Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT / Building a Unified Data Foundation for AI and Healthcare Innovation with Chris Carmody

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Building a Unified Data Foundation for AI and Healthcare Innovation with Chris Carmody · Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT

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  - What we wanna do with AI is help
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  - clinicians go from being reactive
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  - to proactive.
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  - At Philips, we can recognize patterns in monitoring
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  - data across populations
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  - and apply those insights to specific patients.
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  - Safe and responsible AI can support sharper insights,
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  - pave the way for faster diagnosis,
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  - and help streamline care.
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  - That can benefit clinicians, it can benefit health
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  - systems. And most importantly, it can benefit patients
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  - and their families.
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  - Phillips.
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  - Hi, everyone. This is Scott King with Becker's
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  - Healthcare. Thank you so much for tuning in
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  - to the Becker's Healthcare podcast series. Joining me
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  - for today's discussion is Chris Carmody, chief information
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  - officer over at UPMC. Chris, thanks so much
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  - for being here today. How are you doing?
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  - I'm doing great, Scott. Thanks. Thanks for having
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  - me. Absolutely. It's great to have you here
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  - at the conference. Before we kinda dive into
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  - our questions, just wondering if you can share
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  - just a little bit about your background, your
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  - career journey with us. Sure. I have been
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  - in health care IT for about thirty years.
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  - The last twenty eight, I've been at UPMC
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  - in many different roles. And and, actually, in
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  - the last couple weeks, I was just, moved
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  - into the CIO role, which I'm very excited
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  - about that opportunity and follow a a great
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  - line,
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  - from a succession perspective.
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  - And,
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  - as part of UPMC,
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  - I'm actually in a position where I can
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  - serve the community where I grew up in
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  - the city of Pittsburgh and the surrounding regions.
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  - So,
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  - I'm very humbled and and motivated by that
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  - opportunity to continue my IT career in this
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  - leadership position. That's awesome. Well, you're helping the
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  - community back home, and and congrats on the
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  - promotion. That's That's wonderful. Good for you. And
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  - then we're gonna dive into these questions here.
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  - I I gotta lean on you for a
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  - lot of big topics in health care right
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  - now. You you know, health systems are receiving
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  - a growing stream of patient data from bedside
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  - monitoring,
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  - ambulatory devices, and and care delivered at home.
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  - Where's that data creating actionable insights for clinicians,
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  - and where does it still create more work
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  - than insight?
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  - That's a that's a great question. I think
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  - it's... There's an evolving answer to it in
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  - terms of how we're dealing with all the
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  - data that's being generated.
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  - We started our electronic journey
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  - decades ago and have generated a tremendous amount
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  - of of data that we've worked towards transforming
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  - an information and and then actionable insights. And
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  - I think that's the key there Yeah. Is
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  - to reduce all the noise and identify the
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  - signals of what an action or what next
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  - steps a clinician needs to take from a
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  - patient care perspective. So when you add in
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  - all the medical devices in addition to all
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  - the different ancillary systems that are plugging into
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  - your your electronic health record system, there's a
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  - lot of information for that clinical care team
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  - to actually
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  - consume and digest and process in a short
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  - amount of time so they're most effective
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  - from a patient care perspective. So
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  - I think
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  - the benefit and the opportunity with artificial intelligence,
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  - whether it be generative or Genentech AI, is
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  - to actually leverage those tools to harness
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  - all that data and summarize that information
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  - into something that's consumable by the clinician that's
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  - complete and accurate and has integrity, which are
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  - so very important when you're talking about these
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  - types of technologies from an AI perspective. But
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  - that... That'll help
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  - make that burden of making sure that all
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  - the information is in one place
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  - and available so the the best possible outcomes
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  - can be achieved from a care perspective. Yeah.
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  - Tuning out to noise, like you said, that's
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  - a good way to put it. Absolutely. And
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  - you kinda walked us into our next topic
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  - here. When clinicians are trying to to reach
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  - a diagnosis,
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  - they often must piece together information from radiology,
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  - cardiology, pathology,
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  - urology, and other systems. Where does that fragmentation
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  - create the most friction in your organization,
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  - and how you bring together data sources and
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  - address this fragmentation
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  - or close those gaps?
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  - We're actually in the midst of solving that
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  - problem from a fundamental perspective.
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  - Just as as late as,
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  - well,
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  - a year ago, we had 10 different electronic
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  - health records,
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  - which are really the core platform for all
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  - that different data to come in from the
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  - ancillary, like radiology,
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  - pathology, lab.
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  - And so when you're seeing patients traverse those
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  - different EHRs, stitching that data back together and
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  - making it available
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  - is a is a challenge. It's it's like
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  - sprinting a marathon from an IT perspective. A
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  - lot of our efforts over the last decade
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  - have been trying to make it a more
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  - seamless experience for clinicians to have all that
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  - data in one place. And we've been really
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  - successful at it, but, again, it's taken a
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  - lot of hard work and effort
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  - to bring all that data together and make
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  - sense of it in one place.
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  - What we've been doing the last few years
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  - is on this journey to a single EHR
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  - platform
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  - to help create that standardization and put all
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  - that data into one place. So we've actually
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  - backloaded
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  - years' worth of data from those other EHR
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  - source
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  - systems. And just so having that that base
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  - foundation and having
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  - the lab, the radiology, and all the other
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  - data sources come into that single spot
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  - is... It took... From our perspective is a
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  - huge win. It's gonna create,
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  - a better experience for the clinician, obviously, from
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  - the patient. The patient actually accesses a lot
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  - of that information from their... Our patient portal,
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  - our myUPMC
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  - system. So it's it's it's it's very exciting
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  - for us. And, again, it positions us from
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  - an opportunistic perspective to actually innovate off of
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  - that and and just drive health care innovation
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  - from there. Yeah. It sounds like a big
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  - relief in terms of efficiency probably for everyone.
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  - Absolutely.
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  - You you mentioned patients. Patients increasingly move
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  - among the hospital outpatient settings and and home.
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  - Where does clinical context most often get lost
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  - during those transitions,
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  - and what would it take to give care
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  - teams more continuous view of the patient?
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  - You you just said it, Scott. It's it's
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  - during that transition when they're going from inpatient
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  - to outpatient or vice versa.
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  - It's making sure the data
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  - travels with the patient that's available, and that's
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  - why we made the,
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  - pretty big investment in time and resources
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  - to put UPMC onto one EHR system, which
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  - makes all that data
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  - seamlessly available in one place for clinicians. So
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  - as a patient traverses our system,
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  - they're able... Their data is able to move
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  - with them. And what our EHR does, which
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  - it's pretty well documented,
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  - we're implementing Epic.
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  - But what Epic does is actually help,
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  - that patient if they would traverse outside of
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  - a UPMC facility for that data to be
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  - shared back and forth, as they traverse their
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  - health care needs.
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  - Yeah. I get to AI now. You know,
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  - we're gonna cover AI in some respect.
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  - With so many AI use cases competing for
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  - attention, how do you distinguish a compelling pilot
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  - from something
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  - ready to become part of everyday care, and
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  - what must be in place to scale it
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  - responsibly?
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  - So I think there's great opportunity with AI,
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  - and I think one of the challenges is
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  - to
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  - actually slow things down in order to accelerate.
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  - Sure. That we have to have the right
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  - processes in place, the right governance to identify,
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  - hey. These are the these are the top
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  - three,
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  - five, 10 problems that we're trying to solve
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  - as an organization
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  - and focus and channel our efforts on making
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  - those successful
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  - so we can build off of that and
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  - and and move things forward and and take
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  - advantage of the opportunity with AI. But it
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  - really does start with that governance piece Right.
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  - And the processes around to support it. And
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  - then the last piece, which is just as
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  - important, is is making sure that the the
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  - users that are having their workflows changed to
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  - make sure that they're trained to understand the
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  - why behind
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  - utilizing that technology and what the benefit is.
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  - Right. Right. The reason you're using it and
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  - and the result you're trying to achieve.
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  - As technology relationships move beyond
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  - one time purchases, what should a partner remain
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  - accountable for
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  - after
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  - go live to make the relationship
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  - genuinely valuable over time?
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  - Accountability is a great term to use with
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  - our technology partners.
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  - What is unfortunately the case
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  - far too often for my liking
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  - is our technology partners come in and
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  - they make the sale, we do the transaction,
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  - and then they disappear.
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  - And what we look for, and I encourage
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  - all health care IT to look for,
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  - are partners that stay engaged, that stay accountable,
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  - and work with you to actually solve the
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  - problems. Because their technology is not the end
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  - all be all, especially when you're acquiring something
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  - out of the gate. You have to integrate
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  - it and make sure it works with the
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  - rest of your technology platforms, let alone integrate
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  - into the workflows for the users of that
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  - technology. But
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  - I I personally think it's a a great
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  - place to be in to... That your technology
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  - partners are always a little uncomfortable.
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  - Anytime they get comfortable, that's a bad sign
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  - that they're being complacent, and we need to
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  - work together and partner and innovate to drive
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  - health care forward. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. For our
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  - last question, what's the future of integrated diagnostics
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  - or just diagnostic services, and where do you
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  - see yourself in the next five years?
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  - That's... Those are some big questions.
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  - The five the five year outlook,
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  - I'm I'm an opportunistic
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  - person, and I... I'm... I believe that health
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  - care is only gonna get... Be better,
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  - be more accessible,
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  - have higher quality and better outcomes for our
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  - patients that we serve across
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  - the entire US and beyond because of technology.
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  - And I I hope for... And to me,
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  - a successful technology implementation, whatever that might be,
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  - however we use technology,
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  - really is...
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  - It's at its best when the technology fades
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  - to the background Yeah. When it's not a
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  - distraction for our clinical users and end users
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  - trying to use something, do something when they
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  - should be focusing on the patient. So to
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  - me, that... That's where I hope to be
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  - in five years and how technology will help
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  - us get there. And that, to me, that's
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  - the the the measuring stick on whether we're
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  - successful or not. On the other, like, diagnostic
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  - side, I think there's great opportunity there as
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  - well, but I think we have to
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  - be measured with our approach and adoption
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  - of leveraging things like AI to help perform
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  - some of that
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  - diagnostic work. There's obviously been a lot of
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  - success cases in the imaging space,
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  - and that's a great place to build off
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  - of. But there's also a lot of data,
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  - and, again, we just have to be very
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  - cautious about how we approach that and and
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  - and leverage the technology. We don't wanna just
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  - adopt technology for technology's sake. Right. Again, it
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  - gets back to... Which I believe is all
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  - of our mission, is to provide the best
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  - patient care, to improve patient safety, and ultimately
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  - have those great outcomes that we're that we're
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  - searching for. A 100%. Chris, thanks so much
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  - for joining us on the podcast. It was
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  - a great conversation. I look forward to work
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  - with you again soon. Thanks, Scott. Appreciate being
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  - here. And, again, appreciate everything Becker's HealthCare does
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  - for the industry. Such such a great event,
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  - and I encourage all to join us here
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  - next time. Oh, thanks so much. We appreciate
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  - the support.