Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Why AI Alone Won’t Transform Healthcare
Transcript
- 0:00- This is Scott Becker with the Beckers Healthcare
- 0:03- Podcast.
- 0:04- I'm thrilled today to be joined by one
- 0:06- of my favorite leaders, a brilliant, brilliant leader.
- 0:09- We're joined today by Seema Verma. Seema is
- 0:12- the executive vice president and general manager of
- 0:14- Oracle Health and Life Sciences. She's had a
- 0:17- brilliant career.
- 0:18- We're gonna ask Seema to talk about
- 0:21- what Oracle's focused on now, where they're going,
- 0:24- and a lot more.
- 0:25- Seema, can you take a moment for anybody
- 0:28- that's new to either yourself or to Oracle
- 0:30- Health? Tell us a little bit about yourself
- 0:32- and about Oracle Healthcare.
- 0:34- Sure. Well,
- 0:36- gosh. Talking about yourself is always a a
- 0:38- little bit, awkward. But,
- 0:41- so my, you know, my career journey has
- 0:43- been around spending a lot of time in
- 0:45- in health policy. And,
- 0:47- before coming to
- 0:49- Oracle, I was the administrator for CMS.
- 0:53- And so most, like I said, that that
- 0:55- was sort of the the pinnacle of a
- 0:57- lot of time on policy issues, working with
- 1:00- state governments, working with,
- 1:02- the federal government,
- 1:04- and also, you know, being on the front
- 1:06- lines working at a at a public hospital.
- 1:09- And so all of that I think all
- 1:11- of that experience
- 1:12- was about trying to solve the problems in
- 1:14- health care and then try to do that
- 1:16- at the highest level,
- 1:18- at CMS on a policy level. So, you
- 1:21- know, I'm taking this turn
- 1:23- into the IT world and tech world,
- 1:27- and I'm very hopeful that this is the
- 1:29- place where some of these long standing problems
- 1:32- that we've had in health care can can
- 1:34- get solved in a way that isn't quite
- 1:37- possible,
- 1:38- with government, with policy regulation,
- 1:41- and even with funding.
- 1:43- There are just some things that technology, I
- 1:45- think, is better suited to solve.
- 1:48- Thank you. And talk a little bit about
- 1:50- last year, we had a chance to talk
- 1:52- a lot about
- 1:53- Oracle's vision for next generation
- 1:56- EHR.
- 1:57- Since then, Oracle Health has announced the new
- 2:00- EHR is live for ambulatory surgical centers, ambulatory
- 2:03- organizations,
- 2:05- of all sorts.
- 2:07- Why was getting highly focused into ambulatory
- 2:10- important?
- 2:11- And tell us a little bit about why
- 2:13- the interoperable
- 2:14- foundation
- 2:15- will help health systems make progress with AI
- 2:18- and modernization. So the movement towards ambulatory,
- 2:21- then how will this impact health systems?
- 2:24- Sure. So, you know, I think we started
- 2:26- with ambulatory. I mean, if we think about
- 2:29- what's gonna be in the EHR, there's a
- 2:32- lot of different workflows. And with ambulatory,
- 2:35- there's a smaller number of workflows than we
- 2:38- have with the acute.
- 2:40- So a little bit less complex. And, essentially,
- 2:42- this is all gonna build up a lot
- 2:44- of the work that we're doing for the
- 2:45- ambulatory will also feed into the acute EHR.
- 2:49- But, you know, I think what's different here,
- 2:51- the approach that we're taking is very different.
- 2:54- What we're seeing in the market today
- 2:56- is older technology
- 2:58- and bolt on
- 3:00- AI solutions.
- 3:01- And the reason why I think that's problematic
- 3:04- is that when we think about AI and
- 3:06- how AI works,
- 3:08- AI works as well as the data that
- 3:10- it has available. So how the model was
- 3:13- trained, but it also needs access to that
- 3:16- real time data. And I think we at
- 3:17- this point, most of us have used AI
- 3:20- tools
- 3:20- that we understand. Right? It's only as good
- 3:22- as what you're telling it to do and
- 3:24- the information that it comes that that that
- 3:27- has available.
- 3:28- And so if we think about health care,
- 3:30- in health care,
- 3:32- a lot of the decision making is multifaceted.
- 3:35- Right? We're not making decisions off of one
- 3:35- area. So if we think
- 3:42- complete
- 3:43- health record? You may or may not. So,
- 3:45- again, the AI is only as good as
- 3:47- what information is right in front of it.
- 3:49- But with health care, the decision making goes
- 3:52- beyond that. Right? It's it's the patient's preferences.
- 3:55- It's it could be genomic information.
- 3:57- It could be what the insurance company is
- 4:00- going to pay for. So you need a
- 4:02- lot of information. You need access to that
- 4:05- information,
- 4:06- in a real time way for the
- 4:09- AI to be more than just a a
- 4:11- research tool. Right? I mean, for it to
- 4:13- be really effective and deliver and address some
- 4:15- of these long standing problems in health care,
- 4:18- you need to have access to real time
- 4:20- data. Older technology
- 4:22- that is built on older databases,
- 4:25- they're not built
- 4:26- to retrieve real time information. They are systems
- 4:29- of record.
- 4:30- They're not systems of retrieval.
- 4:32- And that's really the the difference here. What
- 4:35- Oracle's building is something that is built for
- 4:37- AI. Right? We're not bolting on solutions. We're
- 4:40- not retrofitting something that's older. We're saying this
- 4:42- is the future
- 4:44- of AI, and we're building our databases and
- 4:47- the underlying
- 4:48- infrastructure,
- 4:49- to be able to retrieve that real time
- 4:51- information. We are able to pull information from
- 4:54- different systems.
- 4:56- So it could be that, you know, supply
- 4:58- chain information or HR.
- 5:01- You know, you need to have a lot
- 5:02- of information, the ability to retrieve it in
- 5:04- real time and to be able to access
- 5:06- it from different sources. And so that's the
- 5:08- foundation
- 5:09- of the EHR that we're building.
- 5:12- It is live on ambulatory,
- 5:15- and we continue to take input from our
- 5:17- customers. And,
- 5:19- you know,
- 5:20- it's, it's exciting. And I think our customers
- 5:22- are really excited about what they're seeing because
- 5:25- they can see the potential
- 5:27- of a different way and to make their
- 5:29- jobs easier,
- 5:31- to make,
- 5:32- the ability to deliver high quality care,
- 5:36- a lot easier than it has been in
- 5:38- the past. So,
- 5:39- a lot of excitement, and, we are
- 5:42- also going to be talking about different other
- 5:44- modules. Right? So this is ambulatory. We'll be
- 5:47- talking a lot about oncology.
- 5:49- But let's talk about that now, oncology.
- 5:52- Because on oncology is an area
- 5:55- where data, research, and care delivery have to
- 5:57- come together quickly.
- 5:59- In fact, we see so many places in
- 6:01- in the situation currently
- 6:02- where oncologists almost seem like they're overwhelmed because
- 6:06- there's only so many oncologists versus 2,000,000 new
- 6:09- diagnosis a year.
- 6:10- How can Oracle or or technology or oncology
- 6:14- providers
- 6:15- how can better connected data and intelligence
- 6:18- help that work and support more informed timely
- 6:21- oncology care?
- 6:23- Well, that's the foundation of it. And if
- 6:25- we think about the data that we're trying
- 6:27- to bring together in oncology, it is a
- 6:29- lot more complex. There's a lot more pieces
- 6:31- to it. So we can start with genomic
- 6:34- data. We're looking at tumors. There's a lot
- 6:36- of that understanding the
- 6:38- genetic makeup of those tumors, and that really
- 6:41- does inform the treatment.
- 6:43- So there's genomic data. There's imaging data.
- 6:46- There is
- 6:47- laboratory data. There's surgical data. There's all of
- 6:50- these different pieces. And, you know, what we
- 6:53- see a lot of times is even if
- 6:54- some of the information is available, even some
- 6:56- of that genomic data,
- 6:58- is often in in the form of a
- 7:00- PDF. Right? So it's not as easy to
- 7:03- analyze.
- 7:04- And then I think with oncology, the other
- 7:06- big piece of it is clinical trials,
- 7:08- understanding what clinical trials are available,
- 7:12- where a patient can be enrolled, and understanding
- 7:15- that all at once. And so there's really
- 7:18- no other area or no other area of
- 7:20- medicine that combines all of those different pieces,
- 7:23- and it's very much multispecialty.
- 7:25- Right? There's gonna be an oncologist. There's a
- 7:28- surgeon.
- 7:29- There's,
- 7:30- a lot of different providers that are that
- 7:33- are involved in one's care when it comes
- 7:35- to oncology.
- 7:36- So that's why we're starting there. You know,
- 7:38- even things like just facilitating
- 7:40- tumor board, right, where there's a lot of
- 7:42- different providers
- 7:44- weighing in on a patient's care.
- 7:46- Even those things are difficult because of the
- 7:49- information sharing. So part of it is information
- 7:51- sharing,
- 7:52- but a lot of it is also just
- 7:54- the complexity,
- 7:55- of the disease itself.
- 7:58- Thank you very, very much. You've also, Seema,
- 8:01- aside from oncology, ambulatory,
- 8:04- we've got a couple more subjects I'd love
- 8:06- to discuss. Wanna talk a little bit about
- 8:07- life sciences, a little bit about revenue cycle,
- 8:10- and also about trustworthy
- 8:11- AI in health care.
- 8:13- So so you've recently wrote an article about
- 8:15- having trustworthy AI in health care.
- 8:18- As AI gets deeper and deeper into systems,
- 8:20- clinical administrative
- 8:22- workflows both,
- 8:24- how is Oracle Health approaching
- 8:26- human oversight, human in the loop, transparency, privacy,
- 8:29- and accountability?
- 8:30- And what should health systems think about when
- 8:32- they think about the protection of everything and
- 8:34- just the the concerns about AI moving on
- 8:36- its own?
- 8:37- What should health systems expect from technology providers?
- 8:41- Sure. Well, this is a really important area
- 8:44- because especially when it comes to you know,
- 8:46- we're talking about patient care. So it's gotta
- 8:48- you know, safety has to be at the
- 8:50- first and foremost.
- 8:51- And we wanted to put out this information
- 8:53- because we wanted under our customers
- 8:55- to understand
- 8:56- how we are developing it and all the
- 8:58- steps that we're taking. And moreover, I hope
- 9:00- that it also serves as a standard
- 9:02- and that other tech companies out there also
- 9:05- have an opportunity to understand how we're doing
- 9:07- it and that we're we're setting a bar
- 9:10- for the entire tech community. But, you know,
- 9:12- it starts with human centered design. Right? So
- 9:15- that means that humans are always in the
- 9:17- loop, that the AI is not acting alone.
- 9:21- It's making suggestions, but the the decision making
- 9:24- is always,
- 9:26- something that the human
- 9:29- has to have oversight. The other areas around
- 9:30- transparency
- 9:31- and explainability. It's not just saying, you know,
- 9:34- here's the conclusion.
- 9:35- Right? This patient has x or y or
- 9:37- z.
- 9:38- It's actually telling you why and where that
- 9:38- information came from, you know,
- 9:39- why and where that information came from. You
- 9:42- know? We're saying don't use this drug because
- 9:46- the patient has
- 9:47- an an allergy. Okay. Well, I didn't know
- 9:49- my patient had that allergy, and I don't
- 9:51- think that's accurate. We literally footnote everything so
- 9:54- you can click on it and go back
- 9:56- to the source. Or if it's an external
- 9:59- data source, so a certain piece of literature,
- 10:02- it's gonna tell you exactly where that came
- 10:05- from. So it's explaining
- 10:07- why it's coming to that conclusion as well.
- 10:10- So I think of it as, remember in
- 10:11- math class where it was, show your work?
- 10:14- You don't just put the answer on the
- 10:16- paper and, you know, you get you get
- 10:17- some points taken off if you don't show
- 10:19- every step. It's kinda like that with, our
- 10:22- approach in AI. So it really tells you
- 10:24- that. The other thing I think is that
- 10:27- we can't assume
- 10:28- that you put it out there. And just
- 10:30- like all a lot of technology that's out
- 10:33- there, that has to be continuously
- 10:35- evaluated and validated
- 10:37- to make sure that it's accurate and reliable.
- 10:39- So it doesn't stop with, you know, you
- 10:42- you kinda put it out there. You're constantly
- 10:44- monitoring that. So it's pre deployment validation and
- 10:48- then ongoing monitoring.
- 10:50- The other big huge piece is cybersecurity and
- 10:53- security and privacy.
- 10:55- You know, with AI, you're moving data, and
- 10:58- we've gotta make sure that at every step
- 11:01- that the security and privacy is there. So
- 11:05- we have to really think about the privacy
- 11:07- by design principles and built in those safeguards
- 11:11- into the AI systems at the very, very
- 11:14- beginning.
- 11:15- Whereas if you're bolting on,
- 11:17- it's not gonna be as secure. I don't
- 11:19- think safety is a one and done. We
- 11:21- continue to monitor and continue to find ways
- 11:23- to improve it.
- 11:25- Thank you very, very much. And and, generally,
- 11:28- people wanna work with
- 11:31- companies that have deep resources that could address
- 11:33- these issues that aren't just trying to get
- 11:35- in the door, but also have the support
- 11:38- to back up the privacy and the trustworthy
- 11:40- issues and and security issues that are so
- 11:43- important today.
- 11:45- Sima, let me ask you about revenue cycle.
- 11:48- Health systems are obviously constantly trying to work
- 11:50- on revenue cycle. I think there's the latest
- 11:53- said I saw was 2 to 300,000,000,000 a
- 11:54- year spent on revenue cycle.
- 11:57- What where is the biggest opportunity
- 11:59- near term and longer term
- 12:01- that health system providers can use to improve
- 12:04- things for revenue cycle?
- 12:06- What what we're seeing in the market is
- 12:08- a lot of point solutions, which I think
- 12:09- are helpful for
- 12:12- addressing single tasks. But when we think about
- 12:15- revenue cycle and how it works, there's the
- 12:17- front office, the middle office, the back office.
- 12:19- Right? And all of those pieces have to
- 12:21- come together.
- 12:22- And we spend a lot of money because
- 12:24- there's a lot of coordination that has to
- 12:26- happen between the front, middle, and back office.
- 12:29- With AI,
- 12:31- there's an opportunity to bring all of that
- 12:33- data together.
- 12:35- I do worry that we're gonna be spending
- 12:37- a lot that that there's a, potential
- 12:39- for providers to spend a lot of money
- 12:42- on point solutions.
- 12:43- But, ultimately,
- 12:44- it all has to start with common data
- 12:47- and to be able so let's think about
- 12:49- a denied claim. Well, maybe it was denied
- 12:51- because the prior authorization
- 12:53- wasn't there. Well, in order to do the
- 12:55- prior authorization, you need to be able to
- 12:57- get into the clinical record and have the
- 12:59- right information
- 13:00- at the right time.
- 13:02- So it it starts with being able to
- 13:05- bring together a foundation of all of that
- 13:07- data and all of those systems together so
- 13:10- that the AI can work across it and
- 13:12- it isn't just, you know, focusing on one
- 13:15- particular solution. So think about coding.
- 13:17- So maybe you've got an AI tool that
- 13:19- helps you with coding, but that's only part
- 13:21- of the revenue cycle. Right? You gotta code
- 13:23- it. You gotta submit the claim. If there's
- 13:25- a denial, you need to be able to
- 13:27- respond to it, you need to be able
- 13:28- to go back to the clinical record and
- 13:30- pull the relevant information,
- 13:33- to justify the claim.
- 13:35- So, again, it starts with that common data
- 13:37- foundation and the AI being able to work
- 13:40- across the system and not just in the
- 13:42- EHR.
- 13:43- There's some clinical data, but there's also financial
- 13:46- data. And then I would say the last
- 13:48- piece of it is ERP. Right? Ultimately, this
- 13:51- is all financial information that goes into an
- 13:54- ERP,
- 13:55- and you wanna be able to make sure
- 13:57- that that whole system can work together.
- 14:01- Thank you. Talk also,
- 14:04- Oracle Health and AI
- 14:06- is is
- 14:08- bigger and bigger in life sciences overall,
- 14:11- in research and bringing new therapies to patients.
- 14:15- Where do you see the greatest opportunities
- 14:17- in sort of the life sciences areas?
- 14:20- Sure. And that's a, you know, that's a
- 14:22- great point. And the way Oracle is coming
- 14:24- at health care is not just with one
- 14:27- point solution on the EHR. Right? It's a
- 14:30- it's a much more it's a much more
- 14:32- larger play,
- 14:33- and it's focused on targeting
- 14:36- and transforming
- 14:37- the entire industry.
- 14:39- Because I think there's a realization, you can't
- 14:41- transform one part of it and think that
- 14:43- you're gonna do all of it. It's not
- 14:45- gonna work that way. And that's why, you
- 14:47- know, a point solution, an EHR, it it's
- 14:51- not going to get at it. And the
- 14:52- the clinical trials world and life sciences is
- 14:55- is very, important to health care.
- 14:58- We think about all the new treatments
- 15:00- that are out there.
- 15:01- We gotta make sure that providers on the
- 15:03- frontline
- 15:04- know about those treatments and therapies.
- 15:07- And also,
- 15:08- in order to accelerate innovation,
- 15:11- we need to make sure that people are
- 15:13- aware of the clinical trials that are out
- 15:15- there. And that's that's a, you know, that's
- 15:17- an area that we're very weak on. One
- 15:18- to two percent of the population actually participate
- 15:21- in clinical trials. And usually, those are the
- 15:24- ones that are coming out of the larger
- 15:25- academic health centers.
- 15:27- And so there's an opportunity to really accelerate
- 15:30- research, cures, and treatments if we have more
- 15:33- real time information.
- 15:35- And it's bidirectional.
- 15:36- I think for for pharmaceutical companies and med
- 15:39- tech companies, they need to be able to,
- 15:42- enroll patients into trials. They also need to
- 15:44- be able to have access to data to
- 15:46- understand
- 15:47- the impact of the therapeutic intervention. So whether
- 15:50- it's a drug or a device,
- 15:52- what happened five years later?
- 15:55- I think there's a lot of information out
- 15:57- there that we are not able to,
- 16:00- to understand,
- 16:01- and there could be a lot of lessons
- 16:04- learned just from the data that we're not
- 16:05- using today. And what I mean by directional,
- 16:08- let's say there are new treatments and therapies.
- 16:11- The reality is,
- 16:12- a lot of doctors and nurses, there's so
- 16:15- much going on that they're not always aware
- 16:18- or have
- 16:19- access to the latest
- 16:21- treatments and therapies. And so that clinical decision
- 16:23- support becomes
- 16:25- really important and to be able to make
- 16:27- sure that providers have access to real time
- 16:29- data and information.
- 16:32- Thank you. Just a couple more questions, Seema,
- 16:34- and thank you so much for your time
- 16:35- today.
- 16:37- Oracle has its health and life sciences summit
- 16:40- coming up this year.
- 16:42- What should health system leaders
- 16:44- prioritize first
- 16:46- in in general as they tend to modernize
- 16:49- operations and adopt AI?
- 16:51- And then in terms of prioritizing,
- 16:53- then what do you hope they take away
- 16:55- from the Oracle Health and Life Sciences Summit?
- 16:57- So what should else assist us prioritize first?
- 17:00- And then what do you hope they take
- 17:01- away from the Life Sciences Summit?
- 17:03- You know, for our summit, first of all,
- 17:04- it's a global conference, so we have people
- 17:06- coming from all over the world to participate.
- 17:09- And we wanted the summit to be where
- 17:11- obviously, we're gonna talk about what Oracle is
- 17:14- doing and and profile some of our new
- 17:16- products, but it's also supposed to be an
- 17:18- opportunity
- 17:19- for sharing and around,
- 17:22- try to all work together around transformation. So
- 17:25- bringing some of the greatest minds together. We've
- 17:27- got a lot of different speakers that are
- 17:30- not talking necessarily about Oracle, but they're talking
- 17:32- about what's going on in the market. And
- 17:34- we hope that it's a learning opportunity for
- 17:37- the participants to learn from others, to understand
- 17:40- not only technology,
- 17:42- but regulation and policy
- 17:44- that's going on because that's gonna impact the
- 17:46- work that they do, and it impacts their
- 17:48- their decisions
- 17:49- around technology as well. So it's really intended
- 17:52- to be a learning experience for the participants.
- 17:55- The other thing I would say is when
- 17:57- it comes to what what do we want
- 17:59- health care leaders to take away?
- 18:01- And for me, the takeaway is to understand
- 18:04- an approach
- 18:05- to AI.
- 18:06- It's not just about one solution, a bolt
- 18:09- on solution, but it really is an enterprise
- 18:12- approach,
- 18:13- which is how do I use and utilize
- 18:16- AI?
- 18:17- And so it's not just a buying decision,
- 18:19- but it's also, okay, what about my what
- 18:21- about the impact of AI on my processes?
- 18:24- Right? I may need to do things differently
- 18:26- because the AI is able to do this
- 18:28- part of the job. We don't need to
- 18:29- do that anymore, but what do we need
- 18:31- to do? So there's technology.
- 18:33- There's the the process
- 18:35- transformation.
- 18:36- And then the third piece of it is
- 18:38- also from that buying decision, understanding that you
- 18:42- can't have an AI strategy unless you have
- 18:44- a data strategy. It has to start with
- 18:46- how do I bring my data together.
- 18:49- And so building that understanding of how AI
- 18:51- works, we hope that it'll help them
- 18:54- when they're making decisions about AI, whether it's
- 18:57- purchasing decisions,
- 18:58- whether it's governance, which is very important.
- 19:01- And then the third area is around transformation
- 19:04- of the way that they do their work.
- 19:07- Seema,
- 19:08- incredible to visit with you again today.
- 19:10- I followed your career, it seems like, for
- 19:12- a long time. Just a brilliant person, brilliant
- 19:15- career,
- 19:16- and amazing the work you're doing at Oracle
- 19:18- Healthcare.
- 19:18- Thank you so much for joining us today
- 19:20- on the Becker's Healthcare podcast. What a great
- 19:22- pleasure. Thank you so much. Thank you, Scott.
- 19:24- Thanks for having me. Hope to see you
- 19:26- soon.