Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT / Tim Callahan, Chief Technology Officer at University of Michigan Health

Transcript

Tim Callahan, Chief Technology Officer at University of Michigan Health · Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT

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  This is Laura Dierdo with the Becker's Healthcare
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  podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by
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  Tim Callahan,
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  chief technology officer at University of Michigan Health.
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  Tim, it's a pleasure to have you on
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  the podcast today.
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  Yeah. Thank you so much. Excited for the
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  conversation.
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  Now I I'm looking forward to as well
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  learning more about what you're doing at University
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  of Michigan Health and really digging into how
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  you're thinking about the future, some of the
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  cool technologies and initiatives. But before we dive
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  in, could you tell us just a little
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  bit more about University of Michigan Health and
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  what makes it unique?
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  Yeah. So, Michigan Medicine is,
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  the health care provider,
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  component to the University of Michigan as well
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  as,
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  the medical school itself.
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  So in terms of the size of the
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  academic medical center, we're a fairly large,
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  academic medical center. We also have,
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  what we refer to as affiliates, but,
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  they're wholly owned subsidiaries,
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  that we have,
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  UmH West on the Western side of the
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  state and Sparrow,
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  which is more of,
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  the North Central portion of the state,
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  which again contributes to the the size
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  and footprint,
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  to our organization. So if you really,
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  take the aperture back a little bit and
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  take a look at Michigan Medicine,
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  the medical school, Sparrow, their medical school,
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  UmH West,
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  and the provider network that they have, it's
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  a fairly large academic medical center, one of
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  the largest in the country.
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  Absolutely. Well, it's fascinating. And, you know, I
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  I know being able to serve so many
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  different communities, I can imagine, has, great benefits,
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  but also some challenges involved there too. So,
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  that's great to hear. Now when you're thinking
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  back to the last year or so, what
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  accomplishments are you most proud of?
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  Yeah. So as I look back,
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  over the last year, really over the last
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  couple years, I've been in the role about
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  three years.
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  And I came into the role,
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  with the organizational
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  directive of,
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  we need to,
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  modernize our IT infrastructure that we have within
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  Michigan Medicine.
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  And really what that meant to the executive
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  team being Marshall Runge and Andrew Rosenberg and
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  and others,
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  David Miller and and others,
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  was really around the fact that they wanted
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  to inject public cloud into how they move
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  the organization forward. And I have been moving
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  Epic to the cloud for the last ten
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  years.
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  So I was super excited about the opportunity
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  of not just moving Epic to the cloud,
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  but, our imaging application, all of our general
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  purpose applications.
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  Because we're a public institution, we had to
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  issue a lot of RFPs. So in the
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  early days
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  of me coming into the organization,
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  it was really about doing a lot of
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  administrative paperwork
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  to get these RFPs out, to get system
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  integrators to respond to it.
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  We're now over the last year
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  in the exciting,
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  point to where we've made a lot of
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  decisions
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  around,
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  those RFPs
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  that went out.
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  We've signed legal paperwork,
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  and we're now beginning to roll up our
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  sleeves to actually
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  begin the implementation of this very hard work
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  that's in front of us. So, in terms
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  of the accomplishment,
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  it's closing out the book, so to speak,
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  of the initial,
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  tranche of RFPs,
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  that we sent out,
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  being able to execute on those successfully and
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  being able to roll up our sleeves and
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  start to execute on the work,
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  is is really,
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  we're we're very proud of that. We're very
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  excited about that, and we're very optimistic about
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  the future.
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  Well, that's great to hear, you know, and,
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  amazing experience you have, as you mentioned, moving
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  up into the cloud and other,
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  applications.
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  I know there's a lot of hospitals and
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  health systems out there today that are really
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  just starting that journey, into incorporating the cloud
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  into their health systems. So,
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  I guess, is there anything that any advice
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  you'd have or words or wisdom for those,
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  leaders at hospitals and health systems that are
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  beginning some of that migration,
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  into the cloud to make sure it says
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  moving as efficient as possible?
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  Yeah. One of the things that we did,
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  when I first came into the role is
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  we really did take kind of a step
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  back to better understand
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  what exactly we had within the in the
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  environment.
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  And even if you weren't new to the
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  role, I think that's a really important
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  piece,
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  to conduct,
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  before you
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  start to engage with cloud providers.
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  The a lot of organizations
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  who start to have the executive mandate of
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  what we need to move to the cloud,
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  the natural question that cloud providers are gonna
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  ask you is great. What are you gonna
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  move to the cloud?
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  How much are you gonna move to the
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  cloud? And when are you going to move
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  those things to the cloud? And all of
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  that those questions and the answers to that
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  are really, really important. So we spent about
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  the first nine months of
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  detailed analysis of the environment.
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  So we knew,
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  how many CPUs, how much memory, how much
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  storage we had within the environment.
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  And we also had a very rough plan
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  already mapped out in terms of,
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  moving,
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  those assets to the cloud and how quickly
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  we would be able to do that over
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  a five year period. So when we issued
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  the RFPs and we started to engage with
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  the cloud providers,
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  we were very clear, and they clearly understood
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  exactly what we were gonna move and how
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  quickly we were gonna move it. And that's
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  really important and instrumental
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  in,
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  engaging the cloud providers
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  and really helping them understand
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  how they will wrap,
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  an engagement
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  around that.
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  Got it. That's a a great piece of
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  advice and certainly,
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  well worth that reflection point. So you make
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  sure you're moving forward in the smartest way
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  possible.
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  I I appreciate that. Thank you so much,
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  Tim. Now,
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  when you look ahead, where do you see
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  some of the big growth opportunities for you
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  and your team over the next twelve months
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  or so?
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  Yeah. So as we look over the next
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  twelve months,
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  whether you whether you call it a growth
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  opportunity or whether
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  the pure excitement of the move. I'm not
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  sure which is which.
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  But we you know, you've
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  there's probably not a month or two that
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  goes by that you don't see a health
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  care system moving up into the cloud. It's
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  a fairly common occurrence.
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  And you're beginning to now see health care
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  systems,
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  moving,
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  their imaging,
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  to the cloud.
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  And and that's beginning to be a fairly
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  common occurrence.
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  And you're beginning to hear health care institutions
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  beginning to move general purpose workloads to the
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  cloud. That, again, is kind of a common
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  occurrence. What we're gonna do over the next
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  twelve to eighteen months is we're gonna do
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  all three of those things.
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  And I don't know of another health care
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  institution
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  that is going to embark
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  with kind of the scale, the speed, and
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  the velocity that we're about ready to engage
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  in. And that's really the growth and the
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  excitement,
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  that we have in front of us.
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  And that'll allow all of the existing staff,
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  to really spread their wings in terms of
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  this is how you used to do things
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  in the on prem world. This is how
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  you used to do this is now how
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  we will do things in the cloud world.
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  And they're already beginning to,
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  kind of unwrap those packages and beginning to
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  understand how they're gonna do things like infrastructures
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  code,
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  and how we're gonna do service catalogs and
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  and all of the future,
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  things that we've been talking about for the
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  last three years, they're actually now beginning to
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  play with those toys and understanding, oh, this
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  is how this works, and this is how
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  that works. So,
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  that's the excitement that we have within Michigan
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  Medicine is beginning to be able to do
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  all three of those things
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  at once. And the reason that we're doing
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  that,
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  is because we have to shut down one
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  of our data centers in 2027.
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  And that's part of our cloud goal and
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  initiative
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  is to decommission one of our data centers
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  and leverage public cloud for Doctor.
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  But it's gonna be really, really exciting and
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  really, really challenging kind of in the in
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  the same,
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  same vein.
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  Absolutely. Wow. What a huge initiative. And as
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  you mentioned, you know, in doing all of
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  those things at once, I I think it
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  makes a lot of sense, but at the
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  same time, I can imagine,
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  requires a lot of planning, a lot of
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  coordination, and,
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  really truly, being focused in on the tasks
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  at hand.
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  When you look at, that and and how
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  the team will evolve and change,
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  based on moving all of that to the
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  cloud,
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  what do you see as being paramount for
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  for your team? Do you see,
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  needing new skills or or, any kind of
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  expertise that you would like to bring on,
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  whether from the outside or or build from
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  within? I I'm just curious as how you
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  see, on the team level things changing as
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  you make this big shift, to the cloud.
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  Yeah. No. It's a great question.
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  One of the one of the other things
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  that we did is, you know, during the
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  RFP process
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  is we knew and understood
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  that,
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  our existing staff,
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  we'd have to put good training programs in
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  place, and we would have to upscale those
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  staff. A tremendous,
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  organization and tremendous staff in terms of running
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  on prem data centers, but that's different than
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  running in the cloud.
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  So we actually did an RFP,
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  to,
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  bring in,
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  kind of a training package
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  that would assess,
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  kind of where people are currently at as
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  well as recommend training pass and programs to
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  get them,
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  better acclimated and prepared for public cloud.
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  So we'll be putting that in place as
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  well here in 2025,
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  to kind of set the team up for
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  success,
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  as we begin to move things to the
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  cloud and as we begin to operationalize,
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  these components in the cloud. So we're super
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  excited about that.
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  The other thing that we did as part
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  of the RFP process is we actually,
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  asked, some system integrators to, help us.
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  So we got some, really exceptional system integrators,
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  ahead out of Chicago and, Optimum,
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  to kinda help with our migration as we
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  were moving,
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  out into the cloud, both for our general
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  purpose workloads as well as Epic.
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  Sector,
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  is a managed services,
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  so they're they're providing skills and expertise as
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  well.
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  So I think when you when you look
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  at the totality
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  of that, it's really the the exceptional system
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  integrators that we're gonna bring into the organization
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  and the natural learning that will happen,
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  from from,
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  kind of the over the shoulder help and
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  assistance that they'll provide,
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  the on the job training that will transpire
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  as we begin to move these things, as
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  well as the training plans and programs
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  and tools
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  and,
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  capabilities that we'll put within the organization.
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  I think that will really set us up,
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  for success.
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  And our cloud provider,
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  we we actually selected Azure as our, preferred
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  cloud provider. They're also providing a great deal
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  of, training,
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  and have opened up their training curriculum to
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  us,
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  to further provide additional tools and capabilities
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  to the existing staff. So that's a really
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  important piece.
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  We think that we've got it well covered,
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  in a variety of different ways.
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  And, again, that these are the things that
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  are making the staff super excited to to
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  be a part of this.
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  That's amazing to hear. And, you know, really
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  cool to have that opportunity,
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  to be part of that team, I'm sure.
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  Now I I know a lot of opportunities
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  we've talked about, but there are challenges, I'm
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  sure, that you have your eye on. What
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  are you really anticipating coming down the pipe,
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  in the near future?
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  So
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  so even though we're,
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  we have this significant cloud initiative,
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  in front of us,
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  and and
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  it's not a small amount of work. As
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  you can imagine, moving everything that we're planning
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  on, moving. It's it's a mountain of work
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  that we plan on doing.
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  But we're really doing that,
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  to
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  make our IT operations more efficient and more
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  modern.
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  The organization itself is still looking
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  to our IT organization
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  to continue to innovate and drive innovation.
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  So we're looking at things like, you know,
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  how do we implement AI? And we've actually
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  stood up OpenAI
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  within our Azure environment. We're beginning to play
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  with those platforms.
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  We've been looking at how do we provide
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  end user computing for our epic environment and
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  how do we reenvision
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  end user computing,
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  further down the road to enhance and increase
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  our security,
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  that we can deliver back to the organization.
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  So not only do we have this mountain
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  of work that's in front of us, we're
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  still being asked by the organization,
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  by our patients to continue to drive innovation,
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  which the institution is is well known for.
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  So it's a it's a tricky balancing act,
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  and that's really, you know, one of the
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  challenges that we have in front of us
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  is how do we do this mountain of
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  work yet continue to drive the innovation that
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  we're so well known for.
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  That's a really good point. And, definitely,
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  it seems like, something that you have to,
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  again, kind of plan for and put in
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  place. I'm curious. Given this,
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  tension in being able to innovate but also
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  doing the strategic
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  things that are in front of you.
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  What is the number one thing that you're
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  doing right now to, set your organization up
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  for that long term success?
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  Yeah. I think there's a variety of things.
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  So you've heard about, you know, kind of
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  the, the training initiatives and the skills initiatives
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  we have in place,
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  being able to bring in some of the
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  system integrators to kinda help and make sure
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  that we're successful.
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  We're also going through a reorganization,
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  that's also,
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  beginning to take, shape and transpire.
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  And that's really standing up a cloud capability
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  center or cloud center of excellence,
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  depending on on, how you would prefer to
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  call that. But really what that is is
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  that's really
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  creating a specialized team that is super focused
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  on driving cloud adoption,
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  and integration initiatives. And we're doing that,
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  in order to accelerate,
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  our move to the cloud. Again, we need
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  to shut down,
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  that data center. And we're also doing that
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  so that we can go back to the
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  business,
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  and drive innovation,
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  through the business.
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  Michigan Medicine has a lot of research,
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  wants and needs, and we know that we
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  can be,
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  more responsive
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  and more agile in those requests.
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  And we see cloud as a vehicle to
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  be able to do that.
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  So so those are some pieces that we
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  wanna continue,
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  to make sure that we move the needle
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  on. We also I mentioned the fact that
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  we have these affiliates with UmH West and
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  with Sparrow.
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  There's,
• 15:28
  an organizational wide initiative in terms of how
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  to do further integration.
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  So we're all not only are we challenged
• 15:35
  with Michigan Michigan Medicine's moved in the cloud
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  and all of that mountain of work that's
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  associated with it. We also have the mountain
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  of work of how do we then integrate,
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  Sparrow and UmH West. What pieces would we
• 15:47
  wanna integrate
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  for those respective organizations if they would wanna
• 15:51
  borrow pieces
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  and parts of our cloud strategy,
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  what would those look like and how can
• 15:56
  we be good stewards back to those organization?
• 15:59
  Those are also some of the the challenges
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  that we have in front of us. But
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  if we look for how we're gonna set
• 16:05
  the organization up for success,
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  further integration and consolidation where it makes sense,
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  allowing regional,
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  preferences and and,
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  and and and allocations,
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  and configurations,
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  where it makes sense,
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  and really providing a good ecosystem that other
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  organizations can come into
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  are gonna be fundamental to our success,
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  as we move forward. So there's a lot
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  of things that we need to do to
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  ensure,
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  that we're meeting those organizational goals of moving
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  to the cloud and modernizing our infrastructure,
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  getting really good at integration, and how do
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  we create synergies that don't exist today. And
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  then how do we prepare for maybe other
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  organizations that may wanna come in to the
• 16:50
  Michigan Medicine family,
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  so that we can continue to to spread,
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  our footprint
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  and serve, the needs, of the people of
• 16:59
  the state of Michigan? All of those are
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  are super great challenges,
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  and those are all of the things we're
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  trying to do in order to set up
• 17:07
  the organization for long term success.
• 17:10
  Oh, it's fantastic to hear. It seems like
• 17:12
  you have a great pathway into,
• 17:14
  a much stronger
• 17:16
  cloud atmosphere and ecosystem. And, certainly, it's exciting
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  to think about all the possibilities once you
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  achieve that. Tim, thank you so much for
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  joining us on the podcast today. This has
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  been a really informative and fun conversation, and
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  I look forward to connecting with you again
• 17:29
  soon.
• 17:30
  Sounds great. Thank you so much, Laura. Appreciate
• 17:32
  it.