Latest / Becker’s Healthcare -- Pediatric Leadership Podcast / Making better decisions with data with Seattle Children's Dr. Zafar Chaudry

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Making better decisions with data with Seattle Children's Dr. Zafar Chaudry · Becker’s Healthcare -- Pediatric Leadership Podcast

• 0:00
  - This is Chris Oso with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
• 0:03
  I'm thrilled to be joined by Dr.
• 0:04
  Zafar Chari, senior Vice President and Chief Digital
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  and Information Officer at Seattle Children's.
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  Dr. Chari, thank you so much for joining us today.
• 0:13
  - Thanks for having me.
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  - Certainly our frequent guests on the Becker's podcast,
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  we definitely thank you for that.
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  But for those who may not be familiar with you,
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  could you please introduce yourself
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  and give us a bit about your background?
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  - Yeah, thank you. So Z Childry over at Seattle Children's.
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  Uh, I've been in the role of Chief Digital
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  and Information Officer now this is year seven
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  and I've been in healthcare it, it's year 39.
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  Wow. Time has flown by.
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  I'm a physician by training,
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  but I have been in the uh, CIO space for over 20 years
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  and I've worked in multiple health systems across the world.
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  - 39 years is certainly an impressive amount of experience
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  and knowledge that you bring to the field.
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  Dr. Chari, what would you say are your top
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  priorities for 2024?
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  - Yeah, so my top priorities for top 24, probably,
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  definitely top of the list would be
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  cost improvement programs.
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  As you are aware, healthcare is going
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  through some difficult challenges where margins have shrunk
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  and costs are uh, escalated.
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  So we're doing a lot of work on the cost improvement side
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  of things, but at the same time,
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  you can't be successful in healthcare without innovation.
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  So in the innovation space, the magic word is now ai.
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  So that is definitely on our priority list
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  because we're getting a lot of discussion
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  and request from our clinical colleagues about
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  what does this mean for us,
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  how this will impact our health system.
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  And then to sort of round off that top three, the third one
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  that's the top priority for me is going to be cybersecurity.
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  - I'm glad you mentioned both AI and cybersecurity.
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  Could you expand a little bit about
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  how your role will change with regard to those
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  elements over the next 18 months
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  and how it will change your team's role?
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  - Yeah, so I think what I'm likely to see,
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  certainly from a CIO
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  and IT team health IT team perspective is
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  that we are now playing a more strategic role
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  in the organization.
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  Nobody really cares anymore about infrastructure
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  and flashing lights and hardware and equipment.
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  They want the health IT teams
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  and the leader of those teams to have a bigger say
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  and be instrumental within the business itself.
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  The whole overall system, there's a push
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  to leverage technology to drive innovation
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  and business growth.
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  So that's where the sort of AI component comes in.
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  How do you automate, how do you streamline processes?
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  But at the same time, we are seeing a massive increase in
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  demand for services.
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  Uh, kids will continue to get sick
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  and we'll continue to need medical care.
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  They also want health IT groups to adapt more
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  to new technologies and trends in a more agile pace
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  than we've done in the past.
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  And you know, if you see the onslaught
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  of AI literally in months, it's gone from a non thing to,
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  everybody wants to be involved in that space.
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  But of course, whilst you're doing all these interesting
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  and cool things, you can never give up focus.
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  So there'll be a huge focus on cybersecurity data privacy.
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  The bad threat actors are not stopping,
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  they're getting worse.
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  Healthcare data is so valuable.
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  So we're seeing a lot of attacks, um,
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  in this healthcare space.
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  So we can't forget to focus on that on that
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  cybersecurity area.
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  We've gotta keep our data secure
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  at the same time we have to be more agile.
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  And I'm also finally seeing a better collaboration
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  with the business unit,
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  the clinical units within our health system,
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  and a closer relationship with external vendor partners
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  where it's more of a partnership than a sort of push pull
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  type of engagement.
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  - Your points are well taken on all those front doctor
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  and segwaying a little bit, uh, from those topics.
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  What are you excited about right now?
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  And it can be within AI
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  or data security as you mentioned, or, or something else.
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  - Yes, I'm definitely excited about
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  how we unleash innovation.
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  So AI is one of those components.
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  You've got other things like robotics
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  and if you look at the development in the robotics space,
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  it's also accelerating.
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  And I work in a pediatric hospitals,
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  I'm always gonna love little robots.
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  And then the other thing I'm excited about is
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  making better decisions
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  using the data that we're sitting on.
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  I think healthcare systems have massive amounts of data.
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  We don't always use it to the best of our abilities
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  to make better decisions, especially in the clinical space.
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  I'm excited about getting outta the infrastructure business.
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  I think health IT teams are in the patient business,
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  not the IT business.
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  And therefore I'm excited about what cloud can bring,
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  how we can scale into the cloud much faster than we have
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  done in the previous years.
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  - Doctor, I'm glad you mentioned
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  that health IT teams are in the patient business.
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  Last thing I wanted to ask you about is on our podcast
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  and another media, you've emphasized the importance
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  of connecting with stakeholders in healthcare.
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  So how would you recommend someone in your position as a CIO
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  to best engage these stakeholders while
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  keeping an eye on innovation?
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  - Yeah, so you're not, you're not really going
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  to get innovation without your stakeholders, right?
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  I mean, stakeholders are the ones
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  that have all the great ideas.
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  You as a person leading the health IT team are going
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  to be the individual who translates
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  those stakeholder requirements into
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  how do you actually execute that.
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  So the, the best way to sort of engage
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  with stakeholders is to meet them where they're at.
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  So I always recommend to my teams that if,
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  if you are spending more time in your office than actually
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  on the clinical floors, then something's wrong.
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  You have to go out there, you have to walk the floors,
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  you have to round with the teams, you have
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  to participate in different committees, you have
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  to attend the clinical presentations,
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  you've gotta do all of those things.
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  That's really the job that we have
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  because we have to go out not only educate the stakeholders,
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  but get their input into what they need.
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  This helps us keep up with how technology is changing
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  and how it can adapt to help clinicians
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  do the best job that they can.
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  And certainly for us provide hope, care,
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  and cure for the kids that we serve.
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  Uh, and at the same time, you are the evangelist
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  for technology and my team is as well.
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  Um, then when you're talking about security
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  and security risks, that is the same opportunity
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  to then educate those stakeholders on what risks are coming,
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  how people can behave in a safe manner whilst, uh,
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  being in the clinical space.
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  You know, we all, it's, it's quite interesting
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  'cause in healthcare, we all love to click on
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  that magical link that will give us millions of dollars,
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  but we have to educate people not to do that.
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  And at the same time, if you're engaging with stakeholders,
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  you're gonna be able to articulate what your constraints are
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  as a technology group,
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  because we're all facing budget constraints as well.
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  So there, there's no unlimited checkbook.
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  AI is great and robotics is great.
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  Those innovations are great, but they do come at a cost.
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  And so we, we are allowed to educate people in terms of
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  what is the art of the possible within the budget versus
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  what needs to be deferred to another fiscal year.
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  - Dr. Shari, thank you so much for being so generous
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  with your time and all your insights today.
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  We definitely cannot wait to share them with our audience
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  and we look forward to connecting with you soon.
• 8:42
  - Yeah, thank you so much for having me.
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  - It's so important for leaders at the top of organizations
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  to keep learning, stay sharp, grow their networks,
• 8:52
  help our audience better do this in a more simplified,
• 8:54
  personalized, and meaningful way.
• 8:57
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• 9:00
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• 9:02
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• 9:04
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• 9:06
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• 9:12
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