Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT / Jon Senkler, Regional CMIO at UnityPoint Health

Transcript

Jon Senkler, Regional CMIO at UnityPoint Health · Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT

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  Philips is a health tech leader focused on
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  innovation that improves the health and well-being of
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  people. Our health care technology and informatics solutions
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  help care teams diagnose, treat, and manage more
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  patients with greater precision, speed, and confidence across
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  the care journey. With Philips, clinicians are empowered
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  with streamlined insights in the moments that matter
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  for every patient. Better care for more people.
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  Philips.
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  This is Gracelyn Keller with the Becker's Healthcare
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  Podcast, and we are live at the 9th
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  annual health IT, digital health, and RCM conference.
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  I'm currently joined by John Senkler, who is
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  the regional CMIO at UnityPoint
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  Health. So, John, thanks so much for joining
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  me today. Would love to get us started
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  by having you introduce yourself a little bit
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  further. Yeah. Excellent. So, yeah, my name is
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  John Senckler. I'm a physician, regional CMO at
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  UnityPoint Health. Also, physician informaticist,
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  and my physician role is a hospitalist physician.
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  So I've been in that organization
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  for 6 years now,
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  and, it's going it's going great. Wonderful. Well,
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  thanks for taking the time to be here.
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  And let's start our conversation this morning with
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  AI. So adoption of this is exploding in
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  health care.
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  And in your view, what is the most
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  significant or promising application of this technology right
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  now? And how is that informing your organization's
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  innovation strategy?
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  Yeah. I think the most promising application of
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  this is to help providers get back to
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  the bedside.
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  I think that's one of the huge burdens
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  right now is we have all the workstations
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  in the patient's room, and you have the
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  you have you, the computer, and the patient.
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  And so now let's take the computer out
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  of it and just have you and the
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  patient.
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  I use Ambient AI on the inpatient side.
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  And as I use that, I'm sitting at
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  the patient's bedside, and I still have a
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  tablet that I can show the patient their
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  information,
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  but it's an educational piece. It's not because
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  I have to review it or write down
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  notes or anything like that. I'm just there
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  fully invested in talking to the patient.
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  So I think
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  that's the most promising thing right now.
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  I do see this evolving because there's so
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  many companies here that we've seen that have
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  an ambient AI solution.
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  That's what's gonna be that next step
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  to further amplify that technology, whether it's orders,
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  diagnoses, suggestion,
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  diagnosis suggestion, or or something like that. We
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  didn't know it yet. I think that's what's
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  most exciting.
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  And changing course just slightly to data.
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  We're seeing health care leaders managing greater volumes
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  of data and more devices across a growing
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  number of care settings. And this has become
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  a very complex environment. So what clinical data
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  integration tools and practices are you seeing drive
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  improvements in patient outcomes? And can you share
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  a specific example of that?
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  Yes.
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  You know, I think this is a tough
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  question. And, really, I think it's as important
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  having good teams involved. And for me personally,
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  in my role in the organization,
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  this falls into kinda more the IT side
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  of things, but having that good communication between
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  all the different teams and making sure the
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  right hand knows what the left hand is
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  doing.
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  And, you know, that's that's where I see
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  that happening. It's just more integration
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  and more people coming together to get definitive
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  plan to protect this data because there's so
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  much data out there and we gotta make
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  sure we're doing the right thing with it.
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  Well, you set me up perfectly for our
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  next question.
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  With the the mention of IT teams and
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  how that's critical with our data and with
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  technology adoption and innovation.
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  I'd love to hear how you believe that
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  health care organizations can can better support our
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  IT teams and our clinical teams as we
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  carry out these innovation efforts. And do you
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  see any common pitfalls with that?
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  Yeah. And, you know, I'm obviously biased being
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  the CMIO.
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  Technology is everything, and, the EHR is everything
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  too. And so my biggest thing is just
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  making sure
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  clinical informatics is seen and seen as a
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  valuable
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  resource and tool because
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  what's the most common thing we all use,
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  and that's the EHR.
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  And so acknowledging that and
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  making sure we're at the table when complex
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  decisions are being made. Like, hey. Should we
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  go with this vendor? Should we do this
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  or that?
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  We could be there to help provide input
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  so we're not making, you know, frivolous purchases
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  on some shiny new object.
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  So I think that's one of the biggest
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  way health organizations
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  can support
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  their clinical teams is by having informatics involved
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  more to help identify some of these things,
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  especially with the pace that all this stuff
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  is happening. I mean, it's crazy. Last year,
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  you know, I bet half these companies weren't
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  even here. And so
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  being able to keep over that pace of
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  change
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  is gonna be really important, I think.
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  And as we wrap our conversation up today,
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  I would love to hear your top piece
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  of advice for health care leaders as we
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  prepare for further advancements in technology and greater
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  demands for care.
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  I think my best piece of advice would
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  be don't wait.
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  Dip your feet in the water. They'll say,
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  if you don't wanna be first, but you
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  don't wanna be last. And so that's very
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  dependent on your organization too. I've seen some
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  organizations here that are like, they wanna be
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  the tip of the spear.
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  I'd rather be a little bit further down
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  on the spear, but it's great for people
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  who have those aggressive organizations
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  because it they drive innovation. And just like
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  I just said, you know, all these things
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  are changing at such a rapid speed. So
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  you don't wanna be left behind.
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  So just get started, surround yourself with good
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  people,
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  and start developing these teams and policy too.
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  Because policy is a huge, huge important factor
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  that I think often gets overlooked because these
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  are,
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  you know, powerful
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  new technologies that you need to have some
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  guidance with them too.
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  Absolutely. Well, John, thanks so much for joining
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  me this morning on the Becker's Health Care
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  Podcast. Again, we are live at the 9th
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  annual health IT, digital health, and RCM conference.
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  Thank you so much. Thank you.