Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT / Mayil Dharmarajan, Vice President of Data and Analytics at UC Irvine Health
Transcript
- 0:02The most important health care decisions don't happen
- 0:05in isolation.
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- 0:08Becker's sixteenth annual meeting brings together more than
- 0:113,500
- 0:12hospital and health system executives this April in
- 0:15Chicago.
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- 0:22real. Leaders will share how their scenario planning
- 0:24for policy shifts, breaking through value based care
- 0:27barriers, and building clinical teams that translate
- 0:37event
- 0:38details,
- 0:39visit beckershospitalreview.com
- 0:41and click on the events tab in the
- 0:43upper right.
- 0:46This is Laura Dirdo with the Becker's Healthcare
- 0:48podcast.
- 0:49I'm thrilled today to be joined by Myles
- 0:51Demarajan, who is the vice president of data
- 0:53and analytics at UC Irvine Health. Myles, a
- 0:55pleasure to have you on the podcast today.
- 0:59Same here, Laura. Thanks for inviting me.
- 1:02Absolutely. Now I'm looking forward to our conversation
- 1:05because I know UC Irvine Health has gone
- 1:07going through a big transformation right now, a
- 1:09lot happening, some expansion after your acquisition. So
- 1:12I'm looking forward to hearing a bit more
- 1:14about that. But first, can you introduce yourself
- 1:16and just talk a little bit more about
- 1:17UC Irvine Health?
- 1:19Sure.
- 1:20I'm Mile Duran. People call me Mile. The
- 1:22closest pronunciation is m I l e.
- 1:25So I'm vice president of data and analytics
- 1:27in USA Health. So I help USA Health
- 1:30in creating the data driven ecosystem so that
- 1:33we can take,
- 1:35authorization,
- 1:37decision based on data insights
- 1:39that we develop using the metrics and other
- 1:42parameters.
- 1:44You see, eighteen months for me. I'm relatively
- 1:47new, and I'm very excited to be here
- 1:50in UCI Health.
- 1:51It's one of the, you know, popular academic
- 1:54medical center in Southern California.
- 1:56So we are,
- 1:58close
- 1:59to 350
- 2:00beds,
- 2:01hospital.
- 2:02And recently, you know, in this,
- 2:05I would say couple of months, we transform
- 2:06ourselves from
- 2:08being single hospital to seven hospital system, integrating,
- 2:11you know, several tools, technology, processes, people, all
- 2:15of them together. And everything went live, you
- 2:17know, last,
- 2:18December, meaning just six weeks back.
- 2:23Good night. Wow. That's, incredible to hear. And
- 2:25I know, you know, so much,
- 2:27time and space happening. So, I guess, could
- 2:29you tell us a little bit more about
- 2:31some of the big trends you're watching currently?
- 2:32What's top of mind for you?
- 2:35Yeah. I mean, some of the trends that
- 2:37we are currently, you know, watching from,
- 2:40as a health care organization, you know, including,
- 2:43being a academic medical center also is,
- 2:46how AI, like anybody else, right, can enable
- 2:50some of the things that we do.
- 2:52As you may
- 2:53know, the health care, especially the provider side
- 2:55of the business, is a very low margin,
- 2:57and we are always in the financial pressure
- 3:00to make sure that how we can deliver
- 3:02patient care with the limited resources that are
- 3:05available,
- 3:06at the same time without any compromising the
- 3:08quality of the care that we do. So
- 3:10keeping those things in mind,
- 3:12how maximum we can leverage technology that are
- 3:14available.
- 3:15So
- 3:16currently, we are looking at all the tools
- 3:19technology available that we want to use
- 3:21with our recent,
- 3:23you know, opportunity to move from shared
- 3:26EPYC or EMR instance to our own instance,
- 3:29helped us a lot of, you know, positive
- 3:31way to get there.
- 3:33And also
- 3:35in parallel, we are also, you know, shifting
- 3:36ourselves moving from
- 3:38the typical AI pilot demos
- 3:41to how do we, you know, productionize
- 3:44those AI projects
- 3:46and, make sure that, you know, appropriate governance
- 3:48structure put in place
- 3:50and,
- 3:51enable our, you know, people across our organization
- 3:55from either its operations or the clinicians using,
- 3:57you know, some of the technology like Upbridge
- 4:00for the scribes, as well as the community
- 4:01cycle and research,
- 4:03community,
- 4:04to make sure that though they have
- 4:06the appropriate tool that they can use
- 4:09in a more effective way to do their
- 4:11day to day job.
- 4:12And, also, you know, from the
- 4:15health care data perspective,
- 4:17we also, you know, enable the technical framework
- 4:20in our new EMR.
- 4:22So what what it benefits is, you know,
- 4:24it it it also
- 4:25enabled us to leverage
- 4:28all the future functionality of the TEFCO framework
- 4:30so that we don't have to really, you
- 4:31know, dip it on a lot of HAEs
- 4:33to do certain functionality.
- 4:35We leverage the maximum
- 4:37opportunities to use a technical framework
- 4:40so it can, you know, also help us
- 4:43in cutting some of the costs related to
- 4:44the HIE technology.
- 4:46Additionally, we are also now investing,
- 4:49or looking for the opportunity to do the
- 4:51AI governance.
- 4:53In the AI governance, you know, the important
- 4:55part is to make sure that how do
- 4:56we
- 4:57manage those models in appropriate way? How do
- 4:59we have the right repository? How do we,
- 5:02you know, align with the regulatory,
- 5:04needs? And then also, obviously, the privacy and
- 5:07other concerns that we,
- 5:09have to make sure that those models are
- 5:11working appropriately to make it happen.
- 5:13So that's another, you know, important thing that
- 5:15we are investing as well as the
- 5:17the FHIR or the FHIR, the API maturity
- 5:20also helping us in
- 5:22helping solve the,
- 5:24analytics integration back into the application,
- 5:27which is, you know, previously I mean, we
- 5:29we used to have FHIR,
- 5:31APIs, but, again, it's not that much better.
- 5:33But now we have that opportunity
- 5:34to leverage that, more and more.
- 5:38And,
- 5:39in parallel, this is all, you know, mostly
- 5:41on the EMR side, you know, vendor dependence
- 5:43in certain things, including some of those,
- 5:46HIE
- 5:46stuff. But at the same time, we are
- 5:48also investing
- 5:50in modern analytics platform,
- 5:53which needs
- 5:54for our, you know, the administrative
- 5:57and other research,
- 5:59related needs. So this platform will help us
- 6:01to integrate data across, our multiple data domains,
- 6:06with the appropriate data governance structure. We also
- 6:09have an opportunity to,
- 6:11make sure that,
- 6:13the data is having all the trust
- 6:16in terms of, you know, making,
- 6:18the validation, data lineage, data metadata management, and
- 6:21other
- 6:22technology solution in the bottom,
- 6:24as well as collaborating always tightly with the
- 6:26business team to make sure that they understand,
- 6:30the the needs
- 6:32of definition of the each of the KPIs
- 6:34that they are talking about and making sure
- 6:36that those KPIs or the key performance indicators
- 6:39are defined appropriately.
- 6:40And then bringing all of them onboarded
- 6:43to understand these definitions are, you know, aligning
- 6:46with their specific needs
- 6:48and publish those information so that it there's
- 6:50there's a transparency
- 6:51in understanding and the documenting and using those,
- 6:55key performance syndicated. So why it is important?
- 6:57Once you have that particular process built
- 7:00with the tight partnership with the business,
- 7:03it will be very tough for us to,
- 7:05you know, say that, you know, this particular
- 7:06data is accurate. So the accuracy of the
- 7:09data, the trust,
- 7:10worthiness of the data is built with a
- 7:12partnership and then with the data governance structure.
- 7:14We are not there fully yet, but at
- 7:16the same time, we are kicking off, data
- 7:19governance process, collaborating again heavily with our business
- 7:23leaders,
- 7:24to make sure that we have
- 7:26each one of the step that we do
- 7:27in analytics and having that kind of a
- 7:29partnership.
- 7:30So those are the broader trends that currently
- 7:32we are, you know,
- 7:34watching and then making sure that those trends,
- 7:37are aligned with our needs as an organization.
- 7:40And then how do we, you know, bring
- 7:42in those, new tools, technology, other processes, you
- 7:44know, that tends can be even in the
- 7:46process, some of the specific process improvement that
- 7:48we can do,
- 7:49embedded,
- 7:50into our day to day, you know, workflow
- 7:53and, you know, our needs for our business.
- 7:58I love that. I think it's so helpful
- 8:00to understand that technology and exciting to see
- 8:02what's possible, but also, you know, the gravity
- 8:04of everything that you have to do in
- 8:06order to integrate the technology and the data
- 8:08and make sure the data is correct and
- 8:10accurate and then continues to, function in the
- 8:12way it's supposed to. I I think one
- 8:14of the things you talked about is the
- 8:16data governance process, which I know is so,
- 8:18so critical in being able to get the
- 8:20right outcomes that you need once you've got
- 8:22the technology in place.
- 8:24So can you talk a little bit more
- 8:25about the data governance process and how, you
- 8:28know, you set it up, who's involved, and
- 8:30what you've really learned about, making sure that
- 8:32this is done in a way that helps
- 8:34you move innovation forward, but also isn't putting
- 8:36you at risk?
- 8:37Yeah. I I think, I mean, those are
- 8:39the things that we are, watching now. So
- 8:41we we, the as our association, we established
- 8:44health data governance.
- 8:46But, again, we focused mainly on certain areas.
- 8:49And, again, we want to expand that across
- 8:51all the areas, you know, including administrative,
- 8:54key metrics and other things.
- 8:56So keeping that in mind, we are we
- 8:58are rejuvenating some of those,
- 9:00specific governance process across where we can bring
- 9:03in more,
- 9:04clinical clinical related,
- 9:06you know, the subject matter experts, including the
- 9:08leadership level.
- 9:10So we have one integrated, you know, set
- 9:12of processes across our organization as enterprise.
- 9:15Right? As a clinical medical center, as you
- 9:17may already know, when we have the the
- 9:20combination of, the medical system, the hospital side,
- 9:23the research, and then the school side. We
- 9:25always have different data needs for the organization.
- 9:29So we also need to carve out the
- 9:31appropriate data governance structure for that. So for
- 9:33example, in the hospital side, it can be
- 9:35a very specific
- 9:37set of data governance policy and procedure that
- 9:39we need to create versus in research, it
- 9:42may, you know, enable some of those policy
- 9:45procedures for their data needs, but also it
- 9:47has additional layer,
- 9:49for the privacy where we also need to
- 9:52go through the,
- 9:53IRB and other, compliance,
- 9:56layers to make sure that, you know, we
- 9:57have we are compliant with the privacy and
- 10:00then consent of the patient before we deliver
- 10:02any data. So those layers are always, you
- 10:05know, the additional,
- 10:07activity that we need to do. So keeping
- 10:08that in mind, at this point in time,
- 10:11we want to have
- 10:13create, these policies, procedures for hospital in a
- 10:17very broader sense, and then also trickle it
- 10:20down across our organization as appropriately.
- 10:23And also, Ruben,
- 10:25as academic medical center,
- 10:27we have several of our clinician also,
- 10:29you know,
- 10:31do, research. They are also PI for some
- 10:33of the research grants that they have. So
- 10:35we need to balance those activity and then
- 10:37make sure that those
- 10:39data is governed appropriately, not just in the
- 10:42EMR, but also outside the EMR. How we
- 10:44manage it? How do we secure it? How
- 10:46do we make sure that,
- 10:48what are the minimally needed data only is
- 10:50available for them at the same time,
- 10:52without, you know, stopping their research.
- 10:54What are the ways we can address their
- 10:56data needs? And whether it's a data defined
- 10:58dataset, we can give in a a broader
- 11:01sense. And also, we are also enabling some
- 11:03of the real world data,
- 11:06by partnership with our EMR vendor so that
- 11:09the researchers have an opportunity to go and,
- 11:12you know, get those access to a very
- 11:15large set. In this particular one, we have
- 11:17access to 300,000,000
- 11:18de identified data,
- 11:21across the globe,
- 11:22this data of patient across the globe,
- 11:25through our EMR. But that
- 11:27so this is this also enables that. Okay.
- 11:29Now it's a great now we have so
- 11:31much access to the data. Now, how do
- 11:33we make sure that this is safe?
- 11:35So that's where the data governance for. That
- 11:37specific real world data come into play. How
- 11:39do we make sure that, you know, the
- 11:41right people having access? How how do we
- 11:42make sure that they are trained,
- 11:44to use the data in appropriate way? So
- 11:46all these things are, you know, also driving
- 11:49us, to
- 11:50make the,
- 11:52you know, layers of data governance specific activity.
- 11:56But I, again,
- 11:57data governance is a very broad subject.
- 12:00It's very tough for us to, you know,
- 12:01start all the components of the data management,
- 12:04data governance,
- 12:05you know, aspects of it. So we need
- 12:07to focus on some of the critical ones,
- 12:09what would benefit,
- 12:11UCI Irvine,
- 12:12for next to, you know, three months, six
- 12:14months, one year, and then address all those
- 12:17specific component in that and then create the
- 12:19policy procedures and then processes for that and
- 12:21then execute that so that, you know, we
- 12:23don't boil the ocean. We address each one
- 12:25of these pieces and then move to the
- 12:27next one. So that's what currently I'm working
- 12:30on to make sure that, you know, what's
- 12:31our roadmap for data governance? What area we
- 12:34need to focus on data governance
- 12:35to make sure that we create a policy
- 12:37and procedures. So the user community as well
- 12:40as, including the technical, nontechnical, and then the
- 12:43users,
- 12:44they have a very
- 12:46transparent way to understand,
- 12:48you know, to get, to get the data,
- 12:50what I need to do. Simple. It could
- 12:52be right. How do I access data? What's
- 12:54the policy if my role is this x
- 12:56of z?
- 12:57How do we how do what kind of
- 12:58a data
- 12:59are currently available? Do we need to, you
- 13:02know, install the appropriate data
- 13:04catalog technology
- 13:05to make sure that they understand what is
- 13:07available before they ask for the new one?
- 13:10And then it could be what's the intake
- 13:12process and what's the priority for us to
- 13:14deliver data. If you have, you know, 15
- 13:16tickets when we have resource constrained and all
- 13:18the 15 has to be addressed this week,
- 13:20how do we prioritize that? So all these
- 13:22structures have to be put in place, policy
- 13:24and procedures, and and make it transparent, make
- 13:27it available for our user committee so that
- 13:29they know exactly where to go and look
- 13:31for what, and they they are very clearly
- 13:33understand,
- 13:34the policy and processes to get there. So
- 13:37that's in works for us
- 13:39at this time.
- 13:40Absolutely. Thank you so much for going through
- 13:42all of that. I know it's a lot,
- 13:44to to take on, but it's truly helpful
- 13:46to hear kind of those processes and the
- 13:48reasoning behind
- 13:50everything you put into place. And so, you
- 13:51know, as other health systems are trying to
- 13:53do something similar, they can,
- 13:55see that level of specificity. Now what are
- 13:58you most focused on and excited about right
- 13:59now?
- 14:01Well,
- 14:03so we are I'm very excited about,
- 14:07how do we evolve through the processes
- 14:11I mean, people and processes
- 14:13after our big,
- 14:16I would say,
- 14:17big initiative that we have done.
- 14:20So we acquired four new hospital,
- 14:24couple of years ago, and then we brought
- 14:26in all the hospital and integrated them from
- 14:28technology perspective,
- 14:31this December.
- 14:32And also we built a brand new hospital,
- 14:36investing 1,200,000,000,
- 14:38and then we integrated that in the same
- 14:40tools and technology. And then we also moved
- 14:43from our shared EMR instance to our own
- 14:46shared instance.
- 14:48And then now we have our, you know,
- 14:50feature race,
- 14:52feature enriched or feature futuristic
- 14:55EMR available for our clinicians and administrators.
- 14:58So all the three things happen,
- 15:01just six weeks back in December.
- 15:03So it was, you know, very,
- 15:06highly,
- 15:07what do you want to call it? As
- 15:08a,
- 15:10time consuming,
- 15:11complicated,
- 15:14tools, technology, processes, people, chain management,
- 15:17all of them put together in a very
- 15:19tight,
- 15:20you know, schedule.
- 15:22Right? And, I'm very proud that as a
- 15:24UCI, you know, coworker
- 15:27to make everything happen. And I I I
- 15:29saw people so much motivated in spite of,
- 15:32you know, they have to do their regular
- 15:33job of patient care,
- 15:35our research,
- 15:36our other administrative work. Along with that, you
- 15:38know, they have to participate in all these
- 15:40meetings to make sure that those things are,
- 15:42they are done. So now now that we
- 15:45are we have all these things in place,
- 15:46you know, which is, again,
- 15:48greatest achievement from my perspective. In my career,
- 15:51I would say, I haven't seen any organization
- 15:53taking all these three major initiative all at
- 15:55the same time. Right?
- 15:57So now my focus is, okay, now that
- 15:59we have all the things,
- 16:02as you may know, you know, obviously, we
- 16:03have the thin margin and then how do
- 16:05we, you know, make sure that with, available
- 16:08resources,
- 16:09how do we make sure that we have
- 16:10all the appropriate
- 16:12tools technology available for our users, you know,
- 16:14without any specific lag or,
- 16:17or delays. Right? The the minute when we,
- 16:20have any delays in enabling them this feature
- 16:23functionality,
- 16:24people may lose interest and then they may
- 16:25not even come back. So how do I,
- 16:27you know, look at my team and then
- 16:29reorganize my team within my team and then
- 16:32motivate my team members to look at the
- 16:34opportunity to enable some of the tools technology
- 16:37so that, you know, we have,
- 16:39opportunity for our user community to do the
- 16:41self-service. And so that's another self-service analytics is
- 16:43another important thing that, we are strongly creating
- 16:46so that some of the,
- 16:48regular reporting request comes in. All those things
- 16:51will be, you know,
- 16:52relatively
- 16:53reduced. So my team can focus more mainly
- 16:55on advanced analytics as well as how do
- 16:58we partnership with the business
- 17:00so that we become more of a business
- 17:02analytics consultant to them than as a typical
- 17:05report writer through the ticket. Right? How do
- 17:07we sit with them to tell that, okay.
- 17:09I understand all the data structure behind it.
- 17:11I understand all the tools technology behind it.
- 17:13And then I understand to a large extent,
- 17:15you know,
- 17:16what a specific type of request comes in.
- 17:19So how about you and the business and,
- 17:22the analytics team partner,
- 17:24and be as a consultant and then build
- 17:26the solution so that that improve their,
- 17:29day to day processes? And how do we
- 17:31optimize some of the processes that they they
- 17:33have? And what is what are the analytics
- 17:35needed for them to track, monitor, and improve
- 17:37it? So that's where we want to go.
- 17:39So that's my focus.
- 17:41And how do I need to train my
- 17:43team,
- 17:44in those function? Right? Improving their communication
- 17:47or, create some of the roles like the
- 17:49product management or the business analyst type of
- 17:52roles, as well as to make sure that
- 17:54we have all the
- 17:56training and other things available,
- 17:58so that it's not like, you know, every
- 18:00time when some certain things are needed to
- 18:02be done in self-service analytics, every time people
- 18:05ping us. Rather, you know, we have a
- 18:06regular scheduled training across our tools and different,
- 18:09technology.
- 18:10So we enable the user community to use
- 18:13self-service analytics.
- 18:14So keeping those things in mind, you know,
- 18:16all these transformation need to happen and need
- 18:19to happen pretty quickly,
- 18:21so that, you know, we don't lose interest
- 18:23from the users,
- 18:25of using our tools and technology or use
- 18:28lose their interest,
- 18:29in terms of, you know, waiting for our
- 18:31reports analytics for a long time. So that's
- 18:33our goal, you know, to make sure that
- 18:35we enable the sales service analytics so that
- 18:37they can do certain things themselves.
- 18:39And then, be a business partner,
- 18:41with them so that we can enable their,
- 18:43or enable and then improve their process and,
- 18:46you know, other operational improvement. And also,
- 18:50leverage our team skills in advanced analytics, data
- 18:52science. So we have one data scientist on
- 18:54our team. You know, how do we leverage,
- 18:57some of the data content and then improve
- 18:59those things using those data science, attributes.
- 19:02Right? So those are the things that I'm
- 19:04currently focused on and, make sure that, you
- 19:06know, these things are in place for next
- 19:08I have we have a road map for
- 19:10next six months to twelve months. And, also,
- 19:13we are building the road map for the
- 19:14following,
- 19:15twelve month six months to make sure that
- 19:18we have all the things queued up and
- 19:20then validate ourselves. You know, we interact for
- 19:22the,
- 19:24the the aim the the things that we
- 19:26are aiming for and also making sure that,
- 19:29our users are always,
- 19:31open for free feedback and then, communicating with
- 19:34them on a regular basis, partnering with them
- 19:36on a regular basis to make sure that
- 19:37we are on track, and they are on
- 19:39track on their expectation for the analytics.
- 19:44Absolutely. I think that makes a ton of
- 19:46sense. You know, it's it's really, helpful to
- 19:48understand the whole process and everything that has
- 19:50gone into,
- 19:51creating, you know, these types of processes and
- 19:54systems for the data and for the technology
- 19:56as you've been implementing it in the new,
- 19:58spaces, in the newly acquired
- 20:00hospitals as well. Now I'm curious. You said
- 20:02you have created that six month road map
- 20:04as well as the twelve month road map.
- 20:06You know, how do you I guess, what
- 20:08if everything goes into plan, what do things
- 20:10look like a year from now? And, you
- 20:12know, how do you know that the investments
- 20:13you're putting in are going to actually,
- 20:16make sense and have a return on the
- 20:18back end?
- 20:19Yeah. I know. That that's a awesome question.
- 20:22So
- 20:25so fast forward six months. So from six
- 20:27months from now, you know,
- 20:29we expect
- 20:33our our report analytics request through the tickets,
- 20:35the traditional, you know, reporting needs, you know,
- 20:37which is, you know, maybe a give me
- 20:39a patient list, you know, for this with
- 20:41with this, specific attributes. So those kind of
- 20:44tickets, we are expecting it to reduce anything
- 20:46between 20 to 30 percentage.
- 20:48So what that also means is it is
- 20:50releasing some of our,
- 20:52team's availability,
- 20:54for doing much more sophisticated more, sophisticated analytics,
- 20:58report they may need. Right? That's number one.
- 21:01Number two is I'm seeing
- 21:03my team
- 21:04transforming ourselves
- 21:06as a business consultants, meaning that they have
- 21:08rich knowledge of the data structure and then
- 21:10the data behind it. And also,
- 21:13the patents of analytic request comes from different
- 21:15departments. So we have a broader understanding, not
- 21:18just focus on one department,
- 21:19but a broader focus on, you know, several
- 21:21departments. As you may know in any of
- 21:23the conversation, there is one department is slightly
- 21:26better in certain operational
- 21:28maturity than the other departments. So we can,
- 21:29you know, compare and contrast and help our
- 21:32businesses,
- 21:33to do it better. We can say show
- 21:35that as a benchmark to show, hey, here
- 21:37are the things that the other team is
- 21:39doing. You know, how about you trying this?
- 21:41Right? So we have that visibility.
- 21:43And also, the third thing is some of
- 21:45the focus thing that we want to create,
- 21:48that we strongly believe that will help. Say,
- 21:50for example,
- 21:52one of the key thing that I'm getting
- 21:53consistently
- 21:54across all the business leader is the translation,
- 21:58layer type of role.
- 21:59So the business talks plain English, you know,
- 22:02you know, very simple English. Yeah. I want
- 22:04to know about x y z.
- 22:05And then my team talks, you know, pure
- 22:07table and data structure. Right?
- 22:10And there's a big gap between these two.
- 22:12So how do we, you know, with this
- 22:13particular transformation, how do
- 22:15we, you know, enable ourselves, learn ourselves
- 22:19the business related functions? And then how do
- 22:22we make sure that we work with the
- 22:24application team? And then various other, you know,
- 22:27groups
- 22:28to understand
- 22:29what's the mapping between the business plain English
- 22:31need and then the analytics,
- 22:34or the technology? And how do you break
- 22:35that particular gap with the specific roles like
- 22:37the business analyst or the product manager type
- 22:39of role, where this person can understand and
- 22:42translate this information into a technical information, even
- 22:45though it's a very traditional, you know, system
- 22:47analyst or, you know, business analyst previously discussed.
- 22:49But we want to make it as much
- 22:51more than that. It's not just translation alone,
- 22:54but also, you know, help them to give,
- 22:56you know, kind of a translation plus the
- 22:58consulting type of,
- 23:00skill set. They they
- 23:02will, you know, groom them into that level
- 23:03of sophistication.
- 23:05So it will help them to,
- 23:07enable some of these data products, which will
- 23:09have a lifecycle to say that, hey, here's
- 23:11what we are going to do this particular,
- 23:13set of dashboards or a set of metrics
- 23:15that we want to follow through. And then
- 23:17this will help you to improve your business
- 23:19by seven percentage rate. So that's a level
- 23:21of sophistication that we want to,
- 23:24do. And then that's the that's a kind
- 23:26of a one of the outcome I'm expecting,
- 23:29not within the six months, maybe the following,
- 23:30you know, six months and one year. That's
- 23:33where we want to grow into. And then
- 23:35we'll be able to,
- 23:37you know, figure that out with within the
- 23:39existing team itself. Right? We our team has
- 23:41very,
- 23:43kind of a very,
- 23:45you know, deep knowledge about business,
- 23:48but it's matter of connecting the point to
- 23:50make sure that we expose that, you know,
- 23:53skill sets outside
- 23:54and making the collaboration between our business so
- 23:57that and that will make and that will
- 23:59happen. Yeah. So so the thing is,
- 24:02one is through the metrics that we can
- 24:04track and monitor the number of tickets that
- 24:06we'll be able to, you know, see, the
- 24:08immediate impact of that road map. The number
- 24:11two is now how we are going to
- 24:12transform it. And then by transforming you know,
- 24:14creating this,
- 24:16business translation layer, that will help us to,
- 24:19you know, accelerate some of this business consulting
- 24:21type of,
- 24:22roles
- 24:23much more better. That's good for our, you
- 24:25know, businesses as well as it's good for
- 24:27the organization,
- 24:28so that we are, you know, much more
- 24:30generative on organization.
- 24:34Absolutely. No. That that's incredible to hear, and
- 24:37I I think, it it's really cool to
- 24:39understand everything that goes into bringing these products
- 24:42to life. And,
- 24:43I'm excited to to see how it goes
- 24:45over the next year. So we'll have to
- 24:46have another conversation,
- 24:48kind of in debriefing and seeing where it's
- 24:50all headed.
- 24:52I'm curious. Yeah. Happy to share. Perfect.
- 24:55Before we wrap up here, I wanted to
- 24:57ask, you know, you've got a ton of
- 24:58experience,
- 24:59you know, throughout your career. And so what
- 25:01advice would you give all evolving leaders, especially
- 25:03in the health IT and technology space that
- 25:06are looking to,
- 25:07build their careers today and in the current
- 25:09environment? What advice do you have for them?
- 25:12Yeah. I I think,
- 25:14over a period of time, what I learned
- 25:16is,
- 25:17as a technologist,
- 25:19specifically data analytics
- 25:20technologist,
- 25:24the importance
- 25:26for
- 25:27any of the data analytics technologies to to
- 25:31be successful is to have a very tight
- 25:34partnership
- 25:35with the business team. That's very, very important.
- 25:37I mean, compared I mean, relatively
- 25:39to any other IT or technology department. Again,
- 25:42in some of the organization, data analytics, you
- 25:44know, doesn't report to the IT, but, I'm
- 25:46talking about, you know, the organization where, we
- 25:48are part of the IT.
- 25:51The important
- 25:52thing that we need to keep in mind
- 25:53is, you know, we are much more closer
- 25:57to the business team because we are kind
- 25:59of in the gray area between the business
- 26:02and then the pure technology.
- 26:03So what that means is the closer we
- 26:06get to the business
- 26:07and, you know, leverage
- 26:09all of our technology knowledge along with the
- 26:12business challenges our business team is having and
- 26:15then build that partnership on a regular basis,
- 26:19and then deliver the value
- 26:21through that particular process. And also it is
- 26:24imperative for us to make sure that we
- 26:27have, on a regular basis,
- 26:29keep in touch with the leaders. Regular basis
- 26:31in a sense in a really regular basis,
- 26:33regular cadence,
- 26:35one on one with, you know, whether it's
- 26:36a c suite or the VPs or whatever
- 26:39different,
- 26:40you know, senior leadership role in your organization.
- 26:43Be with them
- 26:44every
- 26:45month minimum,
- 26:47to make sure that we understand
- 26:49their challenges
- 26:51today
- 26:52and how do we what are the opportunities
- 26:54we have to solve it through data. Right?
- 26:57So in,
- 26:59as as as we all know, health care
- 27:01is a very data intense business. Right? Everything
- 27:04is data.
- 27:05So
- 27:06and it's very, very rare that anybody's gonna
- 27:08tell them it's not a data problem or
- 27:10something. So it's kind of a,
- 27:12you know, it's it's it's obvious that as
- 27:14a data leader,
- 27:16you know, work with the business leaders, we
- 27:18have a tight
- 27:19relationship with them, and then be there to
- 27:22solve their challenges,
- 27:24in operations or in a strategical level. That's
- 27:27number one. Number two is within our team
- 27:30also,
- 27:31you know,
- 27:32keep them as a
- 27:33a very broader skill set.
- 27:36We don't want a specific
- 27:39tool operator type of skills, meaning we don't
- 27:42need you know, I'm I'm a informatica developer
- 27:44or I'm a, you know, x y z
- 27:46developer type of role. Rather, we need to
- 27:48look at it as a, you know, broader
- 27:50data analyst.
- 27:52This person should think through from the start,
- 27:55you know, how this data is created
- 27:57till the analytics is delivered. Right? We need
- 28:00to have
- 28:01team members that has the wide,
- 28:04aspect of the data, and then how do
- 28:06we, you know,
- 28:07get that particular skill set
- 28:09built, not as a, you know, train for
- 28:11a specific tool set or a specific tool
- 28:13alone. So have that kind of a broader
- 28:15overview. This also will motivate our team members
- 28:18to see
- 28:19if it here is what the business they
- 28:20had. And then with my data knowledge and
- 28:23then their business knowledge combined,
- 28:25we solve that particular business problem with data.
- 28:28So that gives them, you know, a good
- 28:30understanding of how the business stands as well
- 28:33as a good motivation of
- 28:35how they
- 28:36report a analytic solution solving business problem. K?
- 28:39So I I would encourage our leaders to,
- 28:43do that for our team,
- 28:45so that, you know, we have that kind
- 28:46of a motivated team.
- 28:48And then the last one I would say
- 28:50is, you know,
- 28:52the important thing for all of us is,
- 28:54the patient care or the, you know, research
- 28:56outcome and other things.
- 28:58So
- 28:59that should be our foundational thing. We are
- 29:02here to help enable our organization
- 29:04to do,
- 29:05you know, amazing patient care
- 29:08with high quality.
- 29:10So that's the foundation.
- 29:13So that should be the foundation for all
- 29:15the activities or the things that we do
- 29:18in the organization.
- 29:19So that's the foundation. So I I would
- 29:21also encourage,
- 29:23our leaders to think through that particular, you
- 29:26know, process before making any decision
- 29:28how possibly this is going to impact our
- 29:30patients,
- 29:32and how we are going to enable them
- 29:34in such a way that,
- 29:36you know, it it it will simplify some
- 29:37of their,
- 29:39activity that we need to interact with,
- 29:42whether it's, you know, our MyChart or any
- 29:44of our application or using our analytics. So
- 29:47how do we simplify in such a way
- 29:48that, you know, that will enable them and
- 29:50then keep them satisfied,
- 29:53and then,
- 29:54help that that'll help a lot from our,
- 29:57health care industry perspective too.
- 30:01Absolutely. That makes a ton of sense. Myel,
- 30:04thank you so much for joining us on
- 30:05the podcast today. This has been a really
- 30:07fun conversation. I I've learned a lot, and
- 30:09I look forward to connecting with you again
- 30:10soon. And then, you know, really continuing to
- 30:13to learn and have this conversation ongoing.
- 30:15Yeah. Thanks very much, for your thoughtful questions,
- 30:18Laura. Really appreciate that.