Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT / Shakeeb Akhter, Senior Vice President & Chief Digital & Information Officer at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Transcript

Shakeeb Akhter, Senior Vice President & Chief Digital & Information Officer at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia · Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT

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  This is Laura Derna with the Becker's Healthcare
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  podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by
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  Shaqueb Akhtar,
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  senior vice president and chief digital and information
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  officer at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Shaqueb, it's
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  a pleasure to have you on the podcast
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  today.
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  Hi, Laura. Great to be here. Thanks for
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  having me.
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  Now I'm excited for our conversation because I
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  know you do some really amazing things at
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  Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and, certainly,
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  I'm looking forward to getting your perspective on
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  how things are growing and evolving for the
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  future. But before we dive into that discussion,
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  can you tell us a little bit more
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  about Children's Hospital Philadelphia and what makes it
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  unique?
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  Sure.
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  You know, I think the Children's Hospital Philadelphia
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  is a very unique place in the world.
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  You know, our mission is to really
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  bring life changing research to the communities that
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  and the patients that we
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  serve and to drive breakthroughs. So I think
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  what makes CHOP really unique is just the
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  unbelievable,
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  research,
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  clinic and clinical expertise
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  that,
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  and and and the centering that we have
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  around patient care.
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  Those three things together really drive a have
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  driven a long history of
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  strong clinical care outcomes and driving innovation and
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  breakthroughs,
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  in in in developing new research therapies
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  or pediatric care.
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  And so it's really special place to be.
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  I'm surrounded by very intelligent people every day
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  and do my work, and that inspires me
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  continues to inspire me every day.
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  That's great to hear. It definitely sounds like
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  an amazing environment to be part of providing
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  care for such an important community.
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  Now I'm curious. From the last year or
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  so, what are some of the accomplishments you're
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  most proud of?
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  Yeah. I'm glad you didn't ask me to
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  just, stick to a singular.
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  You know, the demand for what we call
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  our team here, digital technology services, has just
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  been, you know, exponentially increasing.
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  And so there are a few things that
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  I think, you know, I'm very proud of,
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  with the work that the team has done
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  and accomplished last year. One is,
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  we completed our epic refuel. So this is,
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  essentially,
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  going back to foundation epic. We achieved
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  honor roll,
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  and then also goal stars level eight with
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  that. So that's, you know, standardized a lot
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  of our clinical operational workflows
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  and helped folks save a ton of time.
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  And the work that you're doing introduced new
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  new automation features
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  and, streamlined the workflows across the enterprise.
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  Second is our digital care models work. So
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  this is work in which we're essentially trying
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  to
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  provide, virtual care services to our to our
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  patients. And so,
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  we have a we have built a remote
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  patient management program
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  that now has close to 9,000,
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  children enrolled. It allows them to essentially get
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  discharged from the hospital
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  earlier, go home earlier,
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  have their care needs taken care from at
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  home. We've seen some amazing results in terms
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  of reduction in length of stay,
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  reduction in readmission with that work, and a
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  couple of even life saving catches,
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  which is always just really satisfying to see
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  that that work is making a difference.
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  And now we're expanding that, you know, to
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  be broader than just remote patient management, virtual
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  care, virtual nursing.
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  We launched that, program,
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  this past year as well and and things
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  of it, and now we're planning on scaling
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  it.
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  From a data analytics perspective, which if anybody
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  knows me, that's, you know, always been close
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  to my heart.
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  We I'm very proud of our team. We
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  just celebrated our complete or celebrating this week,
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  actually, our completion
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  of the mic the migration of our data
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  analytics platform, which we affectionately call Helix to
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  Snowflake.
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  And so that was a incredible amount of
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  work to essentially look at all of our
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  data assets,
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  validate
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  their quality, refactor them, and then migrate our
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  data warehouse as well as our,
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  data assets to leverage this new platform,
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  which we think it will now drive, you
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  know, faster data and analytics, data and better
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  data driven decision making across the enterprise.
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  And then last but not least is the
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  progress that we made with AI. They, you
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  know, we've done an incredible amount of work
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  in that space over the last year. It's
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  been enormous focus, like, for us,
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  like, for so many others.
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  We have rolled out what we call chop
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  GPT, and it has now,
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  a little over, I believe, 900 users. We
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  may have, increased that a bit. But, essentially,
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  it's our version of chat GPT that's compliant.
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  We've also been on the kind of the
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  forefront with Epic to release some of their
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  generative AI,
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  functionality. We were the first organization in the
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  country to scale what's called ART
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  by Epic, which is essentially
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  generative AI drafting responses to patient messages, which
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  is a huge source of
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  administrative
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  burden for our clinicians, and this allows them
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  to just respond to those patient notes faster
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  with a little bit less of a burden
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  than them having to analyze the note. We're
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  now we are also going live this week
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  with something called note summarization, which allows
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  is is generative
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  AI summarizing many notes,
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  for clinicians in Epic and allows them to
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  to do their reviews of patient charts faster
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  and,
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  look through the patient history
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  and potentially,
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  discover things that are really helpful as they
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  as they care for their patients. So a
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  lot of progress that I'm really proud of
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  across all of our teams.
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  That's amazing to hear. You know, certainly awesome
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  to have that kind of results with, the
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  work you're doing with Epic in those clinical
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  workflows and then some of the other digital
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  care models as well as seeing really, really
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  strong results on the clinical side as well
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  as
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  making things more efficient for the caregivers. And
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  then I love your synopsis of everything you're
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  doing with AI. I I know that's such
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  a huge,
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  huge priority for so many health systems right
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  now is figuring out how to leverage it
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  in the right way and incorporate it strongly
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  within their broader
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  teams. And so the idea of CHOP, GPT,
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  and and everything you're doing there is is
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  really cool. Thank you for sharing that with
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  us. Now,
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  amazing things you were able to accomplish in
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  the last year. What is happening ahead? Like,
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  where do you see some of the big
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  growth opportunities for your team in the next
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  twelve months or so?
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  Yeah. I think it's a good question. I
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  think that, there is going to be no
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  shortage of opportunity. Our space,
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  both in terms of technology and health care
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  are evolving so quickly. You know, I see
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  that,
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  whether it's AI, automation, machine learning, other forms
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  of AI,
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  health care is,
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  continues to be a,
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  an industry that's really ripe for disruption,
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  and can really benefit from these tools, and
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  in our in our modern technology. So I
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  think
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  few things, three areas of focus, which I
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  think, are big opportunities for the team. One
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  is I think we're experiencing
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  an AI and automation moment in health care
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  where
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  health care systems
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  are now looking at AI and automation as
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  a potential source to,
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  solve some of the larger problems we're experiencing
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  in the industry. For example,
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  you know, decreased payer re reimbursement,
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  decrease revenue. How do we use AI automation
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  to capture more revenue,
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  and drive efficiency across the teams to help
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  reduce some of the labor costs that we
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  see? So,
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  I think that there is a large AI
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  automation moment that our teams are gonna lean
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  heavily into. How do we what is the
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  state of AI? Where are the tools that
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  are proven to to provide
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  really strong ROI
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  for our caregivers,
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  our operations,
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  operational folks in it across our entire workforce
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  to really drive ROI.
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  So that is an enormous opportunity for our
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  team to lean into,
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  learn those tools,
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  expand and implement them in use cases that
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  are really
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  powerful for our health system.
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  The second is, I think, the cloud opportunity.
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  You know, we've seen many other health systems
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  move to cloud over the last few years,
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  but now even Epic, you know, providing
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  their platform to be available in in,
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  in multiple,
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  cloud service providers. And so we're gonna have
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  a large focus on migrating many of our
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  workloads
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  from our current data centers to the cloud,
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  which is a significant shift and will help
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  us reduce the cost of technology to the
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  health system so those dollars can be deployed
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  elsewhere,
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  but also just increase our ability to scale
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  and at the speed that we can deploy
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  new technology. So we are very focused on
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  a cloud migration without a very large cloud
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  migration that'll take place over the next couple
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  of years.
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  And then last, I think this is applicable
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  to my team, but almost, you know, every
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  other tech team in the world right now,
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  which is reskilling.
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  You know, given
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  the, new technologies and,
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  you know, how fast
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  technology is evolving, especially,
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  the AI,
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  space,
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  there's a there's a large opportunity, I think,
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  for all of us and to be continuous
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  learners and to reskill ourselves to meet,
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  to learn these tools so that we can
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  be more effective and support our organizations better
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  in the long term. So we have a
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  very strong focus on
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  creating a what we're calling a digital literacy
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  curriculum across the enterprise. So give you one
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  example. We released an intel intelligent automation course.
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  It's available to all 20,000 people at shop
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  today, and it covers, you know, the basics
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  of AI, automation, etcetera.
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  We plan on expanding that to a number
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  of different courses, and we're establishing a specific
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  reskilling program for the digital technology services team
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  to learn these technologies and and,
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  and be able to implement them safely, effectively,
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  and at speed.
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  So there's a lot to do, but it's
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  exciting work.
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  Absolutely. Wow.
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  Just really, really amazing to hear, especially
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  thinking through, as you mentioned, AI moving so
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  quickly. And,
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  I love the structure you put around being
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  able to provide those reskilling continuous learning opportunities
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  for many folks across the board. I think
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  that's so critical in being able to keep
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  up with the pace of change and then,
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  to giving folks the ability to grow their
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  careers.
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  I'm curious. What are some of the challenges
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  that you're considering in navigating through right now
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  as well?
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  I think one of the biggest challenges
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  is, and I think this is not unique
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  to our teams, is the ability to prioritize.
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  You know, the the demand
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  for digital and technology
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  services has just
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  increased
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  dramatically,
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  as we see how these technologies can be
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  applied to help us meet our strategic objectives,
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  they're critical.
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  And so I think the largest challenge we
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  have is we're working across every layer of
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  the stack, technology and infrastructure and the migration
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  of the cloud I mentioned. You know,
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  our applications, rationalizing them to make sure we're
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  taking full advantage of any features that are
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  available within our applications.
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  And then, you know, kind of the top
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  of the stack, which is analytics,
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  really building analytics products that allow us to
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  make very strong, trusted, data driven decisions. And
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  the last is in this AI and automation
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  space, you know, really taking these tools and
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  applying them, which causes, you know, disruption across
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  the enterprise, but there's an insatiable demand. And
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  so I think our number one challenge is
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  bandwidth on the teams and prioritizing
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  what really matters,
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  and will drive and move the needle,
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  towards the goals that CHOP has broadly and
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  is really critical to our strategy. I think
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  that's one. The other the other large challenge
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  I see is just the change management
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  associated
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  with implementing these technologies. You know, this is
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  no longer
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  IT
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  implementing,
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  you know, a new
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  piece of infrastructure or a new piece of
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  code.
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  It is when you're talking about AI and
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  automation, for example, we it is fundamentally going
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  to change how
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  clinical and operational teams are doing their work,
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  and those folks are really busy
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  doing what they do best, which is caring
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  for patients. And so
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  finding time in their schedules to help educate
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  them, train them, work with them, and partner
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  with them to say, what is the impact
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  to your operation
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  if we were to deploy this tool? And
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  it has to happen early on. It has
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  to happen during those projects, and it has
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  to happen at the end to make sure
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  that we've deployed those technologies safely and effectively.
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  So I think operational readiness and change management
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  is going to be a challenge and something
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  we're preparing for
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  by creating playbooks with our HR partners and
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  others
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  that utilize change management
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  frameworks to help preplan,
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  track how we're doing during, and then, you
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  know, attract the impact of some of this
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  technology
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  on our staff and our workflows to make
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  sure we're really going in with eyes wide
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  open. But, you know, I think bandwidth on
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  my teams,
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  as well as bandwidth for operations and then
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  really being strong in the change management space
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  is gonna be a challenge in the next
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  twelve to twenty four months.
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  It makes a lot of sense especially given,
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  what we've talked about in terms of all
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  the different projects you have upcoming in in
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  some of the cool things as well. I
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  can imagine to continue to optimize and find
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  ways to,
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  to really make the best use out of
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  them throughout the organization.
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  Now before we wrap up here, what is
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  the number one thing that you're doing to
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  set CHOP up for long term success?
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  I think one of the one of the
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  the things that we're doing that's really important
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  is making sure that all the work we
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  do in DTS is value driven for the
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  organization. It is directly linked to you know,
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  this is something we've been, really focused on
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  to ensure that it's, the work that we
• 14:16
  do in technology is not for the sake
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  of implementing technology,
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  but it is truly connected to our enterprise
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  strategy,
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  our strategic objectives,
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  and it and the outcomes that we, as
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  an organization,
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  track and that are really important to us
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  from a
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  operational clinical performance standpoint. And so
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  our work means, essentially, what we're doing, whether
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  it's our AI strategy or automation center excellence
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  or even digital literacy, which I mentioned, each
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  one of those things maps directly to our
• 14:48
  enterprise strategy.
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  And and we are now developing outcome metrics
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  that would essentially reflect
• 14:55
  the impact of the work we're doing
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  directly
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  to the enterprise metrics that we care about
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  most. So I think that's the best service
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  we can provide to connect our work directly
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  to
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  our our mission, which is research, education,
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  and providing the best clinical care,
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  while also, you know, driving efficient and effective
• 15:15
  operations. And so we are highly focused on
• 15:18
  making sure our strategy is connected to that,
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  and we're measuring the impact of the work.
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  I think that's the number one thing we
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  can do.
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  Makes a lot of sense. Shaqib, thank you
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  so much for joining us on the podcast
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  today. This has been a really fun conversation,
• 15:29
  and we look forward to connecting with you
• 15:31
  again soon. Thanks for having me.