Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Andrew Chang, Chief Marketing Officer at UChicago Medicine

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Andrew Chang, Chief Marketing Officer at UChicago Medicine · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

0:02
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0:45
This is Laura Dierdo with the Becker's Healthcare
0:47
podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by
0:49
Andy Chang, chief marketing officer at UChicago Medicine.
0:52
Andy, it's a pleasure to have you on
0:54
the podcast today. It's a pleasure to be
0:56
here. Thanks for having me.
0:58
Absolutely. Well, you know, I'm looking forward to
1:00
our conversation because I know we have, so
1:03
much happening at UChicago Medicine. It's truly a
1:06
world class institution, and so I'm excited to
1:08
learn a little bit more about how you're
1:09
thinking about the next year. But before we
1:11
dive in, can you tell me a little
1:12
bit more about yourself as well as, your
1:15
background?
1:16
Yeah. Happy to.
1:18
I am
1:19
mostly
1:20
from outside of the health care industry, but
1:22
it I've been going on eight years now
1:24
with with health care. So I guess I'm
1:26
more of a veteran,
1:28
a seasoned veteran at this point.
1:30
I've been at UChicago Medicine for two years
1:33
and three months now, and it's been probably
1:36
the best job of my life. I could
1:38
say that with pretty big confidence,
1:41
because we're doing some really exciting things here.
1:44
And it's part of the reason why I
1:46
joined is because the amount of change, the
1:47
amount of transformation that that UChicago Medicine is
1:50
trying to lead in in health care and
1:52
trying to change how health care is done.
1:55
Absolutely.
1:56
That, you know, is definitely great to hear
1:58
and certainly,
1:59
interesting to have that kind of vantage point
2:02
and experience that you've been able to bring
2:04
it into, UChicago Medicine. Now can you tell
2:07
me a little bit more about the most
2:09
important
2:10
initiative that you led in the last year?
2:11
What did you do, and what were the
2:13
results?
2:14
Yeah. We
2:15
had a pretty big aggressive journey here to
2:20
as as many health care systems have talked
2:22
about by with with digital transformation.
2:25
But in the case of UChicago Medicine,
2:28
what what we mean is really utilizing
2:32
the latest in tools and AI
2:34
and in tech stacks and in
2:38
automation to really make sure that we are
2:41
focused heavily
2:42
on,
2:43
achieving our goals and our mission.
2:46
And so more specifically,
2:47
especially in the market, what we've done is
2:50
really look at how the end to end
2:52
patient experience could be transformed,
2:55
not just from a advertising way, but really,
2:58
again, through an experiential
2:59
standpoint.
3:01
It could be messages. It could be two
3:03
way communication
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via
3:06
chat or texting. It could be through,
3:09
voice AI.
3:11
There's just a lot that's been going on,
3:13
and and this past year, we've been really
3:15
focused on all of that.
3:17
Something
3:18
specific
3:19
was really our our use and standing up
3:21
of of Salesforce as a Force as a
3:23
as a engagement
3:24
technology stack
3:26
where we have a CDP that's been stood
3:29
up that records and logs all of our
3:32
patient interactions.
3:33
And from there, we're able to
3:36
dynamically create content
3:37
and serve messages that are actually relevant to
3:40
the patient.
3:42
And through that targeted way, we're able to
3:44
deliver messages
3:46
or experiences
3:48
that,
3:48
again, the patient
3:50
may need to hear. For example, if a
3:52
patient is
3:54
overdue for a mammography or thing,
3:57
we automatically send those messages out, and what
4:00
we've been able to achieve is a significant
4:03
triple digit ROI lift. And the way that
4:06
we've been measuring all of our campaigns is
4:09
actually, another pretty big accomplishment that the team
4:12
has done, which is the setting up of
4:14
control groups
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and
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seeing how,
4:18
our campaign treatments
4:20
compare to the control group so that we're
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actually getting
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incremental
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lift as opposed to just taking all the
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all that, a lot of marketing departments in
4:29
any industry will do. We're actually really focused
4:32
on what did marketing deliver from an ROI
4:34
standpoint and report back out on that to
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the organization
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to really justify the fact that marketing is
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an investment and an area of growth, not
4:42
just a cost center.
4:45
Absolutely. That makes a lot of sense. And,
4:47
you know, it is really kind of amazing
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to see. I think it seems like across
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the board, health systems are really looking for
4:52
more of that hard ROI and understanding of
4:55
what, you know, the investment dollars are going
4:57
into. So when you think about, that shift
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in, you know, how you're looking at campaigns,
5:02
how you're thinking about the outcomes and the
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measurables,
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what are some of the things that you've
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been able to do with those control groups?
5:09
I guess, how do you really calculate that
5:11
and then report it out to the broader
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executive team? Yeah. Absolutely.
5:15
The first step is set up the foundation
5:17
for it, and the foundation that we use
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is to
5:21
have a,
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roughly 10% of the audience that receives the
5:25
campaign depending on the campaign size because sometimes
5:28
campaigns will only go to a couple 100
5:30
people because it's so targeted now.
5:33
And
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in those cases, we'll do more of a
5:36
fifty fifty, but,
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we actually track the appointments booked and then
5:41
if they showed up for their appointment. And
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then we also have the revenue attributed
5:45
to those specific appointments,
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as well as downstream.
5:50
And then we will compare the two groups.
5:53
Was there a lift? Was there not a
5:55
lift? And,
5:57
we verify that with finance. Our finance partners
6:01
have been,
6:02
amazing partners actually working hand in hand with
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us to make sure that our methodology is
6:07
sound so that we can report this out
6:08
and share this out with the rest of
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the organization.
6:11
And, look, like, not every not every campaign
6:14
or test that we run
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comes out with a positive ROI, and we're,
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willingly open to share all of the results
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with with anyone that asks,
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and try to brainstorm
6:25
why it didn't work and and treat it
6:27
like almost like a clinical trial. Like, what
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what worked, what didn't work, why didn't it
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work,
6:34
and how do we apply that to other
6:36
other campaigns and other learnings as well. And
6:38
so in some cases, we've generated over,
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dollars 5,000,000
6:43
in incremental appointments,
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that again that through finance and in other
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cases, you know, you could argue we've generated
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zero or less than zero,
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because the control group outperformed our our test
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groups.
6:55
And so it's all that is because we've
6:56
connected Salesforce with Epic
6:58
and are able to link the actual activities
7:02
and appointments down to the
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the patient level,
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and really, honestly, just report on accurate ROI.
7:10
Got it. That's so helpful to know and
7:12
just really interesting to think about that journey
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and what it can mean for the future.
7:16
And speaking of the future, what are some
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of the big priorities and headwinds you're focused
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on for 2026?
7:22
Yeah. Absolutely.
7:23
So the examples I gave were really more
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around the one way messaging,
7:27
relevant messaging,
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dynamic content that if, someone came to our
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website,
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we know who they are because they clicked
7:35
on a certain email. And so so we
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are able to show content that's relevant again
7:39
to that patient
7:40
and further enhance the conversion rate, which means,
7:43
the ability to book an appointment.
7:45
But, you know, again, it's it's really more
7:48
about the experience that we're trying to really
7:50
transform.
7:51
And so
7:52
using, AI and using, Ajit, we're
7:56
building out a entire strategy of omnichannel patient
8:00
experience. And
8:01
what that means is the ability to interact
8:05
with,
8:06
with us
8:07
at any hour of the day, any day
8:09
of the week
8:10
to,
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really accomplish what most people call us to
8:14
do, which is booking appointments,
8:16
confirming appointments, change, cancel appointments,
8:19
general in general questions,
8:22
you know, like like,
8:25
visitor hours,
8:28
and prescription refills, those types of activities which
8:31
really make up a huge portion of why
8:33
people engage with us. You know, today in
8:36
health care, we're forcing everyone to pretty much
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do it in in one channel, right, which
8:41
is through the through the phone.
8:42
And
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we live in a day and age now
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where we don't have to restrict people to
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one channel. We can let people choose which
8:51
channel they want us they wanna
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use. So
8:55
if my parents want to call someone and
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talk to a live human,
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we're going to encourage that and we're going
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to
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always want them to do so and and
9:05
be open to do so. But if I
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wanna call,
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well, actually, I don't wanna call. I will
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just text someone or I wanna just, I'd
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rather chat with a bot than with a
9:14
human. And I wanna do that after hours
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because my day is pretty packed. And so
9:18
we're building out this technology now that lets
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people interact with us. And in other words,
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we're letting people
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engage with their own health on their own
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terms,
9:29
and that is set to go live, at
9:31
UChicago Medicine hopefully in the next coming weeks.
9:35
Wow. That's really cool. And and what a
9:37
great idea and way to expand some of
9:39
those access points and more personalize it or
9:42
the preference of patients in in broader community.
9:45
I can imagine it takes, just really,
9:48
multi department effort to do something like that.
9:50
Who are you working closely with in order
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to set up some of those,
9:53
capabilities and and position,
9:55
the technology as well as the the people
9:58
in the best way possible to field any
10:00
kind of access point?
10:01
Yeah. Yeah. We
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it is absolutely
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a cross functional collaborative
10:08
effort. We have our executive steering committee that
10:11
oversees this, which is myself,
10:14
our CIO, our,
10:16
chief medical information officer, and our chief
10:19
ambulatory officer.
10:21
So it's ops, IT, clinical marketing, and then
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we have a steering committee that has legal
10:26
and compliance, IT security,
10:29
finance,
10:30
procurement,
10:32
and then of course, operations marketing, a lot
10:34
of the business functions. So it really is
10:36
cross functional because we are
10:38
changing the way that patients engage with us,
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which means we have to change the way
10:42
that our employees engage with the patients as
10:45
well across the board. And remember, like I
10:47
said in the beginning,
10:49
this is about changing the entire not just
10:52
one
10:53
upfront access point. It is the entire experience,
10:57
whether they're in the exam room, whether they
11:00
are leaving our parking deck, whether it's in
11:02
between appointments.
11:03
What can we do to really make this
11:05
a frictionless experience? And that involves
11:10
even our parking attendants,
11:12
and and our and our security.
11:15
It involves so many different groups of people.
11:17
So it's it's a way of really just
11:19
at the same time,
11:21
bringing the entire organization along to
11:24
to get them to see the the future
11:26
vision of how health care is changing and
11:28
how UChicago Medicine is leading that.
11:31
I love it. Thank you, for digging a
11:33
bit deeper there. Now I know there's a
11:35
lot of great opportunities in this next year,
11:38
but some certain certainly challenges ahead.
11:41
What do you think is going to be
11:42
the hardest thing you have to do in
11:44
the coming year? What are some of those
11:46
additional challenges that that might be abreast?
11:48
Yeah. We have
11:50
a lot of challenges that,
11:52
you are very familiar with because I read
11:54
about them, every day in in your newsletter.
11:58
From three forty b to to Medicaid changes,
12:03
Medicare Advantage.
12:05
From a whole
12:06
industry standpoint, there's so much going on,
12:10
and it's really hard to predict the future.
12:13
So so what our biggest challenge is is
12:15
how do
12:17
we stay nimble enough,
12:19
grow through efficiency,
12:21
making sure that we are really focused on
12:24
what matters the most, which is taking care
12:25
of our patients and our community,
12:29
but doing so in a way that
12:31
really benefits
12:32
everybody,
12:33
the patient, the community, our our staff, and
12:35
our
12:36
physicians, etcetera.
12:38
And to do that, you know, you really
12:40
do need to have a,
12:43
somewhat of a rally cry
12:44
on how we're going
12:46
to, again, make things just a lot more
12:48
efficient
12:49
by reducing costs
12:51
while also making,
12:53
the lives of our patients and our staff
12:55
and and faculty and nurses a lot easier
12:58
through technology.
13:00
But it it it is a pretty big,
13:03
you know, it's a pretty big change that
13:04
we're we're trying to embark on, and we're
13:06
not alone in in the in the world
13:09
here trying to use technology and AI to
13:12
to change the way things are done, but,
13:15
we are very progressive in the way that
13:16
we think, which which I love. And,
13:19
there is a full buy in to do
13:21
so here as well. So we're we're really
13:23
excited about what's coming in the next year,
13:24
but it is, again, not easy. It's just
13:27
a lot of components
13:28
that need to be worked through and
13:31
making sure that we do it in a
13:32
really safe and pure way.
13:36
So, you know, we'll probably make
13:39
mistakes here and there. As long as we
13:41
are able to learn from them and and
13:43
hopefully share with others in the industry what
13:45
they're and learn from everyone else's mistakes, hopefully,
13:48
we can,
13:49
make this go as smoothly as possible and
13:51
and really figure out a way to to
13:54
continue our growth strategy,
13:57
in the most
13:58
beneficial and highest probability way.
14:01
Got it. That makes a lot of sense.
14:02
And, you know, I I think all the
14:04
things you pointed out there truly, you know,
14:06
are are things that so many other health
14:08
systems are trying to navigate through and understand
14:10
more deeply and broadly. So I'm glad we've
14:12
been able to at least be informative with
14:15
some of our coverage and continue to,
14:17
this next year, we'll continue to double down
14:19
on those spaces too. But speaking of growth
14:21
for UChicago Medicine, where are some of those
14:23
best opportunities in the next year?
14:25
Yeah. We have
14:27
so many.
14:28
Chicago
14:29
is a pretty saturated
14:32
geography
14:33
with,
14:35
is a extremely
14:36
competitive set of of really
14:40
high world class,
14:41
health care players here, and and it is
14:44
the third largest city in the country
14:46
at the same time. Always room.
14:49
But we're also you know, we expanded into
14:52
Indiana, Northwest Indiana in the last couple years
14:55
and,
14:56
continuing to just grow our footprint with through
14:58
our partnership,
14:59
with
15:00
AdventHealth and our JV in certain suburbs.
15:03
But we're just evaluating so many just
15:06
organic opportunities of growth because the population is
15:10
aging and the way that we deliver health
15:12
care and the quality that we do it,
15:14
you know, it really is
15:16
unmatched in the way that we've been able
15:18
to
15:19
transform the way that,
15:21
hospitals have been run. Like, for example, our
15:24
our Ingalls Hospital has been,
15:26
just outperforming patients tremendously thanks to some really
15:30
strong leadership there and and, again, trying to
15:33
bring quality health care to communities that are
15:35
just underserved.
15:37
So we're just always looking for opportunities like
15:39
that, from a geographical,
15:41
geographic standpoint. So
15:43
I would say that it's it's all over
15:45
the board, really. It's a very pretty vague
15:48
answer, but that's really how we're looking at
15:50
it. It is all over the board.
15:53
That that's absolutely amazing to hear. And, you
15:55
know, I know it's, certainly a lot of
15:57
different
15:58
things upcoming and great opportunities,
16:01
ahead. And and I think especially when you
16:02
look at some of the aging demographics, the
16:05
population, how it's, you know, shifting in many
16:08
ways, and and then two,
16:10
your expansion, it it's just been really cool
16:13
to see.
16:13
How's what has it been like partnering with
16:15
AdventHealth? I know their base is down in
16:17
Florida,
16:18
so I can imagine, you know, there are
16:20
some differences between,
16:22
importance down there and what you're doing in
16:24
Chicago. But,
16:25
how do you see some of those, synergies
16:27
coming into place, and and where are you
16:29
continuing to bring some of that local feel
16:31
into that partnership? It's been a wonderful partnership.
16:34
It's a joint venture,
16:36
with
16:37
the Great Lakes region of AdventHealth,
16:39
and,
16:40
it's with four hospitals in the Western Suburbs.
16:43
Been amazing partners.
16:45
They are
16:46
you know, they're they're quite large, and so
16:48
there's a lot of learnings that we learn
16:49
from them. And then,
16:51
Chicago area, we know Chicago better than than
16:54
they do, obviously. And and there's just a
16:57
lot of learnings that we share together. And
16:59
we have a lot of, you know, we
17:01
have a lot of meetings and discussion on
17:03
on how we can make sure that we're
17:05
serving our populations and
17:07
how we're gonna be working, together and maybe
17:10
even expanding. Like, for example, we just, started
17:14
a cancer network and and have a partnership
17:17
with the AdventHealth and Shawnee Mission down in
17:19
Kansas. And then on top of that, there's,
17:23
just a lot of different,
17:25
needs that we both have that we both
17:27
are,
17:28
eager to eager to fill. And so,
17:31
you know, I I would I really wanna
17:33
say that it was it's it's a really
17:35
good partnership. I came into UChicago Medicine,
17:38
towards the, end of the the whole,
17:42
negotiations, but it's been going really, really well
17:45
and also surpassing our expectations
17:47
on both sides. They've been a great partner
17:49
to work with.
17:51
That's amazing to hear. I know partnership is
17:53
so critical in the health care space, especially
17:55
today and looking ahead at, you know, how
17:57
to troubleshoot,
17:58
additional access to care and continuing to personalize
18:01
medicine and advance it and transform it into
18:03
where it needs to be. Andy, thank you
18:05
so much for joining us on the podcast
18:06
today. This has been a a really fun
18:08
conversation,
18:09
and I'm looking forward to seeing you as
18:11
well at our annual meeting. I know you'll
18:12
be speaking on a panel there, and it'll
18:14
be great to dig a little bit deeper
18:16
into these themes and then continue to, just,
18:19
you know, have additional great conversations. Yeah. Happy
18:22
to also just share the results and and
18:25
report out with with everyone on on what
18:27
we're doing. It's it's been a really fun
18:29
journey, and thanks for having me.