Episode 25 : The Pulse of Innovation:

SFTS-Live From ViVE pt2.mp3: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

SFTS-Live From ViVE pt2.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Intro/Outro:
Welcome to Smart From the Start, presented by Care.ai, the smart care facility, platform company, and leader in AI and ambient intelligence for health care. Join Steve Lieber, former CEO of HIMSS, as he interviews the brightest minds in the health provider space on truly transformative technologies that are modernizing health care.

Steve Lieber:
Hello, I'm Steve Lieber, and I'm delighted to extend a warm welcome to you for this special miniseries broadcasting live from ViVe in Los Angeles, where the energy and excitement are palpable. ViVe 2024 isn't just an event; it's a convergence of minds, ideas, and innovations in health information technology. Over 8,000 passionate individuals have gathered here to experience firsthand the cutting-edge advancements shaping the future of healthcare. From February 25th to 28th, Los Angeles served as the epicenter of digital health, with ViVe leading the charge. We're on the ground to bring you exclusive interviews with the thought leaders, innovators, and decision-makers shaping the future of healthcare live from ViVe. So settle in, unwind, and join us as we explore the business of healthcare and the boundless possibilities ahead. Welcome to live from ViVe 2024.

Steve Lieber:
We're talking with David Graham at LifeBridge Health. And so, David, their first question to you is there's a lot of stuff going on on the floor here, a lot of buzz about new products, a lot of people that we've known for years and all. What are you seeing out there? What really brings you and what are you looking for?

David Graham:
You know, my main objectives of being here really is looking at the AI space. And my look at the AI space is across every aspect of clinical care and clinical workflow and process. I'm looking for ways not only that we can improve the efficiencies of our EHR, our documentation, our summaries within the chart, how we use the tool, but also how can we capitalize on other clinical workflows and processes. People think as a physician, I'm focused just on the docs and what I can do for the docs. It's really about the whole clinical care team. What can we do for our nurses? What about a respiratory therapist or a physical therapist? How can we all become parts of a greater utility and efficiency which just gets us really to the ultimate goal, which is better efficiency for our patients, better outcomes for our patients, which can lead to better financial outcomes for us?

Steve Lieber:
Great. Lead into my follow-up question, which is about workforce. And obviously, in hospital and healthcare settings, clinical workforce is what we're all focused on. Yeah, support team is absolutely critical, but dealing with shortages, turnover, satisfaction, burnout, all of those sorts of things. What are you thinking about at LifeBridge Health in terms of how you're going to use AI and virtual care to address some of those workforce challenges and obstacles that we're dealing with?

David Graham:
We see it as a really valuable tool, essential for our workforce challenges. We know we're not going to, even if I could get the funding to go out and hire ten new people, I wouldn't be able to find them no matter what they're looking for, Steve. And so really, it's about extending our workforce. And I see that as positive in two ways of extending our workforce. It's using virtual care to maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of a nurse or a physician, and for that matter, in what they're doing. But it's also keeping people in the workforce longer. If I can take a semi-retired nurse who maybe has hip or knee issues and can have her in a room where she can manage or he can manage many patients in the virtual setting, we've extended their likelihood of being happy with their job. We've extended their ability to be a part of our workforce, and we broaden the care that we can give for our patients. So it's really, it's an extension of our existing workforce.

Steve Lieber:
Yeah. You're mentioning that in terms of extending the workforce and creating new situations, new environments for them to work in, and the idea of a command center where you can monitor multiple patients. And then what I'm hearing in talking with some folks around here is sort of the overlay of AI onto that to start giving us meaningful alerts and awareness so that one person can watch a whole lot of patients because there is a machine assistance. And I think we got to think of it that way. It's not a replacement, right? It's an assistant. And it really does allow us to extend our expertise over a larger population.

David Graham:
Right. And I think that's really valuable, not just in a nursing statement, a physician setting. If one of our ICUs is 50 miles from another, how can we extend our physicians in that capacity and that command center as well? How do we really use the AI to lower the cognitive burden, which goes along with documentation burden? People think it's just a number of clicks you have to make; that's the burden. It's a cognitive burden of having to see all the data and figure it out. Let's let AI summarize that for us. Put in front of us: What are potential actions? I'm always going to be the human in the loop. We always need that human.

Steve Lieber:
We always got to have that piece.

David Graham:
How do we make it so that we're increasing our efficiency and increasing our effectiveness, which I'm always going to measure in patient outcomes?

Steve Lieber:
Yeah, that's really great insight. And so what's the reaction you're getting out on the floor in terms of the technology that you're talking about? I can remember, you know, back in the day when we were bringing out electronic medical records and the reaction physicians in particular, and nurses too gave it to us in terms of that rollout. One, we've learned and, you know, these are not technology or IT projects; they are full team clinical projects. Get them involved at the beginning. But what are you sensing in terms of the workflow and how they're reacting to this?

David Graham:
I'm seeing a lot of interest in it because people see and understand it's what we've been trying to get to. You know, after being so frustrated by putting those electronic health records in, people were saying, Why can't it give me the data that I expect? You've got all this data in there. Why can't it give it to me? Now they're seeing an opportunity to get it delivered to them with insights. They're excited for it. I can't keep a door strong enough to keep people from breaking it down on the nursing side and the physician. Provider side, wanting to have these tools, and wanting to work with us to find more. I'm having people coming to me saying, I'd love to go to a meeting like that because I'm going to wander around the booths and get everybody's cards. So there's excitement.

Steve Lieber:
Well, and one of the things I've heard in talking with people like you in these conversations is once you've introduced some of this technology, it's: you're not taking this away. Is that the reaction?

David Graham:
It is, but in a positive way. You know, once you put an electronic health record, you go back a year later and tell them you're going to take it away. And they say, No. You know, they didn't want to get to that point.

Steve Lieber:
There's a learning curve.

David Graham:
There is. They want to get it in and they want to do it right away. And they'll never give it up. They'll never give it back. You know, there is the fact of safety. People are worried about how we're going to make sure that we've got the right tool that's really been vetted, that has the right lack of bias and everything else. But once they get using it, then they love the fact that they can be more efficient. And really, what we're giving them is time back with a patient. And that's the key.

Steve Lieber:
So are you sensing that we're moving a little quicker in terms of technology in health care? We've often been criticized as laggards compared to other industries and that sort of thing. Are we kind of getting past that mentality of, Well, status quo will be okay for a while? Can we pass?

David Graham:
I think we are. I think we're getting to the point where for so long we've done things in such a waterfall-slow, methodical, sequential way. We can do things in parallel, we can do things in a much more agile way and get to the end result quicker. And if we don't get to the result we need, fail fast and move on to the next. And that's, I think, a change in mentality health care's needed for 30 years. I think we're getting there. I think the advent of the tools that allow us to make that paradigm shift are a big advantage. So it's melding those together and let's get it better for our patients.

Steve Lieber:
Excellent. We're talking with Doctor David Graham, LifeBridge Health. Thanks for joining us.

Steve Lieber:
We're here now talking with Rebecca Stametz. Becky, good to see you. She's at Geisinger. And so we want to start out in kind of getting your impression of what's going on on the exhibit floor here. A lot of stuff, a lot of activity. This is the first day of ViVe conference when we're talking and doing this recording. So what brought you here? What are you seeing?

Rebecca Stametz:
Happy to be here. So first thanks, Steve. Nice to see you. Yeah. ViVe's an exciting time. Just got here last night, oh, actually two nights ago. And this is the first day on the floor, so. Yeah, I mean, there's a couple big themes that I'm picking up on as I kind of maneuver and have meetings and look at the show on the floor. One is absolutely AI. I'm sure that is no surprise to you or anyone who is watching this podcast prediction, making smart decisions, whether it's generative AI, right, creating new content, or NLP, or different types of just smart ways to do things. This is about prediction. This is about personalization. So I'm seeing that. I'm also not seeing it all on the clinical side. I'm seeing revenue management. I'm seeing HR. So we're thinking about front stage. We're also seeing I think a lot backstage.

Steve Lieber:
Well to achieve that efficient, effective system you got to look all over the place. It's not just on the clinical side.

Rebecca Stametz:
Yeah, absolutely. These smart technologies, right, or these emerging technologies is going to help every single person in some form or fashion, work smarter, work better, maybe more efficiently, provide those experiences. And I think that's what we're seeing here today. That's one big theme. The other big thing is just around care at home. I'm seeing that, right? Whether it's a telemedicine type of purview or that ranging definition, I'm seeing a lot of those types of aspects. How do you provide virtual care; virtual care in-patient, virtual care outpatient, asynchronously, synchronously, through remote patient monitoring, you're seeing those types of themes pop up.

Steve Lieber:
Yeah. Well, in the geography Geisinger works in, that's probably very important to you guys. Just thinking about Pennsylvania and where you are, you've got a lot of territory you're covering not all of it by far being urban.

Rebecca Stametz:
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think at Geisinger, especially from an innovation perspective or just a core mission, we are about making better health easy, and we want to be able to provide the best experiences for anyone who seeks our care. But ultimately, also we want to be able to provide the best working environment and the best types of tool sets for the people who are providing those types of cares and services. So it's really coming together for me. Back to virtual care. Absolutely. When you think about ease of use and you think about those types of better experiences, I think the more that we can do for people at home, in the places where they're most comfortable and not having to drive maybe, is optimal.

Steve Lieber:
Yeah. So you talk about the environment in the institution and the people that are involved there. Everybody I talk to is, you know, fairly close to the top is talking about workforce issues. We got shortages, we got burnout, we got turnover, we got dissatisfaction. I mean, there's just a lot that we need to focus on. What are some of the thinking at Geisinger in terms of how you're dealing with those workforce issues?

Rebecca Stametz:
I think about this day and night, Steve. I mean, the most valuable asset that any healthcare organization has is the people. That is it, right? So when you're thinking about labor challenges, you're thinking about burnout and all of these types of headlines that are making the news, technology or an enabling type of fabric can help, it could help do or to decrease burden or decrease anxiety or add efficiencies. Right? That's what we're seeking. But it's not really always just about that technology. The technology is not a strategy, right? It is a way to enable a broader strategy. So I think the key is really thinking about what these new care models could possibly do, thinking about inpatient nursing, for example, on providing maybe more efficiency or providing decreased burden or the joy of medicine, quite frankly, in some of that day-to-day work.

Steve Lieber:
Yeah. Trying to get to the point where we have everybody working at the top of their licensure, taking away the tasks that ought to be handled either automatically or by a different degreed or licensed individual. And there are, there are workflow processes that we need to address, as well as some technology that we can bring into it. You sit on our advisory panel for New Smart Hospital Maturity model that we just announced this morning at ViVe. And so give us your thought in terms of what the future might look like? What do we need to head towards? What do we need to do to? Help folks understand the challenges and the opportunities of getting to a better place in terms of how we deliver care.

Rebecca Stametz:
Yeah. I mean, when you think about an independent type of model, right, whether that's smart hospital or whether that's other domains, it's always valuable for people like me in my position or my counterparts, whether it's nursing leadership or IT leadership or facility leadership to have an independent view on what could be best in class, what type of decision should be made, what is in and out of scope, and there's just a bounce off our own ideas. Every type of situation is going to be different. What Geisinger is potentially doing as it relates to either modernizing or building new facilities, is going to be different than the other types of people who may have access to these types of artifacts. So I'm looking forward to it. I think it's valuable. I think from a smart hospital facility, it's a big portion of our work. Understanding, again, back to your point on labor challenges or nursing efficiencies or working within that space, we want to make right decisions that benefit our patients, that benefit our operators, that benefit our leadership, so that we could enable better care.

Steve Lieber:
Excellent. Thank you, Stametz from Geisinger. Sure. Appreciate you being with us today. Thank you very much for joining us.

Rebecca Stametz:
Thank you.

Steve Lieber:
We are with Atul Kanvinde from Shepherd Center. Atul and I've known each other for quite some time over the years in the various roles that we've been in. And so I want to start out, Atul, in terms of we're here at ViVe, there's a lot of stuff going out here on the floor behind us. What's the big imperative that you are thinking about as you came to ViVe this year?

Atul Kanvinde:
This is my first ViVe, so I'm actually fortunate to come to LA and to ViVe. I'm impressed. I think the smaller community conversations are very impressive versus the largeness of other conferences. And I get to talk with Steve and get to see and talk very intimately on things we are suffering with or struggling with. I'll see, I think the day tomorrow will be a good idea to understand how this fits into the larger scheme of things. But so far, so good. I'm enjoying it.

Steve Lieber:
Excellent, good. So before we came on camera, we were talking about ambient technology and some of the issues that you're thinking about at Shepherd Center. And so tell us a little bit about where you're going as you're thinking about the ambient technology, virtual care, and that sort of whole area of what we're calling smart care teams or smart care facilities.

Atul Kanvinde:
Thanks for asking. So I'm in this role for just two months, and before I joined, we had implemented a camera for observing patients, which is good. But then as I was trying to understand the full ecosystem, I realized that the way it was installed or set up may not fit us for the long term, the other needs. And I think we have talked about the word platform, and then it puts us in a difficult state to make the point again to clinical operations, saying, Well, we may have to need another system or another camera for the long-term needs of virtual care, remote monitoring, for risk, patient engagement. And I think the idea is to look at the holistic picture. I'm trying to use less of the word use cases intentionally because it puts us in an unintentional silo, because there's an answer to a use case. But when we look at the full vision where we want to be? Where, can I remotely do something because I cannot be physically present? What are the needs? What platform will fit the needs? Can we make it efficient and then get the results from it? So I think that will help me set the tone, if you will, a roadmap of sorts for the next three years so we can be not painting ourselves in the proverbial corner.

Steve Lieber:
Yeah. So you know historically the RAF-1 healthcare's been, you're slow to adopt, you know, you're behind the curve and that sort of thing. Is it any different today? Are people recognizing a greater imperative that status quo won't work and we need to move a little faster? Or are we still challenged with some of the same issues that we always have?

Atul Kanvinde:
I remain skeptical, and I say this because maybe it will be this time around we'll make a difference. But we have heard this before. We have talked about this for 10, 15 years. I think some people are saying that AI or this capability to use artificial intelligence to make things better, is creating a compelling reason to truly find opportunities. In some capacity, as an engineer, I look at this as automation. When you write an algorithm, it is automation, but when you make it intelligent, I don't need to program it, now I'm seeing potential. So I think skepticism is acceptable, but we cannot just not do anything. So I'm hopeful. But we'll have to see.

Steve Lieber:
Yeah. Well as you said, you know, we've been down these paths before and we get excited and we think there's going to be transformational change. And it takes a whole lot longer than we believed it should have ought to. But we're also in an industry where we got to be careful.

Atul Kanvinde:
That is true. And that may be the reason why we do not adapt quickly because of the risk.

Steve Lieber:
That's right. Good. Atul, thanks so much. It's great to see you.

Atul Kanvinde:
Thank you.

Steve Lieber:
And thank you for joining us.

Atul Kanvinde:
Thank you.

Intro/Outro:
Thanks for listening to Smart From the Start. For best practices in AI and ambient intelligence, and ways your organization can help lead the era of smart hospitals, visit us at smarthospital.ai, and for information on the leading smart care facility platform, visit care.ai.

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