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Permanente Sees Health Care Shifting From Hospital To Home · Bloomberg Intelligence

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bloomberg p m L Podcast. I'm Pim Fox.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Along with my co host Lisa Abramowitz. Each day we
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: bring you the most important, noteworthy, and useful interviews for
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  Speaker 1: you and your money, whether you're at the grocery store
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  Speaker 1: or the trading floor. Find the Bloomberg p m L
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  Speaker 1: Podcast on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, and Bloomberg dot com. We
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: are broadcasting from Bloomberg's Government Next eighteen conference in Washington,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: d C. I'm Pim Fox. My co host and colleague
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Lisa Abramowitz is off today. The healthcare industry and technology
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: where they meet is one of the expertise of Dr
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  Speaker 1: Pat Connelly. She joins me now as executive vice president
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  Speaker 1: of Information Technology and the chief Information Officer of the
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Permanente Federation. She's also associate executive director of the Permanente
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  Speaker 1: Medical Group. They are based in Oakland, but I'm happy
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: to say she joins me here at our Bloomberg Government
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Next eighteen conference. Thank you very much for being here.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: Dr Connolly tell people who may not be familiar with
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  Speaker 1: the Permanent A Foundation what it is and what it does. Well, Piam,
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: thank you for having me um the PERMANENTI Federation is
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  Speaker 1: actually the organization that links the eight PERMANENTI medical groups
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  Speaker 1: in Kaiser Permanente UM and we bring together the expertise
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  Speaker 1: of our physician leadership partnered with our Kaiser Foundation health
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: plan leaders UM and it's it's an integrated model in
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  Speaker 1: which our expertise with respective care delivery UM is really
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  Speaker 1: a guiding force in how we design our systems to
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  Speaker 1: deliver care to the twelve million members that we serve. Now,
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  Speaker 1: as part of that, you're using technology. You're going to
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  Speaker 1: be using more of it in the future as our
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  Speaker 1: all healthcare providers offer us a current exam ample about
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  Speaker 1: how you are using algorithms to in a sense for
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  Speaker 1: tell the potential for patients to have some kind of
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  Speaker 1: deterioration in their condition, but to do it remotely UM. Well,
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  Speaker 1: as you know, we we have a tradition of innovation
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  Speaker 1: UH and UH Permanente Medicine looks carefully at evidence based
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  Speaker 1: UH information to help us determine where we can offer
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  Speaker 1: improvements in quality UM and with the implementation of the
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  Speaker 1: e m R, we suddenly have this huge volume of
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  Speaker 1: data that we can look at very differently UH and
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  Speaker 1: and that's where you bring together the technology of high
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  Speaker 1: UM robust analytics with large volumes of data. So we've
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  Speaker 1: developed some systems, one of which we call Advanced Alert
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  Speaker 1: Monitoring UM, and this has been published by Gabriel Escobar,
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  Speaker 1: who is a UH Permanente Medical Group physician. And what
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  Speaker 1: this does is leverage information in the e m R
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  Speaker 1: with an algorithm to identify patients who are at risk
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  Speaker 1: when they're hospitalized UM, at risk for a deterioration, and
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  Speaker 1: we fire an alert to the care team UM so
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  Speaker 1: that they can assess the patient and intervene early UM
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  Speaker 1: to avoid that deterioration. UH. And we've been doing this
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  Speaker 1: now for UM almost two years and have accumulated enough
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  Speaker 1: evidence to demonstrate that this makes a difference, that this
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  Speaker 1: is improving the care of our patients. And and with
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  Speaker 1: that information then we UM integrate this algorithm and this
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  Speaker 1: UM functionality into our system very broadly. Now, you're also
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  Speaker 1: looking at the Internet of Things IoT as a way
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  Speaker 1: to connect more directly with patients. For example, you can
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  Speaker 1: have in home monitoring devices for people that are dealing
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  Speaker 1: with diabetes. For example, tell us some of the things
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  Speaker 1: that you see that are maybe if unless you're involved
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  Speaker 1: in it, you think this is like science fiction, but
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  Speaker 1: it's true to life. Well, you're right, at the pace
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  Speaker 1: of technology change is outstripping in many ways our ability
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  Speaker 1: to think about how um how much change this can
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  Speaker 1: UM create for us. If you take the hospital for example,
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  Speaker 1: the connection of devices medical devices to the e m
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  Speaker 1: r UM allows us to get rid of manual entry,
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  Speaker 1: which is one of those big patient safety issues where
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  Speaker 1: you know mistakes can be made. UM. Now that information
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  Speaker 1: is directly imported, but it's also immediately available, so you
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  Speaker 1: can see how this can speed and improve the care
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  Speaker 1: that we're delivering. Now you refer to an outpatient setting,
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  Speaker 1: which is actually where we think the Internet of Things
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  Speaker 1: really is taking us. So for the last fifty years
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  Speaker 1: we've been telling people to come to us. We've created centers.
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  Speaker 1: Our offices are hospitals where we concentrate equipment and expertise
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  Speaker 1: to deliver care. The Internet of Things allows us to
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  Speaker 1: bring care to the patient a whole different paradigm where
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  Speaker 1: not only do UM are they in the security and
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  Speaker 1: safety of their home a much more comfortable environment, UM,
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  Speaker 1: but we're not interrupting work or school, And the real
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  Speaker 1: difference is they're not passive in this process. That information
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  Speaker 1: is available to the patient and to their caregivers. They
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  Speaker 1: become part of the care team. And that's really the
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  Speaker 1: game changer there, UM, because if we look particularly at
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  Speaker 1: health and how much of disease burden is related to
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  Speaker 1: choices that we all make in our lives, and we
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  Speaker 1: begin to share with our patients how those choices are
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  Speaker 1: impacting their care and show them how their care is progressing,
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  Speaker 1: their role in improving their health is going to change.
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  Speaker 1: Can you see a time when a device such as
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  Speaker 1: an Apple Watch, just as an example, takes various types
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  Speaker 1: of biometric information and then is able to transmit that
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  Speaker 1: directly to a file of some kind that would allow
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  Speaker 1: a physician or healthcare provider to gather a more holistic
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  Speaker 1: picture of the patient, not just a snapshot. Right, well,
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  Speaker 1: I think that's the direction that we're going right now.
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  Speaker 1: Devices um, you know, such as glucometers, provide that information
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  Speaker 1: and UM and it can be brought forward in a
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  Speaker 1: way that you see all this data which would be
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  Speaker 1: overwhelming to a care provider. Again, the power of analytics,
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  Speaker 1: one can configure that data so that what the clinician
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  Speaker 1: sees is an alert that something has met a threshold
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  Speaker 1: UM or a trend on what you're talking about is
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  Speaker 1: going from beyond a single measurement to a more holistic picture.
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  Speaker 1: And you know, from a technical standpoint, absolutely that's a
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  Speaker 1: possibility where we need to take a step back. Is
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  Speaker 1: we need to then ask our patients how they feel
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  Speaker 1: about that? UM? How you know this whole issue about
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  Speaker 1: privacy my data, UM, this is me. How much do
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  Speaker 1: I want you to have? UM? And how secure can
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  Speaker 1: we keep it? So? UM, I think is this evolves,
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  Speaker 1: there's going to be a lot of conversation that's going
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  Speaker 1: to need to involve patients as well as clinicians, UM,
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  Speaker 1: about how far we take this and how we use
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  Speaker 1: this information A seconds, what is the feeling among docters?
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  Speaker 1: Are they embracing this UM broadly? Doctors think that this
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  Speaker 1: is a new future and very much so. The fear
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  Speaker 1: which you've probably heard is that idea of this huge
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  Speaker 1: amount of data in which very important information could be lost,
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  Speaker 1: So the technology to configure it is critical to physicians.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you very much for being with us. Much appreciated.
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  Speaker 1: Dr Pat Connelly, Executive vice president Information Technology, Chief Information
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  Speaker 1: Officer of the Permanente Federation and also Associate executive director
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  Speaker 1: of the Permanente Medical Group coming up with Peter Barnes.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: We've got Bloomberg Politics, policy, power and law. Thanks for listening.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: We've got Day two coming up of the Bloomberg Government
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  Speaker 1: Next Conference in Washington, d C. The world's largest retailer
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  Speaker 1: and foot traffic as well as same stores sales when
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: it comes to the holiday shopping season. Here to tell
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  Speaker 1: us more about Walmart earnings and a new partnership, as
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  Speaker 1: well as the effect of their acquisition of flip Card
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: in India is Matt Boyle, consumer reporter for Bloomberg, joining
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: us from our Bloomberg Interactive Broker's studio. Matt tell us
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  Speaker 1: about Walmart and what investors really wanted to hear when
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  Speaker 1: it comes to all of those quarterly result Well, they
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: probably don't want to hear about the news actually that
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  Speaker 1: hit the drama surrounding their Indian e commerce unit whose
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  Speaker 1: co founder was ousted or forced to resign actually um
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  Speaker 1: after some allegations of sexual assault. Investors really want to
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  Speaker 1: hear about the US business and are they keeping up
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  Speaker 1: the momentum that they've had last quarter their second quarter
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  Speaker 1: they post the best sales growth in UH in over
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  Speaker 1: a decade. UM but for every quarter that Walmart does well, Um,
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  Speaker 1: it's getting harder and harder for them to top that.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, so they're going up against a pretty strong
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  Speaker 1: UH sales growth figure last year this time, so all
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  Speaker 1: eyes are going to be on them, and then not
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  Speaker 1: just their sales, but it's their bottom line that's been
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  Speaker 1: really a sore point for some investors. People are happy
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  Speaker 1: with the sales growth, but at what cost is it
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  Speaker 1: coming if their margins have really been hurt by all
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  Speaker 1: the investments they're making. A broad flip card is an example.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: They spent sixteen billion there and then also the investments
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: in the US to battle Amazon. Well, talk a little
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  Speaker 1: bit more about those efforts in their battle with Amazon.
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  Speaker 1: I believe that they have opened an artificial what they're
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  Speaker 1: calling an artificial intelligence kiosk or area at one Walmart
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  Speaker 1: in Levittown, New York. Yeah, they're trying to do they're well,
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  Speaker 1: they're they're trying to make shopping easier, and they're testing
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  Speaker 1: all sorts of different things. You know, Amazon and Google
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  Speaker 1: aren't the only companies that can try to test things
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  Speaker 1: and see if they could fail fast. Walmart is, you know,
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  Speaker 1: investing billions and figuring out you know, how can we
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  Speaker 1: make it easier for customers to get goods, particularly groceries, uh,
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  Speaker 1: you know, into their hands. So they they're doing some
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  Speaker 1: small tests also in Texas. They've got a lab going
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  Speaker 1: on in Austin. So they're what they're doing is they're
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  Speaker 1: rapidly hiring technology experts, data scientists, throwing them out all
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  Speaker 1: these problems, saying, Okay, you know, we built the most
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  Speaker 1: profitable retail concept known to man, called the supercenter. But
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  Speaker 1: a supercenter is not how most people really want to
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  Speaker 1: shop and not how they're going to be shopping in
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  Speaker 1: the years ahead. So Walmart really wants to be seen
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  Speaker 1: as a technology company. Um, it's not the first thing
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  Speaker 1: you think about, of course, but that's why they're doing
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  Speaker 1: all these deals and partnerships. They've got partnerships with Google,
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  Speaker 1: They've got partnerships, you know, with the Japanese company Recut,
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  Speaker 1: and they're they're all over the board with these partnerships,
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  Speaker 1: thinking that, you know, the enemy of my enemy is
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  Speaker 1: my friend, that being of course Amazon, and so they're
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  Speaker 1: using this to get smarter. And today's partnership, of course
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  Speaker 1: with Ford is yet another example of that. Well you've
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  Speaker 1: done the segue for me, Matt, go ahead, tell everybody
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  Speaker 1: about how maybe you're gonna get into an automobile. It
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  Speaker 1: will be driverless or autonomous, whatever you want to describe it,
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  Speaker 1: and maybe there'll be a button that you're just pushing
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  Speaker 1: it will take you to Walmart. Well, yeah, there's two
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  Speaker 1: elements of this. One is what they already had announced
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  Speaker 1: earlier this year with Weymo, which is where yet a driver,
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  Speaker 1: this car would actually transport you to the Walmart. Um.
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  Speaker 1: I'm not sure if how I feel about that at
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  Speaker 1: the moment, but what's been announced today with Ford is
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  Speaker 1: autonomous card deliveries. Um, where the uh, the car would
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  Speaker 1: come right up to your curbside to your house. Now,
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  Speaker 1: there would be a driver in it. It would look autonomous.
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  Speaker 1: It would give the appearance that there's nobody there, but
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  Speaker 1: there actually would be a human in the car, but
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  Speaker 1: using voice prompts and commands, uh, the person would come
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  Speaker 1: out of their house, pop the trunk, get their groceries,
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  Speaker 1: tell the car in some fashion that the you know,
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  Speaker 1: the delivery is done, and it would go on its way.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, walmartist is experimenting with all sorts of different
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  Speaker 1: ways to get online orders to its customers. They've even
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  Speaker 1: tried having their own employees deliver orders on their way
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  Speaker 1: home from work. I can just see now an automated
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  Speaker 1: sling shot that just throws your entire grocery order through
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  Speaker 1: the window of the automobile that lands precisely on your
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  Speaker 1: doorstep as the old wet newspaper used to do. This.
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  Speaker 1: Is any have they costed out, like what advantage this
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  Speaker 1: would give them beating Amazon? Or is this just throw
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  Speaker 1: a lot sticks? They're not. Yeah, it's it's let's see
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  Speaker 1: what sticks. What is really most economical for Walmart is
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  Speaker 1: for you to still get in your car and go
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  Speaker 1: to Walmart. Um. They're trying to make that easier, of
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  Speaker 1: course by having curbside pick up, where you will just
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  Speaker 1: drive up to the parking lot and a nice, friendly
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  Speaker 1: person will come out and put the your grocery order
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  Speaker 1: in your trunk. But this is Walmart's big advantage against
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  Speaker 1: Amazon right now. I don't mean delivery. I'm talking about
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  Speaker 1: their food business that they need to keep their lead
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  Speaker 1: in the US foods sector. Um, they have over market
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  Speaker 1: share in the US grocery business. This is nearly a
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  Speaker 1: one trillion dollar market and it's one that Amazon, for
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  Speaker 1: all its prowess and for all it's smarts still has
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  Speaker 1: not really figured out. And that's of course why they
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  Speaker 1: know why they bought Whole Foods last year in an
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  Speaker 1: attempt to get serious about food. But Walmart needs to
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  Speaker 1: know they need to keep your weekly grocery shop. It's reliable,
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  Speaker 1: it's profitable, and so they're coming up with just about
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  Speaker 1: any way they can do it, and that includes you know,
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  Speaker 1: a car driver, this car coming to your house to
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: drop off your avocados. I'm waiting for Matt Boyle to
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: drop off my avocados. Matt Boyle, consumer reporter for Bloomberg.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us in our Bloomberg Interactive Broker
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: studios talking about Walmart shares are down about one broadcasting
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: live from Bloomberg's Government Next conference in Washington, d C.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: And we've heard a lot about connected cities, and here
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: to help us understand what that term means and what
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: it can do for the lives of citizens in those
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: cities is Ben Levine. He is the executive director of
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: Metro Lab Network. This is a national network of forty
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: cities and fifty universities, and he's here to tell us more. Ben,
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: thank you very much for being with us. What is
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: metro lab network. Well, first of all, PIM, thank you
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: for having me. Metro Lab is a collaborative of cities
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: and universities and the goal is to take academic research
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: that is happening in universities and figure out a way
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: of translating that to to the local government policy process,
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: to think about how new knowledge that's created, whether it's
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: related to data science or engineering or social science, how
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: that can have a positive impact on the lives of
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: residents of cities and communities. What would be an example
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: of such an application is that things like cameras that
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: are then linked to databases. What would be an example,
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: So you brought up cameras, I'll give you an example.
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: The University of Texas at Austin is working on a
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: video analytics approach that uses computer vision and machine learning
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: to understand how humans are moving around their cities and ultimately,
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: and you can think about that as you know, someone
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: crosses the street with a stroller or on a bicycle
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: or in a car, and a computer is able to
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: understand the characteristics of that person's maybe their age, because
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: maybe they're walking uh with a with a particular characteristic
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: that would define someone's older, or maybe someone's walking with
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: a stroller, maybe a car is driving in a manner
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: that's unsafe or getting into a near collision. A computer
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: can understand how those how those dynamics are playing out,
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: and can can ultimately funnel back into a policy making process,
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: because now the city understands how to make urban planning
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: decisions that can create safer streets for everybody. You have
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: a background, You've advised the Department of the Treasury. You've
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: also had a background working in finance with Morgan Stanley,
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: where you're interacted with a lot of state and municipal governments.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: What have you found in terms of the level of
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: technology that currently exists in many cities. Well, I think,
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: like the entire economy, I think the world is becoming
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: more technology and data oriented. I think that it's probably
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: true that maybe cities lag the leading engineering or leading
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: companies in the world just because they aren't able to
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: hire the UH either because of salaries or because of workforce,
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: or because of the way they're resourced and budgets. I
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: think that they're not able to necessarily look like UH
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: in Amazon's say. But that's where metro lab comes in, right,
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: that's where that's where I think we're trying to make
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: a difference. I think that there is not a perfect
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: solution to taking local governments and turning them into uh
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: into entities that are that are running on sort of
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: the absolute latest technology on a dime. I think that,
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: And and by the way, I think there's good reason
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: for that. I think that that as as governments we
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: should be skeptical of technology. We should be careful not
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: to adopt uh certain video analytics approaches that may introduce
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: questions about civil rights or may introduce questions about privacy.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: I think that there's actually an obligation for for governments
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: to be more measured in the way that they approach
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: these technologies. But we do need to figure out a
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: way of embracing what's out there and and and trying
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: to aim that at at the goals that that governments have. Now.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: Of course, we have been reporting, along with many other
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: news organizations about the wild fires that are hitting and
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: are really taxing the strength of California's fired preparedness and
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: causing great devastation. Metro Lab can help to figure out
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: how to prevent or at least mitigate those kinds of things.
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: In a certain way. Right, So I'll give an example
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: of a project that I think you're referring to that
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: UM that was done in partnership between UCSD, University of California,
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: San Diego, and San Diego County. And there's a project
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: that originally started as sort of bringing connectivity, so bringing uh,
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: the ability for rural broadband or sorry, rural fire stations
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: to communicate with broadband technology, and and that approach is
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: actually being used now to do video analytics to understand
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: how fires are are starting, when they're starting and respond
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: more quickly. Now, it's not a panacea. If I knew
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: the answer of how to address the issue, I wouldn't
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: be here with you today. I'd be over there helping
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: address the issue. And but I do think there's an
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: opportunity for researchers, as they've done it, you see SC
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: to sit down with with local authorities who are in
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: state authorities who are working on addressing a life threatening
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: issue and and and really figure out what's out there.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: Because if we don't, if we don't embrace that tool,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure what what other options we have. If
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: you are a state or local official listening to this
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: and hearing about metro lab. What do you want them
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: to take away if they're not already experiencing this kind
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: of benefit from technology. Yeah, I think that a couple
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: of lessons. I think one is, uh, think about how
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: you can use your data as a strategic asset. I
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: think there's a lot of uh. There's a sexy term
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: smart cities out there, and you'll hear a lot of
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: excitement about this idea of smart cities. I think at
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: the end of the day, smart cities is about integrating
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: data in responsible ways that can bring together that that
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: can bring together agencies, bring together public policy processes that
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: allow governments to make more informed decisions about about their activities.
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: See and I thought you were going to say, just
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: send Ben Levine an email at metro Lab Network in Washington,
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: d C. That is that is another approach. You can
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: visit www dot metro leb network dot org and get
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: in touch with us. Thanks very much, Ben Levine. He
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: is the executive director of metro Lab Network in Washington,
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: D C. We're broadcasting live from Bloomberg Government's Next eighteen
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: conference at the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains. Lies one
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: particular location, Buck Hannan, West Virginia. Joining me now is
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: Rob Hinton. He is the chairman of the West Virginia
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: Broadband Council, but he's also the executive director of the
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: Upshurk County Development Authority in buck Hannan, West Virginia, and
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: he joins me now. Rob Hinton, thank you very much
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: for being here. Thank you tell people a little bit
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: about your background and the work that you have done
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: to add to the economy of your local region. It's
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: not just something right now having to do with broadband,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: although that's it, but you've done a lot for your area. Right.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: So the my background is I used to be an
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: entrepreneur um. And what I mean I used to be
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: entrepreneur is that I was in the private sector, right. Um.
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: So as a casualty of the two thousand and eight
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: financial crisis and uh ended up in Buchanan, West Virginia.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: I met my wife, we decided to stay there, um
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: and decided to create some change. And so, taking the
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: entrepreneurial attitude that that I haven't grained, um, we said,
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: you know, look, let's uh let's see how we can
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: expand the opportunities here. Uh. One thing we lacked was connectivity,
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: so we had to improve broadband connectivity. We UH UH
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: enticed the company to come there and then run fiber
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: to become a gig city. We also we have a
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: large county, so we had to expand wireless broadband to
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: connect the entire county. We also needed to leverage the
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: assets at our at our local university UH Business Department,
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: UH the entrepreneur expansion of entrepreneurial curriculum them. We're constructing
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: an innovation center that will mimic a very small scales
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: type of innovation center that mimics the Cambridge Innovation Center
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: that UH started up in Boston and m I T
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: S Campus UM. So we're we're trying to create UH.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: We're trying to keep up the pace with the changing
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: technology and the changing changing ways of how employment takes place.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: You also seem extremely good at raising money, because I'm
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: just looking through some of your accomplishments. Here. Three million
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: dollars raised from the U s D A Rural Utilities
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: Service Community connect funds, UH, more money raised from power grants,
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: opportunity zones you have to put together. I want you
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: to talk about the mix of opportunities that you have
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: to put together in order to make something happen well,
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: the assets of the area, so the incumbent assets that
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: that each area has will define what you're able to
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: do and what your ability is to do. And then
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: you have then you have to define projects. You have
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: to identify what kind of project will enhance this area,
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: what kind of projects will entice companies to locate there,
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: what kind of projects will UH spur economic development and
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: be a catalyst for private UH investment. Once you have
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: the projects, UH, then you can go out and start
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: identifying where the funding is. UH. In the private sector,
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: you have a lot of different options to go after funding, right,
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: you have banks, you have a capital equity UM, angel investors,
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: what have you on the In the public sector, UM,
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: it's very defined, UM and it is very rigorous UH
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: to go after capital in the public sector. From a
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: standpoint of our U s H that was a seven
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: hundred page proposal that we put together for U s
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: d A in order to expand Broadman over a thousand
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: square miles UM. OUR power funding was about two d
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: fifty page application to UH receive the largest share of
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: pro or power funding too to a small community. UM.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: You know our A m l our a m L
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: was the largest UH largest amount that we raised was
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: about sixteen million, and what that is is abandoned mineland
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: money so used for economic development. In this pilot case
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: that was actually the shortest application was just about fifty pages. So, um,
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: I mean just putting all that stuff together, I mean,
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: it's it's it's it's what you have to do if
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: you want to achieve the funding, if you want to
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: go out to the funding, you have to make the
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: commitment to do that. Based on your experience, can you
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: compare or even offer up some of the things that
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: you have learned working in the public sector now compared
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: to the private sector. You just mentioned the size of
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: the applications, that must have been a big change. Are
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: there are other things that you have learned so that
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: people can become educated about this process. Um, you know,
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: A big thing to leveraging federal funds and bringing them
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: into rural, unser underserved communities is developing relationships with the
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: agencies that have the funding. Um, you know, the actual people, right, correct? Correct?
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: So the the actual agencies. Agencies usually have reps in
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: each state, and they usually have a delegate in in
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: in in the federal UH in d c UM. So
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: working with your federal delegation, senators, Congress representatives, UM, you
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: can achieve the relationship UM you speak about your project.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: Never submit. One of the things I learned is do
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: not submit an application or proposal blind. Make sure the
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: agency is aware of the project that you have in mind. UH.
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: Get buy in or consensus that this is a good project.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: Because at the same time, those agencies want to invest
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: in projects, and so they have to be sold on
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: the project. And this gives you an opportunity to kind
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: of vet it a little bit and see what kind
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: of a response you'll get from the agencies and did
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: they then have to go and sell it to someone
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: else as well, because it's probably some committee or some
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: group that has to weigh in on this. Right. For instance,
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: if you look at U, S E. D A money UM,
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: you have a state rep UM. They're kind of the
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: the initial layer of vetting UM whether they like it
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: or not. UH. They're going to have to approve or
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: disapprove of the of the project before they can submit
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: it to their committee that represents usually six or seven
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: states collectively. They look and review those applications Gradham score
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: m UH and then decide on on what projects get
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: funded where. Tell us more in detail about Buckhannon and
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: what kinds of things you'd like to see develop in
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: the future. Sure, So, Boccan is a very unique area.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: We're just south of the the FBI Biometric Center in
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: in Bridgeport and Clarksburgh. However, we're a rural area of
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: the city's about six thousand people, counties about twenty five thousand.
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: Uh We do have a small university there, West Vinia Wesleyan.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: We also have a hospital as well, So I mean
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: we have medical and educational. One of the things that
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: we want to create is a hub for entrepreneurial activity.
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: Uh So. We have undred and ruled students at Westernia
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: Wesleyan UM. The best potential workforce, right, but the best
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: time to start a company is, you know, in your
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: early twenties. Uh So, it's a it's about getting these
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: individuals not only at the college level, but us at
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: the K through eighth grade through twelfth grade level, getting
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: them exposed to the the idea that they can be
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: an entrepreneur. So we're putting together programs and computer science, UM, coding, robotics,
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: things like that we're gonna have workshops and seminars that
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: we're gonna be exposing these individuals to these skills, these trades. Uh,
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: maybe they create a business at the end, they may
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: be able to be more marketable in a telework type environment.
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: And just quickly, if there are other local or municipal
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: entities that are hearing you and hearing your story, how
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: do they connect with you to learn from your experience?
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: Can they get in touch with you directly? Sure? Um,
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: I'm sure that. Uh, I don't know if I want
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: to give my phone No, no, no, I wouldn't, But
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: I mean, in other words, they can contact your organizations
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: can contact they can kind of walk you can say
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: this was our experience. Broadband dot West Virginia dot gov
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: is is our our council website. My contact information is
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: on there. Um, you know, feel free to contact me
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: if you if you'd like to chat. All right, well done,
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: and um, what's next for you? Where? Where? Give you
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: ten seconds? What what next? Raising money for? Right now?
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: We're carrying out the projects that we did raise, spending
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: the money. We're spending the money. You know, the hardest
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: thing about it is execution. So we want to perfect execution.
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: Thanks very much for being graded execution Here Rob Hinton.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: He is the chairman of the West Virginia Broadband Council,
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: also executive director of the Upshur County Development Authority in Buckhannon,
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: West Virginia. We're broadcasting from Bloomberg's Government Next conference in Washington,
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: d C. Thanks for listening to the Bloomberg P and
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: L podcast. You can subscribe and listen to interviews at
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, or whatever podcast platform you prefer. I'm
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: pim Fox. I'm on Twitter at pim Fox. I'm on
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: Twitter at Lisa abramowits one before the podcast. You can
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: always catch us worldwide on Bloomberg Radio.