative from clinical to administrative to operations and, and more so,
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  you know, what does that really look like for you?
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  How are you thinking about growth and adding value? So.
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  Like we talked about access, these are all related, um, topics. You know,
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  access is important and when we provide or when we aim to provide
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  frictionless access for our patients,
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  we are also trying to understand what does it mean?
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  What does it mean for our providers? How are we addressing, um,
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  burnout for our physicians? What are we doing?
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  How are we using and leveraging technology to make sure that we are making the
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  back office work for our physicians smooth? What are we doing to automate,
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  um, some of the key areas where physicians really have a hard time?
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  Meaning instead of providing care to the patient, having a conversation,
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  organic conversation with the patient about their care.
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  Are physicians really doing that or sort of inundated with what they have to do
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  with respect to completing the notes? Um,
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  what they have to do with respect to make sure the charges are captured
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  properly, documentation is complete.
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  So we believe augmenting a lot of that work with proper technology,
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  with key solutions that will help reduce the physician burnout will also
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  help us increase access in care.
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  And that will really provide the growth and the value add to the organization,
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  both from our health systems' point of view,
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  as well as being a patient focused organization from our
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  patient's point of view.
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  The other thing that is key in understanding about, you know,
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  thinking and understanding about growth is really to sort of connect
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  transformational research that's happening as test medicine with the actual care
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  and actual operations within our, within our clinical departments.
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  So how does that work? What research is being done?
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  How that re research can be translated into actual clinical operations today?
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  What type of last mile integration is required?
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  Those type of solutions we believe are very,
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  very important and needs the needs to focus the,
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  if these initiatives are led by our,
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  we also believe that if this initiatives are led by our physicians,
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  then it becomes so much more effective.
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  So we are positioning all of our work today on these aspects of our,
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  our work. Meaning how do we augment, um,
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  the work the physicians are doing with appropriate technology,
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  with right technology that's driven by our providers.
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  How do we keep our patients center of that focus and provide the access that
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  they need? We believe if we approach it from this perspective,
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  it'll allow the organization to grow as well as provide the right
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  value that we would need to provide to our patients. Hence, um,
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  hence making sure, again,
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  coming back to this idea about providing frictionless care and Tufts medicine's
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  vision for providing frictionless access to the patients.
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  That's how we are organizing ourselves, Laura.
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  Got it. That's really helpful to know and definitely is so interesting, um, to,
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  to think through that,
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  those access points and keeping patients at the center of the care.
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  I know it can be easy sometimes to, um, be distracted by some of the peripheral,
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  uh, things happening around the healthcare space. Um, but,
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  but certainly keeping them front of mind in any decision you're making is, is,
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  um, really a helpful barometer. I'm sure as you're trying to think through what,
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  um, you know, is gonna be helpful,
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  beneficial from the technology side as well as the strategic planning side, um,
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  which is great to hear. Now, I know that there is a lot happening in healthcare.
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  Um, it's unique time,
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  both with resources on the financial side as well as personnel and staffing. So,
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  you know, when you look at, um,
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  how you are thinking through what you want to invest in, um,
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  in, in, in what risks you wanna take moving forward,
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  what really stands out to you? Um, what's still important to do right now,
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  even as many organizations are tightening their budgets and really trying to
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  figure out how they can, um, move forward in, in, uh,
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  ESP during financial challenging times?
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  Well, that's, that's a great question. It's a very important question to ask,
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  and I'll tell you why many times when you see how things are changing
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  around you, specifically with respect to as you started, uh,
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  introducing this podcast about what AI is bringing in
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  or how it is affecting for, uh, our industry, specifically healthcare industry.
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  It is very important to understand and note that we don't want to implement
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  technology or the next,
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  next shining tool out there just for the sake of doing that.
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  We want it to be more purposeful.
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  We want to be more driven, again, to provide the right access to our patients.
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  So we evaluate from that perspective,
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  we understand and believe that all of the innovation that needs to happen around
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  healthcare has to be organically grown from within the organizations and from
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  that focus of the patient. So, so that's,
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  that's how we are orienting and finding our in investments.
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  We are making purposeful investments in areas of technology that
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  are really,
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  really meaningful for the change that will being very transformational and
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  positive change for our, for both, like I said,
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  for both our patients and also our providers,
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  including the leadership within the organization,
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  our key healthcare leaders that are running and managing the operations for
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  them, providing proper tools that are meaningful,
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  that are led by actual problem solving solutions, is the key.
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  So our focus always has been to understand what that is.
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  How do we take the technology today, the new innovations, the ai,
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  the ML work that is being done,
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  how do we understand that from the context of our problem that we are trying to
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  solve? What is at hand and how does it apply to the problem?
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  And if it really helps us bring the technology that to solve the specific
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  problem, then we are all for it.
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  We'll go ahead and make a very aggressive approach to make that problem,
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  uh, to actually use that solution to solve the problem. So, so that, that is,
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  that's why it's such an important question.
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  We really want to embrace the changes that are coming, um, with the technology.
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  We want to embrace it in a way that it is purpose purposely meaningful and
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  brings about a real difference. Now, what do I mean by that?
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  I actually would want to
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  use specific examples In our case, like I was talking about access, right?
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  We are in,
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  we are using methods and ways now to help our patients get access
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  to our providers by doing a lot of ML AI work,
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  because that's our key area of focus.
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  We believe that if we can provide sentimental analysis of patients,
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  what patient wants, what their,
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  what diagnosis or what symptoms they're presenting to bring a problem,
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  map them to specific specialty, and within that specialty identify the patient.
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  Our providers who are subject matter experts for the,
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  for the care of plan in that specific specialty,
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  we would want to match them to that specific patients. Again,
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  making those touchpoints with the healthcare system very efficient and
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  effective.
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  We believe that using technology to solve such a problem would be an amazing and
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  a purposeful endeavor,
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  enhance our focus on bringing in machine learning,
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  AI-based technologies to improve scheduling, improved capacity management,
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  improved access to our patients, to the right care,
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  right care that they may need. That that's how we are organizing ourselves.
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  We are really looking at technology and the innovation that is coming about,
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  and we are embracing it in a very purposeful,
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  meaningful fashion to bring about real changes in,
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  in how we are providing solution. Does that help, uh, Laura in,
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  in with your question?
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  Yeah, yeah, definitely. I think that makes a lot of sense. You know,
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  and it is really powerful to hear and understand the thought process there in
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  how you really evaluate the technologies and,
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  and the different initiatives that you dive into. Because as you mentioned,
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  you know, it really has to have a clear case for improving patient care in, um,
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  making things easier for the clinicians and, you know,
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  adding value to the overall organization. So, um, that,
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  that's really amazing to hear and definitely something to be excited about and
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  be proud of. And, you know, before we wrap up our discussion, I,
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  I wanted to look into the future just a bit more as well.
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  Where do you see some of the best opportunities for growth and development, uh,
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  yourself as chief data analytics officer,
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  as well as the teams that you work with?
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  Yeah,
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  so I would actually just add a couple of points to what we just talked about
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  and segue into your, into your last question.
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  As we look into technology, as we embrace AI and ml,
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  we are also, um, very
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  aware that there are ethical issues of how we need to implement
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  ai. Um,
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  we want to make sure that our implementation of AI and ML and any new
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  technology for that matter, uh, is more augmented,
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  provides the physicians the type of solutions they may need
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  to make their, um, make their work much effective and easy.
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  The second is we want to make sure we augment it in a way that it helps our
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  patients. It's really, really important that we keep that in mind.
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  Last but not the least, we are also focused on making sure that
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  there is ethics, um, at play.
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  We also make sure we understand that all the solutions are, I said this before,
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  N I p, it's very important that these are all driven by our providers,
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  they physician driven solutions, not necessarily technology driven solutions.
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  We,
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  we strongly believe that technology is an enablement for our physicians to bring
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  about the right type of service that they didn't want to provide the patient.
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  So having said that,
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  now coming back to your question about what are the best opportunities for
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  growth in the future, it's really, like I said, to,
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  we want to meet our patients where their needs are.
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  That's really where the opportunities are today. In traditional healthcare,
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  most of the services were driven by, you know,
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  like sick care.
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  They were driven towards taking care of patients who are mostly sick.
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  We want to shift that.
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  We really want to become a health system where we are engaged with our
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  patients along their journey as long as they're, well, you know,
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  as, as long as they're healthy.
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  We want to be integrated in their journey at that point and understand how we
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  can help them stay healthy.
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  We want to help provide them best care apart from providing
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  sick care. We want to provide them a way that they can stay healthy, be healthy,
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  and stay healthy for as long as they need to.
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  And only help them obviously when they're sick, or not only have them,
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  obviously when they're sick. We want to be part of their entire journey.
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  Our patients,
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  we understand this shift from patients that are also consumers and
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  they may interact with health system,
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  ask customers sometimes when they need to ask patients, other times they,
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  they need to, we need to realize that all of us,
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  regardless of who and where we are, we are patients. We all are getting,
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  um, old every day, every hour, right? So that,
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  that understanding and,
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  and making sure that we are connected with the patients throughout the journey
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  is where need the best opportunity is.
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  We really just don't want and wait for the patients to get sick and come to the
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  hospital. That used to be the traditional way of thinking,
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  and we wanna shift that. We wanna be connected with the patients
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  in the entire journey for, you know, as, as long as we are connected with them,
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  we believe that we'll be able to help them stay healthy as long as they need to.
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  So that's really the focus in, in, in a nutshell,
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  we wanna be able to meet our patients where their needs are and be connected
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  with the, with our customers throughout their journey, uh,
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  of their being well.
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  Got it. That makes a lot of sense. You know,
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  and it is really helpful to think through, um,
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  what that patient journey looks like and being very supportive of them.
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  From your perspective, how has that paradigm shift happened? Obviously,
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  the technology can support it, but in,
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  in looking at the teams that you work with and, um, you know, just the,
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  the culture at Tufts, uh,
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  ha has it been pretty easy to adapt that patient-centered mindset or, um,
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  you know,
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  have you had to try different tactics and and has it really been a journey, um,
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  to get to where you are today?
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  No, it is definitely a journey. I, I, I don't think it is easy,
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  but at the same time, I don't think that it is impossible. It,
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  it just requires a focus. It requires a mindset,
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  it requires that culture to be permeated, um,
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  within the institution.
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  And leadership at Tufts Medicine is very focused on that. Um, so it is,
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  it is, it is definitely doable. We have made a lot of progress in that area.
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  I am not saying that we are there yet,
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  but we will get there as long as we are intentional about it.
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  As long as we are focused, um, continue to keep, uh, stay focused,
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  I believe we'll get there and, uh, and I have all confidence, uh,
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  with, with the team that I work with, uh, with the leadership that I work with,
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  that if anybody can do it, this is the team that can do it. And,
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  and hopefully we will,
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  hopefully we are already showing some of those outcomes and we'll continue to
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  show positive outcomes in that area.
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  Fantastic. J thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today.
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  This has been a really fun conversation and I'm looking forward to meeting you
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  in person at WA as well at our Health IT Digital Health and Revenue Cycle event
• 18:44
  in October. I,
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  I know a lot of these things we talked about today are really gonna be front and
• 18:48
  center of the conversations to dig even deeper, um, into these themes and,
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  and have a more robust conversation around them. So I'm looking forward to it.
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  And thank you so much for your time today.
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  It was a pleasure, Laura. Thank you so much. Yes, looking forward to seeing you.
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