Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT / Dr. Srinivasan Suresh, Vice President and CMIO at UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh

Transcript

Dr. Srinivasan Suresh, Vice President and CMIO at UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh · Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT

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  Philips is a health tech leader focused on
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  people. Our health care technology and informatics solutions
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  Philips.
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  Hello, and welcome to the Becker's Healthcare Podcast
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  recorded live in Chicago at the 9th annual
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  Health IT Digital Health and RCM conference.
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  I'm joined today by doctor Suresh, vice president
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  and chief medical information officer at UPMC Children's
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  Hospital of Pittsburgh.
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  Doctor Suresh, to get us started, can you
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  please share a little bit about yourself, your
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  background, and your role at your organization?
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  Sure. I am Srinivasan Suresh. I go by
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  Suresh. I'm a pediatric emergency physician at UPMC
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  Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. I serve as a
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  vice president and chief medical information officer of
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  the hospital. I have a faculty appointment as
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  a professor of pediatrics with the University of
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  Pittsburgh.
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  My scope of responsibilities
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  are the electronic health record and related, technology
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  applications,
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  patient portals, digital health, and now AI and
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  ML based tools.
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  Chillis Hospital of Pittsburgh is a leading
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  nationally ranked, Chillis Hospital with over 1,400,000
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  patient encounters annually,
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  and we are part of a large 40
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  plus hospital health system, UPMC,
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  which is an integrated
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  payer provider system and also an academic medical
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  center.
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  So AI adoption has exploded in health care.
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  In your view, what would you say, you
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  know, the most significant or promising application of
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  this technology is right now, and how is
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  this informing your organization's innovation strategy?
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  Sure. There are
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  lots of use cases and, practical applications of
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  this relatively
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  new technology.
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  AI is not new, but, generative AI is
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  new.
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  And
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  one of the applications that we have,
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  in our hospital, which has been adopted pretty
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  well, is Ambient AI Technology for clinical documentation
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  and note creation. The reason why it has
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  been successfully adopted
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  is because it saves clinicians time.
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  We're talking about Ambient AI Technology,
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  which is in use currently for clinical documentation
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  and note creation because it certainly saves clinicians
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  time. And the cognitive overload and documentation
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  burden that clinicians have has has worsened over
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  the past few years post pandemic.
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  So
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  such efficiency and productivity tools will be will
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  be very helpful. And generative
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  AI outside of this application has tremendous potential
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  in clinical research and patient engagement and hospital
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  operations and and the like. So health care
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  leaders like yourself are, on a daily basis,
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  managing
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  greater volumes of data
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  and on more devices across a growing number
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  of care settings and populations.
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  In this complex environment, what clinical data integration
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  tools or practices are you seeing drive improvements
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  in patient outcomes and operations? And do you
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  have an example or few you you can
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  share?
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  Sure. I would go with the self-service
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  analytics.
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  You know, reporting tools and, requirements,
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  are pretty complex. So the more we engage
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  clinicians and researchers and administrators on what exactly,
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  you know, data and, reports they need and
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  build the tool so that they can access
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  it, themselves
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  is a huge win. It does require a
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  little bit of, learning curve. But once
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  that time is spent by,
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  the end user to know how to use
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  it, it really saves a lot of time,
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  for everyone
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  if, self-service analytics can be,
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  can be used appropriately.
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  So how can health care organizations better support
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  IT and clinical teams as they carry out
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  innovation efforts, and what are some of the
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  common pitfalls here?
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  Sure. A fairly common pitfall is not engaging
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  clinicians
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  early. And it's not just physicians. It could
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  be nurses,
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  pharmacists, other technologies.
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  So for any kind of IT operation, which
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  essentially in a hospital or health system is
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  a clinical operation supported by IT, is to
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  engage the clinicians early.
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  And I would say have a very clear
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  understanding of what the goals and targets are,
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  what are the priorities
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  from a clinical perspective or a research or
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  an administration or a hospital operations perspective because
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  they're always gonna be competing priorities.
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  So,
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  a key point for success for
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  health care organizations
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  when they embark on
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  especially large IT projects is to engage all
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  the stakeholders,
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  really early and really often.
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  You know, how does your role being at
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  a children's hospital make that unique as compared
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  to maybe a hospital or health system that
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  sees, patients of all ages? Yeah. That's a
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  great question. I think we have additional
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  needs and checks and balances, I would say,
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  when you work at a at a children's,
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  hospital.
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  The needs of our patients are unique. The
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  needs of our pediatric clinicians are, unique.
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  And taking care of children in a complex
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  environment,
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  we also have additional
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  safety and quality of care
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  regulations.
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  And and if you think about it at
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  a individual patient level, whether it is dosing
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  of drugs
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  or
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  how does a 14 year old child access
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  his or her patient portal. I mean, these
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  are very unique needs Mhmm. For
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  pediatricians and other clinicians taking care of, children,
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  and working in a children's hospital.
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  So in your role, are there, you know,
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  any pieces of technology or AI that, you
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  know, you see that might have a great
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  impact on,
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  you know, pediatric hospitals in the future that
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  you're particularly excited about that may be something
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  that, you know, someone in more of a
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  traditional hospital might not be? Absolutely. That's a
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  great question. I've had the opportunity to use
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  generative
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  AI driven
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  patient care instructions Mhmm. At the patient's bedside.
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  I'm an emergency physician, so I practice in,
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  a busy,
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  emergency department in the city. And I've had
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  the opportunity to use this technology at the
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  bedside
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  where
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  you can have the aftercare instructions being read
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  out
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  by a smartphone Mhmm. To directly to the
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  child,
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  which is very interesting. So somebody's actually talking
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  to the 5 year old or the 10
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  year old or the 15 year old child.
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  And, that way we're addressing,
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  something which typically does not happen in traditional
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  care. So it's it's combining the newest technology
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  with good old fashioned medicine,
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  you know, taking care of,
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  the patient and the caregivers and the family
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  as a whole. It is a huge plus
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  for patient engagement and experience. Mhmm. Mhmm. So,
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  you know, I can hear the passion in
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  your voice as you talk about your job
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  and and, you know, your organization.
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  So, obviously, you know, fostering that next generation
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  of leaders in health care and health care
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  IT is very important. So but what would
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  you say your top piece of advice for
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  health care leaders as they prepare for, you
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  know, further advancements in technology and greater demands
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  of care? What would that be? Yeah. It's
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  a great question, but I would say it's
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  an easy answer.
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  Always keep the patient in mind.
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  At UPMC Children's, we actually do not have
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  technology goals, but we have goals for patient
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  safety. We have goals for quality of care.
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  We have patient engagement and, employee experience goals
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  and goals for growth and access. And technology
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  is an enabler. Mhmm. Sorry. Technology is an
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  enabler
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  and a medium, but not the solution.
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  So the key is not to deviate from
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  our mission, vision, and goals. If we have
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  to include technology and digital tools and generative
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  AI applications to get there, that's great, but
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  we should not lose sight of the values
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  of our organization.
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  And finally, I would say
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  for upcoming health care leaders, to focus on
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  execution.
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  Implementation in health care settings
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  is incredibly hard, and most of us do
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  not need more ideas. We just need to
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  focus on our current goals and execute.
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  Well, doctor Suresh, this has been a great
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  conversation. But before I let you go, do
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  you have any final thoughts you'd like to
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  leave with our listeners today?
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  I would say especially for, the younger generation,
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  you know, please, get into health care. Health
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  care information technology is, at an inflection point,
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  especially with the promise and the potential of
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  generative AI,
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  what it can do to
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  medical research and and patient care in general.
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  So
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  if you're considering a career, please look into
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  health care information technology.
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  That was awesome. Thank you so much for
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  joining us today, and I hope you have
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  a lovely rest of your day. Likewise. Thanks
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  for having me. Thank you.