Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Balancing Burden and Breakthroughs in Digital Health with Dr. Maulik Purohit

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Balancing Burden and Breakthroughs in Digital Health with Dr. Maulik Purohit · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello, and welcome to the Becker's Healthcare podcast.
• 0:02
  My name is Chanel Banger. And today, I'm
• 0:04
  excited to speak with regular guest, doctor Molok
• 0:07
  Purahit,
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  the chief health innovation officer at DatosX Digital
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  Health Labs, who joins us regularly to share
• 0:15
  insights into digital health trends that he's keeping
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  an eye on. Doctor Perrette, thank you so
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  much for joining me. Could you please get
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  us started out by introducing yourself for listeners
• 0:24
  that may not be familiar with you yet?
• 0:26
  Sure. Thanks, Chanel. It's always a pleasure and
• 0:28
  honor to be on the Becker's, podcast because
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  of such a such a great lineup. My
• 0:33
  background, I'm a physician in brain injury neurotrauma,
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  and so the neuroscience of it is something
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  I study, day in and day out. I'm
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  still clinically active,
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  But I'm also have been chief health information
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  officer for several health, systems
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  and overseeing the digital infrastructure from EMR to,
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  AI products and tools to implementation,
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  operations, marketing, etcetera.
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  Anything that really involved, digital was under my
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  purview. And then I've also been on the
• 1:00
  industry side as chief innovation officer,
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  for various companies and,
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  understanding the development of health care products, as
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  well as how to implement them and
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  put them into a a health care setting.
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  And so it's been an interesting vantage point
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  of being both on the receiving end on
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  the health system side as well as on
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  the producing end of
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  products and industry.
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  And now, actually, I sit on both sides
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  as I'm with the company, but I'm also
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  still with PAM Health, active clinically and in
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  their innovation space. And so it's been a
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  nice vantage point to get both perspectives of
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  both industry and health system.
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  Thank you so much for the introduction. And
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  now getting into the discussion of it, could
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  you give us an overview of the advent
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  of new digital health tools and how they're
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  impacting the health care space right now?
• 1:44
  A great question, Chanel. And I think I
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  see two parallel movements that are in effect,
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  today.
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  One is with some of the traditional tools
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  like the EMR, etcetera. We're still seeing a
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  lot of struggles with that because it's, it
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  and it's not just the EMR alone, but
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  it's this overlay of regulatory requirements and documentation
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  and things that people have to do, both
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  physicians, nurses, and and others in in the
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  health care system,
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  where you're having a proliferation of things that
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  you have to do within the EMR that
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  makes each patient visit much more burdensome
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  because you're not getting to just talk to
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  the patient. You're having to document,
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  you know, miles of paper,
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  after that, electronic paper in today's world, but
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  having to document for for a considerable amount
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  of time,
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  after that. And then,
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  all the regulatory requirements of things you have
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  to do, all the things you have to
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  check off, and that creates an undue burden
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  on, physicians, particularly nurses as well and others
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  that are in the space. I think, you
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  know, there's a statistic I saw recently that,
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  documentation
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  in The US by physicians
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  is about 35%
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  higher
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  than in other countries, of comparable areas such
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  as The UK and others,
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  where the documentation requirements are far less, despite
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  them having a nationalized system. And so you
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  see that. And then inherent in that is
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  the struggle between the physicians who and others
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  who provide care and the insurance companies who
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  have been sort of fighting and denying and
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  and putting in more barriers to to cover
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  patients. And so that plays out in a
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  digital world with just more requirements, more burden,
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  which leads to a significant amount of burnout
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  for people.
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  And then on the flip side, on the
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  positive side, we're also seeing quite a bit
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  of new tools that are coming in, taking
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  advantage of this AI wave that we have
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  to improve diagnostic ability, to improve
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  care ability, and and things for radiology to
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  detect diseases that were hard to see or
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  things on EKGs or things on echo,
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  and,
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  a way to improve diagnostic capability
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  even at home in instead of requiring patients
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  to go to the hospital and diagnostic capability
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  at home. And then that then feeds into
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  their chart in other areas. And so now
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  you can intervene earlier for patients, instead of
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  waiting too late. And so that's the positive
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  side of this. You we're we're seeing a
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  huge improvement
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  in some of those capabilities now.
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  And so at the same time, you see
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  this parallel though, the struggle of some of
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  the basic traditional technology
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  and the the excitement of this new technology
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  that's gonna offer better tools for people,
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  and putting those together in the same environment.
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  Thank you so much for walking us through
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  that. And now narrowing it down a bit,
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  what are some of the things that we
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  could do on the traditional side of health
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  care to either prevent burnout, streamline documentation, or
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  just improve the experience overall?
• 4:27
  A great question, Chanel. And so on this
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  one, you know, I think it really comes
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  down to really coming down and having a
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  a really
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  hard and tough but needed conversation between the
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  those that provide care, physicians, nurses, etcetera,
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  and the insurance companies.
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  At at the end of the day, it's
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  not really simply a digital problem. It is
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  really a health care system and industry problem
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  that we're facing. And the net result of
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  this right now is we're getting know, a
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  lot of physicians being driven out of clinical
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  care. They've chosen to become an MD. Maybe
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  the residents may practice for a little bit,
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  but then now,
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  what's happening is that they're going to nonclinical
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  work using their background, which, again,
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  is commendable and and definitely some of the
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  reasons that we're getting some of these new
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  tools. But at the same time, it's taking
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  people out of the clinical space, and it's
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  gonna affect the quality of clinical care at
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  some point. We're trying to fill gaps with
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  other other ways. But at some point, when
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  you take some of your most educated people
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  out of the the clinical care side, you're
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  going to affect the quality care in some
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  way at some point. And so we have
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  to address this. This is not just a
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  physician issue. It's not just a health care
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  system issue. This is really a national issue
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  for us because you don't wanna ruin the
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  care that people are getting. But if you
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  take physicians out of the mix, you're definitely
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  going to do that. And, again, I talk
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  about physicians, but it can be the same
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  story. It can be for nurses, for others,
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  and you're seeing some of this decline
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  in personnel who get, educated at a very
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  high level, but then they come out of
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  the clinical and bedside space because of the
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  struggle that's there. And so we need to
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  have a national conversation about
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  getting the right people to the table and
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  looking at some of the burdens of things
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  that we're doing that really doesn't need to
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  be there. And we see that proof in
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  other health systems where it's 35% less in
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  terms of the documentation and and regulatory burden
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  that's there.
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  Thank you so much. And so on the
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  flip side of that, what are some of
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  the benefits that you're currently seeing with all
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  these new tools?
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  Yeah. Another great question, and I I'm glad
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  that we have a positive side to the
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  story as well, which is that, I think,
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  you know, before, we were limited in care
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  with the physician visit or the hospital visit
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  or the ER visit.
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  With the advent of technology, what we're seeing
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  is better and better ways to have care
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  at home in a more convenient place. Some
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  of the things we saw with COVID is
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  the advent of, televisits, which is huge because
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  it increases
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  the convenience.
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  It's not to say that everything can be
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  done by televisit, but, certainly, a lot of
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  things that were routine or or didn't require
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  face to face in person can now be
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  transitioned to telehealth. And I'm glad that Medicare
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  has extended some of the guidelines, to allow
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  some of those things because it's convenient for
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  patients, especially in rural areas and hard to
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  reach areas where the physician, volume may not
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  be as high. And so getting access to
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  care was huge. Second is
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  diagnostics at home. You know, one thing that
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  a lot a lot of us have been
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  exposed to is this EKG on our on
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  our watches. Right? Whether it be a Google
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  Watch, an Apple Watch, name your company, Samsung,
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  etcetera. But the ability to have some of
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  these things on the on the watch or
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  on the phone is tremendous. Now I'm not
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  saying this is an end all be all
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  for everybody, but we're improving technology. We're improving
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  the ability to record
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  vital signs, the ability to improve
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  checking your activity levels, your sleep levels, all
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  these basic preventive things that are huge in
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  terms of health impact,
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  and all of those are contributing to better
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  care because now we see them in real
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  time rather than just once a quarter or
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  once a week or whatever it may be,
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  in just the clinic visit or just a
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  hospital visit. And so now the idea of
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  capturing these things in a better way, a
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  faster way for for patients,
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  and then the convenience factor. And so I
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  think all of these things are very huge
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  positive for the health care industry
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  and and for patients particularly.
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  And so I'm excited about these technologies coming,
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  coming to fruit, nowadays,
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  especially with the incorporation of AI into many
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  of these to give better analysis of the
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  data as well.
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  That's excellent to hear. Well, doctor Baruja, I
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  wanna thank you as always for joining me
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  today. But before I let you go, is
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  there anything else that listeners should know?
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  Yeah. Thanks, Chanel. I think, to me, this
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  is an exciting time because of the potential
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  that we can achieve for patients with the
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  technology that's coming. AI is huge for all
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  industries. I think everyone's experienced that. I think
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  AI is also very much part and parcel
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  of every tool that comes out of health
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  care as well. And so I'm happy to
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  see these improvements, this horizon that's gonna bring
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  much better care for patients and better convenience
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  for patients as well. So I'm very excited
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  for the future.
• 8:50
  That's good to hear. Well, doctor Barrett, I
• 8:52
  wanna thank you once again for your time
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  today and for sharing your insights on the
• 8:55
  Becker's Healthcare podcast. Thank you so much. Thanks,
• 8:58
  Shanae.