Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT / Jodi Rosen, Vice President at City of Hope

Transcript

Jodi Rosen, Vice President at City of Hope · Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT

• 0:00
  - Welcome to Becker's Healthcare Podcast, made
• 0:02
  for the people who power US healthcare.
• 0:04
  I am Molly Gamble with Becker's,
• 0:05
  and today I am so happy to be sitting down with Jody Rosen.
• 0:08
  Jody is the Vice President of Innovation
• 0:10
  and Digital Strategy with C of Hope.
• 0:12
  Jody, welcome to the podcast.
• 0:14
  Thank you so much for being my guest. How are you today?
• 0:17
  And, and where does the podcast find you?
• 0:20
  - Thanks so much, Molly. It's terrific to be with you,
• 0:23
  um, and our listeners.
• 0:24
  Um, I'm doing really well.
• 0:26
  I'm very excited to be, uh, having this conversation
• 0:29
  with you, especially in the context of Women's History Month
• 0:33
  as we, uh, get to the end of, uh, end of the month
• 0:36
  and really thinking about sort of some women, um,
• 0:40
  who have inspired me in in my career
• 0:42
  and in so many other people's careers.
• 0:44
  And, uh, you're at that list as well.
• 0:46
  And I'm gonna try to weave in some important women who, um,
• 0:51
  have done great things in healthcare
• 0:53
  or brought equity to healthcare, um, in some
• 0:55
  of our conversation For sure.
• 0:57
  - Oh, so thoughtful of you.
• 0:59
  And this, this march as we're connecting,
• 1:01
  like you said, we are winding down.
• 1:02
  It's been a particularly fast one,
• 1:04
  it seems like for for many of us.
• 1:06
  I'm sure for you too, Jody.
• 1:08
  Um, so, so to get us started today, you know, for listeners
• 1:10
  who are not as acquainted with c of of Hope as they'd like
• 1:14
  to be, can, can you share an overview of the organization
• 1:17
  and then your role within it just to kick us off?
• 1:22
  - Absolutely. Absolutely.
• 1:23
  Um, city of Hope is over a hundred year organization,
• 1:28
  um, and our mission of making hope a reality
• 1:33
  for all touched by cancer
• 1:35
  and diabetes is, is a very powerful mission
• 1:38
  and one that that resonates, um,
• 1:41
  with many people, um, in their life.
• 1:44
  And, you know, I would share a little bit, uh,
• 1:46
  about the Roots and the history of our organization
• 1:50
  as well is, um, really founded in, um,
• 1:54
  Southern California as a non-sectarian
• 1:58
  sanitorium back in, uh, 1913, really looking
• 2:03
  to help treat, um, individuals who were afflicted
• 2:07
  by tuberculosis
• 2:09
  and providing care for all, regardless
• 2:13
  of their ability to pay.
• 2:14
  Is is just truly in the roots of, of who we are
• 2:17
  as an organization.
• 2:19
  And as tuberculosis was eradicated City of Hope,
• 2:24
  um, which at initially it was established
• 2:26
  as the Jewish Consumptive Belief Association, um,
• 2:31
  began to, um,
• 2:33
  and it was consistent of these two campus cottages.
• 2:36
  And ultimately that did launch a over a century long journey
• 2:41
  that would become City of Hope, um,
• 2:44
  and leader at the forefront of our nation's medical
• 2:47
  and research institutions.
• 2:49
  And we've begun to take on mounting a fight against
• 2:54
  diabetes rare diseases, um, hiv aids, and then oncology.
• 3:00
  And really in the spirit of, um, one of our,
• 3:04
  our early leaders, um, Samuel Galcher coined a phrase
• 3:09
  that there is no profit in during the body.
• 3:13
  If in the process we destroy the soul.
• 3:17
  And these words have really become city of hope's, uh, credo
• 3:21
  and are resonate in our mission, vision,
• 3:25
  and values, um,
• 3:27
  as we are a national comprehensive cancer center, um,
• 3:32
  with now a national footprint,
• 3:35
  not just in Southern California, but also with hospitals
• 3:39
  and outpatient locations in Phoenix, Arizona,
• 3:44
  in the Chicagoland area,
• 3:47
  and also, um, in, uh, Atlanta, Georgia.
• 3:50
  So becoming a national research
• 3:54
  and clinical care provider focused on oncology care
• 3:57
  and diabetes, um, goes back
• 4:00
  to our early roots well over a hundred years ago.
• 4:04
  And that piece of, um, uh, philanthropy
• 4:08
  and, um, care for all
• 4:09
  and equity is very central to our mission
• 4:13
  and how we provide care daily. Mm-Hmm,
• 4:15
  - , you know, I, I was going to
• 4:18
  touch on this toward the end of our conversation,
• 4:20
  but I, I think we should stick with it, that the history
• 4:23
  that you just shared, I mean, really remarkable.
• 4:26
  And it's rare to find an organization
• 4:29
  that initially was established to specialize or,
• 4:32
  or really set out to treat one disease like tuberculosis,
• 4:36
  so successfully in its scale.
• 4:38
  And then there's advancements with the antibiotics,
• 4:40
  and they then the organization then pivots
• 4:42
  to specialize in another pressing disease, uh, in this case,
• 4:46
  HIV aids, oncology, diabetes, you know, Jodi, what,
• 4:50
  what lessons can we draw from this unique origin story?
• 4:56
  - So, great, and, and I, I really do feel as an employee
• 4:59
  of the organization and in speaking, you know, with any
• 5:03
  of my colleagues, um, I, I think this would come across that
• 5:07
  the visionary work we began well over a hundred years ago,
• 5:13
  continues today, um, in a very mission-focused way
• 5:17
  as we look forward to continuing to be a leader in the fight
• 5:21
  to eradicate cancer.
• 5:23
  And every day we advance new breakthroughs in cancer
• 5:27
  research and cancer treatment in different ways
• 5:31
  to support patients
• 5:32
  and their loved ones on the oncology journey, um, so
• 5:37
  that we can give more patients everywhere, more hope
• 5:41
  and new hope because of those, um,
• 5:43
  groundbreaking advancements that are happening, um,
• 5:47
  at the bench side that can quickly move to the bedside
• 5:51
  and then be on to the larger, um, healthcare community,
• 5:55
  um, of those who,
• 5:57
  who are joining us in the fight against cancer.
• 6:00
  Um, and I think the other piece
• 6:01
  that I would say about just kind of our, you know, early,
• 6:05
  early roots and,
• 6:06
  and some of the things that are thematic daily, um, is that,
• 6:11
  you know, we were founded by donors
• 6:13
  and volunteers determined to make sure that
• 6:17
  no one was left out of care.
• 6:19
  And that vision for health equity does drive us, um,
• 6:23
  and it drives our supporters from a philanthropy
• 6:26
  perspective, um, daily in our organization.
• 6:29
  Very powerful. Mm-Hmm,
• 6:30
  - .
• 6:32
  Well, I, I, I am really happy to sit down with you, Jody,
• 6:34
  for a number of reasons, but one is
• 6:36
  because I, I was sharing with you
• 6:37
  before we began a podcast, how much
• 6:41
  audience interest we've seen in the past several months
• 6:43
  around issues related to cancer.
• 6:46
  Um, this is gonna be,
• 6:47
  or it's set to be a, a pretty taxing year
• 6:50
  for the US Cancer care system with new diagnoses projected
• 6:54
  to hit a, a new high in the US
• 6:57
  exceeding 2 million for the first time.
• 6:59
  Uh, that's about 5,500 cancer diagnoses a day.
• 7:03
  The mortality piece, that that is a rosier outlook.
• 7:05
  There's some improvements there from the American Cancer
• 7:08
  Society projections, but
• 7:10
  nonetheless, this is a lot, this is a, a large volume
• 7:12
  of diagnoses we're looking at.
• 7:14
  How, how does this projection f tie into
• 7:17
  or factor into your work today on innovation
• 7:19
  and digital strategy at City of Hope?
• 7:24
  - Great question. Um, you know, at at the root of,
• 7:27
  of the growing rates of, of cancer, early detection,
• 7:32
  prevention awareness screening is so important.
• 7:36
  Um, and that really rings true for me personally with,
• 7:39
  with my public health background.
• 7:41
  Um, and, and I'll say that I am very pleased to share that
• 7:46
  City of Hope has recently launched, um, a mobile clinic
• 7:51
  offering, uh, clients and our patients, um, and,
• 7:55
  and those individuals who'd never known the city of Hope,
• 7:57
  but by having a mobile van that can, uh, reach out
• 8:01
  to neighborhoods out into the community that, um,
• 8:04
  clients receive state-of-the-art screening services from
• 8:08
  multiple different types of cancers
• 8:10
  and, um, genetic disorders that may, um,
• 8:15
  and sexually transmitted infections
• 8:16
  that might actually increase cancer risks,
• 8:19
  um, and other conditions.
• 8:20
  And so our mobile clinic clients, um, have access to city
• 8:25
  of hope's, world renowned clinical trials are
• 8:28
  research programs and, um, technologies
• 8:32
  and innovations, breakthrough treatments that are, um,
• 8:35
  being used around the world.
• 8:37
  And so those mobile clinics is, is one type
• 8:40
  of the commitment that we have to, again, the equity,
• 8:43
  the outreach, the prevention, um, early diagnosis,
• 8:48
  and they're staffed, um, by nurse practitioners, um,
• 8:52
  technicians, mammogram technicians, support team nurses, um,
• 8:56
  they have changing rooms, private exam rooms.
• 8:59
  And it, we're currently scheduling screenings
• 9:01
  and events across our Southern California community, um,
• 9:05
  with other community-based organizations
• 9:07
  'cause partnership on screening, especially to address,
• 9:12
  again, back to our roots, um, those
• 9:14
  who may not always have access to care is so important.
• 9:17
  So I would say one piece of that is,
• 9:20
  is definitely the work on early diagnosis.
• 9:24
  The other is more
• 9:25
  and more oncology care is moving to outpatient
• 9:28
  or ambulatory settings.
• 9:31
  And I'm excited to share that.
• 9:33
  Um, we will be opening in February
• 9:36
  of 2025 at our Duarte campus,
• 9:39
  a new state-of-the-art Hope Plaza facility, which has, um,
• 9:44
  housed within it over 352,000 square feet
• 9:48
  of outpatient care being
• 9:50
  provided at, uh, for our patients
• 9:52
  across nine different levels.
• 9:54
  Initially, we'll have 84 new exam rooms, um,
• 9:57
  eight procedure rooms, uh, 59 infusion spaces,
• 10:02
  a, um, dedicated outpatient, um, imaging,
• 10:07
  um, and women imaging modalities.
• 10:11
  We are very excited to be having new digital experiences
• 10:15
  within that building that can reach patients, um,
• 10:19
  and address what their oncology journey needs are,
• 10:22
  and begin to move healthcare delivery from sort
• 10:25
  of a one size fits all to more of a personalized,
• 10:30
  experienced orientation, which is so much of
• 10:32
  where the market is going to,
• 10:34
  and that ability to think about meeting patients
• 10:38
  where they are on their oncology journey, whether it is
• 10:42
  that early diagnosis, whether it is they were screened
• 10:46
  and treated somewhere else,
• 10:47
  and are now looking for, um, other options
• 10:50
  and more advanced options with clinical trials.
• 10:53
  Where can we meet the needs of patients now,
• 10:56
  not just in Southern California, but across the country, um,
• 10:59
  and with some of our enhanced digital capabilities, um,
• 11:02
  we're very much equipped
• 11:04
  and ready to take on that challenge.
• 11:07
  - Mm-Hmm. . And the other distinction too is
• 11:10
  that there's rising diagnoses
• 11:14
  among younger people too, right?
• 11:16
  The, the number of diagnoses
• 11:18
  among people under 50 are on the rise and cancer.
• 11:22
  It's, it's not always been equated as a, a young person's
• 11:25
  or a middle aged person's disease.
• 11:28
  What does the shift also signal or, or mean for your work?
• 11:33
  - Absolutely. I, you know, there's been such an interest in
• 11:37
  different, uh, age cohorts.
• 11:39
  Um, especially right now as we're,
• 11:41
  and we may talk about this a little bit
• 11:43
  of the 2030 problem we're, we're looking at with, uh,
• 11:46
  an an aging baby boomer population.
• 11:49
  But as you think about, um, millennials, gen X,
• 11:52
  and other populations as it relates
• 11:54
  to seeing cancer diagnoses, rates rising,
• 11:58
  but also other types of, um,
• 12:01
  diseases affecting younger populations, I, I think one
• 12:04
  of the things we have to think about, um, as
• 12:07
  provider based organizations is how to meet those needs
• 12:11
  of the younger generation.
• 12:13
  And really omnichannel comes to mind,
• 12:16
  I think meeting the patient slash consumer expectations
• 12:21
  and making provider side care welcoming,
• 12:25
  making it simple.
• 12:26
  Um, and often that means transparent
• 12:29
  and mobile first, making it convenient, um, with on demand
• 12:34
  or 24 7 access, um, even to some amount of mobile tools
• 12:39
  and highly personalized
• 12:41
  and contextually relevant to
• 12:44
  that patient consumer population with customized products
• 12:48
  services offering and opening up self-service tools
• 12:52
  that a younger generation is so accustomed
• 12:55
  to using in every other part of their lives.
• 12:58
  I think those are the types of, um, experiences that, um,
• 13:03
  we are definitely investing in.
• 13:05
  And I know the broader healthcare provider ecosystem is
• 13:09
  investing in, because patients don't wanna be treated
• 13:13
  differently when they walk into healthcare
• 13:15
  than when they're interacting with so many other verticals.
• 13:18
  Whether that is in travel, leisure banking,
• 13:21
  lifestyle reservations, what they can do for health
• 13:24
  and wellness in a, in their, you know, workout environments,
• 13:28
  um, with educational institutions that they interact with.
• 13:31
  They're looking for some of those same pieces. Mm-Hmm.
• 13:34
  and being able to make sure
• 13:36
  that we have simple, transparent, convenient, frictionless,
• 13:40
  and personalized services are so important.
• 13:43
  I think the other piece that we're seeing around, um, uh,
• 13:48
  our, our younger generation is really how
• 13:50
  to have partnerships with primary care providers.
• 13:54
  We know that that stickiness of orientation, um, uh, around
• 14:00
  providers, um, patients
• 14:02
  and who are millennials, um, not having as strong
• 14:05
  of relationships as maybe a baby boomer population does
• 14:08
  with their primary care doctor, how do we reach out
• 14:12
  and partner with a whole host of primary care providers
• 14:16
  to be able to better educate them on screening
• 14:21
  referral management into NCI comprehensive cancer centers
• 14:25
  like City of Hope when there is a concern that a patient,
• 14:28
  um, may be faced with cancer.
• 14:31
  - Mm-Hmm. . No, I appreciate those comments
• 14:33
  so much, Jody, because I think you,
• 14:34
  you said on this earlier, but so often, I mean the,
• 14:37
  the language has said that we have an aging
• 14:40
  and graying population,
• 14:41
  and that was correlated to health outcomes.
• 14:44
  But I think what that can miss is, like you said,
• 14:47
  the millennials, the Gen y, the, the people
• 14:50
  who are in their early forties right now, um, yeah.
• 14:54
  That they aren't necessarily gray,
• 14:56
  but they are struggling with different health challenges,
• 14:59
  like you said, and then they kind
• 15:00
  of are operating the system where so much of it is built
• 15:02
  around Medicare recipients and, and,
• 15:05
  and retirees that have very different access
• 15:08
  and availability for a care team compared to someone
• 15:11
  who might still be working or with a young family.
• 15:14
  So I, I really appreciate that point.
• 15:17
  'cause I think in some ways, um,
• 15:19
  this group can be overlooked in some
• 15:21
  of the traditional ways about thinking about agreeing
• 15:24
  population or an aging population.
• 15:28
  - Absolutely. Absolutely. And, and,
• 15:29
  and I will say you have both, you have younger
• 15:32
  diagnoses happening with a, uh, population of individuals
• 15:37
  who have different types of consumer, um, expectations
• 15:41
  around care delivery and service delivery.
• 15:45
  And at the same time,
• 15:47
  you do have this 2030 problem people discuss of
• 15:51
  as it relates to insufficient resources
• 15:54
  and an ineffective, um,
• 15:56
  delivery system supporting the doubling
• 15:58
  of baby boomer generation, um, from 2002
• 16:02
  to 2030.
• 16:04
  And what that means for us as it relates to a workforce
• 16:09
  that will be retiring at the same time you have baby boomers
• 16:13
  who may be resulting in needing additional care.
• 16:18
  And so that begins to put a lot
• 16:20
  of compression on a nationwide shortage of care providers.
• 16:24
  Mm-Hmm. , um, and, um, you know,
• 16:27
  where are those opportunities
• 16:28
  to continue to take care of people.
• 16:30
  And so, you know, I do think some of those shifts
• 16:33
  and patterns and of trends are really interesting.
• 16:35
  'cause I do think those are real opportunities
• 16:38
  that we can be looking to leverage, um, more,
• 16:43
  uh, you know, the places that deep learning, um,
• 16:46
  how artificial intelligence can help us lead
• 16:49
  to improved health outcomes, improve early detection,
• 16:53
  improve access, uh, decrease burnout, really foster top
• 16:57
  of licensed care for clinicians who, who are working daily
• 17:02
  and taking care of patients daily.
• 17:04
  But some of the noise of
• 17:05
  practicing medicine gets in the way.
• 17:07
  And I think, um, you know, ultimately with
• 17:11
  leveraging the right generative AI strategy
• 17:15
  algorithms, you really can affect both
• 17:19
  the entire care journey experience for our patients,
• 17:22
  but also so importantly for our clinical providers, um,
• 17:26
  to really, you know, bring the joy
• 17:28
  of practicing medicine back, um, as well as, um,
• 17:32
  allowing patients to feel more human again
• 17:34
  and not as robotic in a system.
• 17:36
  Right. If you can automate the, the stuff that doesn't, um,
• 17:41
  is not additive to the human part of care delivery, um,
• 17:45
  but is so vital and give people more time to interact
• 17:49
  with their provider on a oncology journey.
• 17:53
  I think those are some tremendous opportunities we have
• 17:56
  as it relates to trends and,
• 17:57
  and things that we are looking forward
• 18:00
  to continuing to explore.
• 18:01
  And that the, the entire, uh,
• 18:04
  academic medical community on the healthcare side is
• 18:07
  continuing to explore,
• 18:08
  which is very exciting. Mm-Hmm. .
• 18:10
  - Well, Jody, are there any other trends, any other shifts
• 18:13
  or patterns that you wanted to note related to cancer care
• 18:16
  or other care offered at City of Hope?
• 18:19
  Um, or any other closing thought for our listeners
• 18:21
  as we wind down today?
• 18:24
  - Sure. Sure. I, I really just think that the piece
• 18:27
  that we are beginning to focus on, um,
• 18:29
  for all patients is really this
• 18:33
  hyper-personalized care orchestration
• 18:35
  and really thinking about omnichannel care.
• 18:38
  And so that ability to call, click
• 18:41
  or come is so important for us, especially
• 18:45
  as we have become a national
• 18:48
  NCI comprehensive Cancer center across the United States,
• 18:52
  is really beginning
• 18:54
  to think about those interconnecting pieces that
• 18:59
  patients are really desiring in their experience,
• 19:02
  whether it is know how to connect with me, um, know, me,
• 19:07
  know, know my preferences, help me orchestrate my care.
• 19:10
  And that is all of that ability to think about how
• 19:14
  to reach patients both inside our,
• 19:17
  our four walls as well as outside.
• 19:20
  And, and the same in the flip side could be true
• 19:22
  for our workforce, right?
• 19:23
  And so, so much of, uh, the workforce, um,
• 19:26
  since the global pandemic pieces of
• 19:29
  that workforce are remote, so how to continue
• 19:31
  to create team-based care, um,
• 19:35
  to best support our patients on their, on their journey.
• 19:39
  These are very important projects
• 19:41
  and, and work we're leading.
• 19:43
  And, um, hopefully you'll have me back
• 19:45
  and we can share some updates on
• 19:47
  those things. Uh, next time
• 19:48
  - You can plan on that.
• 19:49
  Uh, listeners, this has been Jody Rosen, vice President
• 19:52
  of Innovation Digital Strategy at City of Hope.
• 19:55
  Jody, thank you so much for your time
• 19:57
  and for connecting these trends
• 20:00
  and projections around cancer rates
• 20:02
  and cancer care in the year ahead, back
• 20:04
  to the work you do in innovation, digital strategy.
• 20:06
  Truly so helpful to see the bigger picture.
• 20:09
  We really appreciate you being our guest today.
• 20:11
  - Thank you so much, Molly. A pleasure. I.