Latest / Becker’s Healthcare -- Pediatric Leadership Podcast / Dr. Barry Newman, Pediatric Surgeon and former Director of Pediatric Surgery at Providence Health

Transcript

Dr. Barry Newman, Pediatric Surgeon and former Director of Pediatric Surgery at Providence Health · Becker’s Healthcare -- Pediatric Leadership Podcast

• 0:00
  Imagine this. You're at the Hyatt Regency Chicago
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  That's the beckershospitalreview.com
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  events page. See you in Chicago.
• 1:14
  This is Chris Sosa with the Becker's HealthCare
• 1:16
  podcast.
• 1:17
  I'm thrilled to be joined by doctor Barry
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  Newman, pediatric surgeon, former director of pediatric surgery
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  at Providence Health, and an active lead in
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  the world of informatics to reduce clinician burnout.
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  Doctor Newman, thank you for joining us today.
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  It's my pleasure to be here. Thanks for
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  having me.
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  Doctor Newman, for those who don't know you
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  and are not familiar with your work, could
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  you please introduce yourself and tell us a
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  bit about your background?
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  Well,
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  first and foremost, I'm a full time pediatric
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  surgeon. I've been in practice for 40 years
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  now.
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  I have an MBA in finance and in
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  health care,
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  and, also a master's in health care informatics.
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  I'm board certified in surgery as well as
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  in informatics.
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  Since obtaining my informatics degree,
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  several years ago, I've been actively engaged in
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  efforts to reduce clinician burden and its consequences
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  of burnout.
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  I've been working with an h l seven
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  working group and currently had a task force
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  sponsored by HIMSS as well as efforts in
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  AMIA's 25 by 5 project,
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  and recently,
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  I'm serving as a lead,
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  in a working group sponsored by HL 7
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  and the International Standards Organization,
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  looking to develop programs and practices to reduce
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  burden and burnout,
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  through,
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  health information technology.
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  Thank you for laying that out for us,
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  doctor Newman.
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  Given all the projects that you have going
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  on, which are tremendous in many,
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  what are your top priorities today?
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  Well, my elevator speech
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  is that my goal was to make health
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  care better, more accessible, and more affordable for
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  my children and grandchildren.
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  That's what led to my MBA in finance
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  and health care and then, subsequently,
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  my master's in health care informatics.
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  However,
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  while I wanted to do that for my
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  children and grandchildren,
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  I now unfortunately believe that I need to
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  do that for myself and for my generation.
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  Higher quality care should be a given.
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  However, since the addition of electronic health records,
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  clinician burden was skyrocketed.
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  There's a number of reasons for this,
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  that it's not just the EHR.
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  There are
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  very multifactorial,
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  but this has been leading to increased burnout,
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  which leads to early retirement, providers leaving for
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  nonclinical
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  positions.
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  And now we're seeing worsening shortages of caregivers
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  where we were already previously
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  developing shortages,
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  without great caregivers who are working at top
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  form,
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  with the means of entering high quality data
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  that can really be used to improve health
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  care.
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  We have no hope of turning this around.
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  So it starts
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  with engaged and not burned out providers.
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  And that's my that's my passion and that
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  that's my goal is to
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  try to get this fixed because we need
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  to we need to be increasing our numbers
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  of providers, not not losing them.
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  Those are absolutely worthy goals, doctor, and certainly
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  everyone listening to this podcast can relate to
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  them.
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  On that note, how do you anticipate your
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  role as well as anyone that you're working
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  with in your atmosphere? How I anticipate that
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  will evolve over the next 18 months or
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  so.
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  Well, it turns out that this is actually
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  a very timely
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  offer to be involved with the podcast because,
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  I actually will be stepping away from a
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  full time clinical practice in the next few
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  months.
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  After 43 years in practice,
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  I'm moving on to my next stage.
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  So
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  while I'll be moving away from full time
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  clinical practice, I plan to continue my work
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  on reducing burden and burnout both on a
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  volunteer basis,
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  as well as in my role as a
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  consultant. I do do consulting as well.
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  I've also been developing research plans regarding identifying
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  and measuring burdens and their contribution
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  to burnout.
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  And my research has shown that there are
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  many contributors
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  to to burnout and burnout, not just the
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  electronic health record.
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  For example, one of the other prime contributors
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  is dissatisfaction
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  with administrators,
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  just as an example.
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  Because there are other factors as well, but
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  those are 2
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  2 major
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  contributors.
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  We're also looking at the inclusion of burden
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  as a strategic imperative
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  through the 25 by 5 work group in
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  India.
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  And we're hoping that hospitals and health systems
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  include this,
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  in their global planning and awareness,
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  because I think that this is
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  this is an important part of the solution.
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  And without
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  without that awareness
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  and without including it in that type of
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  global planning,
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  I'm afraid that we're gonna we're gonna lose
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  that battle.
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  Doctor Newman, looking in a little bit of
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  a different direction, although it's all related, of
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  course. I have a 2 part question for
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  you, and that is what are you excited
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  about right now, and what is making you
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  nervous? And please answer that in whichever order
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  you feel is most appropriate.
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  Well, I think the the first thing is
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  is that there are so many incredible things
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  that are on the horizon.
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  Technology, both in the information technology space,
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  as well as things like genomics and personalized
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  medicine.
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  They they hold such amazing potential to extend
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  lifespans and not just extending lifespans,
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  but useful lifespans to keep people productive and
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  functional
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  for many, many, more years.
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  I do this when people talk about retirement.
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  I tell people don't give up your day
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  job because you you may live, a lot
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  longer than you think you're gonna live.
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  You know, most people are planning living into
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  their eighties or maybe their nineties, and I
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  I suspect people are gonna be living even
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  longer than that. So,
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  when you look at what's coming down the
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  pipe,
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  I think that we have an amazing future,
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  potentially in front of us.
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  But, I am concerned about a number of
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  things.
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  You know, we talked about burden and burnout,
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  but I am increasingly concerned about the progressive
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  financialization
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  and the corporatization
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  of health care.
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  I think that this poses great risks to
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  how care is provided.
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  Professionals, and I'm speaking about not just physicians,
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  but nurses and other related,
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  professions,
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  are increasingly being treated as only employees
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  and not utilized to their full potential.
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  And there's been a loss of autonomy and
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  freedom of act freedom of action.
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  And, some of the problems that I mentioned
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  earlier regarding burden and burnout,
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  these are only going to fester and deteriorate,
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  potentially to the point where we can't redeem
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  it.
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  And the only people who can fix this
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  now may be hospital and health system administrators,
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  who do control the purse strings and do
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  control
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  how their employees are addressed
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  and,
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  whether they are listened to or not. And
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  while I don't want to say the word
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  tone deaf, and sadly, I'm afraid that this
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  is where many situations are right now.
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  So I think that needing to turn around
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  how health care is managed,
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  with an eye towards
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  being inclusive and listening and, you know, leadership,
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  playing a major part in
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  reengaging with clinicians,
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  I think becomes such an important,
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  important aspect of of what we need to
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  do with health care.
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  And if we don't get there,
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  I think we're sadly gonna be in a
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  lot of trouble.
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  Doctor Newman, thank you so much for being
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  so generous with your time and your insights
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  today. I cannot wait to share them with
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  our larger audience, and we definitely look forward
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  to connecting again with you soon.
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  Well, thank you so much for having me.
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  And I I look forward to talking again.
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  Hopefully, we can have this conversation again in
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  a year, and we can talk about all
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  the great things that have happened over the
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  past year or so.
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  No doubt, doctor.