Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT / Dr. J. Scott Smitherman, Associate Vice President and CMIO at Providence Clinical Network

Transcript

Dr. J. Scott Smitherman, Associate Vice President and CMIO at Providence Clinical Network · Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT

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  Philips.
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  Hello, and welcome to the Becker's Healthcare Podcast
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  recorded live at the 9th annual Health IT
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  Digital Health and RCM conference. I'm joined today
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  by Jay Scott Smitherman,
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  chief medical information officer of ambulatory services at
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  Providence.
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  Jay, to get us started, can you please
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  share a bit about yourself, your background, and
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  your role at your organization?
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  Hi. Scott Smitherman.
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  I serve Providence as the CMIO for their
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  employed medical group, the you know, in the
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  outpatient space. We're, you know, large organization on
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  the West Coast, about 10,000 employed doctors.
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  And I have responsibility
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  for,
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  you know, all things related to the EMR
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  and the outpatient space.
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  So AI adoption is exploding right now in
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  health care. In your view,
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  what's the most significant or promising adoption of
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  this technology right now, and how is this
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  informing your organization's innovation strategy?
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  Well, clearly here, one of the biggest hot
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  topics is ambient documentation.
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  I we at Providence have been piloting and
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  using,
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  Nuance's product, DAX,
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  and we have gotten up to
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  almost a 1000 users now,
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  20,000 encounters per week.
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  And this is really transforming,
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  how physicians do their documentation. You know,
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  everybody's talking about physician burnout,
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  and, you know, there's so many technologies that
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  nip around the edges, try to remove a
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  click or 2 here or there. But this
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  here's a, technology that's really transformational
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  in terms of taking a big piece of
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  clinicians work that time spent making their note
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  and and and taking it almost entirely off
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  their plate.
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  So on a daily basis, health care leaders
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  such as yourself are managing greater volumes of
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  data and more devices across a growing number
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  of care settings and populations.
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  In this complex environment, what clinical data integration
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  tools or practices are you seeing drive improvements
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  in patient outcomes and operations?
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  And, do you have an example or 2
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  you can share?
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  You know, we're really excited about the potential
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  for
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  AI to help
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  in all of these complex workflows. One of
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  the biggest dry, drivers of doctor burnout right
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  now is in basket. In basket messages coming
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  in. You know?
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  Physicians are being buried under requests.
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  We've rolled out AI tools to help categorize
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  those messages as they come in and then
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  help drive workflows,
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  so that fewer messages need the physician's attention.
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  And the ones that do are better worked
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  up and,
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  and, you know, can be processed with just
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  a single touch. And we've seen, the application
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  of this tool
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  cut our response times for in half,
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  and then along how long it takes us
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  to respond to a patient and how many
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  messages a medical assistant can process per hour,
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  etcetera.
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  So how can health care organizations
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  better support IT and clinical teams as they
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  carry out innovation efforts, and what is what
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  are some of the common pitfalls here?
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  One of the most common pitfalls I see
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  is, you know, seeing a shiny object, a
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  a a cool piece of technology
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  that doesn't necessarily
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  solve a clinical problem or a a an
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  operational problem that we have,
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  or is at least is not on the
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  top of your list. And so the close
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  partnership between your innovation team,
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  informatics,
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  and operations
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  to decide on what are the highest priority
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  pieces of technology to pursue,
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  because, you know, time spent pursuing a lower
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  priority means that the the the bigger ones,
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  aren't getting addressed.
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  Mhmm. Doesn't mean you shouldn't keep an eye
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  out for what, you know, what's happening in
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  the industry,
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  what what new things are being developed,
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  but you need to make sure that you're
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  focused on your organization's top priorities in these
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  tough times. Perfect. So, you know, being in
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  your role in an ambulatory setting, how does
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  that impact your view of, you know, the
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  adoption of new technologies? And are there any
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  sort of, like, you know, AI tools or
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  technologies in the ambulatory space that you might
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  be really excited about coming down the pipeline
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  5, 10 years that, you know, might not
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  be as exciting to people outside of the
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  ambulatory space?
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  I don't know if it's a difference between
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  ambulatory or acute, but what I'm really excited
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  about you know, I I talked a little
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  bit about ambient documentation
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  Mhmm. And and getting the doctor's notes done.
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  And I I see that as just the
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  first step. What I'm what really excites me
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  yes. That takes takes the documentation off the
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  physician, and that's a huge burden reduction.
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  But, you know, what we can do in
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  the future, now that we have an AI
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  listening to the doctor patient conversation in real
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  time
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  and serve up clinical decision support, serve up,
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  you know, tools in the EMR,
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  help with coding, help with HCC guidance, all
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  of these things on that are, you know,
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  are crucial
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  and and really care transformational besides just burden
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  reducing,
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  that were that you know, all of this
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  that was science fiction 3 years ago. Mhmm.
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  And now, you know, while not there yet
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  and nobody, you know, is no you know,
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  we all can see a clear pathway
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  with tools that exist
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  now that these things are going to happen.
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  And so over the next 3 to 5
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  years, I am really excited to, you know,
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  get Ambient in everybody's hands
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  and and then take the next step of
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  of integrating it deeply with the EMR,
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  bringing in contextualized
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  data where, you know, the the AI knows
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  things about the patient beyond what it just
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  what it heard Right. And then, you know,
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  then taking the next step of clinical guidance.
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  So, you know, in your role and in
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  your experience and in what you've learned over
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  the years, what's the biggest piece of advice
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  you would have for other health care leaders
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  as they prepare for, you know, some of
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  these further advancements in technology and greater demands
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  of care? You know, it's crucial to have
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  the clinicians who do the work at the
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  table with you as you're evaluating new technologies,
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  new initiatives,
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  that, you know, you really need to make
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  sure you really understand the the problem,
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  you know, sending your your COO or your
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  CFO to a to a to a meeting
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  like this. How lovely though it may be,
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  if you don't truly kind of understand the
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  problem at the ground level. I I think
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  that the folks who are gonna be successful
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  in the future are not just the ones
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  who invest in the right technologies, but are
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  able to truly integrate that
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  all the way down to the you know,
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  from the patient level when they're you know,
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  patient interaction all the way down to the
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  the physician seeing the patient.
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  And, you know, everybody talks about integration, but
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  what that really means and is it smooth.
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  And those are the folks who are gonna
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  be successful who are able to understand it,
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  you know, soup to nuts. Well, doctor Smitherman,
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  thank you so much for taking the time
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  to join us today. But before I let
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  you go, do you have any final thoughts
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  or advice you'd like to leave with our
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  listeners?
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  No. The the future looks bright for health
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  care. I think, a lot of, you know,
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  current challenges, but
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  I I'm excited to be in this role
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  right now to to have a chance to
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  participate in this kind of AI revolution, and,
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  you know, just excited to see what tomorrow
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  looks like. Well, I love the excitement coming
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  from you. So thank you again for joining
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  us today. I hope you have a lovely
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  rest of your day. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank
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  you.