Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT / John Gachago, Vice President, Digital Innovation, Parrish Healthcare

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John Gachago, Vice President, Digital Innovation, Parrish Healthcare · Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT

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  Philips is a health tech leader focused on
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  innovation that improves the health and well-being of
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  people. Our health care technology and informatics solutions
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  help care teams diagnose, treat, and manage more
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  patients with greater precision, speed, and confidence across
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  the care journey. With Philips, clinicians are empowered
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  with streamlined insights in the moments that matter
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  for every patient. Better care for more people.
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  Philips.
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  This is Gracelyn Keller with the Becker's Healthcare
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  Podcast, and we are recording live at the
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  tenth annual health IT, digital health, and RCM
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  meeting. I'm currently joined by John w Gachago,
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  who is the vice president of digital innovation
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  at Parrish Healthcare.
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  John, thanks for being here. Let's start off
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  by having you share a little bit more
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  about yourself and your work in healthcare.
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  So,
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  as as you mentioned, I am the VP
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  of digital innovation
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  at, Parrish Healthcare,
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  and, really, my work focuses on really
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  how we deliver care digitally.
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  And and I wanna say first and foremost,
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  primary to that is the patients.
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  That is why we do what we do.
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  So, essentially,
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  in our area, we particularly have a large
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  population of elderly patients,
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  rural patients, underserved patients.
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  So everything we do digitally is about serving
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  them.
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  I spent the last three years helping health
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  care organizations
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  basically
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  rethink or redesign their digital transformation
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  strategies.
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  That includes,
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  governments
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  in various parts of the world and just
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  really advise them on how to
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  begin that process of digital transformation for their
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  health care systems.
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  And by that, I mean, we're talking about,
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  things like from telehealth expansion to AI integration,
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  all with always with a focus on basically
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  equity,
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  access,
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  and sustainability.
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  At the same time, I'm also the author
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  of two books. One is Digital Health, the
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  How to, and the other is the, the
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  impact of AI on the maturity of hospitals.
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  So I love to write, love to do
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  research, as well as, certainly develop those digital
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  transformation plans.
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  Right now, like I said, I'm leading basically
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  the effort to modernize Parish Healthcare through smarter
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  infrastructure,
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  better data use, and certainly more patient centered
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  digital tools.
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  Wonderful. Well, thank you for being here. Excited
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  to talk to you today. Yeah. And let's
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  start our conversation with AI. Nearly half of
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  medical practices reported using AI in some capacity
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  in the last year, and it remains a
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  key topic for health IT leaders. So from
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  your perspective, what are the use cases that
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  are making a difference right now, and how
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  are you leveraging them in your organization?
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  So, first of all, I'll say one of
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  the things we've done,
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  with the excellent leadership of our CEO, George
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  Mccatarian,
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  is we looked at the entire organization, thought
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  first thing we have to do is redesign
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  our health care AI policy.
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  Right?
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  So that we can actually begin to
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  use AI, but, certainly, use AI in a
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  responsible fashion.
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  Now what does that mean? That means making
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  sure the AI we use certainly meets regulations,
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  federal, you know, government regulations,
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  making sure it's auditable, making sure it is
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  explainable,
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  and certainly making sure that
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  it does not cause any harm.
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  Right? So that's where we are starting right
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  now. But where we are going in terms
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  of leveraging leveraging the technology itself
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  is we're going to be looking at so
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  many tools.
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  I'm talking about Ambient Clinical Solutions. K?
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  Federated learning and privacy preserving
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  AI,
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  digital twins for precision medicine,
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  edge computing,
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  for remote monitor monitoring and acute care at
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  home, and even health care specific LMs.
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  For us, that is going to be the
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  trajectory.
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  Absolutely.
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  And going off of that Yeah. As virtual
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  care expands from AI enabled tools to remote
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  monitoring to broader digital health platforms,
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  Introducing these new technologies
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  does bring challenges. So what advice do you
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  have for leaders navigating everything from governance to
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  patient engagement? And can you share an example
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  of how your organization has balanced innovation with
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  operational constraints?
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  So
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  one thing we can say is innovation is
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  very exciting. It's it's a great thing to
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  be doing, and, certainly, that's one of the
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  reasons I'm doing it. But at the same
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  time, I think it has to be grounded
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  in reality,
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  which I think leaders, particularly in this field,
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  need to be very conscious of at all
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  times.
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  My advice is start with governance and build
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  trust,
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  and build it early. Build that trust early
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  because you will need it down the road.
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  The earlier you can build a trust, the
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  better off you are down the road. And
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  that obviously means involving clinical leaders,
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  involving IT,
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  involving
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  local leaders in the community, right, who you
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  otherwise may not think of. But really just
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  getting everybody involved
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  involved in the design process so they have
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  equity in it. Right? At the same time,
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  when I think of the example of how
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  we are rolling out things like remote patient
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  monitoring,
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  It's not just giving patients devices. Here you
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  go. Monitor your weight. Here you go. Monitor
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  your diabetes.
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  Here you go. Monitor your asthma. No. There's
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  trainings.
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  There is engagement that takes place. It's about
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  really helping
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  the patient
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  and the providers understand on both sides what's
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  in it for all of them.
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  A 100%.
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  And and shifting gears slightly, how are you
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  seeing recent legislation, both state and federal, affect
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  health care organizations and health IT specifically?
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  And have you adjusted strategies in response?
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  So, certainly,
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  legislation
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  is shaping our road map in a big
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  way.
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  Local,
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  funding is very important to us from the
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  Florida legislation
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  as well as certainly legislate funding that's coming
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  from the big beautiful bill, so to speak.
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  Yeah. There's a lot of funding there that
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  we're looking
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  to certainly be a recipient of so that
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  we can do the things I just talked
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  about.
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  At the state, level funding opportunities like the
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  Florida House Appropriations Project are driving our decisions
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  in certainly big ways,
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  and they will help us invest in the
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  rural infrastructure we need to develop.
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  Certainly, federal changes around interoperability
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  and reimbursement models
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  impact everything we do on a day to
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  day basis. I mean, how would we do
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  what we want to do if we don't
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  get paid for it? Right? So it's certainly
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  pushing us to be more agile, and we've
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  certainly adjusted prioritizing
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  our digital
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  transformation strategy
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  around that funding, which is very critical
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  to, certainly, the goals we expect to attain.
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  Now
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  on the other hand, I will also say
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  it's a balancing act. Funding is always a
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  balancing act any which way you look at
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  it, but it's also an opportunity to align
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  innovation with policy.
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  And as we wrap up our conversation, I'd
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  love to know what your top piece of
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  advice for health care leaders is as they
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  prepare for further advancements in technology and rising
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  demands for care. Yes. Well,
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  I think probably the most important thing I
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  I can say is
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  stay focused on value and people.
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  That's what I would say. Stay focused on
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  value and people. We we we all have
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  to keep in mind that technology is
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  a tools.
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  It is actually a tool. It's not the
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  goal.
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  So that's very important for us to keep
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  in mind. And so my advice is to
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  invest in digital literacy
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  across your health service organization,
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  build flexible teams that can evolve,
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  and always keep the patient experience front and
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  center.
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  I think the future of health care is
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  not just high-tech.
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  It's definitely gonna be high touch.
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  So we need leaders that can balance both
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  high-tech
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  and high touch
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  to actually deliver the quality care that we
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  expect to deliver.
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  Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for joining
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  me today, John, on the Becker's Healthcare podcast
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  and sharing these insights and thoughts. Again, we
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  are recording live at the tenth annual Health
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  IT Digital Health and RCM meeting. Thanks so
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  much. Thank you.