Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT / Praveen Chopra, Chief Digital and Information Officer at Emplify Health

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Praveen Chopra, Chief Digital and Information Officer at Emplify Health · Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT

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This is Laura Dirdo with the Becker's health
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care podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined
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by Praveen Chopra,
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chief digital and information officer at Amplify Health.
0:46
Praveen, it's a pleasure to have you on
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the podcast today.
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Oh, it's a pleasure, Laura.
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Absolutely. Well, I'm excited for our conversation. I
0:54
think this will be a fun one, and
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and certainly there's so much happening in the
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health technology space. Things are changing so quickly.
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So, you know, it'll be really interesting to
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hear your perspective on where we're at today
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and and what you see for the future.
1:06
But before we dive in, I'm wondering, could
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you tell us a little bit more about
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Amplify Health and what makes it unique?
1:13
Yeah. Actually,
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Amplify Health,
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I think is the name is fairly new.
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It came about,
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through
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a combination of
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two very well respected health systems in the
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Midwest,
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Cognizant Health System and Better Health.
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We serve,
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Laura, over
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four states, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota,
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and Michigan.
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We have over 11 hospitals and,
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or,
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one of the clinics.
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So it's a combination of both urban and
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rural health, majority being in the rural health
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setting.
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And I think what, makes us
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unique
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is I think about our intentional focus on
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leading with love and empathy
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to deliver
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convenient care close to the home
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with top notch quality.
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So that has been our mantra, and I
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think that is really, something that makes us
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unique. And we are very proud of what
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we do.
2:15
Well, that's amazing to hear. You know? And
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certainly,
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just such important and but also in ways
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challenging communities, especially within
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more rural health care space.
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So, you know, amazing work that you're doing.
2:28
I'm curious. Could you talk a little bit
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about an accomplishment that you're most proud of
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from the last year or so?
2:33
Oh, absolutely. You know, I I I had
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so many things going on,
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and I think that I I start by
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saying a quote. I think may,
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we live all in interesting times.
2:44
And you've heard a lot of, hype about,
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AI.
2:49
So I'm gonna talk about,
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AI, but I have a different slide to
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what
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and why we are proud of what we've
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done.
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So to me, I think, if you look
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about the the the goal like, there's a
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lot of hype about AI and let's,
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use it.
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We took a different tack altogether,
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and we actually think about AI and automation
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in the same way.
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And,
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we said, instead of chasing technologies,
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let's focus on problems and,
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opportunities
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and how does that fit in.
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So one of the coolest thing that came,
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from our,
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experiment was, we said
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we had this question and idea. How can
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we,
3:34
empower
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all our employees in such a way that
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they can unleash the creativity
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in solving problems.
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So we,
3:43
created an ecosystem. We call it,
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AI workspace.
3:47
And we started by training and educating
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our staff on what AI is, what automation
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is, and what is that responsible. I think
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the key emphasis is responsible to use of
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AI and automation.
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And we didn't know what we're going to
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accomplish.
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And,
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we were absolutely blown away with the outcome
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we saw. I think we saw
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the, employees' creativity,
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unleashed.
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I have a couple of examples. So the
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things that we did not expect,
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one of the interesting example we saw was,
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we have a huge cancer biobank.
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We've been,
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collecting specimen for, oh, gosh. Not fifty years.
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And they are, on paper, they were digitized,
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and they were available. And I think,
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our,
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researchers started pulling that information on our AI
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workspace that we created.
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And the comments were, oh my god. I'm
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able to do things in days that I
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thought will take me months.
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So the key thing was how do you
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organize and tag the the cancer bio bag
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in such a way that it can be
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searched and we can really apply towards,
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I would say, converting,
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research into actionable insights that can have direct
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clinical outcomes.
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That was really phenomenal.
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That's one example.
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The other thing we're able to do is
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that,
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in health care,
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is panel management is, like, a really important
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thing for a field provider.
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We wanna think about how can we
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keep our panels accurate, but not only that,
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how can we use as a baseline to
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do the gap loader? So what we were
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able to do is really find out how
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do we,
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using the the tools and AI and automation,
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how do
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we keep the patients,
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active and accurate on the panel? But not
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only that,
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how can we use a combination of text,
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email,
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and phone calls
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to inspire our patients to come to visit
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with us to whether it is a vaccine
5:50
shot, whether it is about doing a wellness
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visit. By doing that, we saw phenomenal,
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I think, outcomes. We you know, the example
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was we thought that
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so many of our patients are inactive, but
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we will be found out by having this,
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automated approach. We're able to at least,
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reengage fifty to sixty percent of our patients
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to come back to us and,
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do their wellness visit and and get the
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vaccines and get,
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other care gap closure activities done. So I
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think that was pretty
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cool, and I think the the journey has
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just started.
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I think we have the the right governance.
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We are,
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helping our, staff to get more educated on
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how to use the tools in a more
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effective way. And I think the story is
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just beginning. And the most interesting part is
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our,
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we submitted this
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experiment in
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for the
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c I o hundred award, and we are
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delighted to share that we got chosen to
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be one of the the CIO hundred,
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award winners,
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by this the
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the CIO
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Maxium, which I think is owned by Foundry.
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That's amazing to hear. Congratulations. What a a
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great accomplishment. And especially
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looking at it, as you mentioned, just some
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of the,
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the unique challenges that you're facing today in
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being able to, bring in the technology, but,
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really great use cases and results, it sounds
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like, especially in the clinical
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realm, which I know, you know,
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is not always the easiest or first place
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that health care organizations try to bring in
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new technology and AI just because of the,
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risk involved in the clinical care side. So
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that's really cool to see. Yeah. Yeah. This
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is really good, I think. Because to me,
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I think it's employed the power of,
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thousands of people trying to figure out how
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to solve problems or seek out opportunities
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when they have the right tools and the
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right training, the right
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education. So that was probably, like, really, really
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good for us.
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Yeah. Absolutely. No. That's amazing.
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And from your perspective, you know, when you
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look into the future, where are some of
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the biggest growth opportunities for you and your
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team in the next twelve months or so?
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So a couple of years ago,
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Laura, we started on a agile transformation journey.
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And I think now,
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after the merger,
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we became a new enterprise.
8:16
The opportunity for us to how do you
8:19
now
8:20
speed up
8:21
the agile transformation.
8:23
The the biggest thing that we're learning is
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that instead of, you know, organizing our teams
8:28
around, say, applications, you think about,
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radiology
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or maybe cancer
8:35
or you think about,
8:37
urology,
8:38
we're thinking differently. I think we are organizing
8:41
our teams around value streams.
8:43
The value streams is more about, okay, let's
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figure it out. How do we
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create value
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for our, patients, for our community, for our
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employees?
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And how do you eliminate the the the
8:54
waste out of that thing? So how can
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we have a cross functional team,
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small teams, around value streams?
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And secondly, about we call it the the,
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I call it the the tier journeys.
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So how do you,
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think about patient engage with us from pre
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care care to post care?
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How do we go about,
9:16
employees from
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pre hiring to hiring and then their retirement
9:21
management?
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How do we engage with, physicians
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and clinicians,
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when they come,
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onboard,
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to be part of our great health system?
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How do we provide them the tools to
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make sure that they don't have the cognitive
9:34
load and their experience is great engaging with
9:36
the the technologies we have? So that's how
9:38
we're thinking,
9:40
about the entire thing. And we're finding out
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I think we've had, like,
9:45
really, I would say four or five, agile
9:47
teams.
9:48
What we found out is,
9:50
first of all, I think we created, like,
9:52
a a self organizing team. So can we
9:55
have a cross spoken team of, like, 10
9:57
people or so,
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focus on a problem?
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And
10:02
allow them, I think, psychological safety and ability
10:05
to make decisions to prioritize the work that
10:07
needs to be done to get an outcome.
10:09
And we were absolutely,
10:13
I think,
10:15
astonished by the outcome we got. We got
10:17
results,
10:17
faster,
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better.
10:20
And, at the same time, we saw that
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the
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the staff and the employees who were on
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the in the self organizing team,
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they felt empowered to make decisions.
10:29
They felt empowered to prioritize,
10:32
the work backlog to make sure,
10:35
they could focus on the the thing that
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is go most aligned to the the value
10:38
creation of the outcome, want to achieve.
10:41
And I think, at the end of the
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day, I think we got a lot of
10:43
meaningful and effective outcomes.
10:45
But I think the icing on the cake
10:47
was, I call it, the
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pleasing and beautiful outcomes.
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Like, people seeing, and say, you know what?
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I'm so happy, and I call it the
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huggable experience.
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So by doing that thing, we're also creating
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a huggable experience. People are happy,
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and they're more engaged. So I think that
11:05
to me is really
11:08
interesting,
11:08
find.
11:10
We love to experiment. We love to,
11:13
I think, think about what what we can
11:15
do to improve. We learn fast, and I
11:17
think that is something that we are thinking
11:20
is really good and we'll, continue to,
11:23
speed up
11:24
how we, think about organizing team,
11:28
around agile transformation.
11:30
That's really cool to hear. What another great
11:32
example of ways in the operational sense that,
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you know, you've really truly been innovative,
11:38
in forward thinking with those agile teams. I
11:41
love that in you know, the idea of
11:42
that huggable experience is such a a cool
11:45
way to kind of think about things and
11:47
really brings the humanity back into,
11:49
what you're, you know, doing in a very
11:52
real level.
11:53
And so I love that. I love having
11:54
those technologies. You know, the way you're approaching
11:56
it seems really smart and engaged. When you're
11:59
putting together these agile teams, what do you
12:01
have to think about or consider to get
12:03
the composition
12:04
right or and and get the results that
12:06
you're looking for?
12:07
So I think thinking there is actually a
12:10
method to how we go about doing it.
12:12
So what we found out
12:14
that, first of all, there is a team
12:16
which is, fully dedicated towards the outcome, and
12:19
it's cross functional team.
12:21
So we cannot think about, oh, yes. Only
12:23
made up of people from technology.
12:25
Then we think about,
12:26
who should be lending that clinical expertise,
12:30
who should be lending the operational expertise,
12:33
and, for that matter, who should be lending,
12:35
the the financial expertise. So I think we
12:37
think about the team. I said, what is
12:39
the skill set we need to actually get
12:41
the maximum outcome? So that's how we start
12:43
with the question.
12:44
We don't start with, okay, let's put our
12:45
team together. We think about, okay, in order
12:47
to get this result and outcome, what skills
12:50
do we need?
12:52
And then based on that thing, we think
12:53
about, okay, what does a development team look
12:55
like?
12:57
And we go and, talk to, various,
13:00
leaders within the organization, and we,
13:02
build the team. And the team also needs
13:05
traction leadership. So,
13:06
we
13:08
have a a a role called solution owner.
13:10
The the the role of solution owners is,
13:12
day in and day out thinking about what
13:14
is the best way to get to the
13:15
outcomes, and what are the environments that are
13:17
coming in the way for us to get
13:18
to the outcome. And and then we also
13:20
think about scrum master. And scrum master is
13:22
more like a person who's doing all the
13:24
triaging, and their role is when they have
13:26
a latitude.
13:28
They they are not, concerned about the levels
13:31
within the organization. They said, this is an
13:32
impediment we need to focus on. Oh, by
13:34
the way, we need to go and talk
13:36
to our, operations team. Well, maybe we need
13:38
to talk to someone in finance. Maybe, they
13:40
need to talk to, someone in technology.
13:43
And they can, really, speed up decision making
13:47
and, I call it I think we it's
13:49
sort of something called a twenty four hour
13:51
rule. If there is an impediment that is
13:53
coming in the way for us to get
13:54
to the outcome, we need to be able
13:56
to get to an action plan within twenty
13:58
four hours.
13:59
Yeah. Irrespective of,
14:02
the levels in the organization, and I think
14:04
the other thing we talk about is how
14:06
do we escalate with honor to make sure
14:08
that, we are
14:10
laser focused on getting to the results that
14:12
we want to accomplish.
14:14
Fascinating to hear. Thank you so much for
14:16
shedding a little bit more light on the
14:17
process of putting together those teams and how
14:19
you really stay disciplined and accountable for the
14:22
outcomes,
14:23
that you're looking for in in really truly,
14:26
bringing those technologies to life. I I know
14:29
lots of big opportunities, it seems like, ahead,
14:31
but
14:32
I wanted to ask you as well about
14:34
some of the challenges you're anticipating. What do
14:36
you see coming down the pipe? What are
14:38
you planning for, when you look at potential
14:40
roadblocks, etcetera?
14:42
Yeah. I'll actually think about I was thinking
14:44
about this question quite a bit. You know,
14:47
everyone knows about solar tsunami.
14:50
That's real.
14:52
Think about almost 25%
14:53
of the working,
14:56
people within The US, they are retiring.
14:59
So it has created a really interesting challenge.
15:01
So in my mind, the the demand is
15:04
high,
15:05
both for,
15:07
different kinds of skills. So think about the
15:09
skills that were relevant, five years ago are
15:12
no longer relevant in the future. I think
15:14
we have to,
15:15
descale and reskill
15:17
our employees.
15:18
Not only that, the number of people who
15:21
are available to do work, they're going to
15:23
retire and they will take experience with them.
15:25
So what we're trying to figure it out,
15:27
I we I call it the x factor.
15:29
You know, I think the technological advances are
15:31
the x factor.
15:33
People who can think about the future of
15:35
digital workspace.
15:37
How do you use,
15:40
the various aspect of artificial intelligence,
15:44
or more so like, augmented intelligence?
15:47
How do
15:48
we use,
15:49
the x factor in bridging the gap?
15:52
How do we create a pipeline program to
15:54
make sure that we are training people from
15:56
all the way from high school to colleges
15:59
on the new skills that that is required
16:00
for us to be successful. So that to
16:02
me is very important
16:04
for us, and we're trying to,
16:06
figure out a way to strategies
16:09
of,
16:11
using the technological advances,
16:15
and also, I think getting the right talent
16:18
from anywhere. And think about in the rural
16:20
area, it's difficult to attract the talent, but
16:22
having some kind of flexibility,
16:24
for us to be able to attract people
16:26
from the four, different states and give them
16:29
the flexibility to do the work. So I
16:30
think it's a combination for us still as
16:32
a combination of,
16:34
people coming on-site and also, able to work,
16:37
remotely.
16:38
And I think what we're doing through our
16:40
agile transformation is really keeping the people connected.
16:43
The kind of things we also do,
16:45
it's a really cool thing that we do
16:47
is, you think about all the innovation that
16:49
comes from water cooler discussion.
16:51
So I think it was a really interesting
16:52
idea of of doing,
16:54
a virtual water coolers. The virtual cooler cooler
16:57
is that, okay, it's a space or the
16:59
time,
17:00
given to the employees just to talk.
17:03
They get together,
17:04
I think different people,
17:06
once in a week, and they're not talking
17:08
about the workload. They're just talking about,
17:11
connecting and figuring it out. How do
17:15
we improve engagement?
17:16
How can we solve problems?
17:18
And then,
17:19
we're just sharing,
17:20
their experience with each other. So I think
17:22
that is really,
17:24
good, I think,
17:27
results we got from,
17:29
thinking about how do we train our employees
17:32
to fill the gap, that is coming as
17:34
a result of sort of solar tsunami.
17:37
Absolutely. I know. I think that's a really
17:38
great point to just being very future looking
17:40
on how,
17:41
incorporating that AI into the workspace and and,
17:45
being able to think and strategize at a
17:47
a high level,
17:48
with the technology and how that impacts people,
17:50
what people will still need in order to,
17:53
forge those connections that create engagement and create,
17:56
you know, the type of environment that you're
17:58
looking for even the digital space. That that
18:00
seems really significant, especially thinking through, you know,
18:04
how much technology has already transformed and and
18:06
where it still has,
18:08
opportunities and potential
18:09
to grow in the future.
18:11
Yeah. And I think that lines, Laura, lines
18:13
with our like,
18:14
try to keep things simple.
18:16
They've done they're not simple execution, but it's
18:19
it's
18:20
simple that we can latch onto. So one
18:23
of the things that
18:25
we really focus on is people first and
18:27
focused execution.
18:29
So in my mind, I think if we
18:31
don't have a engaged,
18:34
involved
18:35
team
18:36
who really care and health care is all
18:38
about relationship.
18:40
People need to care and they need to
18:42
feel a sense of purpose. So I think
18:43
we focus on making sure that our staff
18:45
is engaged. So that kind of things that
18:47
people think about and, like, soft things, are
18:51
not good for technology. And I think the
18:52
other way around in my team is a
18:54
softer part. We need to focus more on
18:56
to, I think, create a future of, health
18:59
care. We talk about,
19:01
psychological safety. We talk about empathy.
19:04
We talk about we before we. We talk
19:06
about how do we create space for having
19:08
fun and laughter.
19:10
We do that work intentionally. It's not, oh,
19:12
by the way, we need to do that.
19:14
And once we do that
19:16
and we also said, at the end of
19:17
the day, we have to get the outcomes
19:18
too. We have to have tangible outcomes, whether
19:20
it's about
19:21
increasing employee engagement from x to y,
19:24
improving
19:25
quality outcomes,
19:27
from a to b,
19:29
delivering cost savings.
19:31
So we have a very balanced approach also
19:33
on,
19:34
focused execution. So that I think
19:37
is hard, but I think having that tension,
19:39
creative tension is good for us to make
19:41
sure that we
19:42
continue to,
19:44
attract the right talent to work with us.
19:47
Absolutely. Absolutely. I love that, in in the
19:49
focus on, you know, the right kind of
19:51
positive energy, positive creative tension that makes a
19:54
big difference in in moving forward quickly and
19:57
meaningfully.
19:58
Now before we wrap up here,
20:00
I wanted to ask, what is the number
20:02
one thing that you're doing right now to
20:04
set up the organization for success in the
20:06
future?
20:07
So to me, I think the number one
20:09
thing that, I think about all the time
20:12
is
20:13
as we're going through,
20:14
I think,
20:17
margin implementation. So I think about things are
20:19
becoming real now.
20:21
We,
20:21
think about coming together
20:23
and then there's
20:25
classic things. So what do we do with
20:27
electronic health record? What do we do with
20:29
ERP?
20:30
And we can get lost in tactics of,
20:32
unifying EHR and ERP. So the things that
20:35
we put forth as our guiding principle is
20:37
that
20:38
while we have to focus on foundation building,
20:41
we cannot lose sight of that catalytic impact
20:44
of information and technology.
20:46
So,
20:47
the focus we have over the the next
20:49
year or so, we are, probably a few
20:52
months, we are unifying electronic health record. But
20:55
we are not doing it,
20:56
as a more like a technical thing. We
20:58
are unifying in such a way that we
21:01
bring the best of both organizations together and
21:03
build towards our foundation system,
21:06
which is a proven way for us to
21:08
get the the the best outcome,
21:10
aligned with triple a. So, making sure that
21:13
we have the best health, convenient health, top
21:15
quality, and also we are managing our cost
21:18
in a very reasonable way.
21:20
And similarly,
21:21
we're using the same principle for,
21:24
enterprise resource planning integration. And, I think that
21:27
the the kind of,
21:29
the tagline we have is how do we
21:32
become, user centered, data driven, and automation infused.
21:36
So when we do that, I think that
21:38
that, again, creative tension we have in making
21:41
sure that as we unify
21:43
the the
21:45
the underlying platforms together, the one plus one
21:48
is more than two.
21:50
It can be three. And I say why
21:53
why not can be
21:55
two to the power of, three?
21:57
So we talk about, I think,
22:01
geometric progression
22:02
and how can we create that
22:05
environment where
22:07
we can position our organization for transformative change,
22:11
which, all of us know that is,
22:15
well needed and is kind of, embedded within
22:17
the health care.
22:19
Absolutely.
22:20
That makes so much sense. Praveen, thank you
22:22
so much for joining us on the podcast
22:24
today. This has been really a fun and
22:26
inspiring conversation, and I look forward to connecting
22:28
with you again soon.
22:30
Thank you so much, Laura. It was so
22:31
much pleasure,
22:32
speaking with you and, sharing my thoughts.