Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT / Dr. Marcus Speaker, Associate Chief Medical Information Officer at Carilion Clinic

Transcript

Dr. Marcus Speaker, Associate Chief Medical Information Officer at Carilion Clinic · Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT

• 0:02
  At athenahealth,
• 0:03
  we know your ambulatory practice wants healthier, a
• 0:06
  healthier business, healthier care teams, and healthier patients.
• 0:10
  But the complexities of modern health care tech
• 0:12
  make it hard for you and your care
• 0:14
  teams to focus on what matters
• 0:16
  most? That's where athenahealth can help. Our AI
• 0:19
  native all in one solutions reduce administrative burdens,
• 0:22
  streamline billing and payments, and deliver critical insights
• 0:25
  when clinicians need it most. That means fewer
• 0:28
  clicks, more time for patients, and stronger bottom
• 0:31
  lines.
• 0:32
  Practicing medicine is complex, but running a practice
• 0:35
  can be that much simpler with athenahealth.
• 0:38
  See how simpler is healthier@athenahealth.com.
• 0:43
  Hello, everyone. This is Scott King with the
• 0:45
  Becker's Healthcare podcast.
• 0:47
  Thrilled today to be joined by doctor Marcus
• 0:49
  Speaker, associate chief medical information
• 0:52
  officer with the Carlinian Clinic. Doctor Speaker, how
• 0:55
  are you doing today?
• 0:56
  I'm doing great. Thanks, Scott.
• 0:58
  Thanks so much for joining us. You know,
• 0:59
  we have a lot of big topics,
• 1:01
  some trendy things to address here in health
• 1:05
  care. But before we get started, I was
• 1:06
  wondering if you could please tell us a
• 1:07
  little bit about your background.
• 1:09
  Sure. I've been in health care IT now
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  for close to twenty years.
• 1:15
  Started started out here at at Carilion,
• 1:18
  and did a, a medical informatics fellowship back
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  in the,
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  in the mid two thousands.
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  That was after,
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  family medicine
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  training.
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  So,
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  family medicine board certified and also then, along
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  the way, picked up a certification
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  in clinical informatics,
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  helped with our with our EPIC implementation,
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  and then have,
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  continued to
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  to stay on and and work to optimize,
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  our EPIC solution and have worked in,
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  clinical decision support,
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  work through meaningful use,
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  you
• 1:54
  know, and and kind of all the changes
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  that have taken place over the past couple
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  decades. And and now most recently,
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  have been leading our Ambient Scribe
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  rollout,
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  across the organization. So lots of,
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  lots of fun things over the over the
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  past couple decades that we have seen.
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  Absolutely. I appreciate you sharing all that background
• 2:14
  info. And I'm definitely gonna ask you about
• 2:16
  some of those areas in this conversation. But
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  the first thing I want to ask you
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  about, you know, our research tells us that
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  nearly half of medical practices reported using AI
• 2:25
  in some capacity last year, and it remains
• 2:28
  a key topic,
• 2:30
  obviously, now for health IT leaders.
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  From your perspective, what are the use cases
• 2:34
  that are making a difference right now, and
• 2:37
  how are you leveraging them in your organization?
• 2:40
  Yeah. It's a great it's a great question,
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  and,
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  certainly,
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  I'll I'll attack it,
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  from two different perspectives.
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  So their
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  the perspective of the physician or the or
• 2:51
  the frontline clinician
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  and the the things that,
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  that those clinicians are doing in in AI.
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  And and probably three things bubble up.
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  Certainly,
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  the one that it that has everyone talking
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  these days is
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  the AmbientScribe
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  technology,
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  and, you know, the the ability to to
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  walk in and and have a conversation with
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  a patient to to set your phone down,
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  press a button, record the entire conversation, have
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  your notes written,
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  that has been,
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  the first
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  major
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  positive game changer, I I think, for our
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  physicians in a long time. And so I
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  have,
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  I have
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  physicians,
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  APPs coming up to me,
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  telling me about how,
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  impactful
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  the the AmbientScribe
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  technology has been, on their practice, getting them
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  home,
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  getting home on time, getting their notes done
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  on time, not having to work,
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  as much,
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  at night or on weekends.
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  So
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  incredible impact there. So I think that's probably
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  the the biggest one. But
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  we are also seeing inroads into
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  some of the augmented responses
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  around,
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  in basket,
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  when patients have questions,
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  that,
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  through the patient portal
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  coming coming in, being able to take
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  the the conversation,
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  and
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  create a draft response for the,
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  for whomever is responding to the to the
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  message.
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  Again, it helps,
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  helps with efficiency,
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  and in some cases, helps with tone,
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  helps make those
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  those responses
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  a little more a little more pleasant and
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  and patient friendly.
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  And so, that has been a a a
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  large success.
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  And then finally,
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  a newer
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  piece of technology that we have rolled out
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  in the in the generative
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  AI space around node summarization.
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  So
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  being able to,
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  pull up a patient chart,
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  for a patient that I'm seeing today and
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  see a
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  summary of everything that has taken place,
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  you know, in the in the past six
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  months or since the last time that patient
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  was in to see me.
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  Gives me the ability to,
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  to kind of
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  get all those those really important points. And
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  and then if there's something in that,
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  summary
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  that I wanna drill into a little bit
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  more, being able to,
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  to click on some of the annotations and
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  go back to the notes,
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  where,
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  where the generative AI
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  found where it surfaced the information from
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  so I can dig in deeper. And so
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  we're seeing that,
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  catch on.
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  But but, really,
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  kind of these game changers,
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  for our clinicians.
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  Now that's on the clinician side.
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  Now the other,
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  the other hat that I I wear is
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  on the IT side, and so we are
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  seeing,
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  generative AI,
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  through the business applications.
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  So our application analysts,
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  our solution architects,
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  our project managers,
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  all using
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  generative AI to help,
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  put together
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  project plans, help craft,
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  emails,
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  help craft
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  patient education.
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  So being able to to take information,
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  at whatever
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  educational level you you wanna put together and
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  then have the generative AI rewrite that at
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  a at a sixth grade level,
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  or at a fifth grade level or or
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  to whatever target audience,
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  you're looking for. So gaining efficiencies in in
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  those spaces. Obviously, that's not,
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  those are not the clinical applications, but,
• 6:43
  other other areas that we are are using
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  generative AI across the system. So, just
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  a a variety of
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  of use cases.
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  Yeah. It's definitely a variety. We, you know,
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  we hear a lot about the note taking
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  sounds
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  like a simple use, but it really does
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  free up clinicians and physician. It it it
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  frees up so much time and makes things
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  more efficient
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  just to, you know, gather what's going on
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  with the patient and really make the most
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  of that time with the patient. And then
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  hearing about how you're able to adjust it
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  for, you know, different people at different levels,
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  I I think that's just phenomenal and just
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  just
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  tends to lead to great patient care. So,
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  yeah, wonderful use cases. And
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  as we continue to see virtual care expand,
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  from AI enabled tools and remote monitoring
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  to broader digital health platforms,
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  introducing new technology always, you know, brings challenges.
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  So what advice do you have for leaders
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  navigating everything from
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  governance to patient engagement? And can you share
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  an example of how your organization has balanced
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  innovation
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  with some operational constraints?
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  Yeah. I think,
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  at a at a high level,
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  having
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  having a good governance process,
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  is
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  is going to be absolutely
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  key for organizations.
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  And
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  in that in that governance process,
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  making sure that that that at least some
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  of the people that are are engaged
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  really have a
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  more a deeper understanding in terms of how
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  AI and generative
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  AI work, some of the the issues that
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  can be found,
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  and, obviously, both both positive and negative.
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  I also think,
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  at that at that high level,
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  making sure
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  at least in the in the near term
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  for most applications,
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  that
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  organizations
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  are
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  are looking for solutions to problems that they
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  have.
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  There are
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  there are a large number of,
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  generative and and other AI companies
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  that have,
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  some really
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  interesting
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  solutions
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  to problems that we never knew that we
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  had. And so,
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  having conversations
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  with,
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  with these companies,
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  trying to trying to figure out if they're
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  a good fit for us,
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  we have every day talking to to different
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  leaders around around the company about something new
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  and exciting that they that they saw that,
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  you know, may maybe is not the the
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  best fit in the in the short term
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  because,
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  it really is not addressing a a problem
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  that we currently have. And so so really,
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  trying to figure out what problems are you
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  trying to solve and then having conversations with
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  with those IT areas
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  that
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  that can help solve the problem rather than
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  rather than putting in the the new and
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  and bright shiny piece.
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  No. I I think it's a great great
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  question to to start from. And
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  also want to ask, how are you seeing
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  recent legislation, both state and federal,
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  affect health care organizations and health care IT
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  specifically?
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  Have you
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  had to adjust strategies in response?
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  We we have. And and probably the the,
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  the the biggest thing that that we're looking
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  at right now,
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  involves payment.
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  And
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  what,
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  you know, looking out into the future and
• 10:21
  how is
• 10:22
  how is reimbursement
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  going to change,
• 10:25
  trying to to figure out,
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  what that looks like,
• 10:30
  over the next couple years,
• 10:32
  especially around,
• 10:34
  the the governmental programs, Medicare, Medicaid.
• 10:37
  We have
• 10:38
  a a large Medicare and Medicaid population,
• 10:42
  within
• 10:43
  with our clinic that makes us a little
• 10:45
  bit different than, you know, some of our
• 10:48
  some of the other health systems a little
• 10:49
  farther north and and east that are have
• 10:53
  a majority of a private payer system.
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  So,
• 10:57
  trying to figure out,
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  what that's going to look like. And,
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  and so
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  scrutinizing
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  our IT spend.
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  So making sure that
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  that the systems that we have in place
• 11:11
  are truly needed.
• 11:13
  We have a a number of legacy systems,
• 11:16
  our older systems that we're looking at that
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  we have,
• 11:19
  recently
• 11:21
  determined that we could,
• 11:23
  with our core systems, we can do
• 11:26
  maybe 80 to 90% of what the the
• 11:29
  specialty system or the third party system can
• 11:31
  do. And so we're looking at
• 11:34
  moving away from
• 11:36
  some of these third party systems that we
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  have had for a number of years, moving
• 11:40
  back into our core system and really,
• 11:43
  beefing up
• 11:45
  in our epic implementation.
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  And
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  and so again, some of the, some of
• 11:50
  those other core systems,
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  which,
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  results in,
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  savings
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  and puts us in a better place as
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  we look to to weather some of the
• 12:00
  the headwinds that are that are coming.
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  Certainly, in the in the telehealth arena, looking
• 12:05
  very carefully at what's going to happen
• 12:09
  with telehealth, telehealth reimbursement
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  and
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  yeah. So trying to keep our our finger
• 12:14
  on that pulse so we can be reactive,
• 12:17
  because
• 12:18
  we,
• 12:19
  wanna wanna keep those margins at a at
• 12:21
  a safe place.
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  So
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  for my last question, doctor speaker, you you
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  you've covered so much
• 12:29
  in terms of AI and
• 12:30
  and emerging technology and some great use cases.
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  But if you had to kinda zero in
• 12:34
  on one top piece of advice for health
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  care leaders
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  as they prepare for further advancements
• 12:40
  in technology and and rising demands for care,
• 12:43
  what would that be?
• 12:44
  Yeah. Great great question. I and I think
• 12:46
  that goes back to what I said earlier.
• 12:48
  Make sure that you're focused on,
• 12:51
  your the the health system or the or
• 12:54
  the organization's
• 12:56
  strategy,
• 12:58
  understanding
• 13:00
  what your
• 13:01
  what your problems and your goals are, and
• 13:04
  then layering in the appropriate technology
• 13:07
  to
• 13:08
  to help maximize those goals.
• 13:11
  There's a lot
• 13:13
  of really
• 13:15
  fun,
• 13:16
  exciting,
• 13:17
  cool things that that people are are showcasing
• 13:21
  from a technology standpoint,
• 13:24
  but really making sure that,
• 13:26
  that the technology that you're putting in,
• 13:29
  is going to help solve those those core
• 13:32
  problems that,
• 13:33
  and and align with core strategy.
• 13:36
  I think that's a great piece of advice.
• 13:38
  And thank you so much for a great
• 13:39
  conversation, doctor Speaker. I look forward to working
• 13:41
  with you again soon.
• 13:42
  Absolutely. Sounds sounds great. Thanks, Scott.
• 13:48
  At athena Health, we know your ambulatory practice
• 13:50
  wants healthier,
• 13:52
  a healthier business, healthier care teams, and healthier
• 13:55
  patients.
• 13:56
  But the complexities of modern healthcare tech make
• 13:58
  it hard for you and your care teams
• 14:00
  to focus on what matters most. That's where
• 14:03
  athenahealth can help. Our AI native all in
• 14:06
  one solutions reduce administrative burdens,
• 14:08
  streamline billing and payments, and deliver critical insights
• 14:11
  when clinicians need it most.
• 14:13
  That means fewer clicks, more time for patients,
• 14:16
  and stronger bottom lines.
• 14:18
  Practicing medicine is complex, but running a practice
• 14:21
  can be that much simpler with athenahealth.
• 14:24
  See how simpler is healthier at athenahealth.com.