Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Sandeep Rustagi, Chief Data Analytics Officer at the University of Mississippi Medical Center

Transcript

Sandeep Rustagi, Chief Data Analytics Officer at the University of Mississippi Medical Center · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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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 Sandeep Rasagi, who
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  is the chief data analytics officer at University
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  of Mississippi Medical Center. Sandeep, thanks for being
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  here, and let's have you start by sharing
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  a little bit more about yourself and your
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  work in health care. Thank you, Grace. Really
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  excited to be here. As you mentioned, I'm
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  the chief data analytics officer at University of
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  Mississippi Medical Center.
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  I would say my role is more of
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  a chief liaison officer between data and technology
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  and business leaders. So I really
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  wanna help the net help the operational leaders
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  navigate all the challenges of data and technology
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  that we are running into today, especially with
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  AI being everywhere.
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  I lead the data strategy and the data
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  governance teams and activities in our, organization
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  also
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  help, let our team grow into a more,
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  ready force for tomorrow.
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  Wonderful. Well, let's start our conversation
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  talking about AI as this is a hot
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  topic everywhere, but specifically in health care. And
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  nearly half of medical practices reported using AI
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  in some capacity in this last year, and
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  it remains a key topic for health IT
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  leaders.
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  So from your perspective, what are the use
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  cases that are making a difference right now,
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  and how are you leveraging them in your
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  organization?
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  You rightly said AI is everywhere. In fact,
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  I think it's a little bit of a
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  too much AI going on in everything. I
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  in fact, the day is not far. We'll
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  probably see some AI enabled
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  washers and dryers. Wait. Actually, we just saw
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  them. I just saw
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  AI enabled washers and dryers at a Costco
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  store recently when I was there. So that
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  tells me there is a little bit too
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  much of a hype of AI in every
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  dimension of our life, especially in the health
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  care as well.
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  I do see a lot of value through
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  all of this hype as well.
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  One of the areas that I see,
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  growing up, to become a significant and a
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  strong use case,
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  is ambient listening and an ambient technology. I
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  think we are seeing very
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  positive use case of, our, clinical leaders finding
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  great value in that,
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  and it's helping save time and and helping
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  them improve their efficiency.
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  At at the same time, there are multiple
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  other technologies. Predictive analytics is one that's showing
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  us,
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  where to go in terms of our,
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  patient
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  clinical parameters, how do we do some,
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  analysis on where the patients will be going
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  in terms of their length of state reduction
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  and some readmission rate reductions. So I think
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  those are predictive analytics are great opportunities.
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  At the same time, there are other areas
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  as well like operational flows,
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  of, patients and some efficiency gains there as
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  well. So multiple areas where I see AI,
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  adding and contributing a lot, to the health
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  care field primarily, but I do see,
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  there are certain selection criteria that have to
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  be implemented to make sure we get the
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  right technology for the right usage.
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  And as virtual care expands from AI enabled
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  tools and remote monitoring to broader health systems,
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  introducing new technology brings challenges. So what advice
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  do you have for leaders navigating everything from
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  governance to patient engagement, and can you share
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  an example of how your organization has balanced
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  innovation with operational constraint?
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  Thanks, Grace. That's a that's a great question.
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  Like we talked about
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  AI being everywhere these days, that's also the
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  case for the products
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  and the, functionalities
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  being offered to our operational leaders. So one
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  of the responsibilities
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  that, we,
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  perform here in our organization
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  is making sure that we are able to
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  provide a governance framework to our operational leaders,
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  so that they can select the right product
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  for, improving their day to day lives.
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  We, at at the same time,
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  wanna make sure that we are being very
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  cautious and diligent in making use of, our
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  resources,
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  and not
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  having too many wasted trials. One of the
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  things that being a state funded organization, we
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  wanna be very careful about is even if
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  there is a delayed value in some cases,
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  a delayed value is better than, wasted dollars
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  or wasted efforts. So I think that's something
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  that we are very cognizant about. We also
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  wanna make sure that, we are trying to
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  improve the overall ecosystem of our organization.
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  So we wanna make sure that we are
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  an epic shop. We wanna make sure that
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  we are trying to stay true to our
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  main EMR as much as possible. So if
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  there are competing products,
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  that are out there, but if epic has
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  something similar functionality,
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  we will try to lean towards epic. So
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  the bar for other products
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  that offer a similar functionality is generally higher,
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  so that they are not able to clutter,
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  our landscape. So that's one of the things
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  that we wanna make sure we help our
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  operational leaders select
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  the right products, then we also help them
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  go through the change management. We wanna make
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  sure that it's not something that we just
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  buy a product and then, let the team
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  start using it. The entire,
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  process of selecting and then implementing a product
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  with the right change management approach is very
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  critical. User adoption is very important for us.
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  We have all seen, not just through AI,
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  but prior technology products as well, there have
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  been a huge history or a long history
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  of all those
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  great technical products that were bought,
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  but were not successful because the user adoption
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  wasn't high. So I think that's what we
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  are very careful about making sure selecting the
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  right product and implementing them in the right
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  way so that we get the high user
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  adoption and a high ROI.
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  And how are you seeing recent legislation both
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  state and federal affect health care organizations
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  and health care IT specifically, and have you
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  adjusted strategies in response?
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  Yes. We have. So as we all know,
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  regulations are still catching up with what's going
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  on,
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  in the field of AI. AI is moving
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  just way too fast,
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  and state level and federal level regulations are
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  still catching up in terms of where we
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  want to be.
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  Again, as a state funded organization, we wanna
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  make sure that we are flexible and nimble,
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  but at the same time,
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  we are very cautious. So we may or
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  may not be at the cutting edge of
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  early adoption,
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  but we wanna make sure that the products
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  that we select,
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  follow the right compliance and the right guidelines,
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  in terms of any rules and regulations.
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  We follow we work very closely with our
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  regulatory and compliance agencies inside and outside our
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  organization,
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  and make sure all of our products that
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  we select, and the technologies we adopt,
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  follow the right criteria. For example,
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  some of the products out there are more
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  of a black box AI. We don't know
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  what models go inside them. We wanna make
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  sure that, the products that we select do
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  have,
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  diverse representation of our population demographics.
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  Also, we wanna make sure ethics,
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  and,
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  equity,
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  are taken care of in the product selection
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  that we have. So that's something,
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  digital access is one key,
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  area of focus for our demographic population. So
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  we we focus a lot on ensuring that
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  the products and the technologies that we select
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  and offer,
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  represent our entire demographics.
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  And then as we wrap up our conversation,
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  what is your top piece of advice for
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  health care leaders as they prepare for further
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  advancements in technology and rising demands for care?
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  I think the top piece of advice for
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  our operational leaders as well as rest of
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  our technology team is AI is not plug
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  and play. There is no solution or a
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  product out there that will work in vacuum
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  unless we have the entire foundation
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  and the infrastructure that supports it,
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  and provides the right foundation for it to
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  deliver. We cannot take a sensor from Tesla
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  and put it on a Chevy and just
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  start expecting it to deliver the same value.
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  So, and until the entire ecosystem is,
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  built and developed the right way,
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  the solution, the benefits, and the offerings will
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  not be available. So I think that's the
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  big picture,
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  of getting the right product and the right
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  technology.
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  For the right reasons, it needs to fit
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  in our organizational strategy,
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  and then deliver the value that we are
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  looking for.
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  Wonderful. Well, Sandeep, thanks so much for joining
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  me today on the Becker's Healthcare podcast and
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  sharing these insights. Again, we are recording live
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  at the tenth annual health IT, digital health,
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  and RCM meeting. Okay. Thank you, Grace. Appreciate
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  that.