Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / How Healthcare Organizations Can Unlock the Full Value of AI by Rethinking Infrastructure as a Strategic Asset

Transcript

How Healthcare Organizations Can Unlock the Full Value of AI by Rethinking Infrastructure as a Strategic Asset · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:00
  Everyone. This is Lucas Voss with Becker's Healthcare.
• 0:02
  Thanks so much for tuning in to the
• 0:04
  Becker's Healthcare podcast series. It's great to have
• 0:07
  you.
• 0:08
  Today, we're talking about how healthcare organizations can
• 0:10
  unlock the full value of AI by rethinking
• 0:13
  infrastructure
• 0:14
  as a strategic asset from power and facilities
• 0:17
  to engineering
• 0:18
  and design integration.
• 0:19
  And I'm so excited to be joined by
• 0:21
  two wonderful guests, Brahim Santos. He's The US
• 0:24
  segment sales and market leader at health care
• 0:26
  for Schneider Electric, And Zach Hilliard, he's the
• 0:29
  principal innovation and technology design
• 0:31
  at SSR. Brahim and Zach, thanks so much
• 0:34
  for being here today. It's great to have
• 0:36
  you both. Welcome. Thanks for having me. Much.
• 0:38
  Great to have you. I wanna kick us
• 0:40
  off with sort of asking a a fundamental
• 0:42
  question a little bit. And, Brahim, I wanna
• 0:44
  start off with you. Right? When we think
• 0:46
  about
• 0:47
  health care,
• 0:48
  AI, and AI in health care, a lot
• 0:50
  of folks think
• 0:51
  clinical. That's the way it goes Sure. Generally.
• 0:54
  I want you to talk a little bit
• 0:56
  about sort of the what we call the
• 0:57
  hidden frontier Mhmm. Of this.
• 1:00
  What do you want executives to see, and
• 1:02
  why does the built environment determine whether AI
• 1:04
  delivers real value in this context?
• 1:07
  Yeah. No. For sure. And I appreciate the
• 1:09
  opportunity to discuss this because it it's something
• 1:12
  that's kinda hiding right in front of everyone's
• 1:15
  face, really, if you think about it. You
• 1:17
  know? Look. When it comes to patient care,
• 1:19
  we always think of these clinical applications and
• 1:22
  the things that directly touch the patient.
• 1:24
  But often, we overlook
• 1:26
  the back of house or the behind the
• 1:27
  scenes,
• 1:29
  systems
• 1:29
  that actually play a major part in helping
• 1:32
  to ensure that this physical environment
• 1:34
  is what it needs to be for patient
• 1:36
  care. And that being said, I think it's
• 1:39
  often viewed or viewed as
• 1:41
  pure cost, right, without any return, if you
• 1:44
  will, the necessary evil to keep those four
• 1:47
  walls in place for the patient care. But
• 1:49
  I do believe if executives take a second
• 1:52
  to figure out, hey. How can we do
• 1:54
  things like leverage
• 1:56
  AI into or work with partners,
• 1:58
  such as ourselves to,
• 2:00
  you know, leverage an AI in these back
• 2:02
  of house systems and applications,
• 2:04
  they can actually leverage in for more of
• 2:06
  those clinically
• 2:07
  facing,
• 2:08
  systems. Right? So if you take a time
• 2:10
  if you take some time to really think
• 2:11
  about, like, hey. If I maybe can add
• 2:13
  some efficiencies and, you know, do some other
• 2:16
  things to what normally is just
• 2:19
  writing a check for, maybe I can actually
• 2:21
  write that check, and that check can actually
• 2:23
  turn into something bigger by way of savings.
• 2:27
  Zach,
• 2:28
  is there an example of how infrastructure
• 2:31
  readiness
• 2:32
  shows up in the real world before it
• 2:34
  touches patient care? Is there something that sticks
• 2:37
  out for you?
• 2:38
  Yeah. One of the terms that's very familiar
• 2:40
  in the design space is like a facility
• 2:42
  conditions assessment. So that traditionally has been what's
• 2:46
  the age of your infrastructure? How am I
• 2:48
  gonna diagnose your infrastructure
• 2:50
  from an engineering lens? And I think that
• 2:53
  this is such an exciting opportunity now where
• 2:55
  that is really getting recalibrated
• 2:58
  to look at adding sensors, adding intelligence
• 3:01
  intentionally
• 3:02
  in that infrastructure
• 3:03
  assessment
• 3:04
  so that you can do this pairing and
• 3:06
  inference just like what what AI is is
• 3:09
  just looking at patterns, you know, and then
• 3:11
  giving you an outcome.
• 3:13
  So how do we take that data intentionally
• 3:16
  early on and get the wins that Brahim
• 3:18
  was talking about,
• 3:20
  so that you can fund some of these
• 3:21
  larger capital initiatives?
• 3:23
  And I Zach, I wanna talk a little
• 3:25
  bit about that change that you've just mentioned.
• 3:27
  Right? Again, we talk about the return of
• 3:29
  investment to return on asset, which you just
• 3:32
  described essentially.
• 3:33
  From a design and engineering lens,
• 3:36
  what changes when hospitals start
• 3:39
  doing exactly what you just described, which is
• 3:41
  treating infrastructure as a strategic
• 3:44
  yielding asset instead of just something that's a
• 3:46
  utility to keep things running.
• 3:49
  I like that you use the word utility.
• 3:50
  Thank you.
• 3:51
  It is exactly that. It's a utility. So
• 3:54
  the dynamic value is probably the thing. Yeah.
• 3:57
  And it's the dynamic meaning it's it's hard
• 3:59
  to go in and say there's going to
• 4:01
  be this one outcome for you doing this
• 4:03
  investment.
• 4:04
  Return on investment is did I get that
• 4:06
  yield? Right? Did I make more money on
• 4:08
  the thing?
• 4:09
  ROA, which is this new framework or or
• 4:12
  technology around attention,
• 4:14
  access, automation,
• 4:16
  and assets,
• 4:17
  is really a a multi
• 4:19
  multiplicative,
• 4:20
  like, duplicative
• 4:22
  kind of value that we're looking at things
• 4:24
  differently.
• 4:25
  So by making those connections
• 4:27
  of the infrastructure,
• 4:29
  smart spaces, like thinking about using
• 4:32
  a sensor,
• 4:33
  video,
• 4:34
  audio,
• 4:35
  other componentry like that intentionally
• 4:38
  gives you dynamic outcomes. It's not one thing
• 4:41
  that Lucas benefits from. It's one thing that
• 4:44
  every department will now benefit from. That gives
• 4:47
  you the attention that you, you know, that
• 4:49
  you never had before. It gives you cognitive
• 4:51
  offsets so that you can have your care
• 4:54
  teams focus on things they need to focus
• 4:55
  on and not have that doom and gloom
• 4:58
  of, like,
• 4:59
  you know, pajama time that you hear about.
• 5:01
  Right? So we're we we care about that.
• 5:03
  Even as engineers in the back of house,
• 5:05
  we care about those things because we're trying
• 5:07
  to make sure that we have that satisfaction
• 5:09
  with the customer. Brahim, really quickly just as
• 5:11
  a follow-up to this. Do you feel like
• 5:12
  organizations are not understanding this more and they're
• 5:15
  getting a feeling for for this?
• 5:18
  I don't know how much of it is
• 5:20
  they don't understand
• 5:21
  or they just allow it to sit in
• 5:23
  the back of their minds, if you will,
• 5:24
  right, and allow other things to stay in
• 5:26
  the forefront. And maybe some of it is
• 5:27
  a little bit of of not understanding or
• 5:29
  having a conversation with some individuals to understand
• 5:32
  what the opportunities are in front of them.
• 5:34
  So I think it's, you know, it's why
• 5:37
  we're here today, right, to help kind of
• 5:39
  spark some interest
• 5:41
  and, to, you
• 5:42
  know, start to cultivate these conversations
• 5:45
  and learn,
• 5:46
  you know, what their what their, environments are
• 5:49
  like. And if we can leverage in some
• 5:51
  more technologies to add add in some efficiencies
• 5:53
  for sure. Yeah. I I want to talk
• 5:55
  a little bit about the bridge that you
• 5:57
  two
• 5:58
  both build. And and, Zach, I'll start off
• 6:00
  with you. Again, we talk about sort of
• 6:03
  these coordinated layers that this is required for.
• 6:06
  And Scheider sort of builds the foundation of
• 6:08
  physical assets and resilient power, and then you
• 6:10
  are bringing
• 6:11
  engineering and integration
• 6:14
  and AI governance certainly as sort of the
• 6:16
  canopy in all of this to bring this
• 6:18
  together.
• 6:19
  From the design side, what does it take
• 6:21
  to then again bridge
• 6:23
  that to build that bridge
• 6:25
  to have those layers so that hospitals can
• 6:27
  move again from that idea to application
• 6:30
  from where they are?
• 6:32
  Vulnerability
• 6:34
  and empathy Yeah. Probably come to mind first,
• 6:37
  having those different points of view or perspectives,
• 6:40
  on the other side. But the partnership is
• 6:43
  the keyword, like and looking at
• 6:46
  not only just either of our organizations, like,
• 6:48
  obviously, we wanna be your partner, but
• 6:51
  understanding and empathizing with the facility, you've got
• 6:54
  strong operational commitments
• 6:56
  with big partners,
• 6:58
  big, like,
• 6:59
  very impactful partners.
• 7:02
  They're doing the scopes of work that's been
• 7:03
  defined.
• 7:05
  Now there's this utility of AI.
• 7:07
  Have you really done a second pass and
• 7:09
  understood what might already be there
• 7:12
  as building that bridge. So
• 7:14
  when we kind of create this, like, hamburger
• 7:17
  stackers, you know, that we were talking about
• 7:19
  earlier today with the you know, Microsoft is,
• 7:22
  in having this discussion,
• 7:23
  it was more to understand what each one
• 7:25
  of us can bring from our own expertise,
• 7:28
  but then empathize and find those integration and
• 7:30
  crosswalks together. Yeah.
• 7:32
  Brahim, when you're having these conversations with health
• 7:35
  systems, right, what's the first design decision or
• 7:37
  sort of the no regrets move that sort
• 7:39
  of make it makes everything easier to scale
• 7:41
  and to actually get to this point?
• 7:44
  Oh, it's a tough one. Like, kinda like
• 7:45
  put some low hanging fruit, if you will.
• 7:47
  Yes. You know, dipping your toe in the
• 7:49
  water.
• 7:50
  I think there's a couple ways to to
• 7:52
  approach and look at it. There's
• 7:54
  I think there's always great opportunity in new
• 7:56
  builds, for sure. Right? It's always easy to
• 7:59
  make sure that you select new equipment with
• 8:01
  the proper
• 8:02
  fundamentals, if you will, right, to, be connected.
• 8:05
  Right? Making sure that you,
• 8:08
  if given the option, they're often very low
• 8:10
  dollar,
• 8:11
  additional options to select along with your equipment
• 8:13
  to make them connectable,
• 8:14
  right, to make them smart. So I think
• 8:16
  that's always the first step. Right? So when
• 8:19
  you have that opportunity to procure new pieces
• 8:21
  of equipment for your for your facility,
• 8:24
  make sure that you buy it so that
• 8:26
  it can be connected and smart. Next, I'd
• 8:28
  say from a a brownfield,
• 8:31
  standpoint,
• 8:32
  you can
• 8:34
  you can also often have a 5 figure
• 8:36
  investment
• 8:37
  in some of your applications that can yield
• 8:39
  $6.07 figure return.
• 8:42
  So
• 8:43
  there are opportunities out there of layering technology
• 8:46
  in into your existing. It could be in
• 8:48
  HVAC systems,
• 8:50
  lighting. It can be in a lot of
• 8:52
  different things that are right there in front
• 8:54
  of you that you can really find those
• 8:56
  savings.
• 8:58
  Zach,
• 8:59
  when we close our conversation here today and
• 9:00
  you're looking ahead to maybe, you know, twelve,
• 9:02
  twenty four months,
• 9:04
  what's that
• 9:06
  quick win that you prioritize
• 9:09
  right now for health systems?
• 9:11
  Finding an,
• 9:13
  I guess, a unrecognized or undefined use case.
• 9:15
  So Yeah. Expanding upon just the versatility of
• 9:18
  what
• 9:19
  an AI strategy is gonna give you, there's
• 9:22
  a lot of rigor that comes with that
• 9:23
  because governance is still a very hot topic
• 9:26
  at this conference, I'm sure, around how do
• 9:28
  you kinda control and manage AI because it
• 9:31
  is risky, you know? But if you can
• 9:33
  do those things properly, have the guardrails in
• 9:35
  place, I think you'll be just blown away
• 9:37
  by the outcomes. Just as a consumer, everyone
• 9:40
  that's listening to this right now has probably
• 9:42
  GPT, Copilot, Claude, etcetera, on their phone.
• 9:46
  And you can't tell me that you know
• 9:47
  what that outcome is gonna be, but somehow
• 9:49
  magically delivers.
• 9:51
  Right? It's the same thing with your facility.
• 9:53
  It's like we want those magical moments to
• 9:55
  happen
• 9:56
  almost as a benefit we talked about in
• 9:59
  our session, here
• 10:01
  around
• 10:02
  the value that we got out of behavior
• 10:05
  recognition. Mhmm. Starting to learn those patterns and
• 10:08
  learn like the predictability of what a facility
• 10:10
  manager's looking for and not having them to
• 10:12
  have to prompt and ask it, but having
• 10:14
  them just to receive and say, yes, please.
• 10:17
  Like, that's a real big benefit twelve to
• 10:19
  twenty four months away. That's tangible. Yeah. Yep.
• 10:22
  Brahim, really quickly too. You mentioned the ROI
• 10:24
  of this in terms of, obviously, it's going
• 10:26
  to have financial benefits if this is done
• 10:28
  right. But what are those outcomes, those other
• 10:30
  outcomes that systems can expect if they're doing
• 10:32
  this right in the next twelve to twenty
• 10:34
  four months? Just even in addition to, monetary,
• 10:37
  benefits, if you will? Yes. Right? So one
• 10:40
  of the things that Zach and I and,
• 10:42
  we had talked about in our session,
• 10:44
  we had two images up in front of
• 10:46
  us. So, you know, one was out of
• 10:48
  a mechanical system
• 10:50
  most historically in a basement, if you will,
• 10:52
  and then Very dark. Very, very dark basement
• 10:55
  and then and then an OR. And then
• 10:57
  we were just kinda really painting the picture
• 10:59
  of
• 11:00
  these two worlds really aren't that far apart.
• 11:02
  Right? I think often we we think about
• 11:04
  the actual space that the patient is in.
• 11:06
  We just really
• 11:08
  highly focus on that. Right? But, again, we're
• 11:10
  talking about the back of house aspects. So
• 11:14
  you'd be shocked,
• 11:15
  right,
• 11:16
  that when you work on those back of
• 11:18
  house basement type
• 11:20
  applications,
• 11:21
  HVAC systems, whatever the case may be, you're
• 11:24
  actually improving
• 11:26
  patient outcomes. Right? You are sustaining the environment.
• 11:29
  You are increasing uptime, all of the above.
• 11:31
  So in addition to just some of the
• 11:33
  monetary benefits you can yield from, you know,
• 11:37
  increased efficiencies,
• 11:38
  You can often maybe just increase the environment
• 11:41
  as a whole, which can often produce a
• 11:43
  better outcome from, patient care. I think we're
• 11:45
  creating confidence. Like Yeah. I mean, confidence is,
• 11:48
  like, I guess, maybe a bow tie on
• 11:49
  the whole thing. Mhmm. Because you you're gonna
• 11:51
  have more confidence in your facility for everyone
• 11:53
  it's serving, which is kind of a neat
• 11:55
  neat thing to think about. Yeah. You don't
• 11:57
  have to cross your fingers anymore. You can
• 11:59
  you can do No guessing game. No no
• 12:01
  guessing game. There you go. Yes. Yeah. It's
• 12:03
  so great to have you both here in
• 12:05
  Chicago at Becker Sand Union meeting. Thanks so
• 12:06
  much for taking some time and being here.
• 12:08
  Thank you. Thank you so much. And we
• 12:09
  also want to thank Schneider Electric for sponsoring
• 12:12
  today's podcast. You can tune in to more
• 12:13
  podcasts from Becker's Healthcare by visiting our podcast
• 12:16
  page at beckershospitalreview.com.