Latest / Becker’s Healthcare -- Pediatric Leadership Podcast / Dr. Wayne J. Franklin, Senior Vice President of the Children’s National Heart Center

Transcript

Dr. Wayne J. Franklin, Senior Vice President of the Children’s National Heart Center · Becker’s Healthcare -- Pediatric Leadership Podcast

• 0:02
  At athenahealth,
• 0:03
  we know your ambulatory practice wants healthier,
• 0:06
  a healthier business, healthier care teams, and healthier
• 0:09
  patients.
• 0:10
  But the complexities of modern health care tech
• 0:12
  make it hard for you and your care
• 0:14
  teams to focus on what matters most.
• 0:16
  That's where athenahealth can help.
• 0:18
  Our AI native all in one solutions reduce
• 0:21
  administrative burdens,
• 0:23
  streamline billing and payments, and deliver critical insights
• 0:25
  when clinicians need it most.
• 0:27
  That means fewer clicks, more time for patients,
• 0:30
  and stronger bottom lines. Practicing medicine is complex,
• 0:34
  but running a practice can be that much
• 0:36
  simpler with athenahealth.
• 0:38
  See how simpler is healthier@athenahealth.com.
• 0:44
  Hello, and welcome to the Becker's Health Care
• 0:46
  podcast.
• 0:47
  I'm Elizabeth Gregersen, a reporter here at Becker's,
• 0:51
  and I'm thrilled to interview doctor Wayne Franklin,
• 0:54
  senior vice president of the Heart and Lung
• 0:56
  Center at Children's National Hospital on the podcast
• 1:00
  today.
• 1:01
  Doctor Franklin, thank you so much for joining
• 1:04
  me. I'm very excited to chat as we've
• 1:06
  connected before
• 1:08
  when I was lucky enough to share some
• 1:10
  of your leadership strategies with our cardiology report
• 1:13
  newsletter audience.
• 1:15
  Before we dive in, could you introduce yourself
• 1:18
  and tell us a bit about your background?
• 1:22
  Sure. Thanks for having me, Elizabeth. So I'm
• 1:24
  Wayne Franklin. I served as the senior vice
• 1:26
  president of the Heart and Lung Center here
• 1:28
  at Children's National Hospital in Washington, DC,
• 1:31
  our nation's capital.
• 1:33
  I
• 1:34
  started this role in June
• 1:36
  2024.
• 1:37
  So I've been here for a little over
• 1:38
  a year here in DC.
• 1:40
  And before this, I was,
• 1:43
  the codirect of the heart center at Phoenix
• 1:45
  Children's in Phoenix, Arizona
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  for five years. And before that, I was,
• 1:50
  a faculty cardiologist at Texas Children's and Baylor
• 1:53
  College of Medicine in Houston,
• 1:55
  Texas for, for seventeen years, so a long
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  time. But in my role now as senior
• 2:00
  vice president, I oversee all things heart and
• 2:02
  lung at our hospital.
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  So that is cardiology,
• 2:05
  cardiac anesthesia, cardiac surgery,
• 2:08
  cardiac ICU, and pulmonary and sleep medicine. And
• 2:11
  we also do heart and lung transplants, so
• 2:13
  that falls under my center as well.
• 2:16
  Perfect. Thank you so much for for setting
• 2:19
  that up for us.
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  So our audience, you know, is full of
• 2:22
  hospital and health system leaders. Some of them
• 2:25
  touch cardiology.
• 2:26
  Some are, you know, in other areas.
• 2:28
  I'd love to get your insight
• 2:31
  on what you feel are the top three
• 2:34
  biggest issues
• 2:36
  in cardiology today that you think the Becker's
• 2:39
  audience
• 2:39
  should be aware of.
• 2:42
  Sure. So I I think there's three distinct
• 2:44
  ones, and then they're all different areas. So
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  I think the first one is workforce.
• 2:49
  I think we as cardiovascular care professionals,
• 2:52
  are facing a a serious workforce
• 2:54
  challenge in the next ten years. And
• 2:57
  by 2035,
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  some studies have estimated that we'll be short
• 3:01
  about 8,000 cardiologists.
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  And if you don't plan properly, that could
• 3:04
  increase to 12,000.
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  Think about how many people and how many
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  lives those 12,000 cardiologists can impact. So I
• 3:11
  think it's really important for us to plan
• 3:13
  on ways that we could continue this workforce.
• 3:16
  Many of our older cardiologists
• 3:18
  are retiring, and we're not producing enough, you
• 3:20
  know, younger cardiology fellows to offset those workforce
• 3:23
  reduction. So I think we need to do
• 3:25
  put some things in motion,
• 3:27
  for making training more accessible to removing barriers
• 3:31
  to enter the field to even streamlining
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  the certification, recertification
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  process and work on some of these ways
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  that can help impact the projected
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  workforce shortage. Next, you almost can't have a
• 3:42
  podcast without talking about AI, artificial intelligence. Right?
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  So I think that that is also an
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  exciting,
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  area that is set to revolutionize
• 3:53
  cardiovascular care and health care overall.
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  I think, there are so much data published
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  essentially every day that it's almost impossible
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  for a doctor, a clinician to keep up
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  with the most current practices.
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  And by using AI enabled tools,
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  we should be able to harness some of
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  these data
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  and therapeutic recommendations
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  and and hopefully develop
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  algorithms that can
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  sort of suggest therapies and and management plans
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  for almost any disease.
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  If you look at cardiovascular imaging itself, you
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  know, there's a ton of things we do
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  for imaging.
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  And what we need to do is use
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  AI to hopefully streamline,
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  the interpretation, maybe even provide a a preliminary
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  read, and that can help a lot of
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  the the cardiovascular imagers.
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  And then you as I like to say,
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  the mundane and simple things, the the things
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  that aren't very sexy like note writing and
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  billing
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  can be impacted with AI. The idea of
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  ambient listening where,
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  a a a bot can listen to,
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  an encounter between a doctor and a patient.
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  It can generate a note, and some technology
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  is even out there that can suggest what,
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  billing or or coding options would be available
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  is is huge. And that can really impact
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  of what we call the jammer time, which
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  is that time spent kind of after hours
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  and on weekends,
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  you know, doing documentation
• 5:13
  and and charting. I know a lot of
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  doctors,
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  you know, we sort of dread that, but
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  it's part of the part of the process
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  now.
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  I think that'll help with burnout. The last
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  thing I would say, and then I'll go
• 5:24
  it on a limb here,
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  is the impact of,
• 5:28
  of private equity.
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  I think,
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  honestly, these private equity companies are are threat
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  to health care.
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  I think, a lot of times these companies
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  are just all about making a profit, and
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  they don't necessarily
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  give a real thought or impact to quality.
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  And so that can reflect poorly on the
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  physician and that can lead to to, you
• 5:48
  know, worse patient outcomes. And so I think
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  we need to be really,
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  really aware that this is happening. A lot
• 5:53
  of big private equity firms are are buying
• 5:56
  physician practices
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  and a lot of times cardiology practices because
• 6:00
  they tend to to make a lot of
• 6:02
  money.
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  And I think that's part of the issue.
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  And so, you know, they come along with
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  these big incentives that buy out. And after
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  three to five years, though, doctors aren't left
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  with very much.
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  And, anyway, I know it's a controversial topic,
• 6:14
  but I think that, it's not really the
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  right model for modern health care.
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  Thank you so much. I think, you know,
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  the workforce,
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  AI, and private equity, those are, you know,
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  three topics that we see come up almost
• 6:27
  daily in our coverage across all specialties,
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  across, you know, our finance line. So,
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  I appreciate you kind of
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  letting us speak behind the curtain and seeing
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  how all those, you know,
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  topics are are affecting cardiology today.
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  I'd love to know
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  how you see
• 6:46
  heart care evolving
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  over the next year, eighteen months?
• 6:51
  You touched on a little bit with AI,
• 6:53
  but are there any kind of events on
• 6:55
  the horizon
• 6:56
  that perhaps we should be preparing for?
• 7:00
  Yeah. That's a good question. You know, I
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  think
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  to to address this AI topic again, I
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  think it's really a a great time
• 7:08
  to to look forward to the future of
• 7:10
  of cardiovascular care and cardiology. If you just
• 7:13
  look at the basic things like ambient listening,
• 7:15
  that can, you know,
• 7:17
  translate a a note for us. So but
• 7:19
  it's done by the time we get out
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  of the room.
• 7:21
  Chart review and scanning. Right? So it can
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  really just digest the whole long
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  chart and and come up with some short
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  paragraphs that can summarize all of the imper
• 7:32
  pertinent data.
• 7:33
  I think to our revenue cycle folks,
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  I think, you know, the idea of a
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  software that can suggest billing and coding, that's
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  another,
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  big thing that that we,
• 7:43
  sort of need help with. And I was
• 7:45
  just in meeting today,
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  about,
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  prior authorization and and medication denials and procedure
• 7:51
  denials. Again, these are basic
• 7:54
  business of medicine things
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  that, you know, we as doctors may not
• 7:57
  really think about but are so important as
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  you know for hospital,
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  financials and and for hospital leaders. And if
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  we could automate a lot of that and
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  decrease the administrative burden but also become more
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  effective at it, I think that would really
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  that's really where we need to go. And
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  there's so many
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  start ups and companies out there that are
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  investing in this and developing products. I think
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  it's an exciting time, and we're really really
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  gonna see a lot of these come come
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  through in the next year or two.
• 8:22
  Yeah. Yeah. You're echoing a lot of things
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  that we hear where, you know, there's just
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  so many companies that are are getting their
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  foot in the door and so many solutions
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  that are popping up. So I think that's
• 8:32
  definitely something we'll be seeing, like I said,
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  in the next year, eighteen months of which
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  ones are still working and which ones, you
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  know,
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  are actually moving the needle for for hospitals.
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  I guess keeping that forward momentum,
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  what are you excited about
• 8:51
  today when you think about the future of
• 8:53
  cardiology?
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  And, you know, candidly,
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  are there any aspects that
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  maybe make you feel nervous when you think
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  about the future?
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  Yeah. You know, I tend to be an
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  optimist. So I'm gonna start, with the nervous
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  part, and I'll end with the exciting part
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  so we can end on a high note.
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  Things that make me, yeah, things that make
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  me nervous,
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  are are really honestly the public's perception
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  of health care.
• 9:19
  And even though I live and work in
• 9:21
  Washington, DC, I won't get too political,
• 9:23
  but I think it is really
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  incumbent on the physicians and the scientists to
• 9:28
  lead the way regarding public health recommendations
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  and direct patient care. You know, I think
• 9:33
  we need more humanism in medicine.
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  I remember when I was in medical school,
• 9:38
  UCLA,
• 9:40
  we would learn about the science of medicine.
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  We'd also learn about the art of medicine.
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  And when I think about the art of
• 9:47
  medicine, I think we now call this care
• 9:48
  delivery. Right? How do we foster and manage
• 9:52
  the doctor patient relationship?
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  And I think it'll be really important as
• 9:56
  a lot of changes are happening that, we
• 9:58
  use evidence based medicine delivered in a humanistic
• 10:01
  approach
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  where the patients and families can trust us.
• 10:05
  So I think that's what makes me nervous
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  is that we really have to, you know,
• 10:09
  drill down to the the way care delivered
• 10:12
  on a on a, you know,
• 10:14
  provider to
• 10:15
  patient level in order to really
• 10:19
  engender trust and to move forward together.
• 10:22
  What am I excited about?
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  There's a lot of things that excite me.
• 10:26
  I think it's a great time to be
• 10:27
  in health care and as a physician.
• 10:30
  I think modern technology, again, with the idea
• 10:33
  of artificial intelligence or so called augmented intelligence
• 10:37
  as one of my doctor friends calls it,
• 10:40
  I think we're on the precipice of really
• 10:41
  making huge impacts in how we care for
• 10:44
  patients and how we deliver care.
• 10:46
  I think things like telemedicine
• 10:49
  and remote monitoring,
• 10:51
  wearable technology,
• 10:52
  I think we have such a large amount
• 10:54
  of data
• 10:55
  and, that we can use it at our
• 10:57
  fingertips. But the challenge for us as providers
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  and as clinicians is how to harness these
• 11:02
  data
• 11:03
  and really how to translate that into better
• 11:06
  health outcomes for patients.
• 11:08
  But, you know, I don't want to say
• 11:09
  that's the fun part of being a doctor
• 11:11
  is to be able to use these data
• 11:13
  and science in really an innovative way to
• 11:16
  benefit patients.
• 11:17
  That's what drives me,
• 11:19
  and that's why I'm excited,
• 11:20
  to wake up and to come to work
• 11:22
  every day here at Children's National.
• 11:24
  Amazing. Yeah. I think that's such a great
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  point. I never really thought about it that
• 11:28
  way before, but hearing you talk, it's kind
• 11:30
  of like, you know, even a few years
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  ago,
• 11:33
  we would have or health care leaders would
• 11:35
  have been desperate for the amount of data
• 11:37
  that they have today. And but now we've
• 11:39
  got the data, and it's now figure taking
• 11:41
  that next step of figuring out, like you
• 11:43
  said, how to harness it. I think that's
• 11:45
  I think that's super exciting as well, so
• 11:48
  I'm glad to hear,
• 11:49
  it excites you.
• 11:51
  That's all the time we have today. So
• 11:53
  I just wanna thank you again for joining
• 11:55
  me on the podcast.
• 11:56
  I really feel like it's been a great
• 11:58
  informative discussion,
• 12:00
  and
• 12:01
  I just wanna thank you again for sharing
• 12:03
  your time and your insights.
• 12:06
  Well, great. Thank you so much, Elizabeth. Thanks
• 12:08
  for having me, and I wish you guys
• 12:09
  have a good day.
• 12:11
  Absolutely. And I invite all of our listeners
• 12:13
  to tune in to more podcasts from Becker's
• 12:15
  Healthcare
• 12:16
  by visiting our podcast page at beckershospitalreview.com.
• 12:21
  Thank you again, doctor Franklin, for your time,
• 12:23
  and I hope everyone has a great rest
• 12:25
  of your day.
• 12:28
  At athenahealth, we know your ambulatory practice wants
• 12:31
  healthier,
• 12:32
  a healthier business, healthier care teams, and healthier
• 12:35
  patients.
• 12:36
  But the complexities of modern health care tech
• 12:38
  make it hard for you and your care
• 12:40
  teams to focus on what matters most.
• 12:42
  That's where athenahealth can help.
• 12:44
  Our AI native all in one solutions reduce
• 12:47
  administrative burdens,
• 12:49
  streamline billing and payments, and deliver critical insights
• 12:52
  when clinicians need it most. That means fewer
• 12:55
  clicks, more time for patients, and stronger bottom
• 12:57
  lines.
• 12:59
  Practicing medicine is complex, but running a practice
• 13:02
  can be that much simpler with athenahealth.
• 13:04
  See how simpler is healthier at athenahealth.com.