Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT / Lisa S. Stump, BSPharm, MS, FASHP, Executive Vice President, Chief Digital Information Officer, and Dean of Information Technology at Mount Sinai Health System

Transcript

Lisa S. Stump, BSPharm, MS, FASHP, Executive Vice President, Chief Digital Information Officer, and Dean of Information Technology at Mount Sinai Health System · Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT

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  See you there.
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  This is Laura Dierda with the Becker's Healthcare
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  podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by
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  Lisa Stump, executive vice president and chief digital
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  information officer and dean of information technology
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  at Mount Sinai Health System in the Icahn
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  School of Medicine.
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  Lisa, it's a pleasure to have you on
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  the podcast today.
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  It's a pleasure to be here. Thank you,
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  Laura.
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  Now I I'm really looking forward to our
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  discussion and learning more about what you're doing
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  at Mount Sinai Health System and some of
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  the cool things you've got ahead. But before
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  we dive in, I'm wondering, could you tell
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  us a little bit more about Mount Sinai
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  and what makes it unique?
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  Sure.
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  So the Mount Sinai Health System and Icahn
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  School of Medicine,
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  is truly an exceptional educational and clinical enterprise.
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  We have almost 50,000
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  employees, including
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  thousands of clinicians and researchers.
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  We have, our phenomenal schools of medicine, biomedical
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  sciences, and nursing, which are among the world's
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  best.
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  We are nationally ranked and recognized for providing
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  expert care, across a variety of specialties,
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  to our patients across the region in our
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  eight hospitals, more than 400,
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  clinical practices
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  and through partnership with community affiliates.
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  So, it truly is a special place, you
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  know, I'll say right at the top here,
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  I've just joined the organization in the last
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  three months,
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  and the culture of that commitment to each
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  other, to our community, and to the world,
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  to me is what makes Mount Sinai truly
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  unique.
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  That's amazing to see here. And it seems
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  like a great place to be, a a
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  really amazing community to have around you, with
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  your teammates as well as the community, like,
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  that you're serving. So I know you've recently
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  joined the health system, but I'm wondering, is
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  there anything you could talk about in terms
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  of an accomplishment that you're most proud of
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  from the last year?
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  Yeah. You know,
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  after spending twenty eight years with my prior
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  employer,
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  making the transition,
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  I I would say I I dived in
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  early to try to really understand
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  the strengths of the team,
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  really understand
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  the needs of the organization
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  and align those two. So in just the
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  last three months, I've had the opportunity
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  to,
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  reorganize and restructure
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  my leadership team
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  to position us for what I think are
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  the really necessary priorities and goals in the
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  coming year and to set us up well,
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  to operate in in the environment that we
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  serve.
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  One of the early
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  priorities,
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  that emanated was around our data,
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  and the way that we are leveraging our
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  data assets.
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  You know, on the one hand, I would
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  say another one of the, I think, unique
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  benefits,
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  or accomplishments here at Mount Sinai,
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  we have an an incredible high performance compute
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  environment,
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  probably one of the largest in the country,
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  actually,
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  that supports the research
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  that is conducted, through the Icahn School of
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  Medicine here at Mount Sinai.
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  On the other end of the spectrum, though,
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  when it came to operational
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  and managerial
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  reporting,
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  that was done in a very distributed way.
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  And so I've had the opportunity to stand
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  up a new
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  enterprise wide data team
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  that is working to leverage those data assets
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  in a more meaningful way to help the
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  organization understand how we're performing,
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  where our opportunities
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  are for improvement, and whether or not we're
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  actually moving the needle.
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  And so creating that easier access
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  to information,
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  not just separate stores of data, has been
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  a really early
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  win, I think, for the organization and for
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  me.
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  That's amazing to hear. You know? And, certainly,
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  just a true testament to, your ability to
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  come in, and learn about the team and
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  then grow and and accomplish things right off
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  the bat. I think it was really,
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  special to hear about how, you know, you
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  mentioned being able to jump in, learn from
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  others who are already, within the system, understand
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  the priorities, and then really, get yourself into
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  a position where, there's a strong performance with
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  this data. Now when you look ahead for
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  the next twelve months or so, what are
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  some of the big growth opportunities you have
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  your eye on?
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  Yeah. So, you know, again, I think we're
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  we're starting from a really strong place,
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  but I think some of the biggest area
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  of growth will be in
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  clinical innovation and artificial intelligence.
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  I've had the opportunity now to,
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  participate
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  in
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  the selection of our first
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  chair of artificial intelligence and human health.
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  So we've created a,
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  formal department in the Icahn School of Medicine
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  dedicated to AI and human health.
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  I had the opportunity to participate in that
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  search and now onboarding
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  that that leader into the space
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  and partnering him,
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  and our new chief clinical innovation officer
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  with a really strong team in our digital
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  health space in my in my division here
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  in IT. We call ourselves DTP, actually,
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  digital and technology partners. So really structuring a
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  center of excellence around artificial intelligence,
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  digital health, and clinical innovation
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  focused on our patients and consumer experience,
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  really taking a hard look at the experience
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  of our employees,
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  and whether or not we've made that
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  as seamless and frictionless
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  as we can.
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  We are looking at the experience of our
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  researchers, our faculty, and students,
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  and, you know, really
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  and the care team, of course, and looking
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  at new AI technologies in that space as
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  well.
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  And so I think the those are the
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  biggest areas of growth. How do we
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  become a much more agile,
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  rapidly learning health system to adapt, adopt, and
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  create,
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  new tools in the in the space of
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  AI.
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  That's really cool to hear. And, you know,
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  I know AI has been such a huge,
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  change and transformation for the health care industry.
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  Great
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  to know that you've got the somebody leading
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  the AI, the chair of AI and human
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  health coming in to,
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  be part of those efforts. I'm wondering from
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  your perspective, you know, so much is,
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  happening and change is happening so quickly. How
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  do you really,
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  decide what to focus in on it and
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  where it makes the most sense for you
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  to spend your time, effort, and resources
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  when it comes to AI and, transforming the
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  way you're doing things at Mount Sinai?
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  Yeah. It's a great question. You know, I
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  I always bring people back to,
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  we need to ensure we understand what problem
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  we're trying to solve,
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  clearly define it, and be sure it's a
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  problem that needs our attention right
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  now. Right? The pace of change and the
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  development of lots of tools and AI models,
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  the the they're coming at us fast and
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  furious to your point,
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  and we can't give every one of them
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  our attention. And so ensuring we're solving very
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  real problems
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  for our patients, for our clinicians, for our
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  organization
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  really helps set the the key priorities around
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  how we frame and focus our energy.
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  That's great to hear. Thank you so much
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  for going a little bit deeper there. Now
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  I know there's a lot of opportunities,
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  ahead, but also challenges.
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  What are some of those big challenges or
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  headwinds that you're anticipating for the next year
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  or so?
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  Yeah. As I said, I think the pace
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  of change is probably one of the most,
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  significant
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  challenges.
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  Even good change is hard. Change is hard,
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  for all of us. And,
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  you know, our organization
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  as a whole
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  is undergoing,
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  I would say, you know, transformative
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  change deliberately.
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  We are looking at transforming our basic operating
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  models. We've tended to function,
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  as I said early in a in a
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  fairly distributed
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  model, across the enterprise.
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  We have new leaders, myself included, but I'm
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  not alone
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  at that level. There are other new leaders
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  in the organization or leaders who have been
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  here a long time, but are now functioning
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  in new roles.
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  And so
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  that's a big change.
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  Just within my span of control, I'm coming
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  in as a new leader, in our digital
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  and technology partners. I've reorganized my leadership team,
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  and some of the teams underneath them, to
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  create
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  a workable structure.
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  All of that is change.
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  And then we're on this rapid pace of
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  implementing and introducing
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  new technologies and new systems. And so
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  really paying close attention to
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  the change management,
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  and the cognitive burden that that we're putting
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  on,
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  you know, ourselves,
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  and our peers, I think, is something that
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  we're very focused on.
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  Absolutely.
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  It seems like, you know, as you mentioned,
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  the there's always new things happening, always new
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  things occurring, and change can really be hard
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  for people. And so,
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  is there anything that you found that's worked
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  really well to maybe lessen a little bit
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  of that anxiety that comes with a lot
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  of
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  change? You know, I've I I always like
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  to break change down into the sense I
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  can't
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  and,
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  overwhelm people.
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  You know, you have to present that clear
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  vision,
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  so that people get excited and buy in
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  to the change,
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  but then not overwhelm people with so much
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  detail
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  right up front. Right? And then break it
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  down into those digestible bites,
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  and celebrate the wins along the way. So
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  when those first two or three milestones have
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  been accomplished, right, that we laid out,
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  celebrate those,
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  clarify that that's now set us up to
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  move to steps four, five, and six
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  so that people can see always their eye
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  on the end game,
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  understand what's necessary,
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  what they need to commit in the near
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  term, and then remind them of the progress
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  that we're making.
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  That makes a lot of sense.
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  Thank you so much for for, explaining that
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  a little bit to us. Now before we
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  wrap up here, I'm wondering what is the
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  number one thing that you're doing right now
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  to set Mount Sinai up for long term
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  success?
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  Yeah. You know, Laura, I'd bring that right
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  back to the data. So, you know, as
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  I said, we're we're under a major sort
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  of transformative
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  effort,
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  and
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  it's data that needs to guide a lot
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  of the really challenging decisions that we all
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  need to make as leaders, and clinicians in
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  the organization.
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  And so,
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  you know, I'll I'll go back and say
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  we're we're today, and I'm just starting to
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  get our arms around it with a structure.
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  There's a long history here of those
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  distributed
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  data sources.
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  Right? Lots of individual
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  departments or teams
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  have their own,
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  you
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  know, source of data or or datasets and
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  databases.
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  They've then done analysis and produced their own
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  reports and dashboards.
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  And then you get really intended,
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  really smart people in a room, but each
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  with their own set of data that's conflicting.
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  It's really hard to then make an informed
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  decision.
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  And so I think one of the biggest
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  things we'll do to set the organization up
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  for success
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  is have a clean set of organizational metrics
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  that are tied to the goals that we
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  need to achieve
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  with a clear and viewable
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  set of the definitions,
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  around those metrics.
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  That that's the only way. We're we're again
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  gonna know where are our priorities. Right? Where
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  do we need to focus our energy
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  to improve
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  operations and outcomes
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  and then understand if our efforts are making
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  a difference? So putting strong governance and making
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  data readily accessible
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  in a common viewable place.
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  You know, again, it's only been three months,
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  but as I've started to
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  communicate that to key stakeholders across the organization,
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  there was an initial, you know, concern and
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  trepidation around
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  somebody else, you know, analyzing the data that,
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  you know, I've done myself for years.
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  But very quickly, people see the benefit of
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  that common
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  source of truth that we can all operate
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  from.
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  And with so much change, again, so quickly
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  without data, you know, we could quickly lose
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  our way. So,
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  I I think that's that's gonna be a
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  really significant impact.
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  That's really helpful to know and amazing to
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  think about, what it takes to to really
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  bridge that gap and and make that change
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  and then to have a a data driven
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  organization with those metrics and with the information
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  really being put to work in the smartest
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  way possible.
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  Lisa, thank you so much for joining us
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  on the podcast today. This has been a
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  really fun conversation, and I look forward to
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  connecting with you again soon.
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  You as well. Thank you, Laura.