Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT / Isaiah Nathaniel, CPHIMS, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Delaware Valley Community Health, Inc.

Transcript

Isaiah Nathaniel, CPHIMS, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Delaware Valley Community Health, Inc. · Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT

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  This is Scott King with the Becker's Healthcare
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  podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by
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  Isaiah Nathaniel,
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  senior vice president and chief information officer at
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  Delaware Valley Community Health Inc. Isaiah, how are
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  you doing today? Thanks so much for joining
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  us.
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  It's a pleasure to be here, Scott. Thank
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  you for having me. Looking forward to the
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  conversation.
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  Yeah. We we were talking before. I know
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  you're in a pretty good mood because of
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  a, certain football team in the area winning
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  the Super Bowl. Is that correct?
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  That is absolutely correct. Being from Philadelphia,
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  born and raised,
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  being in health care, and being in Philadelphia,
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  it's such a great
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  time for Philadelphia fans because
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  the Philadelphia Eagles, my birds, have won Super
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  Bowl fifty nine
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  against Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs. So this
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  week, we're elated. We're happy, and I'm looking
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  forward to this coming Friday for the actual
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  Super Bowl parade.
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  It was quite the accomplishment, and now I
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  wanna get to the accomplishments over at Delaware
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  Valley Community Health. What what are some of
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  the things you're most proud of from last
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  year?
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  I think over the last year, what we're
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  very proud about is our interoperability
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  strategy that includes artificial intelligence, but also includes
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  cybersecurity,
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  some of the
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  things that you hear about
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  all across the country in health care.
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  I'm really proud that we have hunkered down
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  and really looked at all of our strategies
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  from making sure everything is working the way
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  that it should, not only for the patients,
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  but for our staff in general. So when
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  I talk about some of our biggest accomplishments,
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  what I'm really suggesting is that we really
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  looked at from LAN to the LAN.
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  Our infrastructure is impacting patient care, including the
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  patient experience. And we made some strategic decisions
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  to
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  thoughtfully include
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  AI, thoughtfully include digital transformation
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  into an ecosystem
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  that our patients are being able to take
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  advantage of.
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  What are some of the big organizational goals
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  you've set for 2025?
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  Some of the bigger goals that I've set
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  for 2025
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  is to really get into the optimization
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  of our overall
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  architecture.
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  And what I mean by that is I'm
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  really looking into
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  make things a bit more efficient from a
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  process perspective.
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  I can also talk about the workflow optimization
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  that we're doing. And what we're really trying
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  to say is, really, where is our data?
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  Where is it going in and out of
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  our system? And then how do we make
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  sure that at the point of care, our
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  providers are able to deliver the proper experience
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  that they want to with the infrastructure that
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  we have? And that goes all the way
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  to
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  a lot of the core principles in the
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  quadruple way.
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  So for us,
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  this year is really, really focused on
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  making sure that our systems are
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  coming on all speeds. And to parallel that
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  with the Eagles win, it's it's similar to
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  that, making sure
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  everyone understands the goals, the vision,
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  and the actual process to get done. And
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  if we're like the Eagles, we're gonna win
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  a Super Bowl ourselves this year.
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  Sounds like you might.
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  What what headwinds do you anticipate for the
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  next year or two?
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  Cybersecurity is always the biggest concern.
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  And part of what I stratify as cybersecurity
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  concerns is just understanding what the users are
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  doing each and every day. You can talk
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  about endpoint or device management,
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  but it takes one click as we know.
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  And if we learn anything from the last
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  year or last two years is that we
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  have to be really diligent in this space.
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  We really, as executives, have to have the
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  conversations
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  across the organization
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  to make sure that everyone understands that cyber
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  security is an organizational goal, not just a
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  department goal.
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  And so for me looking at cyber security,
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  what I'm trying to do is make it
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  that
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  so profound
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  and so diligent
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  and so thoughtful in
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  looking at zero trust, looking at the new
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  HIPAA rules that we hope will
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  be through and the actual rule in 2025,
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  looking at how do we make sure that
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  everything in our system can be as
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  thoughtful,
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  attentive,
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  and secure as possible. So that's that's really
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  what I'm really looking for for 2025.
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  Yeah. I I've heard a lot of people
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  kind of address cybersecurity
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  concerns.
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  I I guess to to to get into
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  it a little further, is
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  protecting patients' information, is that kind of the
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  the main thing you wanna that you don't
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  want the wrong people to get their hands
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  on?
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  That is really the main thing. And
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  when you wrap that in the center of
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  a bubble,
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  there's so many tentacles to that. It's
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  are your devices all patched?
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  Are your network infrastructure do you have segmentation
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  appropriately?
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  Are you really understanding where the flow of
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  traffic is going in and out of your
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  systems, and are you doing the proper upgrades?
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  And
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  that is really all encompassing of cybersecurity
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  and then including device and patch management
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  and device vulnerabilities.
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  But, really, for me, it's really the
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  end users and making sure that we have
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  a strong effort of training so that they
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  understand.
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  And
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  really taking an approach of
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  one user can cause a major disruption to
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  an
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  entire ecosystem like we saw in some of
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  the major breaches of last year.
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  Last question I have for you, Isaiah. How
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  are you evolving as a leader?
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  I think
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  it's very interesting that you ask me that
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  question.
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  And every year,
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  I try to give myself
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  not a New Year's resolution. I try to
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  give myself
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  more of
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  a marker on or marching orders that I
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  like to use for the entire year.
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  And just two weeks ago, I gave myself
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  my marching orders.
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  And it's a quote by Albert Einstein, and
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  the quote is,
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  no problem can be solved from the same
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  level of consciousness
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  that created it.
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  And so for me,
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  this year, my evolving
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  as a leader is looking at that
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  lens from a conscious perspective and saying,
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  okay. I might think I'm great
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  in all of these years previous, but how
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  do I really renegotiate
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  that greatness in myself?
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  And I'm a former division one athlete, so
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  I I live by this Kobe mamba mentality
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  attitude. And,
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  basically, for me and my role,
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  it's
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  saying every day, am I doing things the
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  right way? Am I leading my team the
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  right way?
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  What level of consciousness am I bringing to
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  my organization
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  to say, hey. I know we've done cybersecurity
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  training that we have to mention when we
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  talk about last year, but how do we
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  elevate that? How do I really look at
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  my entire stack? How do I look at
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  the quadruple aim? How do I just go
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  back and really look at problems
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  of yesterday
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  and give it a twenty twenty five
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  solving or solve the issue. So for me,
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  it's really no problem can be solved from
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  the same level of consciousness that created it,
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  and that has really gotten me going,
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  in this year.
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  So now I have to ask you. What
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  sport? What school?
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  So I played, Delaware State University,
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  and it was basketball.
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  Oh, that's awesome. So you're you're getting excited
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  for March here.
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  Oh, I'm really excited. Listen, man. This this
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  has just been a great couple of months
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  for me,
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  going from January to February
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  to March coming up very soon. So and
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  the fact that, my alma mater, Delaware State
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  University,
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  has signed a former Eagle, Deshaun Jackson, to
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  be our head coach of the football team,
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  it's just a very, very exciting time for
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  us. And that Eagle was that Eagle's connection
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  is just it's proven to be one for
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  the lifetime.
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  That's awesome. It's a great time to be
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  you. I I appreciate you joining us today.
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  It was a a great conversation, Isaiah. Some
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  good health care talk and and definitely some
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  good sports talk too. So thanks for joining
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  us. Look forward to working with you again
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  soon. Pleasure is mine. See you soon.