Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Ryan Cameron, Chief Information and Innovation Officer at Children’s Nebraska

Transcript

Ryan Cameron, Chief Information and Innovation Officer at Children’s Nebraska · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

0:00
Welcome to Becker's Healthcare podcast. I'm Chris Sosa,
0:02
your host, and I'm thrilled today to be
0:04
joined by Ryan Cameron. He is the chief
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information and innovation officer at Children's Nebraska in
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Omaha.
0:09
Ryan, thanks for joining us today.
0:11
Oh my goodness. Thanks so much for having
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me.
0:14
I am so excited about 2026
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and the future of of pediatric health care.
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It's gonna be an incredible year. Lots to
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talk about. That is so excellent. We can't
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wait to have you talk about anything and
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everything that your heart desires on that front
0:30
line.
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Before we get running into, that part of
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the podcast,
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let's just take this moment to introduce yourself
0:36
and tell us a bit about your organization.
0:38
Yeah. I'd be happy to. So,
0:40
I have the privilege of of serving Children's
0:43
Nebraska in a pretty unique role.
0:46
We have,
0:48
not only the CIO roles, chief information officer
0:51
as you recognize it, but we also have
0:53
added innovation to that. So we've started,
0:56
within the last, you know, five, six years
0:58
to to call it the c I I
1:01
o role.
1:02
And so what that includes is enterprise IT,
1:05
clinical engineering,
1:07
you know, the data center, help desk, the
1:09
things that you recognize from, you know, health
1:12
care and IT support,
1:13
but also the
1:15
formality
1:17
of an innovation program,
1:19
which in our case means a dedicated innovation
1:22
center. So we have a a space in
1:24
place called the Mammal Innovation Center. It's 10,000
1:27
square feet. It's just over a year old
1:30
and, there's all sorts of programming and great
1:33
things that come of that, to connect with
1:35
our community, to connect with our clinicians and
1:37
our providers,
1:38
and everybody in the ops side to make
1:40
sure we're continuously
1:42
innovating as an organization.
1:44
Children's Nebraska is the only private freestanding,
1:47
children's hospital in the state.
1:49
We've got about two thirty beds today,
1:53
but tomorrow
1:54
we're adding another 40.
1:57
So on the seventh, I'm not sure when
1:59
this will air, but on January 7, we
2:02
will open the doors to our brand new
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behavioral health and wellness center.
2:06
So we're very, very excited to offer that
2:09
to the community
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and a big deal project for us and
2:12
for our region.
2:14
And, Children's Nebraska proper,
2:16
also has about 50 specialties
2:19
and primary care as well.
2:21
Wow. You guys are
2:23
incredibly busy and growing, and and that that's
2:25
a great sign. Sure are. Yeah. Organization,
2:28
but, yeah, the community. Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead,
2:30
please. I didn't mean to cut you off.
2:31
No.
2:32
It's
2:33
it's dizzying.
2:35
You know, I've been with the organization,
2:37
just over four years.
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And,
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you know, I'm relatively new to health care.
2:42
I like to say I have a bachelor's
2:43
degree in health care, but, I certainly have
2:46
have cut my teeth on the the technology
2:48
and the innovation side of the house. So
2:50
I'm continuously
2:51
learning and,
2:52
just to be a part of an organization
2:54
that's very growth oriented and focused,
2:58
really getting out there and meeting our patients
3:00
where they're at and and pushing kind of
3:02
pediatric health care as a whole,
3:05
it's just been super exciting. It it is
3:08
not what I expected
3:10
when,
3:11
I first started working in health care, and
3:13
and I'm very pleased to say that. I'm
3:15
pleased to say that
3:16
I have found pediatrics to be just a
3:19
passionate, wonderful place to work in health,
3:22
where a lot of people are really pushing
3:25
hard to make sure that we provide the
3:26
very best care for kids.
3:29
Ryan, you've already mentioned some of the things
3:30
that Children of Nebraska has on its right.
3:33
Let's take a look back just momentarily here.
3:36
So what would you say is the most
3:38
important initiative initiative rather that you led last
3:41
year? I mean, specifically, what it take to
3:43
launch it, and what were the results,
3:45
to date?
3:46
Yeah.
3:47
There's a couple of them, but if I
3:48
if I only can pick one, I know
3:50
I I'm limited here on time. The the
3:53
one and only I would talk about
3:55
is, we started
3:57
an initiative that we call Hey Medicaid
4:00
and,
4:01
what Hey Medicaid does, it's a agentic AI
4:05
application
4:06
and platform
4:08
that patients can use to navigate the process
4:12
of,
4:13
doing certification and recertification,
4:15
for Medicaid coverage.
4:18
And, it's the first of its kind that
4:20
at least we're aware of
4:22
and we're really really
4:23
enthusiastic and excited to bring this out. Medicaid's
4:27
really critical and important to pediatric providers and
4:30
pediatric hospitals.
4:32
It does represent kind of a large portion
4:35
of our population, and they do need that,
4:37
as either primary or coinsurance.
4:40
And so helping really ease the complexity of
4:43
that process
4:44
is important for us. When we can shift
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the conversation
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about access
4:49
and make it about care,
4:51
that really is impactful for parents and for
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families and, of course, for the kids that
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we support.
4:58
Yeah. Certainly.
4:59
Anything
5:00
you can do to say to a patient's
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like, okay.
5:03
Here are all these changes that are being
5:04
made, but this is how we're going to
5:06
make it easier for you.
5:08
Yeah.
5:09
And, you know, it's it's funny. We we
5:12
benefit
5:13
from this incredible technology on the consumer side
5:17
of of life.
5:19
We've got smart devices and, you know, I
5:21
I have this really tactile memory,
5:24
and it's it's interesting because one of my
5:27
favorite things is reminiscing about going to a
5:29
record store
5:30
and, you know, using your fingers and thumbing
5:33
through it. In my generation, it was CDs,
5:35
but there are still records and tapes out
5:37
there too. I guess I'm kinda dating myself
5:39
a bit there, but I miss it. But
5:42
the magic of today is whatever I wanna
5:45
listen to, I I don't have to save
5:47
my money to go get an album and
5:49
hope that the whole album is awesome and
5:50
not just the one song or the two
5:52
songs that I was hoping to hear.
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I just speak into the air. I mean,
5:57
how how magical is that that I just
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vocalize, hey, I would like to listen to
6:01
this and it happens.
6:03
And so with with hey, Medicaid, that's really
6:06
our starting vision point is
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how could you have your phone in front
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of you and just use your voice.
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It's got, you know, 17 different languages that
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translates into real time, helps you through the
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entire process end to end.
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And we think it's gonna be really great
6:22
for, you know, young families today who are
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accustomed to this consumer magic that's, you know,
6:29
health care really hasn't delivered quite yet, but
6:31
it's happening, And it's it's exciting to be
6:33
on the forefront of that. That that makes
6:35
total sense. And and, hopefully, it won't be
6:38
long at all before your patients are thinking,
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you know what? Children's Nebraska has our, you
6:43
know, needs in mind, and and this is
6:45
how they're fulfilling them. So that's why Absolutely.
6:48
Alright. So now let's look ahead, into at
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least several exciting things that you and children's
6:53
Rask have coming up.
6:55
Specifically,
6:56
not gonna limit your number, Ryan. So let's
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ask what are the big priorities
7:01
and the headwinds that you're focused on for
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2026?
7:05
Wow. That's a great question.
7:07
You know,
7:08
we want to do our best, not only
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as as an organization serving our region
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and our state, but to be highly collaborative
7:17
with other children's hospitals
7:19
and to really build an innovation ecosystem where,
7:22
you know, all children can really benefit.
7:25
And,
7:26
two key things that come front to mind
7:29
is this notion of digital therapeutics
7:32
and where that whole
7:34
space of of service is headed.
7:37
It was very limited even, you know, four
7:40
years ago. There really was a strata of
7:42
things, you know, like simple wearables or smart
7:45
stethoscopes,
7:47
maybe some remote patient monitoring tech that was
7:49
emerging.
7:50
But now we're seeing just incredible
7:53
innovations and development,
7:55
for us specifically
7:57
in the behavioral health and wellness center.
8:00
We were fortunate enough to receive
8:03
a significant grant from the James M. Cox
8:05
Foundation
8:07
that is funding a lot of the work
8:09
that we're doing with virtual reality
8:11
and looking at that as an essential element
8:15
in kind of our care and treatment plans.
8:17
So if you think about,
8:19
trying to manage anxiety,
8:22
really understanding,
8:23
you know, interplay,
8:25
with social interactions,
8:27
You know, virtual reality can be an incredible
8:29
and helpful tool for that. And, you know,
8:30
we've got compelling science and research that's backing
8:33
the effectiveness of that, so we're definitely doubling
8:36
down.
8:37
What's really great about that is because the
8:41
platform is digital
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and we live in kind of this, you
8:45
know, iTunes
8:46
esque environment where you can share resources very
8:49
easily with other hospitals,
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we're not building content exclusively for ourselves.
8:55
We are a 100% collaborating with other, pediatric
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institutions across the Children's Hospital Association
9:01
and really being thoughtful and mindful about what
9:03
can we build that is gonna be impactful,
9:06
for children all across the country,
9:09
with digital therapeutics in behavioral health.
9:12
May I write that that's just fascinating to
9:14
me, especially the virtual reality part of it.
9:17
I mean, I don't remember I'm I'm sure
9:19
you told me about this, but I think
9:20
others have mentioned this to me as well,
9:22
how
9:23
useful virtual reality can be to
9:26
a custom get children accustomed to that environment
9:28
because hospitals.
9:30
Right? And now to hear that it's alright.
9:32
Yeah. Let's adapt this to therapy as well.
9:36
Has the acceleration of that technology in terms
9:38
of how it's being used with therapy, has
9:40
that surprised you at all? I mean Oh,
9:42
yeah. Yeah. It's, I mean, it's astounding.
9:45
You know, earlier, I was talking about this
9:47
notion of of being magical.
9:49
And I I think that's a fair description
9:52
of where we're at.
9:53
What I what I would share is we
9:56
are living in a future,
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and and I mean an immediate future, not,
10:00
you know, a five year horizon, I mean,
10:02
within, you know, months
10:04
where everybody is a developer
10:07
and you can utilize,
10:09
you know, prompt based AI technology
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not just to give you text based answers
10:14
from searching a web page, but to generate
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rich media content.
10:19
So,
10:20
when you work with highly skilled and qualified
10:23
clinicians
10:24
who understand the right therapies,
10:27
understand how to help children who are in
10:30
crisis, help them develop new skills,
10:32
We can make as many simulations as we
10:35
would like to make
10:36
and, you know, I'll even open the door
10:38
to a possibility that I think is is
10:40
also coming very quickly and that all of
10:43
that can be customized to the individual patient.
10:46
So, you know, I I think about when
10:48
you take compliance training and it's kind of
10:50
the canned content and,
10:52
everybody is just kind of sitting there hitting
10:54
the buttons and, you know, laughing at the
10:56
the bad acting and the things with that.
10:58
All all of that's going away
11:00
where
11:01
you can interact with a VR device
11:05
and have really important
11:07
content that does more than compliance, but actually
11:10
gets into competency, actually gets into skill development,
11:14
and the things that really help young people
11:16
navigate,
11:17
a really difficult environment right now for for
11:20
behavioral health and wellness. So, it's interesting that
11:24
things like social media and phone time negatively
11:27
impact children,
11:29
but we can also kind of fight fire
11:31
with fire and say let's lean into using
11:33
things like rapid development with AI, virtual reality
11:38
to help children navigate,
11:40
a really difficult kind of environment out there
11:43
now. And so it's it's a weird dynamic,
11:45
but
11:46
it's it's dizzying how fast things are going.
11:48
You can develop apps and simulations almost instantly
11:51
today.
11:52
Well, weird, but certainly very encouraging that there
11:55
are health systems such as yours that are
11:57
saying, you know what?
11:59
Doesn't have to be used in this way
12:00
all the time. Right? Here's how it Right.
12:03
That that's a great way to look at
12:04
it. Yeah. I I we're certainly hopeful.
12:07
You know, we we wanna be mindful and
12:09
careful. You know, we we have lots of
12:11
safeguards.
12:12
You know, there there's a lot of press
12:13
out there about people who, quote unquote vibe
12:17
code their way to success.
12:19
That can be very risky, can be very
12:20
dangerous.
12:21
So,
12:23
balanced with my enthusiasm
12:25
for rapid development and really leaning into digital
12:29
therapeutics. Of course, you know, my advice and
12:31
guidance would be to, as you think about
12:33
investing in those technologies or endeavoring into that
12:36
direction,
12:37
have some great safeguards,
12:39
be very mindful about security and and how
12:41
you kind of develop those things, but it
12:44
it is a very plausible reality.
12:47
It it's crazy that the cost of entry
12:50
to be innovative right now is next to
12:53
zero.
12:54
And to invite
12:55
all of your providers and your ops people
12:58
and and all these great skilled people that
13:00
work in a hospital to be a part
13:02
of that development process is a total game
13:04
changer.
13:06
Excellent.
13:06
Thank you for laying all that out, Ryan.
13:08
I mean, I'm sure our audience is gonna
13:10
love all that.
13:11
It's very easy to understand the way you
13:13
put it. Let's veer into this.
13:15
I don't wanna say it's a bummer of
13:16
a question because it doesn't have to go
13:18
into that territory. But I do wanna ask,
13:21
like, what do you think is the hardest
13:22
thing you're going to do this year? And
13:24
that could be way too exciting project you
13:26
have, but, you know, take it away.
13:29
Yeah.
13:30
You know, I we all health care providers
13:32
have a difficult battle ahead.
13:35
And and that battle,
13:37
it it isn't a different one. It's just
13:39
the scale and the scope and the complexity
13:41
continues to be difficult.
13:44
We are never going to be able to
13:46
recruit our way out of, you know, staffing
13:49
crisis.
13:50
There's never gonna be enough specialists. There's never
13:52
gonna be enough nurses.
13:54
Health care is in really high demand.
13:56
In Nebraska in particular,
13:59
we are very focused on extending our service
14:03
footprint into rural areas so that the quality
14:06
of care that you have access to
14:09
in the state and in our neighboring states
14:11
doesn't waver.
14:13
You know, the
14:14
the kiddos that we serve that are in
14:15
our metro areas,
14:17
should get high quality and so should everybody
14:19
that lives in ag and farming communities as
14:21
well. They should be equal.
14:23
And so that's tough. A lot of rural
14:26
providers are are closing. We're seeing a lot
14:28
of pediatric wards get shut down. You know,
14:31
the the the saying that is a little
14:33
bit trite, but 100%,
14:35
you know, spot on and important for us
14:37
is no margin, no mission.
14:40
And we have to do everything we can
14:42
to be very mindful and good stewards of
14:44
the dollars we have available to provide high
14:46
quality care,
14:48
across a complex landscape with very few providers,
14:52
and hopefully land a perfect 10 at the
14:54
end.
14:55
So,
14:56
it's a high knowledge, high complexity place to
14:58
work, but I think technology can be a
15:01
good catalyst,
15:02
to help you get there
15:04
provided
15:06
your
15:07
with your people and your very people first
15:10
and and focused.
15:11
Children's Nebraska
15:13
has a program. It's our people first promise,
15:15
and we we invest
15:17
in the folks that work in our organization.
15:20
And sometimes that investment means
15:22
let's find a way to upscale. Let's find
15:24
a way to understand, you know, automation and
15:27
AI a little better.
15:28
Let's find a way to understand what, you
15:31
know, the day to day work life is
15:33
for you and just really dig in and
15:35
roll up our sleeves so that we can
15:37
support the folks that are providing care. And
15:39
so I'm hopeful about where we're going,
15:42
but I am under no illusion that the
15:45
landscape of providing care is is very tough.
15:48
No doubt. And you meant you mentioned this
15:51
a little bit. You talked about how
15:54
some
15:55
pediatric departments are closing across the country, and
15:58
that's certainly very difficult. There are many other
16:00
health systems, though, like yours that are expanding
16:04
in whatever they possibly can to still reach
16:06
those patients. Right?
16:08
So on that note, what do you see
16:10
as Children's Nebraska's
16:12
best opportunities for growth in the next year
16:15
or so?
16:16
It won't surprise you to hear me say
16:18
think outside the box.
16:20
You know, another way of saying that is,
16:23
you know, I would say that most people,
16:26
their horizon is way too low.
16:28
You have to be leaning into
16:31
what is work gonna look like, what is
16:34
life gonna look like, what are, you know,
16:36
social economics gonna look like?
16:38
Not only at the end of 2026,
16:40
but, you know, in the next three to
16:42
five years. And it it'll be profoundly different
16:44
for everybody just because this this whole technology
16:46
machine is moving
16:48
at a profound rate.
16:50
So, you know, what we're doing to be
16:52
resilient and proactive
16:54
is thinking about, you know,
16:57
not just building more hospitals.
17:00
Hospitals are really expensive.
17:03
You know, in the metro, it made sense
17:04
for us to to set up a a
17:06
dedicated behavioral health and wellness center. We had
17:09
tremendous
17:10
support and philanthropy
17:12
from Constance,
17:14
and the pediatric mental health, institute there. So,
17:18
like,
17:19
we're very fortunate that we have those opportunities.
17:22
But the larger battle
17:24
is how do we meet patients in their
17:27
home?
17:28
How do we get, you know, access to
17:30
care that's virtual? How do we lean into
17:32
telehealth, telemedicine?
17:34
Those are the things that ultimately are gonna
17:37
help that pressure valve and really help us
17:40
adapt.
17:41
Consider for a moment,
17:43
in Nebraska, in many cases,
17:46
a patient and family may have to travel
17:49
three hours or more one way to get
17:51
from some of our rural communities
17:54
into a a city or a town that
17:57
actually has a Children's Nebraska clinic or facility,
18:00
that's ready to help them.
18:02
So at every opportunity where we can provide
18:05
high quality care,
18:06
in the home using telehealth or telemedicine,
18:09
that's really gonna help us out a lot.
18:11
From the provider perspective,
18:13
it's a little quicker.
18:15
They can see more patients.
18:17
We wanna be mindful that they have really
18:19
good focused time with them and they're not,
18:21
you know, spending all their time in the
18:23
EHR,
18:25
doing multiple clicks and they're actually working on
18:27
care. So it really is about leaning into
18:30
technology,
18:31
shifting our focus in our conversation from access
18:34
and automating those things
18:36
into a conversation that is a 100% care
18:38
focused.
18:40
Ryan, thank you so much for joining us
18:41
today and letting us know how to lose
18:43
Nebraska
18:45
is working through this whole technology machine as
18:47
you progress.
18:48
What you're doing with AI, everything. I mean,
18:50
we can't wait to share this with our
18:52
audience and, you know, we'll see you at
18:53
our upcoming conference. And, honestly, I just look
18:56
forward to next time our pass goes. Yeah.
18:58
Thanks so much for having me and, really
19:00
looking forward to to being at the event.
19:04
I've started to kinda look at the lineup
19:06
and a lot of the folks that will
19:08
be speaking on different panels and the keynotes.
19:10
It is going to be an incredible year.
19:12
So I I hope to see lots of
19:14
friends and colleagues at the event. And, Chris,
19:17
hopefully, you and I can connect this time.
19:19
Yeah. I couldn't put it that better by
19:20
myself. Thanks, Ryan. Thank you.