Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT / Dr. Richard Zane, Chief Innovation Officer at UCHealth

Transcript

Dr. Richard Zane, Chief Innovation Officer at UCHealth · Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT

• 0:01
  The Becker's team is excited to announce the
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  Tune in for conversations with finance experts from
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  This is Laura Dierdahl with the Becker's Healthcare
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  podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by
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  doctor Richard Zane, chief innovation officer at UCHealth.
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  Doctor Zane, it's a pleasure to have you
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  on the podcast today.
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  Thrilled to be here. Thank you for having
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  me. Absolutely. Now I'm excited to dig into
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  some of the cool things that you're doing
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  at UCHealth. I know really on the forefront
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  of a lot going on with AI and
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  and more. But before we dive into that,
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  can you tell us a bit more about
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  UCHealth and what makes it unique?
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  Yeah. I'd love to. UCHealth is a relatively
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  new system in Colorado having been formed in
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  02/2012.
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  We are 14 hospitals, approximately 9,000,000,000
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  or so in revenue. And despite being a
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  relatively new system,
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  we are the dominant health care provider in
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  Colorado.
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  Lots of unique things about UCHealth.
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  One, first and foremost,
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  we are an operating company, which means
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  that we exist for our patients. We believe
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  that
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  we believe in patient centricity.
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  We use data to inform decisions,
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  and we
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  fundamentally
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  say that we exist for Coloradans.
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  Also, fun fact,
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  unlike a lot of other health care systems,
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  over our 14 hospitals,
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  six are from the ground up built in
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  the last twelve years. So pretty unique, and
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  it matches the growth
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  and, frankly, the excitement of the state of
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  Colorado.
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  Absolutely. That's amazing to hear, you know, and
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  really a lot of expansion as you mentioned
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  in the last few years. And so it'll
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  be,
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  really, really interesting to hear your perspective on,
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  some of the things that, you know, you've
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  done in the last year or so. Is
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  there an accomplishment you can share with us
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  that you're most proud of?
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  You know, that's a hard question because there
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  are so many,
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  that I'm proud of. But
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  we like to say that our innovation strategy
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  is our IT strategy,
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  is our quality strategy, is our virtual health
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  strategy.
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  So with that,
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  one of the things that we have done
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  is
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  substantively
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  reduce mortality
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  across our whole health care system,
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  specifically from sepsis. And then in general,
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  using a central
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  disciplined approach to sepsis and to deterioration.
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  What we do is from a central location,
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  a nondescript building
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  that's about three miles from where I am,
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  there are four fifty people
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  that look at delivering
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  virtual care across the spectrum,
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  whether
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  that's virtual critical care, virtual primary care, virtual
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  urgent care, virtual nursing,
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  sepsis and deterioration,
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  completely centralized telemetry and capnography,
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  virtual
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  admission nurses and discharge nurses, urgent care.
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  We look at fall prevention,
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  centralized respiratory therapy,
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  wound care,
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  really across the spectrum.
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  So what we're able to do is to
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  monitor patients
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  who are at risk for sepsis
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  and think about how we have deployed
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  AI and prescriptive analytics to identify them
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  and then intervene sooner. So we will centrally
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  order the bundle for sepsis,
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  order CBCs,
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  order lactate, initiate fluid resuscitation,
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  initiate antibiotics,
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  and really get
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  time dependent therapy to people with high consequence
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  time dependent disease.
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  And now we're doing that for deterioration writ
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  large. So patients who are in the hospital
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  where,
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  they would not or do not manifest
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  symptoms of deterioration but recognize it earlier. So
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  preventing escalations in care,
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  preventing unexpected operations,
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  and getting patients home faster.
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  That's amazing to hear, you know, and really,
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  an important mission, as you said, not only
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  for the patient care, but for
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  the organization as a whole. And, you know,
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  when you make this, change, I can imagine
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  some of it's technology, some of it's the
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  innovation, as you mentioned, and the people,
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  that are part of these types of projects.
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  How do you make sure that it's successful
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  and really have everybody
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  in a position where they can innovate but
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  do it in a meaningful way?
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  The most important thing is identifying what the
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  problem is that we're trying to solve.
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  So the most important innovations
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  come from the frontline, the people doing the
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  work, whether it's
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  choosing pharmacotherapy at the bedside,
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  whether it's thinking about how to better
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  organize operating rooms and infusion centers,
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  whether it's thinking about how best to deploy
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  capital. The problem statements
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  must come from the people doing the actual
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  work. And then it's thinking about what the
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  guiding principles
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  are about how you rationally
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  use and deploy technology.
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  So one of the things that's
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  crucially important
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  is that health care cannot be the last
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  bastion of industry
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  where deploying technology
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  increases cost and complexity. So that's guiding principle
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  number one. The next guiding principle is
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  deploying technology has to make your life easier,
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  not harder,
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  has to be fewer clicks and not more
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  clicks, and has to be bulletproof right.
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  So
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  that's pretty simplistic, but hard to adhere to
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  guiding principles.
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  We think about workflows.
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  We think about how we integrate into what
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  people are doing to make their job better
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  and to make our patients' lives easier.
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  That's helpful to know. Thank you so much,
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  doctor Zane. Now I'm wondering too, when you
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  look into the future, where do you see
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  some of the big growth opportunities
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  for your team in the next twelve months
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  or so?
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  So where we are focusing in the next
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  twelve months is
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  deploying
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  AI however you describe AI, and you're not
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  gonna see in a single
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  strategy from a health care system that doesn't
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  include the term AI. And whether it's machine
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  learning, prescriptive analytics, computational linguistics, national,
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  natural language processing,
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  generative AI, whatever it is. We want to
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  apply it to the routine and the and
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  the mundane.
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  So we want humans working to the top
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  of their scope, and we want
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  whether it's a line of code or a
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  bot to work to the top of their
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  scope. So we are
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  laser focused on making the routine and the
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  mundane
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  easier,
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  simpler, more efficient,
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  cheaper, and better.
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  That's fascinating to hear. And AI is simply,
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  I know, something that's transforming health care across
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  the board and, in almost everything, it seems
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  like that new technologies and applications that are
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  coming up. So I can imagine it's critical,
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  for the entire organization
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  to have an understanding of what they can
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  do with AI and how to use it
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  safely.
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  Exactly. And it's very important to understand that,
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  you know, AI is not magical.
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  Right? It's just math.
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  And
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  there's a lot of constraints within AI, and
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  it can be scary or it can be
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  exciting. And we are right at the peak
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  of the Gartner hype cycle on AI, but
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  we have to be rational and patient on
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  how we deploy it and what we use
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  it for. And I think at the end
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  of the day, it's gonna make things better
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  for our patients,
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  and for society, but we have to be
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  patient and rational.
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  Absolutely. I can imagine sometimes easier said than
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  done, but but definitely important.
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  Now when you look ahead to I'm wondering
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  what are some of the big challenges that
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  you're anticipating and preparing for?
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  So the biggest challenges right now
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  are financial and regulatory,
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  full stop.
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  The financial pressures on health care right now,
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  very fond of saying, not in a nice
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  way, that it's white knuckle time in health
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  care.
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  We are all gonna have to make really
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  difficult decisions
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  and set priorities in an unapologetic
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  way,
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  and it's all gonna be about execution.
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  The three c's of
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  innovation or health care is that,
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  compassion without competence is crap, which means that
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  we are gonna have to execute flawlessly to
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  sort of stay in the game.
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  The other part that's really difficult is that
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  we have
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  an unsustainable
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  regulatory burden.
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  The number of people
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  and the amount of time that we've had
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  to increase in the last five years to
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  meet the regulatory demand
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  is suffocating.
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  So financial pressures, regulatory burden.
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  Absolutely. I I think a lot of leaders
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  across the board would certainly agree with that
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  and are seeing it. You know, a lot
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  of that, those same similar pressures coming through
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  on the financial side needing to figure out
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  how to grow, but but seeing, you know,
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  just those financial pressures and and regulatory,
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  policy changes as being a big challenge. I
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  know from a leadership perspective,
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  what do you have to do differently in
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  times like these these white knuckle times in
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  order to, make sure you get things done
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  correctly,
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  as compared to other times in health care?
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  Simplify.
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  Simplify.
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  Simplify.
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  Eliminate complexity.
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  And that's where
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  adopting technology
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  can
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  help you execute on that goal,
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  or,
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  it can go in the opposite direction.
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  So what I tell everybody that I work
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  with and works for me is that your
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  job is to simplify and eliminate complexity. So
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  if you're gonna present me with a plan
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  that has 19 steps, I'm gonna ask you
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  why it doesn't have three. And then we're
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  gonna figure out how to make it simpler
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  and more adoptable and how execution can be
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  flawless.
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  That's really helpful context. Thank you so much,
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  doctor Zane. Before we wrap up here, I'm
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  wondering, what's the number one thing that you're
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  doing right now in order to set UCHealth
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  up for a long term success?
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  Purpling down on high reliability.
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  Full stop. You know, it's a it's a
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  three hour, three day conversation on what that
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  means.
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  But what it means is that
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  whether you come to the University of Colorado
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  Hospital,
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  which is a quaternary care,
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  large academic health system hospital,
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  or you go to one of our smaller
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  hospitals,
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  you get the same experience and the same
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  high quality care and that everyone who delivers
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  care
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  understands and can articulate what our mission, vision,
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  and values are.
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  Absolutely. Yeah. I I I think that, as
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  you mentioned, just in
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  these days is so important right now and
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  critical and a huge conversation to be had,
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  but really important. Doctor Zane, thank you so
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  much for joining us on the podcast today.
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  This has been a really fascinating conversation, and
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  I look forward to connecting with you again
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  soon.
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  It was my pleasure, and thank you for
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  having me.