Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Luis Taveras, SVP and Chief Information Officer at Jefferson Health

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Luis Taveras, SVP and Chief Information Officer at Jefferson Health · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  Philips is a health tech leader focused on
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  innovation that improves the health and well-being of
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  people. Our health care technology and informatics solutions
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  help care teams diagnose, treat, and manage more
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  patients with greater precision, speed, and confidence across
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  the care journey. With Philips, clinicians are empowered
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  with streamlined insights in the moments that matter
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  for every patient. Better care for more people.
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  Philips.
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  This is Gracelyn Keller with the Becker's Healthcare
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  Podcast, and we are recording live at the
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  tenth annual health IT digital health and RCM
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  meeting. I'm currently joined by Luis Tavares, who
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  is the senior vice president and chief information
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  officer at Jefferson Health. Thanks for being here,
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  and I'll have you start off by sharing
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  a little bit more about yourself and your
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  work in health care. Well, first of all,
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  thanks for having me here.
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  I do serve as the chief information office
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  for Jefferson Health, but really for the entire
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  Jefferson enterprise. So we have the health side
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  of it. We have the university side, and
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  we also have a health plan. So it's
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  a three components to the to the organization.
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  As the CIO, I oversee all those different
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  areas,
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  for health. And Jefferson Health with 32
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  different hospital systems,
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  different hospitals in the Philadelphia area,
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  Lehigh Valley and South Jersey,
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  about 700 plus KA locations,
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  and we are the largest in the in
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  the region.
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  Wonderful.
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  Well, thank you for being here, and let's
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  start our conversation talking about AI.
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  Nearly half of medical practices reported using AI
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  in some capacity last year, and it remains
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  a key topic for health IT leaders. So
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  from your perspective,
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  what are the use cases that are making
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  a difference right now, and how are you
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  leveraging them in your organization?
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  So the the one that is the unquestionable
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  king of making a difference is Ambient AI.
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  We've been deploying that for the last few
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  months, and it has been tremendous, tremendous reception
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  from all the clinicians out there that are
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  using it.
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  They've expressed to me it's a game changer
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  for them.
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  So that's how significant it is. We need
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  to continue to deploy it and look not
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  only at the practices,
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  but look at the ER. We're looking at
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  nursing, looking at all different areas that we
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  can deploy the same technology
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  because it is so impactful.
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  Absolutely.
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  And as virtual care expands from AI enabled
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  tools to remote monitoring, broader digital health platforms,
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  introducing new technology does bring challenges. So what
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  advice do you have for leaders navigating everything
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  from governance to patient engagement? And can you
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  share an example of how your organization has
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  balanced innovation with the operational constraints?
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  So
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  from the remote patient monitoring and and digital
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  health,
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  one advice that I would have is be
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  careful not to have too many solutions.
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  There's so many different vendors out there trying
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  to sell us something
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  because they believe we have a problem, not
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  because we really think we have a problem.
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  So focus on the areas that you need
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  your help. Focus on identifying what the needs
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  are and find the best solution that you
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  can find. And look at your platforms, your
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  current platforms.
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  I don't wanna proliferate
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  hundreds and hundreds of different applications out there
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  because it it really, really makes it much
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  more cumbersome from an operational perspective.
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  Absolutely.
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  And shifting gears slightly,
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  how are you seeing recent legislation, both state
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  and federal, affect health care organizations
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  and health IT specifically, and have you adjusted
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  any strategies in response?
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  Really, not not really. I haven't really seen
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  that much legislation that's impact on what we
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  do and how we do it. So it
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  hasn't had a strategy,
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  impact at all. I'm sure there's gonna be
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  new things, especially with AI, the regulations around
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  AI. It'd be interesting to see what we
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  come up with that. That may have an
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  impact, but I really have not seen any
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  regulatory or,
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  local legislations that have impact to what we're
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  doing or how we're doing it.
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  And wrapping up our conversation,
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  what is your top piece of advice for
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  health care leaders as they prepare for further
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  advancements in technology and rising demands for care?
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  So when you when you think of health
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  care leaders and
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  think about the CIO, the role of CIO,
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  I'm just one of the general managers that
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  runs the organization.
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  And my focus is IT,
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  but I have to really, really focus on
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  the strategy of the entire organization.
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  We have to stay focused on that and
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  really think about what is the value that
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  we bring to the organization with everything that
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  we do. It has to be a value
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  driven
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  leadership style that you have to have going
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  forward because that's what we're looking at value
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  from a patient perspective,
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  from an organizational perspective, from a community perspective.
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  That's what we have to focus on the
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  value.
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  Well, Luis, thank you so much for joining
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  me today on the Becker's Healthcare Podcast and
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  sharing these insights. Again, we are recording live
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  at the tenth annual health IT, digital health,
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  and RCM meeting. Thank you for
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  having me.