Latest / Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast / Chris Carmody, Chief Technology Officer at UPMC

Transcript

Chris Carmody, Chief Technology Officer at UPMC · Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast

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  Would you like to exchange best practices and ideas to improve care,
• 0:03
  enhance operational efficiency,
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  and address financial challenges with your peers?
• 0:08
  Becker's Healthcare is facilitating these conversations at their eighth annual
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  health IT Digital health and RCM meeting.
• 0:15
  You can check your eligibility for complimentary attendance at the Lincoln,
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  the description. We are excited to welcome you in October.
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  This is Laura Ddo with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
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  I'm thrilled today to be joined by Chris Carmody,
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  chief Technology Officer at U P M C. Chris,
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  it's a pleasure to have you on the podcast today.
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  Thank you for having me, Laura.
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  I'm always happy to participate and work with Becker as you guys have a great
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  organization there.
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  Thanks so much. And you know,
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  it was awesome to have you at our annual meeting in April,
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  and then I know you'll be coming back to Chicago for our health IT digital
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  health Revenue cycle event this fall. So I,
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  I know that'll be an amazing event and definitely will benefit from your
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  expertise and technology and how the discussion is changing right now, uh,
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  so quickly.
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  So I'm excited to preview a little bit about what I'm sure will be all the buzz
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  at the event in October.
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  Absolutely. And again, Becker's first class and all the events that,
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  that you guys put on, and I'm always happy to participate in, you know,
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  as much as I, I, you know, we at U P M C contribute, um,
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  I think we get a lot more out of participating and hearing from others in our
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  industry, so it's great.
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  Yeah, absolutely. The idea exchange, you know, is, is certainly, um,
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  what we aim to do and really put in a great space to do that now. Um,
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  before we fir go jump further into our broader discussion,
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  I was wondering for those who may not be familiar with you,
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  probably not many at this point, but could you, uh,
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  introduce yourself briefly and, and tell us a little bit about your background?
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  Sure. Um, I'll try and be brief cuz I, I have a long career, um,
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  almost 25 years here at U P M C. Um,
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  started my career out of college, um, at,
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  in the financial services industry really, um, at the,
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  the ground floor of it being PC support, local area network administrator,
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  dabbling in database technologies and,
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  and came to U P M C a couple years later as an IT auditor.
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  I had no idea what that was at the time, but, um,
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  it was really a great opportunity to accelerate my learning and understanding of
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  the healthcare industry back then.
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  And that was at a time when we really first started the, um,
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  the widespread adoption of electronic health records.
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  So I was able to participate from an auditor's perspective,
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  making sure that the right controls and safeguards were in place to help that
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  adoption across U P M C and over the next two decades, uh, spent,
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  uh,
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  different roles in in IT and IT leadership positions to where I'm at today,
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  which is, um, really, um,
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  love serving as the CTO at U P M C of a great leadership team. Great,
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  um,
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  expertise and experience staff members that are truly dedicated to
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  delivering technology, um, to enable more efficient,
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  more effective healthcare. Um,
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  some of the other interesting facts on my background, just to,
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  to kind of round me out, um,
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  I was a adjunct college professor for about 18 years at some local universities
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  here in Pittsburgh, and I've done some consulting work over the years as well,
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  um, through of connections of,
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  of U P M C for different organizations like the nfl. Um,
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  so had had a, a great career to this point and, um,
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  really enjoyed what I'm doing and I'm really excited about the future of
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  healthcare technology, um, as we move forward.
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  Absolutely. That's amazing to hear.
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  And fascinating that you've had so many different, um,
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  experiences and perspective to see how technology has changed and evolved.
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  And I know especially over the last few years,
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  that acceleration has sp sped up quite a bit. So, you know,
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  given where we're at today,
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  what are the big opportunities you have your eye on as well as the headwinds
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  that you're keeping in mind to at U P M C?
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  Well,
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  I wish I had more eyes because there's lots of different opportunities and areas
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  and it, it's all relative right to the context of your organization.
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  So here at U P M C I,
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  I would say that the number one thing that's really driving us is our
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  clinical analytics program. It's,
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  it's an area that I got involved with about six years ago with, um,
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  our chief analytics officer, Dr. Oscar Marquin. He's a,
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  a wonderful human being. Um, one of the,
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  our great thought leaders here at U P M C.
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  He's a cardiologist by trade and is so passionate about delivering life-changing
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  medicine. Um, we,
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  we've built a program that has about 1300 predictive models
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  based upon a,
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  a lot of the digital data that we've been able to produce over really like
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  32 years. That's, that's one of our, um,
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  larger database platforms,
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  literally goes back to 1991, um, when it was first, um,
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  conceived and, and and built. And we leverage that data today and,
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  and those various models that have really created the U P M C dna,
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  you know,
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  and how we deliver care and how we provide better insights to our care teams and
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  clinicians that are engaging with patients and even our health plan members. Um,
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  so in the analytics space, obviously technology has evolved in a lot, um,
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  within the last five or six years,
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  we've bursted the compute and and processing capabilities
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  out into the cloud and are in the process of re-platforming the different data
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  marts and models that we've built to really help us
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  go exponentially to a new scale and further leverage technologies like machine
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  learning,
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  which is really what you need before we jump into the artificial intelligence.
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  But, um, we've actually u utilized artificial intelligence to extract out,
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  um, useful data elements from a lot of the unstructured data, um,
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  that helps inform those predictive models. So, great example of,
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  of how does that, how does that work? How does that translate into, you know,
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  daily clinical work? Well, anytime a patient gets scheduled,
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  a surgical procedure at U P M C and there's,
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  there's close to about 2 million of those per year that patient's information
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  that we have is run through our predictive modeling to help identify any risk
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  factors that we need to take preventative action on, um,
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  before we bring 'em in for a surgical procedure. You know, again,
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  the goal being the,
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  the best possible outcome for every individual patient coming in. So we,
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  um, use those models to flag, um, certain areas of concern and,
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  and allows for the clinicians to focus, um, on,
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  on hopefully addressing some of those concerns prior to the procedure.
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  And similar on the backend,
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  when you have a patient that's being discharged from one of our facilities,
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  we run through our predictive modeling from a, uh,
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  readmissions perspective in identifying, okay, how can we,
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  how can we help them get back or,
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  or stay on course to their path of recovery and, and get back to the whatever,
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  um, state of wellness they are at. Um,
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  and improving upon and having access to some of
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  the data that's not apparent in your traditional electronic health record like
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  symptoms, like social determinants of health. Um, we've been using, uh,
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  an AI model from Microsoft called text analytics to help identify some of that,
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  again,
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  in the non-traditional unstructured data that we've generated over all these
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  years. So a lot of the h and p, the discharge summaries,
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  any other type of reports,
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  we scan that and scour it for that information to help help those patients to
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  put the right, um,
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  support system in place when they leave our four walls at U P M C.
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  And we've seen a, a,
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  a drastic improvement across the board in reducing that readmission rate.
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  And that's really what it's all about. It's, it's, it's utilizing technology,
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  utilizing data,
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  the combination of that with our clinical expertise to continually create this
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  learning environment that we get smarter and better and provide those insights
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  to our clinicians, you know,
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  with the ultimate goal for every human being that we touch,
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  that we create the best possible outcome as we move forward. So that's,
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  that's obviously huge and, and, and again,
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  I I'm sure everyone's a buzz around chat,
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  G P T and open AI and the, the large language models,
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  and we absolutely are exploring those technologies in a
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  safe way and a secure way and ethical way as we move forward to see
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  how we can best utilize that moving forward. Um,
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  and I'm sure there's lots more to come from that space and then the anchor to
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  everything we're doing. And obviously there's many more, um,
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  initiatives and products we have going on U P M C,
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  but is that core foundation of, from a cybersecurity perspective,
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  health healthcare has a large bullet on our back,
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  and we always have to be smart.
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  We always have to continually be grounded with good IT hygiene as I refer to it,
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  where we apply the best practices and controls and safeguards to protect
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  our patient and our members information and data, their privacy,
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  um, when we're utilizing technology and when they're engaging with us utilizing
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  technology.
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  So that's always at the forefront of everything that we do here at U P M C to,
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  to move that needle. So, so yeah, that's, that's,
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  that's really where our key focuses are right now, or at least my key focus is,
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  uh, in my role.
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  Absolutely. Wow. I th that's so much ground to cover,
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  and I love kind of your focus on so many, you know, different areas.
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  Obviously data and analytics is hugely important in,
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  in really leveraging that for better operations as well as patient care.
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  And then too, bringing in some of the, um, you know,
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  example you talked through on the social determinants of health and,
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  and building out that infrastructure to, um,
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  really collect the data and use it in ways that are,
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  are making a difference for communities and people who really need that, um,
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  you know, type of services and, and, and, uh, additional attention.
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  So that's fascinating that you've been able to do that all at U P M C and you
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  know, from your perspective, what does it take for a health system? I know, um,
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  you talked through a little bit of, you know, the skillset you have internally,
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  the partners that you're working with as well. What's a a good balance for,
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  for that right now when you're thinking through, um,
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  in other health systems as well as looking at their strategy?
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  What makes the most sense to try to bring in house in terms of expertise and how
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  do you leverage your partners as well?
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  Great question. I,
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  I think that's something that everyone in healthcare technology struggles with
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  because resources are, are scarce in a lot of cases and,
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  and some of the higher skilled staffing needs. Um,
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  you're com we, in healthcare it are competing with other industries, right?
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  Cybersecurity is a great example. Doesn't matter if you're in healthcare,
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  if you're in financial services, if you're in manufacturing,
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  we all have the same need to protect our operations, our, our,
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  our data, our digital assets from a cybersecurity perspective.
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  So there's a lot of competition for those resources. Um, some of the newer,
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  when we talk about, you know, machine learning,
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  artificial intelligence automation, a lot of, a lot of data,
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  data engineering and, and other skill sets, um, are are difficult to come by.
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  So I think you have to, again, apply,
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  apply it to your particular organization.
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  What we like to do at U P M C is really develop our talent and leverage the
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  experience and expertise that we already have in as much cases as possible.
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  So I'm actually, uh, the executive sponsor for our summer associate program,
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  bringing in college students that are rising juniors and seniors that have an
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  interest in technology. They,
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  they might not know exactly where they want to be in,
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  but we'd love to bring them in, expose them, and,
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  and give 'em real life experience,
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  work experiences to learn some of the technology and why a career in healthcare,
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  it, it is, um, so meaningful, you know,
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  versus some of the other industries that they may, um, be interested in.
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  And then post-graduate, and actually we,
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  we do a lot of recruiting before students graduate and graduate and, and, um,
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  we have a, what's called our IT t r program, our IT rotational program.
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  So we hire college grads and, and give them two years of,
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  uh, four rotations,
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  six month each learning and accelerating that learning of our culture and how we
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  do things at U P M C to,
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  to build out their expertise and skill and work with them and mentor them to
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  help select, you know, where they would like to go. And, and fortunately for us,
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  a lot of that interest from new,
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  new talent entering into our workforce is,
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  or interested in some of those newer fields now that that requires a great
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  partnership with the folks that have been at U P M C for in some cases.
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  I have a, I have a leader who worked for me,
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  she's entering her 45th year of working at U P M C,
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  started as a nurse and had migrated over to it. And her,
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  her experiences and expertise are just, um, unfathomable, really.
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  I mean, it's, it's just amazing what she brings to the table. And in partnering,
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  you know, someone coming into the field with her and,
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  and some of other leaders and, and other, um,
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  key contributors is just a,
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  a great process to help us develop some of that talent. So that said,
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  that's our, that's our initial approach because we wanna,
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  we wanna create that culture and that environment that we are a learning
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  organization, growing organization. And, and quite honestly, I,
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  I not really joke about it anymore, but I,
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  I consider that chief technology officer titled to really be the Chief Talent
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  Officer. It's about our people and, and developing them, engaging them,
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  um, listening to them to,
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  to help us achieve these goals that, you know, we talked about,
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  um, and, and, and deliver on the great possibility and potential of technology.
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  Um, so when we look outside,
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  obviously we're looking for gaps where we might have a need,
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  we might have an immediate need where we don't have the,
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  the skillset to bring in house. So yeah, we,
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  we look for partners that are consistent, that are, um,
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  that really become part of the U P M C family in terms of them demonstrating
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  to us that, hey, they care just as much as I do.
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  So when there's an issue or something like that, they, they,
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  they jump on the phone, they jump on a call, they're present, um, you know,
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  Elba to Elba with our teams when we're going through good times and bad times,
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  quite honestly. So it, it's, it's really a cultural thing from my perspective,
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  tying everything all back together to create that environment to where we can
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  eliminate as much noise as possible,
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  leverage people's talents that they bring to the table. Uh, you know, we, we,
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  we are big about di diversity in our leadership and our staff,
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  and it's not just, you know, that your traditional diversity components, it's,
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  it's really about their, their thoughts, their, their backgrounds,
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  their skill sets.
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  I think that makes for better outcomes for every unit that we do.
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  Absolutely. I, I think that makes so much sense. And really, if, you know,
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  it sounds like you've got a great culture at U P M C that you've been able to
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  build and, and really thrive in. Um, you know,
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  and that's so helpful to think about and,
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  and then leveraging the partnerships as well, um, as much as possible. Now,
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  I, I know you mentioned already to some degree that, um,
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  resources and healthcare scarce US everywhere, but especially in healthcare. So,
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  you know, when you look at, um,
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  what you're trying to do from the technology side of things,
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  how do you think about growth and adding value to the organization overall?
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  What are those discussions like?
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  Yeah, I, I, again,
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  I think it really starts with those relationships with who we would be cons,
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  who we would consider to be our internal customers, right? The,
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  the chief nursing executive, the cmio, um,
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  anyone in in operations and that are utilizing the technologies and services to
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  really do what we're here for. We're not here to be a technology company.
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  We're here to be a healthcare company that uses technology as one of the major
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  enabling, um,
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  factors that makes our world renowned clinicians, our doctors,
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  our nurses to, to do more, become more efficient,
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  more effective with everything they do, every patient that they touch. Um,
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  so that said, you know,
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  building those relations and talking and engaging with our,
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  our key partners is so instrumental to help move the needle so we understand
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  and can align our resources, what those, with, what those needs are. Um,
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  I had a great conversation today with our, our chief, uh,
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  nursing informatics officer talking about strategy,
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  talking about what are we gonna do three years from now? You know,
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  those are conversations that were a little bit tough to, to come by, you know,
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  five, 10 years ago when there's a little bit more disconnect and a little bit,
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  you know, less, less reliance on it per se from, you know, defining and,
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  and driving the strategy and vision, um, for the organization.
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  And I think covid helped really accelerate that, um, and,
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  and identify how critical it is to, uh,
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  running the business of health. Um, so that, I think that's,
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  that's so instrumental for me in my role. And, and I think for my team, it's,
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  it's, it's the soft skills stuff. It's the communications, again, it's,
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  it's the listening. It's not sitting there and,
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  and pontificating to groups about what we're gonna do to them.
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  It's about what we can talk about and discuss and how best we can solve the
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  problem or take advantage of an opportunity to, um, meet the,
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  the needs of patient care,
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  meet the needs of member services for our health plan and everything in between.
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  So that's, that's again, where, you know, we,
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  we tend to spend a lot of our time there, and it gets back to whole, that whole,
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  you know,
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  the acronym of CTO to really around the talent to make sure we have the right
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  skillsets and are able to deliver and work with people in that way.
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  That makes so much sense. You know, and it really,
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  it's fascinating to see how that CIO and and chief technology officer role has
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  changed over the years and become more strategic. And certainly,
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  like you mentioned, technology in digital, um, you know, data analytics,
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  all of that touches every single department across the organization, um,
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  you know, support on every single department, whether it's clinical,
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  operational, um, so it really seems like, you know, just a very,
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  very natural move to, um, elevate that type of strategy,
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  that type of soft skill, um, into the, the larger roles. Now, you know,
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  with that being said, where do you see, and in, in,
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  in these conversations with what is it gonna look like three years from today?
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  Um,
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  what do you see as still being really key investments to make right now so that
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  you're prepared for three years down the line for as much as possible, whatever,
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  um, healthcare is gonna look like a few years down the road?
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  I know it's impossible to exactly predict, and,
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  and certainly a lot of things could happen between then and now, but, um,
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  as you're thinking through preparing yourself as much as possible, you know,
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  where is U P M C is still spending resources to, uh, um,
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  get ready for where healthcare is headed next?
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  Sure. I, I, I think first of all, that's a great question. And I think,
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  you know, you, you have to look at, you know, what, what,
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  what are we trying to do here? What are we trying to solve?
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  What are we trying to deliver? Um, and it,
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  it's all about that individual patient that,
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  that one human being that chooses to, um,
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  come to U P M C to get their healthcare services and their insurance services.
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  And, um, you know, I kind of, you know, equate it to a bad, and maybe it's a,
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  a poor image, but, you know, there's,
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  there's those new like selfie cameras that kind of spin around and do a 360
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  view, uh, of people and kind of get that, you know,
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  those crazy pictures at parties and stuff like that. Um,
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  I just saw one of those at an event I was just at,
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  but it made me really think that's, that's what we're trying to do.
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  We're trying to like identify how we can engage those patients and members,
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  you know, to, to meet their needs.
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  And I think what you're gonna see in healthcare and at U P M C as we move
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  forward, you know,
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  engaging even more outside the traditional four walls of a hospital or of a
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  physician practice. And, you know, again,
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  COVID Covid accelerated the adoption of, of telehealth and telemedicine,
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  those virtual visits, which by the way, we had been doing for decades.
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  It just, the adoption wasn't there. And I,
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  I think that demand and that acceptance by our patients of our members,
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  by our consumers, which again, is a key theme to, to treat. You know, we,
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  we always refer to patients and members as you know, patients and members,
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  and it's really creating a more consumer experience and meeting them, um,
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  where it's, you know, appropriate,
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  where it's convenient and where it's best for them.
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  So I think being able to enhance that delivery of healthcare outside the four
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  walls and into their homes, or onto their smartphone, or again,
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  offering them those different solutions is, is really gonna be the key driver,
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  um, to help us move forward. And, and you brought up this point,
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  the point before about the social determinants health and, and creating a more,
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  um, equitable approach, um, to,
• 20:45
  to delivering healthcare and making healthcare available to everyone.
• 20:49
  We have to exploit that even more to address those deficiencies in different
• 20:54
  communities and with different populations that, um, we encounter across,
• 20:59
  um, all of our service areas. And again,
• 21:02
  technology's gonna be the enabling factor to make that happen and, and,
• 21:06
  and prove the lives of the people in the communities that we serve.
• 21:11
  And, um, that to me, again, that's what it's all about. That's why I'm here.
• 21:14
  That's why our team's here. That's what drives us. And, uh, I, again, I,
• 21:18
  I made this made the point in the beginning of the conversation is, you know, I,
• 21:21
  I think there's such a great opportunity for leveraging technology as we move
• 21:25
  forward, um, to truly make a difference and make an impact. And,
• 21:29
  and that's the great part of being in healthcare it.
• 21:32
  And that's why I'm so optimistic about our future.
• 21:35
  Absolutely. I love that. I, I think there's just so much there and so mu many,
• 21:39
  uh, ways to look at technology and do things better. And so, um,
• 21:44
  you know, a lot to be excited about, as you mentioned, and, you know,
• 21:47
  truly so many different areas where, uh, you know,
• 21:50
  organizations can make a big impact both internally as well as for patients and
• 21:55
  their families and communities at large. Now, before we wrap up our discussion,
• 21:59
  I just have one more question. How do you see your role continuing to grow and,
• 22:03
  and evolve and change? I know, uh, you know,
• 22:06
  you already talked about some of the things that, um,
• 22:08
  it's become more of the chief talent officer, uh, in,
• 22:12
  in having some of the soft skills and really making sure you're connecting with
• 22:15
  people and, uh, having technology be front and center there.
• 22:18
  Do you see that continuing? How do you looking at growth and development and,
• 22:22
  um, you know, where you're headed as well as where your teams are headed?
• 22:27
  Absolutely. I, I, I think, you know, as I look back over my, you know, again,
• 22:32
  almost 25 years being here at U P M C and being in healthcare technology,
• 22:37
  it was, you know, again, image in my head and my brain is,
• 22:41
  it was always like we were running a race, running a marathon, and, you know,
• 22:45
  it might have been a few steps behind the people that we were trying to,
• 22:50
  you know, provide technology and technology services to. And I, I,
• 22:55
  I see that, you know, we've caught up, we're,
• 22:58
  we're running now elbow to elbow and,
• 23:00
  and running in the same direction together.
• 23:02
  And I think that's gonna be key for our, for our future, for, for my future,
• 23:07
  for, you know, the, the, the cio CTO roles in organizations.
• 23:12
  They have to be at the leadership table,
• 23:13
  they have to be engaged at all different levels and are so instrumental at,
• 23:18
  um, keeping our,
• 23:20
  our healthcare organizations moving forward in the right direction and,
• 23:24
  and focus on that goal. It's, again, it's not about the technology.
• 23:26
  The technology's gonna change. You know, we're gonna,
• 23:29
  we're gonna hear the latest and greatest, you know,
• 23:31
  thing tomorrow in the news that everyone's gonna want to chase. And it's,
• 23:35
  you have to be cautious with, with some of that and,
• 23:38
  and not lose sight of why we we're doing what we do. And that's trying to,
• 23:43
  you know,
• 23:44
  make an impact on people's lives and in a lot of cases when they're at their
• 23:47
  most vulnerable state. And, um,
• 23:50
  if you don't lose sight of that and keep running towards that goal, I,
• 23:54
  I think there's huge success down the road. Um,
• 23:57
  if you get caught off guard by chasing a shiny object, you, you know,
• 24:00
  you might stumble and fall. And again, you gotta be, gotta be careful with,
• 24:04
  you know,
• 24:05
  chasing after some of those things versus being more proactive in the planning
• 24:09
  and engaging with those, um,
• 24:12
  those other stakeholders that you're on this journey with.
• 24:15
  Absolutely. That's such a great point. Chris.
• 24:17
  Thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today.
• 24:19
  This has been such a fun discussion as always,
• 24:21
  and I'm looking forward to seeing you again in October.
• 24:25
  Likewise, I'm, I'm excited for the event in October. Of course,
• 24:27
  I don't want summer to go too fast.
• 24:29
  Let's enjoy some of that nice weather in Chicago and here in Pittsburgh. Uh,
• 24:33
  and then, uh, look to reconvene back with,
• 24:36
  with everyone in October for another Great Becker's event.
• 24:38
  So thanks again for today.
• 24:45
  It's so important for leaders at the top of organizations to keep learning,
• 24:49
  stay sharp, grow their networks,
• 24:51
  help our audience better do this in a more simplified, personalized,
• 24:54
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• 24:58
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• 25:01
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• 25:04
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• 25:09
  review.com and we'll see you there.