Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT / Simon Nazarian, Executive Vice President and Chief Digital and Technology Officer at City of Hope

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Simon Nazarian, Executive Vice President and Chief Digital and Technology Officer at City of Hope · Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT

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  This is where health care leadership comes together.
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  Becker's sixteenth annual meeting brings more than 3,500
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  hospital and health system executives and nearly 800
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  speakers to Chicago April.
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  This year's event includes keynote conversations with Dallas
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  Cowboys legend Troy Aikman and former president George
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  w Bush. For the agenda and event details,
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  visit beckershospitalreview.com
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  and click on the events tab in the
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  upper right. We're looking forward to hosting you
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  in Chicago.
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  Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Becker's Healthcare
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  Podcast. I'm Scott King. Thrilled today to be
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  joined by a very special guest, Simon Nazarian,
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  executive vice president and chief digital and technology
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  officer with City of Hope. Simon, how are
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  you doing? Thanks so much for joining us.
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  I'm doing great. Thanks.
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  I appreciate you, inviting me and, happy holidays.
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  Of course. Happy holidays to you. We're just
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  talking. We both gotta do a little bit
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  of shopping we, noted before the show. So
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  hopefully we'll do that later. But for now,
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  we got a lot of kinda big trending
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  topics in in health care to dive into.
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  But even before we do that, Simon, do
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  you mind sharing just a little bit about
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  your your background and your work in health
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  care?
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  Oh,
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  I would love to.
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  Let's see. I've been in health care since,
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  2008,
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  where I joined Kaiser Permanente
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  as
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  a chief architect for one of the regions
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  and then grew into regional
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  technology officer for our care delivery.
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  From there,
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  you know, I joined McKinsey and Company,
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  focusing on core technology enablement,
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  for health care practice.
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  So, payer provider, pharma, biotech, etcetera,
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  and,
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  really helped,
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  develop the that team for,
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  execution.
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  And then I had an opportunity
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  to join Optum as the chief information officer
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  for Optum Health
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  and, was,
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  really able to,
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  focus on,
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  taking,
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  Optum as a holding company into more of
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  an operating company,
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  by bringing all the technology organization on the
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  one arm, focusing on value based care and
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  all the things that goes along with it.
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  And,
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  then I had the, you know, good fortune
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  and opportunity to join City of Hope as,
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  the chief, Deshauna technology officer focusing,
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  specifically on, you know, technology transformation,
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  health care transformation,
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  to,
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  really,
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  drive our mission here at City of Hope.
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  Throughout my career, I've also focused across multiple
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  industries,
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  which really helps
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  me in my role within health care as
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  well. And I'm excited to pull on those
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  experience and expertise in order to,
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  really help
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  our patients and providers
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  during this journey.
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  Well, thanks so much for sharing all the
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  details about your journey in in health care,
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  Simon. It sounds like it's been a great
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  one.
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  You you know, there's there's so much going
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  on always in health care. It's certainly not
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  gonna die down for the holidays, but I'm
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  just curious, what opportunities
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  and headwinds do you have your eye on
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  right now?
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  Well, I mean, you know, health care is
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  really, at an inflection point
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  as we speak. So for the first time,
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  you know, we have the data, the computing
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  power, and the tools like AI, to really
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  meaningfully accelerate,
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  you know, how discovery is turning to better
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  care for our patients.
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  And at the same time, we're dealing with,
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  financial pressure, workforce challenges,
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  and, you know, growing cyber risks.
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  So, the question really isn't, whether we innovate,
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  it's,
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  how do we responsibly,
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  how we do it responsibly and at scale.
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  Right?
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  Yeah. Absolutely. You know, I've actually just talked
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  to some COOs of some systems,
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  about cybersecurity yesterday.
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  My question for you is, do you think
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  with all the use cases we're hearing about
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  AI, are systems maybe in terms of technology
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  a little maybe too concerned with AI and
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  kind of forgetting to invest in cybersecurity? Is
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  that something you're seeing or or think?
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  You know, most of my colleagues and everywhere,
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  you know, we talk to, we always take
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  security at heart and security first when we
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  wanna,
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  you know, approach, anything we wanna build and
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  develop
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  and deploy.
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  Right? PHI and PII are very important to
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  us, and we wanna make sure that it's
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  built into. So most of the organization
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  that I I speak to are my colleagues.
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  You know, we, really have it at the
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  center and on top of our mind.
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  No. I think it's a great idea. And
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  something else I wanted to ask you, Simon,
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  is how are you thinking about growth and
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  adding value to your organization?
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  You know, I I don't think about, but
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  when I think about growth, I don't think
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  about technology for technology's
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  sake.
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  You know? I think about impact.
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  You know? If additional investment, you know, doesn't
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  improve patient outcomes, expand access,
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  or make life better for the clinicians, you
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  know, we have to,
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  make sure we take a close look at
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  it, you know, and possibly take a look
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  at that, you know, return on opportunity.
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  But, our focus is really on removing friction,
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  and connecting systems,
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  you know, automating the mundane
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  and letting our clinicians and researchers spend more
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  time on patients and science.
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  Simon, what are some of the things you
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  maybe ask yourself
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  about
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  before you invest in and implement a new
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  technology to kind of evaluate it?
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  Well,
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  you know, there are a number of things,
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  that we have to take a look at.
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  We talked about the return on investment or
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  return on opportunity.
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  Right? You look at, you know, what does
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  it take to deploy,
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  you know, and jump start it. You know,
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  it's really, really important how to be on
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  supported on an ongoing basis.
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  You know, how does it integrate within our
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  workflows and really support our technicians
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  and, you know, accuracy and efficiency and how
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  we monitor it. And if it's AI based,
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  how do we govern it and, everything that
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  goes along with our governance.
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  And,
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  you know,
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  frankly, we just wanna make sure that, we're
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  delivering impact
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  with, whatever it is that we're building.
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  What do you think is one risk or
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  investment worth making this year?
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  One risk ahead is absolutely worth taking is
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  scaling AI in a thoughtful and governed way.
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  Right?
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  The bigger risk right now is standing still.
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  Health care is really moving quickly,
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  and organizations
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  that don't learn how to operationalize
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  AI responsibly,
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  you know, will fall behind in care quality,
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  research speed, and efficiency.
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  The key is,
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  you know, starting with real problems and building
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  trust as you go.
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  Where do you see the best opportunities for
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  growth in the future?
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  Great question.
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  The biggest opportunities,
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  to me,
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  that's ahead, you know, set up the intersection
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  of data, AI, and precision medicine.
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  Right? As we connect with all of this
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  clinical data with research insights,
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  we can deliver more personalized care and move
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  discoveries to patients much faster.
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  I also see huge,
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  potential in digital and virtual care models
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  that, really extend care beyond the hospital
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  innovation nationally.
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  And Simon, the last thing I wanna ask
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  you is, obviously, it takes great leadership to
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  help invest in and implement
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  AI usage and emerging tech across
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  systems now with with everything we're seeing. My
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  question for you is just how have you
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  evolved,
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  as a leader? How have you grown as
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  a leader?
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  I,
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  you know, being in health care,
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  you always put the patient at the center,
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  and you look at how do you support
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  the care teams
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  as well as,
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  the support teams outside of our four walls.
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  Right? And you look at the patient holistically
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  overall.
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  Also, you know, with my teams, I have
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  learned that,
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  they can achieve amazing things when you, approach
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  them with a problem to solve.
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  You know, bring your minutes that this is
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  what the problem we need to solve. Let's
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  solve it together. And,
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  it has done, great for me in that
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  manner rather than just saying go do this
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  or go do that.
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  So by just really maintaining that focus on
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  bringing my teams closer and the problem solving
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  has really helped me evolve as a leader
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  and I've become more of a,
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  people person as well.
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  Well, I think it's a great mindset as
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  we see emerging tech, continue to evolve
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  across health systems. And, Simon, thanks so much
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  for your time. Thanks for joining us on
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  the podcast. I thought it was a great
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  conversation. I look forward to working with you
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  again soon. Thank you so much.