Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Shirin Hasan, Research Manager at Endeavor Health

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Shirin Hasan, Research Manager at Endeavor Health · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  This is where health care leadership comes together.
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  Becker's sixteenth annual meeting brings more than 3,500
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  hospital and health system executives and nearly 800
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  speakers to Chicago, April 13 through the sixteenth.
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  This year's event includes keynote conversations with Dallas
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  Cowboys legend Troy Aikman and former president George
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  w Bush. For the agenda and event details,
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  visit beckershospitalreview.com
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  and click on the events tab in the
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  upper right. We're looking forward to hosting you
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  in Chicago.
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  This is Gracelyn Keller with the Becker's Healthcare
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  Podcast, and we are recording live at the
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  thirteenth annual CEO and CFO roundtable.
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  I'm currently joined by Shireen Hassan, who is
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  the research manager at Endeavor Health. Shireen, thanks
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  for being here. I'm gonna have you start
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  off by introducing yourself and telling us a
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  little bit more about your background.
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  Hello. Thank you, Grace, and thank you for
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  having me. My name is Shereen Hassan,
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  and I spoke at Beggars about one and
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  a half years ago also, and so it's
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  wonderful to be back.
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  A lot has happened since then both in
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  my professional
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  development and personal ventures, and I'm excited to
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  share those.
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  So I,
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  as you mentioned, I'm a research manager at
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  Endeavor Health, and I'm also graduating from my
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  MBA school at the University of Chicago Booth
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  School of Business.
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  And in my school, I focused on health
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  care, finance,
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  and entrepreneurship, and that have helped me understand
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  the complexities
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  of the health care system at a much
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  deeper level.
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  And at Endeavor Health,
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  I I work professionally, and I joined the
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  hospital about four and a half years back
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  in clinical trials management,
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  which was a fascinating,
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  job involving,
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  interaction with different, health care sectors like pharmaceuticals,
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  physicians, patients,
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  pharmacy.
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  And I covered all areas like clinical, operational,
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  and finance.
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  And although I worked in the hospital,
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  side, but I understood
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  the complexities that pharmaceuticals
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  face in clinical trials. Like, clinical trials are
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  costly and risky because they can,
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  fail and not be approved by the FDA.
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  But at the same time, clinical trials are
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  very important for patients because there are
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  rare disease,
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  patients for whom there are not many,
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  options in the,
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  drug development.
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  So,
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  patients for patients, it's, very important.
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  And,
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  my current role at Endeavor Health, which is
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  a large health system in Illinois with nine
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  hospitals and about 300 immediate care centers,
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  I work as a research manager in radiology,
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  and I work on NIH grants. Like, I
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  review budgets,
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  track balances,
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  and help, investigators navigate the administrative
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  and financial side of research.
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  It's operational
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  and detailed, but it's also deeply
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  strategic.
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  Wonderful. Well, thank you for being here. And
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  let's start our conversation talking about growth strategy.
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  I'd love to know what your growth strategy
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  is over the next year or two.
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  Yeah. That's a a fascinating question. And,
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  and so my growth strategy at,
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  the health system depends on the growth strategy
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  of the organization.
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  What makes it exciting is the scale of
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  growth we are seeing under our,
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  VP, Justin Brake, and research leadership.
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  We now have about, more than 500 active
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  clinical trials, nearly
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  300 principal investigators,
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  and millions of dollars in NIH and industry
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  funding supporting our research.
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  And thousands of patients are enrolled in clinical
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  trials across oncology, cardiology,
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  neurology, and more.
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  And,
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  moreover, research is a very
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  integrated
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  and collaborative across multiple offices, like sponsored programs,
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  clinical research, and research integrity.
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  It's a big collaborative ecosystem and,
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  it depends on administrative
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  precision, people relationships,
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  and innovation
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  in both research and clinical operations.
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  However, beyond my immediate role, I also stay
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  involved with broader system discussions.
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  As I mentioned, ours is a nine hospital
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  system. It's large, diverse, and full of opportunities.
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  One thing I really value is that we
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  have a culture where ideas are welcome from
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  any level, and I've always felt encouraged to
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  share input on
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  system challenges
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  from improving operational workflows to exploring innovative partnerships
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  or new care delivery models that enhance both
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  quality and efficiency.
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  For example,
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  one internal issue that I have been passionate
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  about is how frontline
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  teams manage their workload.
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  In many hospitals, staff spend enormous time on
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  inherited
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  administrative or procedural tasks
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  that don't actually impact patient outcomes or financial
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  performance.
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  So I developed a simple framework I call
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  that I call the task evaluation and impact
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  system.
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  And before any taking any recurring task,
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  teams
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  should pause and evaluate
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  what is the much measurable outcome of this
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  task. Does it affect quality, financials, or operations?
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  Or is it high impact or low impact?
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  And once categorized,
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  teams can then focus on the
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  most high value
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  work
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  and differ or redesign the low impact tasks.
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  Automation and AI are other ways to reduce
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  workload, but they are costly and take time
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  to implement.
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  And so sometimes by thoughtfully revising our workflows,
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  we can substantially
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  change our performance.
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  And tell us about the most exciting and
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  impactful initiative or project you're currently working on.
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  That's an interesting question, and
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  I I can talk about one of my
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  personal ventures that's separate from my hospital job.
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  And it's still in the exploration
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  phase, and
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  I call it,
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  water access initiative,
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  which is
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  an initiative that connects
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  water stressed countries in the globe
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  with water
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  technology companies in The US to help these
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  countries facilitate
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  trade collaboration,
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  connectivity,
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  and come up with new funding models that
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  can help these countries sustain their water supply
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  infrastructure
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  without depending on foreign aid.
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  It's an interesting idea because water access is
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  impacted at two levels.
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  First, there is broken infrastructure and there is
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  no water supply.
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  And second, the problem is water contamination.
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  So these are could be in countries like
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  Philippines
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  or developing countries like Bangladesh, India, Pakistan,
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  etcetera.
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  Although this is a non health care venture,
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  but it impacts
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  people's health
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  because both water scarcity and water contamination
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  have health consequences.
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  For example,
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  water inadequacy
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  can cause
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  health problems like dehydration and nutrition deficiency,
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  and they can also,
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  affect
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  maternal and child health.
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  For example, pregnant women
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  often have to walk long distances to fetch
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  water, which increases the risk of preterm labor,
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  musculoskeletal
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  injuries, and exhaustion.
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  Water scarcity also causes compromised health care delivery
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  because health care facilities are not able to
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  sterilize instruments
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  and cannot maintain sanitation that can spread hospital
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  acquired infections.
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  So this is an important area of work
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  and also aligns with the WASH initiative, which
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  is which stands for water, sanitation, and hygiene,
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  and it's a public health platform
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  used by public health framework
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  used by organizations
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  like WHO and UNICEF
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  to assess health outcomes.
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  I'm very excited about this venture, and,
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  I'll keep you updated with the progress.
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  And then what is the most important thing
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  that you think health care executives should do
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  now to make sure their organizations are successful
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  in the future?
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  That's an interesting question. I think they should
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  remain updated with the innovations
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  and,
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  all the innovations in technology,
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  administration,
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  automation,
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  because it's it's happening at a very fast
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  pace,
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  and we don't want to remain. Although we
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  work in health care, which is, which is
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  not a very technology driven sector,
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  but we need to remain updated
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  and keep on adapting. So our pace matches
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  with the pace of technology growth.
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  Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for joining
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  me today on the Becker's Healthcare Podcast and
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  taking the time to share these insights. Again,
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  we are recording live at the thirteenth annual
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  CEO and CFO round table. Thank you so
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  much, Grace.