Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT / Rachel Feinman of Tampa General Hospital Ventures

Transcript

Rachel Feinman of Tampa General Hospital Ventures · Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT

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  Hello, everyone. This is Scott King with the
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  Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
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  Thrilled today to be joined by Rachel Feynman,
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  vice president innovation
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  and managing director over at TGH
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  Ventures.
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  Rachel, how are you doing today? I'm great,
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  Scott.
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  Having a good Friday.
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  That's as it should be. We all need
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  a a good Friday. It's starting to get
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  cold here in Chicago, so I will I
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  will take it. And, thanks so much for
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  joining us. We have a lot of kinda
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  big topics and and and trends going on
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  in health care we're gonna dive into. But
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  before we do that, I was wondering if
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  you could just please tell us a little
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  bit about yourself and your background.
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  Sure. Happy to. So I'm coming up on
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  five years here at Tampa General.
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  I started
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  here
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  brand new with TGH Ventures, and it's been
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  an exciting time to build up the fund,
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  professionalize
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  our innovation function here, and lead a team
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  around this at TGH. And I think we've
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  made a great impact building a portfolio of
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  over a dozen direct investments
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  at the at the hospital. And I kinda
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  came into this a little bit uniquely as
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  a former practicing attorney
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  turned health care professional. It's been a great
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  journey,
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  though. Well, that that's really interesting background. Let
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  me ask you about that kind of lens
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  as an attorney,
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  getting into a a health care leadership role.
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  How do you think that's, I don't know,
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  giving you an edge or just kinda giving
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  you a different perspective in the industry?
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  So while it may not be formally part
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  of my title, I certainly feel like I,
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  you know, I use it every day. One
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  of the things I think as a an
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  investor, whether in health care or in any
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  other
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  industry
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  is and and an innovation generally, you really
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  have to have an unending
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  sense of curiosity
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  because we really fly high across the entire
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  organization. You know, one day we're diving deeper
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  on utilization, around imaging on the inpatient side.
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  The next day, we're focused on ambulatory
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  care navigation.
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  And so, you know, we're not we're not
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  your expert in any one area. And so
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  we really need to make sure we have
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  that
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  ability to ask all of the questions, dive
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  in deep where we need to. And, you
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  know, I think I definitely
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  bring that from my background as as an
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  attorney.
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  Not to mention looking at and negotiating deal
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  documents, which is directly relevant to the work
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  that I did in my many years as
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  an attorney.
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  Yeah. I think that's great. I think your
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  background ties in perfectly, and we definitely need
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  some curious and and creative people in health
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  care with everything going on.
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  So speaking of being curious, I'm curious,
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  to ask
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  and hear what are the things you're kinda
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  monitoring
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  in health care in related to,
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  some opportunities and headwinds?
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  Well, I think like everyone else, we are
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  monitoring,
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  the regulatory
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  environment
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  and the uncertainty
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  around all of that. You know, that is
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  something as we start to approach midterms, as
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  we're coming cautiously out of the government shutdown,
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  it is, you know, it remains something that
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  is directly relevant to the work we do,
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  where we place investments, partnerships that we land
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  on, and how we think about about our
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  growth. And, you know,
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  there there is only so much certainty to
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  be had right now, and, you know, and
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  that's driving a lot of of what it
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  is that that we do.
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  You know, that that being said, while that
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  may
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  be a headwind,
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  there's aspects of that that I think we
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  can think about, from a tailwind perspective.
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  And be as long as we're nimble and
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  we're able to quickly react, I think we
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  can end up on the right side of
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  of any which way the regulatory
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  winds may, you know, may blow. But,
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  without a doubt, opportunity
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  remains the explosive
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  growth in tech and and AI
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  and making sure that
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  we are leveraging
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  this new,
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  you know, new round of technology
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  to support our team members,
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  clinical and nonclinical,
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  and continue to provide the best care we
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  can to our patients by taking advantage of
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  those accelerations
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  in in technology.
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  You mentioned growth. How are you thinking about
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  adding growth and value to your organization?
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  Well, I think this is a time at
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  TGH,
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  frankly,
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  of a lot of growth overall. And so
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  for our team, it's making sure that we're
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  continuing to scale
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  some of the really great,
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  innovations that we've brought to bear over the
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  last couple of years and make sure that
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  we continue to drive those for,
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  for for the organization's growth. We laid in
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  a modern RTLS
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  system at TGH last year. And so this
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  year will be about really scaling that across
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  the system.
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  And that has been able to provide
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  a lot of,
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  a lot of efficiency gains for our team
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  members and being able to locate equipment more
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  easily. We're bringing it into the perioperative
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  space,
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  because we know that having our ORs run
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  on time,
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  impacts
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  everything for us. So being able to, you
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  know, really help with the surgical tray
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  tracking and optimization in the OR space,
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  leveraging computer vision there and being able to
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  scale that as we build out a new
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  tower,
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  with,
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  you know, with new ORs.
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  All of that really kind of thinking about
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  how we scale
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  innovation we've laid in
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  to match the growth of the of the
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  system overall.
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  What do you think is one risk or
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  investment
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  worth making this year?
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  So I thought a lot about this, and
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  I think one of the things as we
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  think about,
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  you know, all of the challenges that academic
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  health systems like TGH face. You know, we
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  talked about regulatory uncertainty
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  and some of those things. One of the
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  things that we have
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  that is always
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  an investment worth making is in ourselves and
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  our
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  brand and
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  the value
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  that we bring to our patients.
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  In our market,
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  and that is ever expanding,
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  our brand means something very significant to our
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  patients. So doubling down on consumer centric
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  care
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  that, you know, we we partner with others.
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  We bring our brand forward. That brand that
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  our patients can trust is something that I
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  think is always an investment worth making, and
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  we continue to do as, you know, as
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  we grow here and and we think about
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  new innovative
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  models of delivering care to our patients
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  while leveraging that,
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  Tampa General brand that is,
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  is well trusted
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  and and and very valuable to us as
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  care providers.
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  And the last thing I wanted to ask
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  you, Rachel, is where do you see the
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  best opportunities for growth in the future?
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  So I I think this coming back
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  to the explosion of AI, you know, it
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  just feels like
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  you can't
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  talk enough about where and how that is
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  going to impact growth.
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  I think
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  for us, the best opportunities
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  are to really thoughtfully layer in
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  AI, whether
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  it's agentic
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  voice agents
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  in our experience centers,
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  or it is thinking about
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  back office administrative
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  functions.
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  I think this or or really on the
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  front lines clinically
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  as we roll out ambient listening
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  and and other,
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  other solutions that really help our our frontline
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  team members and our our providers.
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  I I think that's really where the best
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  opportunity
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  for,
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  growth is,
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  for us because we're gonna be able to
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  do a lot more with less and put
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  those resources where they need to be in
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  enhancing,
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  care for our patients.
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  Well, Rachel, thanks so much for joining us
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  on the podcast. I think it was a
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  great conversation, and I look forward to working
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  with you again soon. Thanks so much for
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  having me, and have a great weekend. You
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  too.