Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT / Sha Edathumparampil, Chief Digital and Information Officer at Baptist Health South Florida

Transcript

Sha Edathumparampil, Chief Digital and Information Officer at Baptist Health South Florida · Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT

• 0:00
  This is Laura Dirdo with the Becker's Healthcare
• 0:02
  podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by
• 0:05
  Shah Edithin Pramco, who is the chief digital
• 0:07
  and information officer at Baptist Health South Florida.
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  Shah, it's a pleasure to have you on
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  the podcast today.
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  Thank you. Great to be here.
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  Absolutely. Now I'm excited to talk with you
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  because I know you've been some doing some
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  really cool things at Baptist Health South Florida.
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  So we'll talk through some of your perspective
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  on what's going well, how you're thinking about
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  the future, and really,
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  what it means to continue to incorporate digital
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  technologies, AI, and more into the broader health
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  system. But before we do that, can you
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  tell us a little bit more about yourself
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  and your background?
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  Oh, for sure. Thank you. Once again, thank
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  you for having me.
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  I've I've been in technology for
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  over
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  three decades at this point. I've worked in
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  different industries,
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  media and entertainment, financial services,
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  travel transportation. So,
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  this is my
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  first
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  gig in health care, if you will.
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  So, you know, I
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  at Baptist Health, which is a large faith
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  based not for profit system, I have the
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  privilege of leading our technology and digital transformation
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  strategies,
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  which obviously ensures that our physicians, nurses, and
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  and all of the staff have the tools
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  they need to deliver
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  excellent patient care in, as you know,
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  highly increasingly
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  complex environment.
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  Absolutely. And, you know, it's so critical to
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  have that kind of vision in the health
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  care space, especially knowing how, as you said,
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  complex it is and how much it's going
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  to change in the coming years. And so,
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  you know, in thinking about that and from
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  your vantage point as leader of the technology
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  business,
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  what opportunities and headwinds do you have your
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  eye on right now? What's top of mind
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  for you when you're thinking about the next
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  twelve months or so?
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  Yeah. That's that's the core question for any
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  leader in health care industry today as we're,
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  you know, facing
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  a mix of significant challenges and and and
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  obviously incredible opportunities as well. On the headwinds
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  front, right, the financial press pressure is immense.
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  Hospitals
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  are are grappling with expenses for labor and
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  supplies.
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  All of this cost is increasing faster than
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  inflation, but then you compare that or couple
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  that with the Medicare and Medicare reimbursements that
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  don't
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  necessarily cover the cost of actual or the
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  actual cost of care. So this squeeze on
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  margins is a major concern. As you've seen
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  last year, a number of hospitals closed or
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  or otherwise had to deal with that situation
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  in really tough,
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  tough ways. And on top of that, we
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  also have the persistent workforce shortage. Right? So
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  this is,
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  high levels of clinician burnout,
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  which also impacts everything we do.
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  But and last but not the least, the
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  cybersecurity
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  threat,
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  is also an ever present and growing situation.
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  Right? It's not just a IT issue. When
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  you have an event or a or a
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  situation like that, what that, does is it
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  it disrupts
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  operations in in significant health care operations in
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  in significant ways, and it becomes a patient,
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  safety issue.
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  So
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  opportunities.
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  Right? So,
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  we've we've been
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  monitoring closely the rapid sort of essential of
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  artificial intelligence and adoption into
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  all industries that health care traditionally has lagged
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  in terms of adopting new technologies. But,
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  I am glad to see that
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  the, the adoption of AI in in health
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  care has been, I think, close to I
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  saw an article that said it's close to
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  double the rate of of the broader economy,
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  which is which is fantastic to see because
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  the opportunities to apply, like we discussed earlier,
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  all in in all of those headwinds or
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  challenges that we're seeing. There are ways that,
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  AI can and and other technologies, but specifically
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  AI can,
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  can help. So great to see that adoption.
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  And this isn't just about efficiency. Right? So
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  it's about,
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  that it this this is a strategy to
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  to,
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  address a number of different things, everything from
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  clinician,
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  burnout as well as, you know, the bad
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  actors are using AI to to to to,
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  to attack health systems from a security perspective,
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  and we need to be able to use,
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  AI to,
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  to to protect ourselves. So across the board,
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  I think,
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  as hype that as as AI is, and
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  I think the hype is in many ways
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  justified because it is a powerful and transformative
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  technology, and I think that opportunity,
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  sort of is is really broad within health
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  care to be able to use,
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  AI and associated digital capabilities to to make
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  a meaningful impact. Not just from a health
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  care operations perspective, but especially from a patient
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  care perspective.
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  That makes a lot of sense. And I
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  I think it's so interesting,
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  that you're talking about AI, how you can
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  boost,
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  clinical workforce as well as what it can
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  do in order to ensure that, you're operating
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  in a successful way, especially given some of
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  the challenges that you mentioned looking at financial,
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  inflation,
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  additional pressures,
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  coming down the pipe in the next couple
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  of months here, and then, you know, also
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  thinking about workforce shortages and,
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  clinician burnout. So, you know, when when all
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  of those things,
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  are are brought together, are there any use
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  cases that you've been really successful at at
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  Baptist Health South Florida to incorporate AI in
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  seeing some tangible results?
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  Yeah. I I think on the, on the
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  clinician
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  or or provider side of,
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  the house, ambient listening has been a significant,
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  you know, new addition to the toolbox, so
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  to speak. Right? It it's it's still being
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  deployed,
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  across all of our physician base, but,
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  but it's it's it's already showing significant
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  improvements
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  in terms of, you know,
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  the pajama time reduction, which is the time
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  that physicians are are are having to spend
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  after hours updating documentation, but also the cognitive
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  load. Right? So we really want the physicians
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  to be able to use their,
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  sort of bandwidth to to care for the
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  patients and diagnose and treat and so on
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  as opposed to figuring out the documentation. So
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  even the cognitive load,
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  improvement is sort of very visible as we,
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  I mean, as we are deploying this. On
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  the operational side too,
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  we have we've deployed a number of different
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  capabilities,
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  everything from, you know, tracking and following up
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  on incidental findings or on the pharmacy side,
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  being able to,
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  automatically detect and label things. So there's quite
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  a few of those capabilities that we are,
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  we've we've deployed or and are in and
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  then there's a very healthy,
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  road map of these new capabilities as well.
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  So we are very, very
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  utmost about
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  sort of being clear about the value of
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  these projects upfront. So there is a you
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  know, we we send it through
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  a process where we look at,
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  a, is this you know, is
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  is the quality there? B, is this going
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  to help in meaningful ways across all of
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  those different things that opportunities and challenges that
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  we talked about physician,
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  as an example, physician burnout is does this
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  help with that? Does this help with operational
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  efficiency? Does this help with better care for
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  patients? So we look at all of those
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  things, but, but we have now,
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  a road map that's, that's
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  being methodically rolled out.
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  That makes a lot of sense. You know?
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  And I appreciate you taking us a little
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  bit further behind the curtain there to see
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  how you're thinking about things and, you know,
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  what's really elevating the most importance.
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  And, you know, again, kind of keeping that
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  future focused, how are you looking at growth
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  and adding value over the next year or
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  so? I I think especially,
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  you know, getting that road map in place,
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  I know is important. But then what else
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  is coming down the pipe when you think
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  about the most meaningful ways that AI can
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  be incorporated into the organization?
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  For a little bit now, I think,
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  we we've we've seen that the, you know,
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  care is expanding beyond the traditional,
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  hospital walls. Right? So your
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  systems across the board, across The United States
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  are investing in improving their ambulatory footprint,
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  developing
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  hospital at program home type of programs in
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  some cases,
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  and definitely strength strengthening their virtual, digital,
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  telehealth type of services,
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  to to to to meet patients where they
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  are. Right? So that that does
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  two things, both growth and value. Right? So
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  it it allows us to grow seamlessly,
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  especially in the context of the challenge of,
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  you know, not having,
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  enough people to whether it's physicians or other
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  health care workforce, we have a shortage. So
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  having being able to deploy these technologies
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  alongside,
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  building capabilities, care capabilities outside of the traditional
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  walls through ambulatory and outpatient types of services.
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  Putting that together, I think, is is certainly
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  having a having a very positive impact,
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  in terms of our growth plans and our
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  ability to support the community that we serve.
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  That makes a lot of sense. You know,
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  it's really a helpful strategy when, you're looking
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  at how you can bring care closer to
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  the patients, whether it's at home or or
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  those ambulatory
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  facilities across the broader footprint, for the health
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  system, I think, is critical.
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  And and I'm curious. When you look at
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  that as being an important aspect of the
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  future and what you're doing as the health
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  system strategy and then, you know, from the,
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  IT department too,
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  Is there anything that you are,
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  needing more of from your teams or skills
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  and technical abilities, to do that? Or, you
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  know, really, what are are the types of,
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  I guess, people who are gonna be top
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  performers if you're looking at, you know,
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  that from the technology perspective,
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  in in how you can really think about
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  your teams differently in the next year or
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  so.
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  Yeah. That's that's actually a great question,
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  because two things. One is, you know, we
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  we were talking about growth,
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  which
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  typically means
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  growth in cost as well. Right? So we
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  we we need to add these capabilities. We
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  need to have the people or the the
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  the providers to support the patients and then
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  everything else, supporting functions or administrative functions such
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  as such as IT. Now if we don't
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  manage the cost from an IT perspective, which
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  tends to be a bit a meaningful portion
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  of the overall cost of growing,
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  the footprint,
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  what what then happens is, you know, if
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  the cost of IT grows linearly with with
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  everything else, then,
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  our you know, from a margin perspective, it
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  becomes really difficult for health care systems to
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  operate. So IT themselves has had to transform
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  and evolve. Right? So all of these
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  new capabilities, including AI and everything
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  else that has come
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  forward, we have to take advantage of it
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  ourselves and be able to bring our cost
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  down. So some of this growth or much
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  of this growth can be addressed in
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  a cost advantages or a cost neutral kind
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  of a way.
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  And that's been something that we've been very
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  focused on here over the last year to
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  two years,
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  to make sure that we are we are
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  making smart IT decisions as well,
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  that keeps the overall
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  cost lower
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  or trend you know, bend the cost curve
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  as we talk as we say internally,
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  to to be able to support all this
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  growth, but but,
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  allowing at the same time to make sure
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  that the the system has the margin to
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  be able to operate.
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  That makes a lot of sense. And, you
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  know, that operating margin is so critical.
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  I know every health care dollar is precious
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  for sure. And so when you look at,
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  where you're at today and then headed into
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  the future where there's a lot of uncertainties
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  and, you know,
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  even,
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  a lot of organizations are seeing some of
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  their margins being compressed. And so if you're
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  talking to your colleagues out there, what do
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  you see as being really one risk for
• 12:03
  investment that's still worth making, you know, knowing
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  that,
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  there's gonna be potentially even more scrutiny on
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  every cost or spending decision coming up in
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  the next couple years?
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  Yeah.
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  Look. I mean, we we are in this
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  phase
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  or time where, you know, the the technology
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  advancements are coming at us really, really fast.
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  Right? So, I mean, when you if you
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  look at the technology news and updates every
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  week, there is a new
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  AI development or capability that comes to market.
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  So,
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  you know, and that's just AI, but there
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  are other things as well in the horizon.
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  There is Qualcomm coming in, then there is,
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  a number of other clinical technologies that are
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  coming forward as well. So the the
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  there are two underlying,
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  necessities, if you will, the core infrastructure from
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  an IT or technology perspective as well as
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  the cybersecurity,
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  sort of system, if you will, which includes
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  the the team as well as the tools
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  and and the processes,
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  everything including, you know, resilience
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  capabilities and business continuity planning. So that underlying
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  foundation, core
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  infrastructure with all the processes as well as,
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  security and and and everything else around that,
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  I think a lot of our,
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  when I look around in the industry, unfortunately,
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  many systems or,
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  many systems haven't had the opportunity for a
• 13:35
  number of different reasons,
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  haven't had the opportunity to upgrade their systems
• 13:39
  or upgrade their infrastructure.
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  So I think whether whether you invest in,
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  you know,
• 13:45
  buying a new capability today or two years
• 13:47
  from now, that that foundation is absolutely,
• 13:51
  critical. In in the absence of that foundation,
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  two things,
• 13:55
  or three things are likely are gonna happen.
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  A, it's gonna be difficult for you to
• 13:59
  implement these technologies,
• 14:01
  to take advantage of these transformative technologies. B,
• 14:04
  it will be more expensive,
• 14:06
  to to take care of, to to to
• 14:08
  take advantage of it. And then three, it'll
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  take longer. Right? Because time to market has
• 14:13
  become a major, major,
• 14:16
  imperative for us. So investing,
• 14:19
  in the core infrastructure
• 14:20
  and and and the foundation, as I call
• 14:22
  it, which includes cybersecurity as well,
• 14:25
  I I think is going to be
• 14:27
  something that everyone must do. And there are
• 14:29
  many systems that are ahead of that curve,
• 14:31
  and that's great, wonderful. But there's a lot
• 14:33
  of others that are in it, and I
• 14:34
  think that's that's something that they should I
• 14:37
  would look at it as a, no regret
• 14:40
  investment investing in the foundation to upgrade and
• 14:42
  getting it, up to currency. I think that
• 14:45
  would be something that I recommend.
• 14:48
  That's great advice and, really critical to have
• 14:51
  that kind of foundation because I know there's
• 14:53
  like you said, there'll be so much more
• 14:55
  advancement and technology is just gonna get better.
• 14:57
  And so, you know, having the data and
• 14:59
  that infrastructure in place to take on whatever
• 15:01
  comes next, will be so, so helpful for
• 15:03
  health systems as they're trying to navigate,
• 15:06
  uncertainties on a variety of fronts. I think
• 15:08
  as you're wrapping up the conversation here, I
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  I just wanted to take one more,
• 15:12
  look with you, you know, in the best
• 15:14
  opportunities for additional growth in the future, whether
• 15:16
  it's for yourself or your teams or or
• 15:19
  the health system at large. What, are are
• 15:21
  some of the big picture items that you're
• 15:23
  excited about and, are are really preparing for?
• 15:27
  Yeah. That also a great question. I think
• 15:29
  as I look ahead,
• 15:31
  perhaps not next month, next year, but in,
• 15:33
  you know, just a longer term road map.
• 15:36
  It's clear that people are starting to
• 15:38
  take their wellness more seriously than before, right,
• 15:41
  especially the younger generation.
• 15:44
  So,
• 15:46
  you know, we
• 15:47
  which which would mean,
• 15:50
  many different things to a lot of different
• 15:51
  folks. So as such, you see the the,
• 15:54
  you know, the the supplement industry exploding, which
• 15:56
  is expected to be, I don't know, a
• 15:58
  120
• 15:58
  or $130,000,000,000
• 16:00
  industry by 2030.
• 16:02
  But but people are making efforts to take,
• 16:06
  take care of themselves, take control or ownership
• 16:10
  for their own,
• 16:12
  their own health and wellness,
• 16:13
  which is wonderful to see. But I think
• 16:16
  where that goes is ultimately now we would
• 16:19
  need to,
• 16:20
  cater to the community or or or a
• 16:23
  population that is
• 16:24
  that that needs or wants,
• 16:27
  personalized medicine.
• 16:28
  Right? So there is we are also starting
• 16:30
  to see breakthroughs in genomics.
• 16:33
  Recently, there was news that using CRISPR, someone
• 16:36
  was able to, I think, address or or,
• 16:42
  take care of the cholesterol high cholesterol issue.
• 16:44
  So I think increasingly,
• 16:46
  personalized medicine using some of these highly advanced,
• 16:49
  technologies are are are going to start,
• 16:52
  they'll start playing a much, much, much bigger
• 16:54
  role or factor
• 16:56
  in in,
• 16:57
  in health care. Now, you know, as as
• 17:02
  as a in addition to that or, with
• 17:05
  that, there's also, I think, with,
• 17:08
  an opportunity for something like an ambient
• 17:10
  intelligence,
• 17:12
  kind of an effort both inside the hospital
• 17:14
  environment, but as well as outside of it
• 17:16
  when when people are out and about doing
• 17:19
  you know, going about their life. And I'm
• 17:21
  being an intelligence
• 17:22
  agent or or an assistant, a health assistant
• 17:25
  that,
• 17:25
  both that both the providers and the patients
• 17:27
  or the consumers can rely on,
• 17:30
  to to take in take care of,
• 17:32
  you know, or a monitor
• 17:34
  the patients, anticipate some of those needs. But
• 17:37
  on the provider side of it, streamline clinical
• 17:39
  workflow workflows,
• 17:41
  without actually having to,
• 17:43
  do a lot of work manually. I think
• 17:45
  all of that, you know, from a from
• 17:47
  an ambient intelligence perspective or an intelligent AI
• 17:50
  agent,
• 17:51
  health care assistant, whichever whatever you wanna call
• 17:53
  it, I think that's going to be,
• 17:55
  a big piece of it as well. Ultimately,
• 17:57
  what all of this means is, you know,
• 17:58
  between
• 17:59
  technologies and the capabilities that support personalized medicine
• 18:02
  as well as, you know, Ambient Intelligence. All
• 18:04
  of that,
• 18:05
  what that fits into us, you know, is
• 18:07
  the integrated digital health ecosystem. Right? So this
• 18:10
  journey that we've been on for the last
• 18:13
  decade or two to to to assure in
• 18:16
  sort of this digital era into health care,
• 18:18
  I think that's going to now sort of
• 18:20
  take off in in major ways and and
• 18:22
  and
• 18:23
  and see really steep adoption
• 18:26
  and and growth. So that's my
• 18:28
  sort of view,
• 18:30
  for the future. I'm I'm really hopeful that
• 18:32
  comes through because then then it then it
• 18:35
  helps people as well as providers
• 18:38
  sort of do whatever that we have to
• 18:40
  do to to get take care of people
• 18:42
  much, much better and faster.
• 18:46
  I love it. Thank you so much for
• 18:48
  joining us in the podcast today. This has
• 18:50
  been a really fascinating conversation, and I look
• 18:52
  forward to connecting with you again soon.
• 18:54
  Thank you. Thanks for having me. This was
• 18:56
  wonderful, and thanks for the great questions. I
• 18:57
  really enjoyed the conversation.
• 18:59
  Talk
• 19:00
  to you soon.