Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT / Isaiah Nathaniel, Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Delaware Valley Community Health

Transcript

Isaiah Nathaniel, Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Delaware Valley Community Health · Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT

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  This is the Becker's Healthcare podcast created by
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  the team of Becker's Healthcare, a multimedia company
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  devoted to the people who power US Healthcare.
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  Four new 15 minute episodes are released daily
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  your feedback. Thanks for listening. Now here's the
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  episode.
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  This is Kate Cruz, and I am at
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  the 8th annual Becker's HIT and Digital Health
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  Conference recording live.
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  I am with Isaiah and Nathaniel. And to
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  get us started, Isaiah, can you share a
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  little bit about yourself and your role at
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  your organization?
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  Well, first, it's a pleasure to be here.
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  I wanna thank Becker's for this podcast. I
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  wanna thank everyone that's here this year at
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  the conference for HIT revenue cycle and management,
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  and I think this is one of the
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  best conferences that I come to all year.
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  So a little bit about me, my name
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  is Isaiah Nathaniel. I just happen to be,
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  by day, the vice president and chief information
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  officer for Delaware Valley Community Health in Philadelphia,
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  Pennsylvania.
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  And we're a local FQHC
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  that serves about 50,000 patients in an urban
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  market.
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  When you think of digital innovation in health
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  care right now, what excites you the most
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  and why?
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  That's an interesting question. And the way that
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  I like to tackle that is
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  technology in general is exciting, or I wouldn't
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  be a CIO. Right?
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  But I think that digital innovation
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  is great for health care, specifically
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  as we talk about
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  what has just transpired in terms of a
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  global pandemic and what we're on the precipice
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  with with artificial intelligence and machine learning and
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  all the things that we wanna learn at
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  conferences like this. Right?
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  So for me, what's exciting is the infusion
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  of all of these things that actually exist
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  into the way that we operate our business,
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  into the way that we try to deliver
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  quality patient care
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  by way of technology. So for me, the
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  excitement is at that infusion
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  of innovation
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  and that infusion of what is quality patient
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  care now
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  that we're outside of the global pandemic. So
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  when we think about instituting
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  these levels of technology,
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  health care has always been traditionally behind in
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  that innovation curve. And now we're starting to
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  see that curve dip a little bit because
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  of all the things that have happened.
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  Absolutely.
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  At your organization, what are your top priorities
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  for technology, and what are big issues that
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  you're trying to solve?
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  The top priority for us the best way
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  I like to state it is in terms
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  of what my mission is for my department,
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  and that is to remove access barriers by
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  way of technology.
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  And so some of the top priorities for
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  us
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  is to do just that, is making sure
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  that
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  preregistration
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  all the way to postregistration
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  that you have an excellent experience
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  with the technology that we offer. That could
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  be digital. That could be
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  traditional computing, and that can just be for
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  staff just to log in in the morning.
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  So by making sure that access is reduced
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  by way of technology,
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  we're really trying to make sure that
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  everyone is experiencing health care in a way
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  that they want to, similar to an experience
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  with Amazon, similar to an experience with some
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  of the consumerisms that we see in traditional
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  market share
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  outside of health care, particularly today. Yeah. Absolutely.
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  What's one piece of advice you would give
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  to health care leaders today regarding digital innovation?
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  The one piece of advice I would give
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  to leaders about digital transformation
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  in health care is to
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  not be afraid. I think sometimes we're so
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  fearful of making a mistake because we understand
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  that that mistake could cause
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  a life
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  or at the very extreme nature of it.
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  Or in addition, that that mistake can degradate
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  a business outcome that you're really looking forward
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  to. So the first thing is not to
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  be fearful. I tend to live by this
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  Kobe mama mentality
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  where you just gotta put the extra effort
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  into it, basically. And the same thing is
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  in business is put the extra effort into
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  making sure that you are really truly
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  putting your patients first.
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  Our patients, our patient experience scores are telling
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  us really driving our strategies today
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  in IT, and we need to listen to
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  that and not be fearful about that. So
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  some of the things I would tell leaders
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  is 1, not be fearful, 2,
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  be aggressive enough that you have a strong
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  research and development opportunity
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  that you're looking at that, and then you
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  actually implement.
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  And then last and finally, I would tell
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  leaders to have a strong PDSA cycle
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  where we're planning, we're doing, we're studying, we're
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  acting on what we're implementing so that if
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  something needs to change, we have a process
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  by the way it can change. That's some
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  really great advice. Thanks for sharing.
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  Could you provide examples of specific instances where
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  the integration of informatics solutions led to improve
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  patient outcomes or enhance patient provider communication?
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  Yeah. That informatics is, for me, top of
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  priority and where a lot of development from
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  my team goes into play.
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  Specifically, when we're talking about introducing anything new,
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  the role of informatics is
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  so paramount to anything that happens with
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  IS and IT and healthcare that you can't
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  do it. Some specific examples is introducing telehealth
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  applications,
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  introducing new workflows, and introducing clinical quality outcomes
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  that you're trying to attach.
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  Informaticis play a strong role for that. So
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  when we were launching a telehealth application where
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  we had none,
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  our informatics has played a great role.
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  In addition to that, the advice that informaticists
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  gives. Traditionally,
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  IS people were technologists. We don't really know
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  the clinical
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  background, but having an informaticists with that clinical
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  background, bringing that advice, that that strong advice
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  about what is actually happening at the point
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  of care because we just put the solutions
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  out, and we say go use it. So
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  making sure that the clicks are possible, the
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  meaningful use objectives are are here too. But
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  then also you have the collaboration. So specific
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  examples of that are telehealth applications. Specific examples
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  of that
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  are meaningful use objectives going up. Specific examples
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  are our clinical informaticist team deploying workflows that
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  actually change outcomes in hypertension or diabetes or
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  HIV care. So these are some of the
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  specific examples that informaticist has played a strong
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  role
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  in understanding, and it's bidirectional.
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  What I mean by bidirectional is while they
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  are introducing clinical outcomes, we're also, by them,
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  be able to introduce technology
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  in an adoption phase when I talked about
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  earlier that curve actually going down. So that's
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  where my role, as CIO
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  is making sure that our informaticist team has
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  a vision,
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  and it's a triad partnership,
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  between myself and our chief medical officer so
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  that they understand what the vision is between
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  both of us and then implement that in
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  a tactical day to day stage. Yeah. That
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  sounds like a really powerful collaboration that can
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  really, provide a lot. 5 years from now,
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  what do you think will be the most
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  significant change in health care delivery and operations,
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  And how can leaders prepare for this? That's
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  a funny question. And as I'm thinking about
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  it, a little funny to me is 5
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  years now, what I think will be most
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  impactful is that if we had no fax
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  machines. Okay. I think that would be a
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  very significant
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  change in health care delivery if we don't
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  have fax machines.
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  But taking the funny aside, what I actually
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  believe
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  second to the fax machines, I'm gonna stick
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  to my guns here,
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  is that
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  AI. I think
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  AI is really gonna revolutionize
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  what we do. Ethically
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  is obviously
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  a top of mind ethically and the security
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  of it, but I think AI can really
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  revolutionize what we're doing in terms of health
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  care delivery
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  because what it has the ability to do
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  is bring consumerism into health care. And I
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  think that's what patients are asking us for.
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  It it's interesting that you use the oldest
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  technology that there is and bringing up the
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  new technology.
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  Interesting perspective, and I love it. Isaiah, thank
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  you so much for spending some time with
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  us today. Is there anything else our listeners
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  should know?
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  I thank you for having me. I think
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  this was a great conversation. I think it's
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  a timely conversation to have. And last but
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  not least, I I just think that this
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  is a great time for health care. I
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  think all CIOs should be reinvigorated
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  with their day to day job strategically and
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  from a tactical perspective.
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  So last thing I would just say is
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  just double down on what you do best,
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  and let's watch our organizations grow because of
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  it. Awesome. Well, it was a pleasure talking
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  to you today. Thank you so much. Thank
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  you.
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  It's so important for leaders at the top
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  of organizations to keep learning, stay sharp, grow
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  their networks.
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  a more simplified, personalized, and meaningful way, Becker's
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