In this episode, Dr. Stephen K. Klasko, former CEO of Jefferson Health, Executive in Residence at General Catalyst, Board Chair at DocGo, Teleflex, and one of healthcare’s most provocative voices, challenges the industry to rethink its fundamental assumptions and move toward a more sustainable, patient-centered future. He argues that despite years of discussion around value-based care and digital transformation, true disruption has been limited because stakeholders remain unwilling to fundamentally change existing business models.

Dr. Klasko argues that the healthcare system is broken, fragmented, expensive, and inequitable and that true disruption, like what Uber did to taxis or Amazon to retail, will demand that some players fail. He makes the case that the annual physical visit is a farce, and that continuous health narratives powered by wearables and AI companions are the future of proactive, personalized care.

On the tech-provider collaboration front, Dr. Klasko identifies – founder ego, misaligned incentives, and EHR-era skepticism as the biggest barriers. He advocates for co-developing solutions, sharing equity, and building genuine partnerships. Dr. Klasko’s message to healthcare leaders is unambiguous: stop turning things around 360 degrees and start making real, uncomfortable changes. Take a listen.

This guest appearance was facilitated through conversations initiated at Health Tech Summit by Cornell Tech.

In this episode, Dr. Eric Stecker, Co-founder and Chief Medical Officer at Insight Health, explores how autonomous AI agents are reshaping cardiovascular care and population health in the United States.

Dr. Stecker draws a critical distinction between autonomous action and autonomous decision-making, arguing that AI can deliver enormous clinical value today by acting autonomously on well-established care protocols, without waiting for fully autonomous diagnostic AI. He highlights that preventable conditions like hypertension and high cholesterol already have decades of evidence behind them; the real gap is in implementation, where AI-powered agents can identify at-risk patients, prompt appropriate prescriptions, and check in on medication adherence by reducing millions of avoidable cardiac events.

Dr. Stecker emphasizes that clinician involvement, not just advisory oversight, is essential to avoid alert fatigue, documentation overload, and signal-to-noise failures. He states that meaningful AI adoption requires building trust with both healthcare workers and patients, starting with autonomous action today while responsibly advancing toward autonomous clinical decision-making tomorrow. Take a listen.

This guest appearance was facilitated through conversations initiated at ViVE.

In this episode, Rachel Feinman, SVP of Innovation and Managing Director, TGH Ventures at Tampa General Hospital, shares how the organization is breaking out of “pilot purgatory” to turn digital innovation into measurable impact. With a clear mandate to move beyond endless experimentation, the focus is on starting with a strong thesis, partnering intentionally, and scaling quickly when results are proven.

Rachel reflects on her journey from law to healthcare, bringing a unique lens on strategy, execution, and deal-making. She highlights the balance healthcare must strike that is moving fast in operational and administrative workflows while taking a deliberate, governance-led approach to clinical innovation. This “go slow to go fast” mindset enables both safety and speed.

She also underscores the growing role of AI in improving logistics, supporting care teams, and unlocking real-time insights, while emphasizing responsible deployment. Beyond technology, the real opportunity lies in connecting fragmented care journeys and extending care beyond hospital walls to create a more seamless, patient-centered experience. Through strategic investments and a focus on outcomes, Tampa General is building an innovation model designed to scale impact, not just ideas. Take a listen.

In this episode, Aditya Bansod, CTO and Co-Founder of Luma Health, about why healthcare AI often underdelivers — and what leaders must do to turn promise into performance.

Aditya argues that AI’s challenge in healthcare isn’t ambition, but execution. While new tools are emerging rapidly, most remain point solutions that fail to integrate into the complex workflows that move patients from scheduling to care delivery. True impact, he says, depends on orchestrating the “last mile” of healthcare, referrals, intake, documentation, and the countless operational handoffs that determine whether care actually happens.

He shares how Luma approaches AI adoption with flexible guardrails, allowing health systems to calibrate automation based on confidence thresholds and maturity. The conversation also explores the rise of agentic AI, the tension between human-in-the-loop oversight and autonomy, and why CIOs are navigating a messy but necessary consolidation phase.

Looking ahead, Aditya is optimistic that AI will transform patient access and engagement, only if it’s deeply embedded into workflows, not layered on top of them. Take a listen.

In this episode, Dr. Andrea Willis, SVP and Chief Medical Officer at BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, shares how payers can harness AI to advance affordable, accessible, and more human-centered care.

From her clinical roots to leading population health, quality, and health equity initiatives, Dr. Willis brings a deeply personal commitment to service. She describes how AI is being deployed across care management and utilization management, not to replace clinicians or deny care, but to augment teams, accelerate evidence-based decisions, and close gaps in care. In care management, AI-powered summarization and prompting help staff stay fully present with members while improving engagement and measurable outcomes. In utilization management, transparency, evidence-based criteria, and clear documentation remain foundational to rebuilding provider trust. She also highlights that relevance matters more than data volume, and that guided self-service must balance automation with timely human escalation.

Dr. Willis emphasizes transparency in prior authorization, cross-functional governance, AI literacy goals across the enterprise, and strong PHI protections. For here, scaling AI responsibly – through interoperability, collaboration, and measurable impact – is key to rebuilding trust and transforming the healthcare experience. Take a listen.

In this episode, Dr. Amit Phull discusses what responsible AI adoption in healthcare really looks like, starting with trust, usability, and preserving clinician judgment. He emphasizes that ease of use and confidence in outputs are non-negotiable for clinician adoption, especially in already time-constrained workflows.

The discussion also explores why AI must be built with clinicians, not simply deployed for them, and how poorly integrated tools risk adding friction instead of value. Dr. Phull also talks about preserving a clinician’s “spidey sense”—the intuition developed through experience—while using AI to augment, not override, clinical judgment. The conversation also touches on how success should be measured beyond dashboards, including recurrent use, time savings, and reductions in burnout.

Dr. Phull states that AI, when designed thoughtfully, can help clinicians reclaim time, sharpen expertise, and focus more fully on patient care, without losing the human edge that defines great medicine. Take a listen.

In this episode, Dr. Chethan Sathya, Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at Northwell Health, unpacks why healthcare innovation only scales when clinicians, public health, and AI are designed to work together.

Dr. Sathya shares his journey from surgery to journalism to public health advocacy, including leading gun violence prevention efforts. He explains why most AI pilots fail, because of poor workflow integration and clinician burden, and why ambient intelligence, tele-specialty care, and agentic AI are poised to scale. His message is clear: build technology alongside clinicians, not around them. Take a listen.

In this episode, Jonathan Bush, Founder & CEO of Zus Health, shares a bold vision for the next phase of healthcare transformation. Drawing on decades of experience, Jonathan argues that while EHR adoption is largely complete, today’s systems remain fee-for-service–oriented, creating fragmented views of patients – what he describes as the “blind men and the elephant” problem. The result: clinicians still lack a complete, longitudinal picture of the patient and rely on repeated tests and “bags full of records.”

Jonathan explains how Zus Health is re-architecting healthcare data by creating a longitudinal, always-on common patient record. Zus is an API-first platform built on an AI-enabled backbone that aggregates, structures, and continuously updates data across multiple EMRs. He emphasizes the power of network effects, where shared intelligence can eliminate redundant tests and unnecessary care.

The conversation also explores why interoperability must move beyond regulatory compliance to become core infrastructure for value-based care, and how AI-driven summarization and agentic workflows can reduce clinician burden while enabling proactive, patient-centered care. Take a listen.

In this episode, Dr. Greg Goldmacher, Associate VP of Clinical Research at Merck, known as MSD outside of the United States and Canada, explains how AI is transforming imaging, clinical trials, and early-stage drug development. Greg describes endpoints as the core of every clinical trial, since they determine whether a therapy is safe or effective. He notes that AI is not new to imaging and aligns well with pattern recognition, yet its real value lies in identifying details that humans often miss.

Greg stresses that drug development still depends on huge volumes of data spread across legacy systems. Without strong data standardization, AI cannot deliver reliable results. He also points to the FDA’s evolving guidance on AI and emphasizes the need for rigorous validation before using AI-derived measurements for regulatory decisions.

Greg highlights the opportunity to improve efficiency, reduce human burden, and generate more consistent insights. With thoughtful adoption, AI can support better decisions in clinical development and improve outcomes for patients. Take a listen.

In this episode, Lisa Hunter, Senior Director of Federal Policy and Advocacy at United States of Care, discusses how her organization is working to ensure every American has access to affordable, high-quality care, with a particular focus on rural communities. She explains the new Rural Health Transformation Program—a 50-billion-dollar, five-year federal investment that gives states a rare opportunity to redesign rural health delivery, address workforce gaps, and move toward “patient first care” models that emphasize coordination, whole-person care, and sustainable payment structures.​​

Lisa highlights a growing trust gap around AI in healthcare, noting that patients are more comfortable with AI in back-office and ambient use cases compared to roles that feel like they replace clinicians. She stresses the need for rigorous listening, research, and language that resonates with people, so policy and technology decisions reflect real experiences rather than abstract concepts. Take a listen.

In this episode, Matthew Blosl, CEO of DexCare, discusses how he helps high-growth healthcare technology companies navigate critical inflection points by pairing disciplined focus with a culture that embraces failure as a path to innovation. He describes DexCare’s journey from a Providence Health incubated initiative to a scaled care orchestration platform that helps health systems address a “trilemma” of rising patient demand, clinician shortages, and margin pressure.

Matt explains DexCare’s co-innovation model, where every health system becomes an innovation partner rather than a one-size-fits-all implementation, enabled by modern data and AI capabilities. He outlines a pragmatic AI roadmap: first improving internal operations, then enhancing existing products, and finally accelerating true product innovation, while warning that AI can easily drive teams off-mission without strong focus. Matt also points out how fast things are shifting in healthcare and encourages leaders to rethink how they run their organizations and come together more often to tackle the challenges ahead. Take a listen.

In this episode, Dr. Felicia Newhouse, Founder of AI-Powered Women, highlights the need for human centered leadership as the foundation for AI’s future in healthcare. Reflecting on her near-death experience and two decades in tech, she warns that rapid automation may boost efficiency but often leaves people feeling overwhelmed, disconnected, and burned out.

Dr. Newhouse emphasizes that true progress requires qualities only humans can bring, empathy, intuition, emotional intelligence, and what she describes as “systems awareness” and “systems feeling.” These capabilities help leaders understand the broader human impact of digital tools and design AI that supports well-being rather than replacing human judgment.

She urges organizations to slow down, prioritize dignity and belonging, and adopt AI in ways that strengthen human connection. According to Dr. Newhouse, the real unlock for healthcare will come when AI is guided by compassion, humanity, and mindful leadership. Take a listen.

In this episode, Dr. Chris Gallagher, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Access TeleCare, shares valuable insights on the evolution of AI, how virtual care is reshaping access, staffing, and costs across health systems, and why making technology effortless is the key to driving a successful virtual-first care strategy.

Chris recounts the pioneering achievement of building the first virtual ICU in Texas in 2013, which quickly proved life-saving and marked a turning point in virtual health adoption. He discusses how they are addressing physician distribution issues by augmenting in-person staff, shifting its focus from predominantly rural to 70% urban facilities by offering essential 24/7 virtual specialists to care teams. Chris stresses that solutions must be effortless for clinicians, “Fisher Price easy,” so adoption becomes self-perpetuating.

Chris highlights AI’s immense potential to improve efficiency, enhance physician experience, and expedite patient care, especially through automation and a future “virtual-first” healthcare strategy. Take a listen.

In this episode, Charles E. Christian, VP of Technology and CTO at Franciscan Health, shares reflections from his five-decade journey in healthcare IT and how Franciscan is blending mission, compassion, and innovation to transform patient care.

Chuck explains how the health system is approaching AI adoption through strong governance and a clear focus on solving real problems, from reducing clinician burden to enhancing care delivery. He highlights several key initiatives, including voice agent pilots that help physicians reclaim after-hours time, a Tech Innovation Lab that allows teams to safely experiment and “fail fast,” and a virtual nurse mentoring program that connects senior nurses with new graduates for real-time guidance.

Chuck states that technology should serve, not distract, and the true goal of digital transformation is to enable better care for people. Take a listen.

In this episode, Anil Saldanha, Chief Innovation Officer at Rush University System for Health shares how Rush is addressing deep-rooted health inequities in Chicago by targeting the life expectancy gap through bold, system-wide interventions.

Anil highlights Rush’s commitment to public health, chronic disease management, and early cancer detection by referring to innovative initiatives like Rush Connect Plus, which is an on-demand, subscription-based virtual care model, and the rollout of Grail’s multi-cancer early detection test. He explains their use of cutting-edge AI technologies, from ambient listening and AI-powered symptom checkers to novel behavioral health kiosks leveraging multi-agent generative AI for PTSD care.

Anil points to the impact of consumer-driven digital tools, health equity analytics, and a data warehouse that will enable targeted interventions for chronic care. He closes with optimism about AI’s future in healthcare, the shift toward “connected care anywhere,” and the growing role of empowered, informed patients. Take a listen.

In this episode, Dr. Paul Yi, Associate Member, Department of Radiology, Section Chief of Intelligent Imaging Informatics (I3) at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, shares his journey from radiology training at Johns Hopkins to leading AI initiatives at St. Jude, focusing on pediatric cancer and other catastrophic diseases. 

Dr. Yi highlights how AI is transforming the radiology workflow, from automating imaging protocols and improving image reconstruction to translating complex medical reports into patient-friendly language. He emphasizes the importance of data strategy, discussing the integration of clinical EMRs, PACS, and research databases, ensuring interoperability while leveraging domain expertise across disciplines. He explores generative AI applications, including virtual imaging trials that simulate patient populations for safer, faster, and cost-effective clinical research, as well as patient-facing applications like AI chatbots for healthcare education, noting both potential and limitations in trust and accuracy.

Dr. Yi reflects on bridging research and commercialization, underscoring the need to align academic and industry incentives. He envisions a future powered by multimodal AI models that combine imaging, vitals, labs, and clinical text to deliver comprehensive, personalized insights – accelerating precision care and innovation in pediatric oncology. Take a listen.

In this episode, Dr. Andreas Michaelides, Clinical Psychologist helping shape Clinical AI with Google and Former Chief of Psychology at Noom, discusses the evolving intersection of technology and psychology, emphasizing how digital platforms and behavioral science can drive meaningful health outcomes at scale.

Drawing from his extensive experience at Noom and current role at Google, he highlights the value of integrating personalized care, education, and accountability through innovative technologies such as AI and wearables. Dr. Michaelides explores the ethical complexities and societal impact of AI-driven health solutions, underscoring the necessity for thoughtful governance and responsible implementation. He notes the transformative potential of predictive analytics and adaptive digital tools in enabling better assessments, interventions, and relationships between humans and technology.

Dr. Michaelides encourages practitioners to embrace uncertainty, unlearn traditional paradigms, and innovate by merging expertise with curiosity. While acknowledging fears around the rapid pace of tech advancement, he conveys an optimistic outlook on the future of digital health and behavioral change. Take a listen.

In this episode, Jan Beger, Global Head of AI Advocacy at GE Healthcare, shares his mission to bridge the gap between the conceptual promise and real-world impact of AI in healthcare. He stresses on the critical need to build AI literacy and trust among clinicians, executives, and students, and explains why a human-centric approach and strong change management are critical for successful adoption.

Jan highlights GE’s global AI literacy programs that train employees and clinicians on responsible use, practical applications, and critical evaluation of AI. He highlights how moving beyond pilots to strategic, systemwide deployment requires continuous education, executive engagement, and a focus on change management. He also spoke about GE’s successes such as improved efficiency in software development and innovations like AI-guided handheld ultrasound devices that democratize imaging by supporting users of varied expertise, as well as the challenges of keeping AI tools robust and up-to-date.

Jan addresses the future of the workforce, noting that adaptability and tech fluency will be essential as 70% of job skills evolve by 2030. He encourages healthcare leaders to see AI not just as technology, but as a transformative tool to enhance care and outcomes. Take a listen.

In this episode, Thomas Fuchs, Chief AI Officer at Eli Lilly, shares his journey from early machine learning research to spearheading transformative AI initiatives across the pharmaceutical value chain. Lilly is running over a thousand AI projects—from drug discovery and development to manufacturing and commercial operations—leveraging innovations like language models for chatbots, computer vision for quality control, and biomarker development.

Thomas emphasizes trust, transparency, and collaboration as critical to AI adoption, supported by AI certification programs for all Lilly technology employees, as well as AI education resources being made available for everyone at Lilly. He also highlights the company’s unique “lab-in-the-loop” setups that generate synthetic data to accelerate innovation.

Thomas shares real-world successes, including AI-assisted drug discovery and intelligent chatbots, and how AI is building confidence across the organization. With robust data infrastructure and scalable strategies for synthesizing large datasets, Lilly is driving rapid innovation. Thomas predicts faster drug design, broader access to medicines, and continuous education as defining trends for AI in healthcare. Take a listen.

In this episode, Dr. Girish N. Nadkarni, Chief AI Officer at Mount Sinai Health System, discusses his background as a physician-technologist and his vision for AI in healthcare as a tool that augments rather than replaces clinicians.

Dr. Nadkarni shares insights on how AI is reshaping healthcare. He describes AI as an ‘arbitrage of knowledge for time,’ enabling physicians to spend less time on administrative work and more time with patients. He also shares real-world examples including ambient AI scribes that eliminate manual note-taking and predictive models that detect patient deterioration hours before it occurs, especially in critical care units such as the NICU. Dr. Nadkarni distinguishes predictive AI’s deterministic approach from generative AI’s flexible, non-linear potential, emphasizing the need for governance, ethics, and trust in deploying both. He outlines Mount Sinai’s cross-functional framework—spanning care, operations, workforce, and research—supported by an assurance lab to monitor bias and safety.

Dr. Girish highlights current AI applications that save physicians time and enable proactive care, while predicting future developments will include multimodal integration of text, voice, images, and video to better reflect clinical decision-making processes. Take a listen.

In this episode, Dr. Michael Docktor, Co-founder and CEO at Dock Health, shares his journey from being a pediatric gastroenterologist at Boston Children’s Hospital to building a healthcare technology company. Inspired by his sister’s medical experiences and his family’s design background, Dr. Doctor combined medicine, design, and technology to address inefficiencies in operational workflows, particularly the administrative burdens that weigh heavily on providers and staff.

Dr. Docktor explains how Dock Health was created to serve as a productivity platform for healthcare, filling the gap between electronic health records (EHRs) and the countless administrative tasks not supported by them. By digitizing and streamlining processes like referrals, patient intake, and care coordination—often still managed through faxes, emails, and spreadsheets—Dock Health aims to reduce redundancy, improve visibility, and enhance the overall user experience for healthcare organizations of all sizes.

The conversation also focuses on the role of AI and automation in transforming healthcare operations. Dr. Docktor highlights Dock Health’s “AI‑first” approach, incorporating generative AI and agentic models to automate routine tasks while keeping humans in the loop for oversight. He envisions a near future where administrative inefficiencies are largely eliminated, giving clinicians more time with patients. Dr. Docktor also describes AI as the “big unlock” that could massively reduce the trillions wasted annually in healthcare administration, making care more efficient, accessible, and patient‑centered. Take a listen.

In this episode, Sameer Sethi, SVP and Chief AI & Insights Officer at Hackensack Meridian Health, shares how the health system is embedding AI directly into clinician workflows, moving from theory to real-world transformation.

Sameer outlines practical applications such as specialty-specific clinical note summarization, which reduces “pajama time” for physicians and improves patient interactions, and sentiment analysis of patient survey data, which surfaces actionable insights at scale. He also describes Hackensack’s AI governance framework – a board-approved structure with six strategic focus areas, guided by cross-departmental representation to ensure safe, effective adoption.

Emphasizing that AI solutions serve as decision-support rather than decision-making tools, Sameer highlights the importance of keeping a “human in the loop.” He sees agentic AI as the next frontier – integrating LLMs, RPA, and rule engines to automate complex processes such as prior authorizations and denial management. The result: faster workflows, administrative efficiency, and truly personalized care at scale. Take a listen.

In this episode, Ramesh Kumar, CEO and Co-founder of Zakipoint Health, shares his perspective on addressing healthcare’s persistent challenges—high costs, lack of price transparency, and fragmented care. He emphasizes that patients, or ‘members,’ often struggle to understand the true value of care, even as regulatory pushes for transparency continue.

Ramesh highlights how greater data visibility and patient empowerment can shift the system toward value-based outcomes. He emphasizes that true digital transformation goes beyond compliance and organizations must leverage transparency in data to create actionable insights for patients, employers, and providers alike. He also discusses the role of AI and agentic AI in simplifying complexity, reducing administrative burden, and enabling more personalized, efficient care delivery.

Ramesh underscores the need for co-creation between payers, providers, and technology innovators to build sustainable solutions. For him, the convergence of transparency, digital innovation, and AI marks a pivotal moment to reimagine healthcare’s future. Take a listen.

In this episode, Dr. Regina Druz, Founder and CEO at Holistic Heart Centers, shares her journey from conventional hospital-based cardiology to leading the charge in personalized precision medicine and longevity-focused care. She explains why optimizing health is the cornerstone of extending lifespan and how digital health innovations must deliver value for patients, clinicians, and caregivers—improving outcomes, reducing burnout, lowering costs, and meeting regulatory demands.

A pioneer in telemedicine, digital devices, and AI tools such as ambient scribes and large language models, Dr. Druz examines the opportunities and challenges of Agentic AI in transforming healthcare workflows. She envisions a near future where AI goes beyond administrative tasks to provide advanced clinical decision support—predicting and preventing conditions like Alzheimer’s and heart failure years before symptoms arise.

For Dr. Druz, the “N-of-1” approach—tailoring care to each individual’s unique biology and circumstances—will become the new standard, redefining population health through truly personalized care. Take a listen.

In this episode, Inderpal Kohli, Healthcare Executive Leader (Englewood Health, HSS, and Columbia University Medical Center), shares his vision for scalable digital health transformation. He outlines a proven framework focused on patient engagement, clinically integrated care, and remote patient monitoring—strategies that have already driven an 18–20% increase in online scheduling and improved outcomes in preventive care campaigns.

Inderpal also reflects on how a chance project in biomedical informatics sparked his passion for digital transformation, leading to pioneering work in digital pathology, remote monitoring, and digital front door solutions. He explores the promise of ambient documentation in reducing clinician burden and enhancing satisfaction, and addresses the persistent challenge of integrating EHR systems with third-party tools—stressing the importance of seamless integration for meaningful impact.

He also discusses the potential of digital twins as a game-changer, shares lessons on building agile, consumer-focused digital teams, and weighs in on how GenAI and agentic automation are poised to reshape care delivery. Take a listen.

In this episode, Ashis Barad, Chief Digital Technology Officer at the Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS), discusses his journey in rehumanizing healthcare through digital health transformation. A practicing pediatric gastroenterologist, Ashis advocates for tech that genuinely solves problems, viewing himself as a “doctor first, technologist second.”

Ashis stresses on Agentic AI and change management as pivotal elements in healthcare transformation. Healthcare is inherently workflow-centric, not a series of isolated moments. Barad explains Agentic AI as a workflow orchestrator designed to reduce administrative waste, enhance patient experience, and accelerate the adoption of best practices.

Ashis outlines HSS’s strategy to leverage its specialized focus to build a modern data lakehouse architecture and deploy AI-powered solutions through key partnerships. He envisions rehumanizing healthcare by automating backend processes, expanding clinician-patient time, and codifying best practices that can be scaled globally, especially in musculoskeletal care and movement. Take a listen.

In this episode, Michael Marchant, Director of Digital Applications at Sutter Health, shares his expert perspective on how interoperability and AI are reshaping the future of healthcare. He discusses the promise of TEFCA (Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement) in expanding data exchange beyond treatment to support broader care coordination. He also highlights California’s Data Exchange Framework as a model for equitable and inclusive health information sharing across diverse communities.

The conversation explores the real-world applications of generative AI in clinical settings, from ambient documentation to AI-powered inbox agents that reduce administrative burden and help clinicians deliver faster, more personalized care.

Michael emphasizes the importance of assistive, not autonomous, AI, spotlighting use cases where technology enhances the capabilities of care teams without replacing the human touch. Drawing on decades of experience in health IT and data policy, Michael offers a grounded yet visionary take on building scalable, interoperable, and patient-centered digital ecosystems. Take a listen.

In this episode, Michael Hughes, Senior EVP, Chief Transformation and Innovation Officer at United Church Homes, shares how the organization is reshaping the future of senior living. Moving beyond a traditional housing-first model, United Church Homes is leading a shift toward a wellness-first approach that prioritizes health, dignity, and independence for older adults. 

With more than 100 communities across 15 states, the organization is leveraging scalable, data-driven strategies to support aging in place, particularly for vulnerable populations. Mike explains how understanding and addressing social determinants of health (SDOH) is key to improving outcomes, and how machine learning is helping evaluate the impact of non-clinical interventions in real-world settings.

From transitioning fall detection to fall prevention, to exploring lightweight sensor technologies, Mike emphasizes the importance of proactive care and personal motivation in sustaining long-term wellness. He also introduces the organization’s Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR) program—a unique initiative that brings innovators into senior communities to co-create human-centered solutions rooted in real-life experience. Take a listen.

In this episode, J.D. Whitlock, Chief Information Officer at Dayton Children’s Hospital, discusses how a smaller pediatric health system is embracing digital transformation and generative AI while navigating resource constraints.

Mr. Whitlock shares how platforms like Epic, Workday, and Microsoft are enabling innovation from within, especially through features like ambient documentation and coding assistance. With a fast-follower mindset, Dayton Children’s focuses on adopting proven tools from peer organizations rather than being the first to experiment. Mr. Whitlock emphasizes the importance of balancing hard ROI with softer benefits such as improving physician satisfaction and reducing burnout.

He also discusses the challenges of innovation in pediatric care, where many AI tools are still designed with adult medicine in mind. From building data infrastructure to enabling smarter imaging through a vendor-neutral archive, Mr. Whitlock highlights the importance of governance, strategic procurement, and cross-functional collaboration in delivering sustainable innovation. Take a listen.

In this episode, Alicia Abella, AI Product Lead at Novo Nordisk, discusses how she is helping drive responsible AI adoption in the pharmaceutical industry. She shares her early experiences in AI, starting with her PhD research at Columbia University on image processing and natural language processing. 

At Novo Nordisk, the current focus is on applying AI to commercialization functions including – marketing, legal, and HR – beyond its traditional use in drug discovery. Alicia highlights key use cases such as generative AI for knowledge search, content generation for marketing campaigns, and traditional AI techniques for deriving insights about healthcare providers. She also emphasizes the importance of applying a product mindset to AI development by evaluating user needs, business value, and compliance from the outset.

Alicia notes that adding effective governance can help innovation move in the right direction. She also talks about an internal AI Ambassador Program and emphasizes the importance of designing intuitive AI tools to increase adoption. She concludes by discussing future trends in AI, including contextual intelligence, user-centric design, and the opportunity for AI to enhance, rather than replace human decision-making. Take a listen.

In this episode, Sara Vaezy, Chief Transformation Officer at Providence, discusses Providence’s strategic approach to digital transformation, consumer engagement, and responsible AI adoption to improve both patient and caregiver experiences. 

Sara highlights the importance of delivering personalized, frictionless, and proactive healthcare experiences across digital touchpoints. At Providence, a standout initiative is the use of conversational AI to enable ‘message deflection’ which reduces the volume of patient messages sent to physicians by helping patients resolve queries instantly through intelligent chatbots. Sara emphasizes building a digital workforce not just to automate routine tasks, but to rethink and redesign workflows creatively. With foundational investments in cloud infrastructure, unified data systems, and interoperability, Providence is well-positioned to scale AI use cases like ambient documentation and care navigation. 

Sara also shares how Providence has incubated and spun off innovative startups like DexCare and Praia Health to address critical gaps in supply-demand matching and patient personalization. She advocates for ethical AI governance, better observability tools, and designing AI-native healthcare processes that go beyond simply replacing human tasks. Take a listen.

In this episode, Dr. Vishisht Mehta, Director of Interventional Pulmonology, Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada and also the Department Chair of Pulmonology at MountainView Hospital, discusses his passion for clinical practice and emerging technologies like AI and telemedicine. 

Dr. Mehta shares how his interest in AI began through vendor outreach and evolved into a deeper exploration of its applications in pulmonology, particularly in early lung cancer detection and functional imaging. He highlights the persistent underutilization of lung cancer screenings, with only 5–6% of eligible patients getting screened, and notes AI’s role in identifying high-risk individuals and managing lung nodules. He also emphasizes the value of telemedicine in improving patient access and outcomes. 

Dr. Mehta has also created a resource hub – https://pulmonary.ai/ – and produced educational videos to guide clinicians in understanding and adopting AI tools. He advises that physicians must gain foundational AI literacy to make informed technology decisions in an increasingly digital healthcare landscape. Take a listen.

In this episode, Aneesh Chopra, Chief Strategy Officer at Arcadia shares a bold vision for advancing healthcare equity through smarter data use, AI, and workflow innovation. He unpacks the journey from the early days of “meaningful use” to today’s AI-powered, value-based care landscape, highlighting how intelligent workflows can reach underserved populations and improve outcomes at scale.

Aneesh introduces the concept of a “healthcare information fiduciary,” a model where apps and platforms act solely in the patient’s best interest, free from institutional financial incentives. He discusses how this, combined with emerging AI capabilities and interoperability standards like CMS’s FHIR APIs, can empower consumers and scale high-impact care delivery.

With real-world success stories, from improved hospital ratings via conversational AI to national gains in ADT data coverage, this episode offers healthcare leaders a roadmap for driving innovation through public-private collaboration and patient-centered data strategy. Take a listen.

In this episode, Rob Posner, Chief Technology Officer, AbsoluteCare discusses how the organization is transforming care delivery through a member-centric, value-based model that emphasizes advanced care management and the social determinants of health.

Rob explains AbsoluteCare’s proactive, longitudinal care management approach – enabled by technology that empowers mobile care teams to engage with members wherever they are, whether at home, in the community, or within hospital settings. He underscores the importance of real-time data access, EMR availability at the point of care, and the role of transitional care managers in ensuring continuity post-discharge. Rob also emphasizes how governance, change management, and attention to operational details such as connectivity, mobility, and privacy are critical to success.

Rob also explores AbsoluteCare’s innovation strategy, including the use of ambient clinical documentation, AI-driven diabetic retinopathy screening, and organization-wide adoption of Microsoft Copilot. Rob shares his vision for the future of AI agents and robotic process automation to streamline workflows, reduce provider burden, and ultimately improve care outcomes. Take a listen.

He shares how AI is being applied to reduce administrative delays, including the use of generative AI to summarize clinical data and intelligent agents to assist with scheduling and information retrieval processes. The conversation also touches on enabling real-time approvals for a majority of cases, designing algorithms informed by physician input, and navigating the shift to remote work. The discussion offers insight into how technology can address systemic inefficiencies while maintaining clinical oversight. Take a listen.

In this episode, Dr. T.Y. Alvin Liu, Inaugural Director, James P Gills Jr MD and Heather Gills AI Innovation Center at Johns Hopkins Medicine shares his journey in healthcare AI, with a focus on image analysis and real-world applications.

Dr. Liu discusses the FDA-approved autonomous AI system for diabetic retinopathy screening, which enables early detection in primary care settings and improves screening adherence. He outlines successful AI implementations at Johns Hopkins, including prior authorization pilots using generative AI and the importance of operational understanding in deployment. He also discussed the intersection of value-based medicine and artificial intelligence, and the challenges of implementing successful AI programs. 

At the enterprise level, Dr. Liu emphasizes the need for strong AI governance to assess safety, effectiveness, and ROI. He outlines key challenges for AI startups, especially around reimbursement and regulation, and urges them to pursue sustainable business models. He also suggests closer collaboration among startups, VCs, and integrated health systems to bridge the gap between innovation and real-world adoption, essential for scaling AI responsibly and delivering long-term value in healthcare. Take a listen.

In this episode, Patrick Mobley, Co-Founder and CEO at Vivid Health shares how his personal background and professional journey inspired him to launch a platform that improves clinical workflows using generative AI.

Built in collaboration with Redesign Health, Vivid Health’s platform is designed to automate time-consuming, manual processes, such as patient outreach, assessments, care planning, and follow-ups—freeing nurses and care teams to focus on providing care. Patrick highlights their “provider-led AI” approach, where providers retain final control over AI-generated outputs. The platform supports over 100 conditions across 16 specialties and is being adopted in primary care, home health, and hospice settings. It reduces documentation time by over 50% and eliminates outreach labor in chronic care management workflows.

Patrick also emphasizes the platform’s value in scaling care, improving patient engagement, and supporting revenue generation, while offering deeper, more honest insights through automated, holistic patient assessments. Take a listen.

In this episode, Shekar Ramanathan, Executive Director of Digital Transformation at Atlantic Health System shares how the organization is evolving from traditional automation to a future shaped by agentic AI. He shares Atlantic Health’s journey from pilot projects to scalable AI implementations, highlighting real-world use cases such as ambient scribing, intelligent message routing, and virtual medical assistants for patient engagement.

Shekar outlines how Atlantic leverages generative AI to tackle both clinical and operational challenges, guided by a strategy that aligns AI initiatives with organizational goals. He emphasizes working backwards from the outcomes, integrating AI into specific workflows, and the need for strong governance frameworks. He also shares insights on Atlantic’s AI maturity model, challenges in scaling, cost containment, prompt engineering, and the critical role of education and cultural change.

Looking ahead, Shekar sees agentic AI as a transformative force—one that reduces administrative burden and unlocks new levels of autonomy in care delivery. He also reflects on the rising importance of Chief AI Officers in driving responsible and effective AI strategy across health systems. Take a listen.

In this episode, Priti Patel, MD, VP and Chief Medical Information Officer at John Muir Health shares her journey from family physician to CMIO, offering insights into her 23-year tenure and the evolution of clinical informatics. She also talks about key challenges such as change management, the integration of new tools like predictive analytics, and streamlining prior authorization.

Dr. Patel discusses the growing role of informatics in healthcare and how collaboration across clinical and IT teams has driven innovation. One of the key highlights at John Muir Health, a community-based health system, is the early adoption of ambient AI technology for clinical documentation, leading to:

• reduced cognitive load,
• time savings of up to 30 minutes per note,
• and enhanced provider-patient interactions.

She also emphasizes the critical role of seamless EHR integration in driving adoption, with over 60% of providers now using the tool regularly.

Dr. Patel also outlines the organization’s enterprise-wide data strategy, including a robust data literacy initiative that’s empowering staff at all levels, starting with the C-suite, to make data-driven decisions and improve care quality and operational outcomes. She underscores that aligning digital strategies with organizational priorities—while focusing on improving the clinician and patient experience—is central to sustainable transformation. Take a listen.

Crystal notes that one of the biggest lessons is the value of starting small—piloting technology, demonstrating ROI and KPIs, and scaling gradually. MUSC’s AI voice bot – Emily – handles after-hours calls and appointment rescheduling, generating over $3 million in collections and reducing call handling time. Ambient tools like DAX have helped physicians cut “pajama time” by 37%, speed up chart closure, and improve clinical documentation. She also highlights how digital tools in the patient access center enhance scheduling and virtual care access, creating a seamless digital front door. 

Crystal stresses the need for agile implementation, effective change management, and aligning technology with real workflows to drive lasting impact. Take a listen.

In this episode, Rita Sharma, Chief Product Officer at Pager Health discusses how they are implementing generative AI in healthcare, focusing on trust, ease of adoption, and responsible data practices.

Rita shares how consumers increasingly expect 24/7, human-like digital support and single point of contact to navigate the fragmented and often overwhelming healthcare system. She emphasizes that while the technology behind the generative AI is maturing rapidly, the real challenge lies in building trust—both within organizations and with consumers—particularly around the responsible data of use. Rita also talks about Pager’s approach to responsible AI implementation, noting that internal alignment on governance, data security, and transparency is just as critical as the technology itself.

Rita further highlights that successful adoption of generative AI is not just about innovation, but about creating a cultural alignment and fostering trust, ultimately ensuring personalized, streamlined care experiences for all. Take a listen.

Dr. Kumah-Crystal talks about the evolution of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and outlines three phases of EHR development: paper-based, classic digital entry, and the current generative AI era. She highlights significant advancements in ambient documentation workflows, which allow clinicians—especially in pediatrics, where communication is nuanced—to focus more on patients while AI handles note-taking. She shares her vision for fully integrated, voice-based conversational interfaces in EHRs that enhance both clinician satisfaction and patient engagement. Drawing from her experience as a pediatric endocrinologist and her work with Epic as the EHR vendor, she discusses implementing new workflows like Ambience and exploring additional patient communication methods.

Dr. Kumah-Crystal also emphasizes the importance of pilot testing, clearly defined ROI metrics, and close collaboration with vendors to drive innovation. She believes AI will be a critical enabler for better outcomes in pediatric care and beyond.

Dr. Morse emphasizes the importance of upskilling the workforce to fully leverage AI’s potential. With limited prior exposure to tools like LLMs, clinicians and administrative staff need hands-on training. Stanford has launched initiatives including a PHI-compliant internal chatbot, prompt engineering workshops, and engaging frontline staff in pilot projects to build confidence and competence across roles.

Dr. Morse sees immense promise in technologies like ambient listening and agentic AI but stresses the need for cautious adoption. In the absence of comprehensive regulation, healthcare systems must take ownership of AI oversight to ensure safety and mitigate risk. He emphasizes the importance of balancing innovation with responsibility, especially in the sensitive context of pediatric care. Take a listen.

Dr. Milazzo examines the benefits and challenges of adopting AI systems, including their impact on clinician satisfaction, work-life balance, and overall healthcare efficiency. The conversation also explores value-based care models, the importance of responsible AI implementation, and the emerging role of Agentic AI—the next big wave in GenAI—in redefining administrative work. He also emphasizes how thoughtful stewardship and strong clinical-technological partnerships can help create a future of abundance in healthcare.

Angelo discusses the implementation of a natural language processing algorithm to filter and generate clinical documentation at the point of care. He highlights the success of this technology in various health systems and emphasized its integration with the Electronic Health Record (EHR) system. Take a listen.

Dwight highlights various initiatives and technologies being implemented at Rochester Regional Health, including the use of AI for call routing, and a digital front door that enhances web experiences and provides virtual care access within hours. He also talks about the creation of a Center of Excellence for AI and the role of AI in nurse scheduling.

Dwight emphasizes the importance of maintaining a human element in healthcare technology, expressing optimism about AI’s role in improving patient care. Take a listen!

Sophy states that the foundation of their digital transformation began with simplifying the ecosystem and strategically selecting key functions – cloud, data platforms, and EHR – to drive efficiency. She highlights the emergence of digital relationship management as a critical discipline, ensuring a seamless connection between operations, technology, and patient care.

Sophy also discusses how Northwell is leveraging AI and generative AI in imaging, precision medicine, and other areas of innovation. Additionally, Sophy introduces Northwell’s AI Hub, a dedicated interface designed to empower their workforce with AI-driven capabilities. Take a listen.

Dr. Viswanathan discusses BayCare’s digital initiatives, including EMRs, telehealth, RPM, AI, data platforms, interoperability, and cybersecurity. She also explores the impact of AI in healthcare, particularly in assisting doctors and nurses with patient interactions – ensuring that key details from conversations are captured accurately. She expresses her fascination with AI and Generative AI and their ability to aggregate and utilize data effectively to enhance patient care.

While AI represents the next generation of transformation, Dr. Viswanathan stresses the need for responsible adoption to mitigate risks and build trust. She believes AI-driven tools, like ChatGPT, has the ability to support clinicians and drive better patient outcomes. She also states that as healthcare embraces technology and as AI proves its value in improving care delivery, widespread adoption will come. Take a listen.

Tanya explains how the macroeconomic environment has impacted their investment decisions this year. She states that there is a delicate balance between managing costs and being good stewards of investments in new tools and technology innovations.

Tanya also talks about how they redesigned their online scheduling tools and patient portal platforms, their journey towards creating an integrated and seamless care experience across service lines, and more. Take a listen.

Julia explains how their text message-based counseling platform is clinically equivalent to live nurse care management services. She also talks about how virtual and at-home care delivery has been impacted by the supply and demand curve, the digital health startup ecosystem, and their new partnership with Salesforce to expand into the “payvider” segment of healthcare. Take a listen.

URMC, a fully integrated academic medical center, was recently named in our inaugural list of digital health leaders and innovators for our Digital Maturity Awards program.

Michael states that the rural population engages more via digital modalities like telehealth and video visits than in-person visits. He talks about why their digital transformation strategy focuses on data and how the future of healthcare depends on structured and organized data sets. He also talks about how they make their technology choices and digital health priorities for 2023. Take a listen.

Jacob believes that the fundamental trends driving the growth of digital health are in place. However, later-stage companies looking to raise additional capital may experience some uncertainty in the short term. He also talks about the demand environment for Redpoint’s portfolio companies and his advice to founders looking to navigate the health system space. Take a listen.

Russ talks about their recent acquisition of Diameter Health to standardize the unstructured data to automate clinical workflow, make it available to the right people at the right time, create a better healthcare system, and ultimately drive better healthcare outcomes. He also offers thoughts on the digital health landscape. Take a Listen.

Zane is a long-time veteran in the healthcare space with successful tenures in Cerner and Livongo. He notes that while there is progress with digital health, data silos and lack of integration are some of the biggest friction points in delivering better healthcare experience and outcomes. He also talks about how healthcare is intensely personal and why the connection of digital pieces and the personal touch pieces will make a huge difference.

Zane discusses a range of other topics, including digital health funding and the M&A environment, the role of big tech in the healthcare ecosystem, and the pace of digital transformation in general. Take a Listen.

Digital health tools are gaining momentum among customers and making better self-care more accessible. However, all these innovative technology solutions must seamlessly integrate into the mainstream healthcare delivery models. David believes that increased interest in health and self-care awareness, affordable healthcare technologies, and people wanting to use more technology to communicate combined will bring the perfect storm for improved health outcomes. He also talks about the current state of digital therapeutics and its relevance in improving consumer health. Take a Listen.

St. Luke’s Health System is a large health system looking to deliver outstanding digital experiences to its patients. Reid discusses three things that significantly impact a frictionless patient experience and talks about how they approach care management, home health, remote monitoring, and more. Take a Listen.

Jared’s role at Sanford ranges from being clinician-facing and consumer-facing to bridging their needs across technology, business needs, and consumer experiences. He states that digital is both about the front-end aspect of technology that users interact with as part of a broader experience and the back end that includes the infrastructure, architecture, databases, interfaces, and networks. Jared points to how the digital divide has become a social determinant of health and how they are removing the friction points to enhance digital patient experience and engagement. Take a listen.

Dr. Landman also talks about their data and analytics capabilities, the need for robust technology infrastructure, and their experience and learnings from evaluating and engaging with young, innovative start-ups. Dr. Landman is also co-author of a paper in Nature Digital Medicine on deploying digital health tools within large, complex health systems. Take a listen.

Anika discusses Centene’s digital priorities and how they cater to their population’s specific needs by addressing digital literacy, closing the gap of digital divide, and supporting them with digital tools and technologies. Take a listen.

In this episode, Dr. Basow discusses their telemedicine capabilities, which include digital medicine technologies, remote patient management, digital tools to drive innovation and transformation, and digital coaching programs to drive patient engagement and outcomes. Take a listen.

In this episode, Terry discusses Truveta’s value proposition for health systems and life sciences organizations, their data sets to generate insights and the technological challenges in bringing the data sets together. We also touch on a variety of other topics, including the digital health startup landscape.  Take a listen.

Patient access is not just about capacity management and appointment scheduling but also about getting questions answered between different encounters with physicians, identity management for patients, and patient engagement. Emily suggests digital health startups take the time to do user experience research and strategic planning to understand the problem at the human level. Take a listen.

Tarun discusses the current state of the digital health startup environment, the longer-term technology solutions landscape, and how to make smart decisions with limited resources. Take a listen.

Most health systems think of automation as a cost-cutting endeavor and not as how they can tackle the change in how patients engage with their healthcare provider. According to Pranay, automation is about marrying patient experience that is ADA compliant, in any language, and that works on any device for any human on the planet, with the best workflow integration.

Pranay also talks about how at Notable they are working to navigate the uncertain economic environment and shares his thoughts on the current digital health startup and environment. Take a listen.

Sara talks about unlocking new business models and operationalizing digital in a multi-modal context to solve both consumer and health system problems that go beyond substituting a physical visit for a virtual visit. She also states that health systems are now going through a much-needed re-evaluation of the value generated by digital business models and partnerships. Take a listen.

Susan talks about the need to transform digital experiences from merely being replacements for poor in-person experiences, the need to address underserved populations, and the use of communications and messaging platforms to address health inequities. Take a listen.

Tom also discusses the challenges of implementing the modernization, including interoperability and the siloed nature of data in our public health infrastructure, workforce training, and more. He shares his thoughts on how this modernization program can present new opportunities for health systems and technology providers. Take a listen.

Taha talks at length about Amazon’s work with leading healthcare organizations and how the Amazon HealthLake platform enables the aggregation and analysis of large data sets. He also talks about the current state of AI and ML, the opportunity to analyze unstructured data, and the big gap in the acceptance of AI/ML due to issues such as algorithmic bias that must be addressed in applying AI/ML to healthcare. Take a listen.

Tim explains how data is the foundation to drive better healthcare outcomes and how the right data sets can identify care gaps, lower the cost of care, and improve overall healthcare outcomes. He discusses their strategic partnerships for cloud-enabled data and analytics with Microsoft, including their investments in industry consortium Truveta. He also talks about their cloud transformation journey and the IP they have developed for cloud migration that they intend to monetize through a commercial venture. Take a listen.

Kristin discusses why telehealth and virtual health are critical components of healthcare in the future and provides insights into how she makes technology choices in a rapidly changing landscape. She reflects on the changing role of the CIO in healthcare and why she decided to rename the IT organization. She concludes with advice for startups looking to partner in Mount Sinai’s digital transformation journey. Take a listen.

Justin talks about the digital health funding environment and why he thinks that in 2022 we won’t see the same levels of investment as in previous years. He shares his advice for founders looking to launch digital health companies and what it takes to successfully sell to and partner with health systems. He also offers thoughts on how the entry of big tech in healthcare will open new opportunities for startups. Take a listen.

As a long-time user of Meditech EHR, Brian talks about their deep commitment to Meditech and their efforts to build mobile experiences for patients and caregivers. He also shares his thoughts on the recent Meditech partnership with Google Health. Brian shares his excitement on the emerging technologies such as voice in making care accessible and convenient for consumers. He also muses on how emerging entrants, less limited by geographic boundaries, could be extremely disruptive to their primary care services and, ultimately their referral path into their specialty services. Take a listen.  

Paula also discusses their data and analytics programs in partnership with their sister organization PCCI, and how they have repurposed existing applications to serve emerging healthcare needs over the past couple of years (listen to our podcast episode with Steve Miff, CEO of PCCI).

Paula advises startup founders to have a good business case before they approach them with a solution for their target audience. She discusses at length the various considerations for digital engagement for their member population and the risks/trade-offs that they must address while making investment choices. Take a listen.

UnityPoint Ventures invests in startups at various stages of their growth. Matt discusses their investment themes, what they look for in startups, and how they leverage the UnityPoint Health ecosystem to help their portfolio companies scale and grow – while clarifying that portfolio companies are not guaranteed a commercial contract with the health system.

Matt discusses the ongoing labor shortage and how that is reshaping priorities, the emerging competitive landscape for health systems, and the overall VC funding environment for digital health. Take a listen.

Lee discusses the onslaught of ransomware and phishing attacks from expanded networks of the nation-state and non-state actors and how a greater dependence on electronic information, forced by the circumstances of the pandemic has created a positive inflection point for improving our preparedness and responses to cyberthreats.

Lee talks about how HIMSS enables information sharing among “trusted circles” that include agencies and other non-provider organizations to help healthcare enterprises achieve greater maturity levels. Take a listen.

You can download the HIMSS healthcare cybersecurity survey report here.

BS&W is the largest not-for-profit health system in Texas and is a pioneer in digital patient engagement. Dr. Barad discusses their focus on consumer expectations and consumer research at length and how that drives their digital investments. He discusses the challenges involved in gaining acceptance from clinicians for launching and implementing digital health, and the need to invest in ongoing research to understand consumer needs.

Dr. Barad talks about their digital investment priorities for 2022, their data and analytics partnership with the Truveta consortium, challenges with harnessing technology innovation, and how the talent shortage is impacting the pace of digital transformation. Take a listen.

Jackie and Phil also discuss Epic’s recent expansion into newer market segments such as retail healthcare and health insurance, and Epic’s new CRM product, titled Cheers.

Epic is one of the largest healthcare IT companies today and has a significant influence in healthcare operations across the country. Jackie and Phil discuss how the Cosmos dataset could power new innovations and research, and also highlight advocacy efforts with regulatory agencies to reduce coding and documentation burdens on clinicians, at a time when the healthcare industry is facing a shortage of workers.

Andrew believes that everything, besides the act of healing, can be automated away. He takes pains to clarify they are not trying to replace a doctor but replacing what today is a very rudimentary system with a search engine that narrows things down for a whole host of different things.

In the conversation, Andrew and Paddy discuss a range of topics from the long sales cycles for digital health startups, their expansion plans for their core product, the trust deficit with big tech firms and consumer data, interoperability challenges, and much more. Take a listen.

Anish calls the pandemic ‘a watershed moment’ for telemedicine and digital health adoption. He highlights how technology presents an interesting dynamic for pregnancy, and how connected devices can improve access to care at a central level, thereby impacting maternity care in the country.  

The digital health landscape is a chaotic marketplace today. Anish concludes with a few pieces of advice for digital health start-ups who want to make a mark in the industry. Take a listen.  

Pharmacy Benefits Management is a concentrated space with a handful of players. The PBM model is changing into something more holistic and more focused on managing patients, not just around pharmacy benefits specifically, but managing the total cost of care, using pharmacy benefits as a tool to achieve the goals. RxRevu has focused on building trust in their tool to drive prescription behavior change among providers. Kyle also emphasizes the need to have the tools in the hands of the right users to drive impact. 

Kyle advises digital health startups to spend time on understanding where the value accrues in terms of finding customers. While it may look chaotic from the outside, the incentives in the healthcare value chain drive rational decisions for each entity. He urges startups to understand incentives and builds business models within them. Take a listen. 

Digital health tools like AI, chatbots, and leveraging data and analytics capabilities assist clinical leaders in understanding patients’ propensity. Ryan identifies insights in business, identifies channels for growth, and indicates why marketing will always be a critical organizational function that binds people and drives digital engagement. Take a listen.

Dr. Ide wears many hats – an executive, a physician-scientist, health IT enthusiast, entrepreneur, and problem-solver. She states why sustainable, innovative, and impactful solutions are crucial for chronic disease management and share some unique perspectives on how technology and policy need to align to extend care to those who have the hardest time receiving it. She also acknowledges reimbursement as one of the barriers in enabling digital health models at the point of care. Take a listen.

With the exceptional team at the Foundation, Cynthia wants to channelize philanthropy to healthcare to improve health for all children and mothers in the Bay Area, California, and eventually across the world. She acknowledges the benefits of telehealth and digital health in the wake of the pandemic and shares their digital priorities for 2022.

Cynthia encourages everyone to see themselves as philanthropists. She suggests why empathy and commitment are necessary when leveraging science to help heal humanity and elevate a community and the population equally. Take a listen.

In the episode, Ashworth talks about two significant macro trends in healthcare: the shift to digital health solutions and growth in Medicare Advantage. He further acknowledges how seniors have enthusiastically adopted technology but maintains that the future of healthcare is hybrid, i.e., a combination of digital and in-person care.

Healthcare is mission-driven and offers ample innovation opportunities in digital health, data, mental health, senior living, and home-based care. He advises youngsters to pick a job to make a difference, leverage opportunities, and continue to innovate and learn. Take a listen.

As a physician who’s well versed with emerging technologies, Dr. Weisman acknowledges the handicaps digital health care must overcome to reach the underserved population in rural America. The foremost focus of their digital journey is to improve patient access to healthcare. He demonstrates how certain digital health tools can bring in cost-effectiveness, reduce the administrative workload on clinical staff, develop effective programs, and provide better healthcare access to everyone.

Dr. Weisman advises digital health start-ups to approach health systems and healthcare as genuine partners in improving patient access and care delivery and not as a salesman merely trying to sell a product or service. Take a listen.

Better quality of care translates to higher care costs, resulting in an increased out-of-pocket burden for consumers. This can drill a gaping hole in patients’ pockets if they are uninsured, underinsured, or have little or no access to financial management. Data assumes a critical role in the digital healthcare landscape as it offers a personalized projection of patients’ out-of-pocket costs across their entire medical journey. Leveraging patient-related information and financial data can automatically help detect cost-saving opportunities based on insurance and treatment optimizations and matching financial assistance programs. Take a listen. 

Moore explains his vision to leverage emerging technologies such as cloud and voice recognition to support healthcare delivery, improve patient experiences, and increase caregiver productivity. He maintains that it’s important to partner with leading technology firms to create robust platforms to drive digital health.

Moore discusses Providence’s investments in digital health innovation and advises digital health start-ups to focus on consumer experience. Take a listen.

Consumer-permissioned data offers valuable insights on the social determinants of health, such as access to food, transportation, and the need for financial support, in addition to patients’ physical ailments. Therefore, Jason maintains, it can be a valuable resource in reducing medical bankruptcy, developing financial assistance programs, and ensuring that the patients can focus on getting better rather than being burdened by bills. Take a listen.

Unity maintains that by combining the powers of moonshot thinking, a transformer mindset, and collaborative communities, healthcare companies can reinvent the future of health. Health systems should lean towards early-stage innovation, experiment, and then really think about developing an innovation stack in the context of care delivery and better outcomes.

Unity advocates leveraging technology to build a cohesive health care segment where doctorpreneurs and clinicians can together transform organizations using the enormous capital and talent at their disposal. He also advises digital health start-ups to have a persistent and resilient mindset to thrive in the industry. Take a listen.

Note: StartUp Health has recently launched the StartUp Health Moonshots Impact Fund. For more details, visit here.

While Phadnis admits that the potent combination of physics, electronics, electromagnetics, and AI will significantly transform care delivery, he discusses how these must be integrated into clinical workflows to change the healthcare delivery model. The majority of digital healthcare technologies provide patient-centric data aggregation, which aids clinicians and speeds up patient diagnosis and treatment. He views healthcare tech also driving beyond the hospital’s four walls to get closer to the patients virtually. The future of healthcare then, does indeed seem to be a robust partnership between the medical practitioners, computing, and analytics. 

Amit also advises digital health startups to focus on the last mile of healthcare that is improved patient outcomes, decreased healthcare costs, and early disease detection. Take a listen.  

Darshak delves into the challenges around including the demographic segment that has never engaged with healthcare before and is underserved. He discusses how digital primary care is on the verge of possibly replacing about 80 to 90% of in-person visits.

Lastly, Dr. Sanghavi outlines what constitutes a longitudinal care experience. It’s not a ‘one-and-done’ approach but an effective engagement where systems are optimized to do the simple things and consumers find it easy to access them digitally. Take a listen.

From drones that deliver medical supplies and AI-leveraged platforms that detect strokes to harnessing AI voice bots to answering patient questions on COVID vaccine and setting up the remotely monitored COVID-care at home, digital health tools have come a long way. Novant Health is the first healthcare system in the U.S. to get the FAA clearance to use drones for distributing medical supplies during the COVID-19 pandemic. In combination with invaluable consumer insights and when integrated with a robust EHR system, digital health care can only enhance patient-centric care delivery models.

Lastly, but not the least, start with what the consumers need and want to look for, because if you deliver something they’re not interested in, they will not use it. Take a listen.

Digital transformation is not easy – setbacks are inevitable. When digital health tools add to the physician’s workload, the rate of adoption slows down. When organizational processes and mindsets don’t adapt, mistakes are unavoidable.

With his deep background in consumer-oriented industry sectors, Tony brings a heightened appreciation of the gaps in digital patient engagement and how to approach the challenges. Take a listen.

Sattelmair maintains that leveraging “high-tech for high-touch support” is the way to go in a COVID-ravaged world. This will not only transform patient experiences and care management but will prompt people to better understand their health while smoothing the navigation around the healthcare system. Take a listen.

The COVID-19 pandemic made people realize that healthcare can be effectively delivered through technology. Telehealth technology has turned the corner and now has a life of its own. Dr. Schoenberg discusses the role of big tech and EHR in the rapidly changing landscape and shares advice for digital health startups. Take a listen.   

Telehealth can be a great enabler for delivering innovations that lead to better quality healthcare, member experience, and lower costs. There is a need for continued innovation to sustain and expand telehealth and investment in building seamless consumer experiences, especially in a hybrid care model.

The report provides several interesting charts that inform readers on the emerging landscape of telehealth and virtual care models. Oleg and Jenny also discuss various headwinds that will impact the growth of telehealth technologies in the future. They also share advice for health systems and health plan executives looking to navigate the transition to virtual care models successfully. Take a listen.

A clinician by background, Matthew describes the collaboration model among a diverse group of technology and operational executives to implement digital health programs at Duke Health. He gives us a hint of the one single question he wrestles with every day as the Chief Digital Strategy Officer. He also explains why they choose to “tread lightly” in offering clinical advice through artificial intelligence.

Matthew describes several challenges digital health startups must be prepared to face, even if they have remarkable and game-changing technology solutions. Among his words of advice? Don’t oversell. He also shares a few learnings from his experience for peer group executives in health systems. Take a listen.

In this extended interview, Mike discusses a broad range of topics including the role of big tech and EHR companies in the digital transformation journey, his approach to technology vendor relationships, and a governance model for identifying and nurturing innovative startups. He discusses the use of newer data sources such as genomic data in the analytics programs at Penn and the challenges of AI-enabled solutions from the vendor community that overpromise and under-deliver.

Mike also shares how he spends a significant amount of time attracting and nurturing tech talent, and how to support and empower high-performing teams. Take a listen.

Note: Penn Medicine has published several insightful reports on the IT function’s contributions to the overall mission. These provide valuable insights into the functioning of one of the largest and most prestigious medical institutions in the country. Interested readers can download the reports here.

David talks about the disparities in access to care among populations with socioeconomic disadvantages and the challenges in implementing telehealth programs. MUSC’s Sprout program, the nation’s first national collaborative telehealth research program, uses evidence and data to support and provide quality healthcare services and influence the adoption of telehealth technology at the physician level.

While designing and implementing technologies, David advises a consumer-focused approach for an improved experience for both providers and patients. Take a listen.

There has been an increase in adoption for natural language interface technologies for clinical applications in healthcare involving hardware, software, and data analytics. Augmedix works as a tech-enabled remote scribe that processes conversations and distills it real-time into a structured note in the electronic medical record.

Ian also discusses the differences between Google Glass and other conversational interfaces such as voice recognition technology, and how conversational AI tools are evolving in healthcare, specifically in clinical use. Take a listen.

Murray also talks about the virtual care automation programs that are being integrated to manage chronic care, post-acute care, perioperative to women’s health, cancer, pediatrics, and in the ED. AI can be good at computational decision-making, which can give the best solution when combined with human judgment.

Murray also shares practical advice for digital health startups who are looking to raise VC money. Take a listen.

According to Sean, to be successful in digital health, it is important to keep up your learning curve, be patient, and operationally innovate within constraints. Payers, providers, and employer customers all have the same need – digital delivery of care. They all believe that digital provisioning of care is here to stay. This belief is bound to yield a remarkable transformation for healthcare. Take a listen.

John discusses a range of other topics, from defending against the ever-growing cybersecurity threats to finding success with technology partnerships. Their “3C” mantra for technology enablement in care delivery – common systems, centrally managed, and collaboratively implemented – has been a key to their success over time.

John also provides practical advice for digital health startups looking to partner with Penn Medicine in launching innovative solutions. Take a listen.

Today, more than 1.2 billion clinical documents are generated each year in the U.S., but there is very little analysis of the unstructured information. The Apixio platform uses advanced analytics to generate insights from unstructured data to deliver significant improvements in financial performance.

Sachin also discusses the big opportunity areas in AI today and the challenges in increasing adoption levels for AI in healthcare. Take a listen.

In the wake of the pandemic, Stanford University School of Medicine’s Healthcare Innovation Lab developed a smartwatch-enabled alarm system powered by AWS cloud, designed for early detection of COVID-19 by identifying increased heart rates prior to the infection. Dr. Snyder explains how the application works by pulling heart rate information from the smartwatch, applying an early detection algorithm, and pushes back the signal to a smartphone to set off alerts for possible infections.

Grace shares three gaps that AWS strives to address through the Diagnostic Development Initiative: accurate detection, reprioritization of diagnostic research, and scaling up computing power for machine learning and analytics. Take a listen.

Note: Those interested in participating in the Stanford COVID-19 wearables study can sign up here. Developers interested in the AWS Diagnostic Development Initiative program can apply here.

The RCM services is witnessing M&A and consolidation to find the efficiencies of scale. David points out that sophisticated RCM software must develop automation capabilities, robust analytics, and machine learning models to help reduce the overall cost of these practices to collect and improve financial outcomes for practices.

David advises medical practices to stay on top of regulatory changes and be aware of the changing payment roles and cycles. Take a listen.

He discusses how Premier is expanding their data analytics capabilities, such as AI and machine learning to make the supply chain infrastructure more resilient and support better clinical decisions. Mike believes that the changing competitive landscape of healthcare and the entrance of non-traditional players is unleashing innovation in the industry. He also shares three leadership lessons from his long and successful career. Take a listen.

Healthcare lags other industries when it comes to using new technologies. The industry still needs to apply standardization, governance, and ensure data quality to get the right data at the right time to the right person. Jim states that one of the challenges with data is inserting it back into the workflow to make it useful. One of the important use cases of Penn Medicine’s data and analytics program has been the transition from traditional analytics to cloud-based tools and leveraging data lakes to unlock self-service data models.

Penn Medicine is one of the very few healthcare organizations to integrate genomic testing results into the EMR for diagnosis and treatment. Jim shares their extensive protocols for integrating genomic data into patient records for diagnosis and treatment. Take a listen.

According to Kash, the hard part with digital transformation is not necessarily implementing technology but ensuring the patient experience is seamless with the technology and they feel positive about it.

While making technology choices, Penn Medicine’s first and foremost preference is to make the maximum use of their existing EHR infrastructure. Kash also describes the governance process that includes their leadership and subject matter experts to make technology decisions about newer digital tools and platforms. Take a listen

Community Health Plan of Washington is a not-for-profit health plan that caters to the underserved and non-English speaking communities. Their role has been to support the community health centers and getting members educated about the vaccine. One of the most successful vaccination outreach programs has been their text messaging campaign, with a nearly 80% success rate.

Arcadia works specifically with data aggregated from disparate data sources like claims, EHR, lab, state health information exchange, social determinants of health, and others. This longitudinal record of each member helps them risk stratify and identify gaps in care, thereby helping them with their vaccination outreach and distribution priorities. Take a listen.

Being a Medicare Advantage plan, SCAN Health deals with the senior population. They strive to address the digital divide in the elderly by implementing software that aligns with their requirements, is easy to use, and delivers improved outcomes while taking care of patient privacy and data security. The technology considers the social determinants of health by implementing a robust data and analytics program that has helped develop AI models to predict chronic conditions. 

Josh also talks about person-centered design processes and how it helps deploy the right digital technology by looking at the patient’s journey touchpoints. Take a listen.

According to Peter, much before COVID-19, the healthcare industry was already going through the pandemic of administrative burden resulting in clinician burnout. Nuance, through their ambient virtual assistant technology, is eliminating that burden by powering virtual consults with clinical documentation that writes itself.

Dr. Lahr states that voice recognition technology is the best way for patients to interact with their providers opposed to any other user interface. She further states that going forward the integration with the EHR and the voice recognition technology is an absolute requirement. Take a listen

Data is the core ingredient that AI tools use. As per Casey, one of the major issues prevailing in the industry today is that there are inadequate disclosures on data sets used by many medical devices and algorithms approved by the FDA. To improve healthcare outcomes, transparency and disclosure in date sets must be the central agenda in the future. He further states that the pace of innovation, development, and building process of AI tools is outrunning the FDA and other regulators’ ability to stay on top of AI innovations. Take a listen.

According to Mona, one of the biggest challenges in adopting digital engagement is shifting to a consumer mindset. Health systems are now increasingly focusing on their digital front door initiatives. However, one of the biggest challenges in building a robust consumer app is incorporating both outside and native foundational capabilities, and bringing together a single native app.

SCL is a non-profit healthcare system and focuses on patient engagement and technologies to enable better patient experience. Take a listen

Health systems are working towards mapping patient data to the EHR systems so that the frontline care providers have the information readily available to improve healthcare delivery and outcomes. The next step is to standardize the data normalization process and make it interoperable while taking care of patient data privacy, confidentiality, and security.

Katherine says that the industry must now focus on implementing initiatives to reduce social issues such as the digital divide and health inequalities . She further states that AHIMA’s focus is to make sure that patient’s virtual health information is documented in a safe, secure, and convenient way. Take a listen

WWH is a federally qualified health center. A significant part of their patient population is the low-income group and LGBTQ community. Harry shares that half of their patient population is below 100% of the federal poverty level, and around 40% are below 50% of the federal poverty level. This automatically creates an issue of digital divide among them where they struggle with technology. Technology providers are addressing these disparities, and several standalone point solutions are emerging. However, the two major issues – interoperability and integration – still exist in the healthcare space. Take a listen.

A better functioning healthcare marketplace requires transparency in access to information provided to consumers during their healthcare decision-making time. With COVID accelerating digital health, organizations supporting digital transformation can now drive the digital first approach and provide a seamless digital experience to consumers. Consumers’ journey to care begins with the awareness of their need, understanding the options of where they should go, and knowing their financial responsibility. This is the core of any digital transformation agenda. Access to information regarding price will drive consumer shoppable behavior beyond just going to a provider’s digital front door.

Bill states that, because of the new emerging payer in the marketplace, i.e., the employers, roughly 30 percent of total healthcare spend for providers fall into shoppable tests and procedures. He further projects that this is poised to grow in the future. Take a listen.

According to Dr. Banas, the overall spend in the U.S. healthcare market in medication management and adherence space rose from 10 percent to 20 percent over the last few decades. In future, the opportunity lies in the solutions that meet patients’ needs wherever they are and where they want to be.

DrFirst serves hospitals and health systems, individual clinics, offer e-prescribing platforms, provide patient-focused price transparency solutions, and much more. Take a listen.

Healthcare is changing fast and patient needs must be addressed in a more front-facing way. While it is easy to look at best-in-class tools, financially they may not always make sense. At Hackensack Meridian, they first look at their legacy systems and tools to check for available core solutions to handle the digital patient engagement journey from a technology standpoint.

Hackensack Meridian plans to invest more in transforming themselves into a digitally-enabled organization and serve the patients in a digitally-enabled way that is consumer-friendly, like Amazon. Take a listen.

AltaMed predominantly serves a low-income population and underserved communities. There is a digital divide that exists out there. AltaMed strives to address those challenges while connecting with their patient populations electronically.

Ray also discusses the drivers of technology selection at AltaMed for building digital front door tools and mobile apps, and engaging with their patient populations. Take a listen.

The relationship between a healthcare provider and a tech provider is more about co-producing, co-designing, and working together for better health outcomes. To accelerate the pace of change in healthcare, technology firms must earn and maintain the trust of people. At the same time, digital health innovators must transform care and the way we pay for it. Dr. Lee also discusses her book The Long Fix , and how employers, who cover healthcare for half of the population in the U.S., will play a significant role in transforming the healthcare system. Take a listen.

Digital transformations are disruptive for healthcare organizations. It leads to new ways of doing things and enables healthcare providers to care for patients in ways they have not done before. Being a children’s hospital, Boston Children’s Hospital has to deal with the unique scenario of dealing with two sets of patient populations: the child and the parent or the caregiver. This necessitates the need to have a multidisciplinary approach to assessing any new technology.

Daniel talks about digital program governance at Boston Children’s and has some practical advice for startups looking to partner on innovative approaches to digital health. Daniel also discusses emerging technologies, such as voice, that will play an essential role in healthcare, both in inpatient and home settings. Take a listen.

At SCL Health, digital is not only about transforming patient experience but also about consumers – those who are not yet patients. One of the key themes for digital programs at SCL Health are the digital front doors. Digital front doors are the entry points for potential patients and consumers into SCL Health’s environment.

According to Craig, it is time to start shifting mindsets from telehealth or virtual care to providing online care, just the way we access other services in our life. The movement for virtual encounters or relationships will certainly continue to accelerate. Digital health startups, therefore, must offer a strategy of ‘low calculated risk with the potential for huge returns’ for healthcare systems.

Anshul states that for a seamless digital front-end experience, back-end IT infrastructure must be in place, and it is important to understand how the software layers are designed. Both of these helps deliver a better experience for the provider and patient.

COVID-19 has led the healthcare industry towards ‘fail fast and get comfortable with the experimentation’ approach. Anshul advises health systems to engage with different stakeholders within the organization and focus on a single mission. Take a listen.

According to Pamela, by increasing the touchpoints and simplifying data across the care continuum healthcare organizations can deliver the three E’s: efficiency, effectiveness, and experience. However, one of the challenges in achieving this digital engagement in healthcare involves the data itself. If an organization is taking a patient-centric approach, continuity of data is critical. To ensure data flows easily across the continuum of care, it is important to promote interoperability initiatives across the healthcare organizations.

Technology is the key element in any digital program of an organization. Assessing the right technology at the right time is crucial to enhance patient as well as provider experience. Other aspects while evaluating technology is to consider its ease of adaptability and reliability among providers so that they can deliver a seamless patient experience. Pamela suggests health systems to keep advancing with new technologies and start with pilot first approach and then scale up the process.

Monument Health is part of the Mayo Clinic Care Network. They are based in South Dakota, where the rural population accounts for fifty percent of the total population. Before the pandemic hit, the health system was already using several antiquated tools such as telephones, paper fliers, questionnaires, etc., to cater to the population spread apart by miles. However, as the pandemic hit, Monument Health rapidly evolved its technology environment in just two weeks. They started using tools like COVID-19 nurse triage, RPM, online testing, and more to manage their patients.

Dr. Lahr also states that healthcare systems can improve their quality and efficiency by having a strong foundation in data and analytics. Data is the language of transparency; access to it can help patients know more about their health information. In terms of digital patient engagement, using a combination of automated tools to maintain a personalized care experience is the key to improve care delivery.

Since March 2020, Prisma health has completed 360,000 virtual visits. Nick says that implementing digital health will eliminate the mindset that care can be provided only in an office setting. He believes that introducing automation in healthcare processes and digital front doors is important to improve care delivery. In the post-COVID-19 world, around 20 to 30 percent of all ambulatory visits will convert to virtual visits. However, social determinants of health also need to be considered such as lack of broadband access and technology challenges in older and high-risk patients.

Patients today expect a retail experience from healthcare throughout their journey. Nick advises health systems to prioritize on solving the problems and focus on patient needs rather than starting with technology. Healthcare technologies must be an interconnected ecosystem that is efficient, intuitive, and can take advantage of automation driven by data.

Validic is one of the pioneers in the remote patient monitoring space. Drew states that COVID-19 has accelerated the adoption of remote patient monitoring technologies. Due to the pandemic, health systems have realized that virtual care technologies can reduce the cost and burden of care, especially for at-risk populations.

According to Drew, big tech firms entering healthcare is both a challenge and an opportunity from a digital health startup’s perspective. He believes that the VC funding environment is strong but cautions that much of the funding is targeted at late-stage firms that have demonstrated significant traction. He advises the startups to think more creatively and develop unique approaches to the market that focuses on areas not adequately addressed by big tech firms. Take a listen

Texas Health Resources completed 100,000 virtual visits in the first ninety days of the pandemic. San says that as we move forward in healthcare, people will get accustomed to using virtual care delivery mechanisms, which will increase its acceptance further. San defines digital front doors as an access mechanism for patients to get services they are looking for. On the other hand, from a consumer perspective, it is all about managing the consumer point of view to access the services that providers can offer.

Healthcare is not just about technology; it is a people-based business. San advises digital health startups to understand how technology enables the healthcare business while keeping in mind people and processes. Take a listen.

According to Marc, the top technology trends that will define the future of healthcare are interoperability and digital health technologies. He says that technology in healthcare should meet the needs of the population that we serve; they should communicate with each other and responsibly share data. Marc describes digital health as facilitating what we do today using digital mechanisms like telehealth and moving towards full interaction with technology, where technology will provide knowledge, capability, and expertise.

COVID-19 has accelerated healthcare industry’s adoption of digital capabilities such telehealth. Marc suggest that the health systems needs to ‘become really good at integration’ for a seamless digital health experience.

Puneet believes that frictionless patient access is critical for reducing costs and improving health outcomes. COVID-19 has been a very high impact phenomenon for the healthcare industry. Their recent survey on telehealth consumer experience reveals that the telemedicine adoption rate increased by 92%. However we cannot think of telemedicine in a silo; we need to blend it into the overall care delivery continuum, which is a foundational piece that must be solved by healthcare providers in the future.

According to Puneet, The reason telemedicine is here to stay and become a fundamental aspect of care delivery is because of its efficiency and effectiveness.The biggest takeaway from their recent research is that telemedicine is opening the door to the digital practice of medicine and a digital-first care delivery model.

According to Diana, in a post-COVID world, we will see more acceptance of voice-enabled technology not just for clinical documentation but as a virtual assistant to command and control things within the physician workflow ecosystem. The pandemic accelerated the willingness and acceptance to look at things differently, such as telehealth; voice technology will be the next. It will be helpful in offering suggestions and recommendations to enhance care delivery from within the EHR system.

Dr. Kumah-Crystal states that the new era of voice mechanics and how we interact with the voice technology is instrumental in making queries and commands in the EHRs to retrieve information. A new dynamic of patient engagement will emerge from voice as a medium and as a method by which a provider engages with EHR in the presence of patient. Take a listen.

Dr. Bouton also discusses the challenges and opportunities of telehealth and other virtual care models that are transforming the quality of care delivery and interaction with patients and providers. He states that while no one wants to eliminate in-person visits altogether, video visits can increase low-intensity care quality. He believes the equilibrium between in-person and telehealth/ video visits will be determined by specialty-specific care in a post-pandemic era.

According to Sara, COVID-19 acted as a catalyst for digital transformation in healthcare. She categorizes the transformation happening in the healthcare industry in two possible ways. One, where the industry needed to control and tackle the challenges created by the pandemic and the industry mobilized its IT, digital, and technology services overnight. Second, is considering the pandemic as an opportunity to evolve the healthcare industry and finding new paradigms and ways of caring for people and business models.

She adds that the healthcare industry needs to design better experiences for increasing adoption of telehealth technology. The industry also needs core IT enablers to make it a success and provide better healthcare experiences to both patients and providers. Take a listen.

At PCCI, the belief is that data if done right has the power to galvanize the communities, inform leaders, and empower people. According to Steve, healthcare is a complex, multi-year journey and having a connected community of care during a pandemic, such as COVID, is essential. To control the pandemic, we need better targeting of COVID hotspots, effective and efficient communication between healthcare providers and technology enablers, and connected services through referral directories.

Steve stresses that while technology is a critical enabler for connected communities of care, there is a need to invest in robust backend data management infrastructure. Take a listen.

By end of April this year, 80 percent of all patient visits in Montefiore were being managed through telemedicine. Telehealth visits volumes have fallen back a bit since then. Jeff believes that face-to-face visits in certain specialties will always remain essential, however, with the ease of working with patients digitally, we will continue to see an increase in telehealth visits. Jeff defines digital health as the use of technologies such as digital front doors and telemedicine to improve patient engagement and access to care delivery. He further states that once we get efficient at delivering digital care and leveraging emerging healthcare technologies like chatbots and AI, we will be able to treat more patients at a higher level of care with fewer resources.

Montefiore Health System is one of the leading medical centers with 11 hospitals and over 300 ambulatory locations. They mainly serve the populations in the Bronx and Westchester counties.

Premier recently launched a surveillance tool for COVID-19 which they are piloting at Geisinger to improve the quality of medical interventions and prevent the spread of the virus. Mike believes that there is a need for syndromic surveillance system, contact tracing, and performing tests with higher accuracy rates.

According to Jonathan, siloed information and disparity in EHRs across health systems limits the scope of innovation and in case of COVID-19 it is affecting patients directly. He further states that, as part of a public-private partnership, Geisinger is performing contact tracing and have followed up on 1,600 COVID-19 positive patients, benefiting patients, providers, and communities.

Austin Public Health has partnered with Dell Medical School and UT Health Austin to prevent the spread of COVID-19 by doing contact tracing on behalf of the city of Austin. Besides contact tracing, the University is also using emerging forms of healthcare delivery such as symptom checking, COVID-19 drive-through testing stations, home monitoring, and nurse triage to control the spread of the current pandemic. Currently, the medical school has over 200 contact tracers working remotely and have successfully performed one-third of the contact tracing in the city of Austin.

Due to the current COVID situation, healthcare consumers are adopting virtual care technologies that are changing the way healthcare is being delivered today. To ensure smooth delivery of care post-COVID, Aaron discusses how virtual care should be a flawless experience for clinicians and patients.

On data interoperability, Aaron suggests three major areas of focus: Identifying and capturing data for public health; the need for the entire continuum of care to be on some sort of a digital system. According to Aaron, healthcare organizations need full data transparency, governance, and internal communication working together to advance interoperability. Take a listen.

Dr. Atreja’s role at Mount Sinai Health System is to enable digital health for value-based and patient-centric healthcare. He states that COVID-19 has been the most significant technology transformation agent in the healthcare industry. According to Dr. Atreja, the next technology after telehealth that will rise out of the current pandemic is digital monitoring.

Dr. Atreja is also the founder of non-profit Network of Digital Medicine (NODE.Health), that promotes evidence-based digital medicine by bringing together a network of societies, foundations, and health system associations to enable digital transformation in healthcare.

Ceci shows concern about the existing health inequities and hopes that we close the fundamental gap of the digital divide affecting certain sections of the society. She believes that in a post-COVID-19 era, healthcare payers and providers will focus more on virtual care for better patient experience. Ceci further hopes to see virtual care at the core of value-based model in the future.

ACHP is a non-profit organization that brings together innovative health plans and provider groups delivering affordable, community-based, high-quality coverage and care.

Digital front door technologies are being adopted extensively by healthcare systems and are practical and useful for the industry, especially in the current pandemic situation. Tom believes that 80% of healthcare should be driven through digital means and 20% through phone calls, unlike the current situation.

Phynd Technologies’ platform focuses on the provider data, defined as people, places, and services, and simplifies provider data management for healthcare systems.

Northwell Health is one of the largest health systems in New York and has been a telemedicine leader for the last five to six years. Dr. Raju believes that storing data in the EHRs and EMRs is going to be very different in the future – more video clips than text notes will be used. This means the final interoperability rule will take a different tone in terms of who gets to access the patient information and who finally owns it.

Dr. Raju also believes that healthcare systems will need to evolve and change their workflow as more and more people will be seeking care through virtual technologies. Primary care will probably shift to virtual technology, shifting face-to-face medicine to virtual medicine, and specialty care will stay in the hospitals.

Epic observed 2.5 million video visits in April. Seth states that the changes we are seeing in the industry due to telehealth is not only convenient to the patients but also preventing the exposure of providers and clinicians on the front line. He further states that the effectiveness of technologies, like contact tracing, will be driven by broader adoption and will need to be augmented to fully account for the whole population.

Sam believes that in future physician’s schedule would be 50% face-to-face and 50% non-face-to-face visits through video, telephone, and an asynchronous electronic visit back and forth. He further states that video visits are here to stay and hopes that these visits will be associated with appropriate reimbursements models.

CHIME supports its members in their transformation and growth journey by assisting them in their professional development and be the best leaders in the healthcare industry. Russ states that we may see mergers and acquisitions accelerate in the industry due to the current pandemic. He also believes that the technology impact due to the COVID-19 crisis, whether intended or unintended, will accelerate digital activities in health systems.

In the context of healthcare, Google Cloud is providing API connectivity by applying AI/machine learning algorithms and making it accessible for the industry. The company’s new Cloud Healthcare API solution is built to ingest complex data from different industry-standard sources and provide a unified access to it for a meaningful usage. Google Cloud offers the whole lifecycle governance, policy management, security, tracking, delivery, and ease of use over time so that more value and real-time capabilities can be built around it.

To help the healthcare industry during the current COVID-19 pandemic, Google Cloud is taking targeted solutions to the market like helping researchers with cloud credits, helping with Kaggle competitions, and enabling healthcare-focused chatbots with their Cloud AI platform. They are also enabling the healthcare organizations with digital triage that can treat patients remotely and can reduce in-person visits through telemedicine.

At Wolters Kluwer Health, the mission is to bring the latest evidence-based medicine to the benefit of clinicians, learning communities, and patients. Their infection surveillance system and pharmacy surveillance system are helping hospitals and health systems respond and cope with the current Covid-19 crisis. Karen believes that with the new interoperability rule in place, patients can be treated in a lot of different ways if they have access to their health records. She further states that telehealth will stay with us for a long time, and traditional visits to hospitals will be replaced by virtual treatments, just like everyone is working virtually today.

Due to the ongoing crisis, healthcare providers are witnessing a massive uptick in telehealth and virtual care. Dr. O’Connor states that in the last 2-3 weeks there has been 10 to 15 years of advancement in telehealth both in terms of policy and in practice. The company saw a growth in their messaging platform from 5 million to 6 million in just ten days.

Dr. O’Connor hopes that after Covid-19, care delivery will undergo a permanent sea change. The notion of delivering quality of care to patients who can be managed remotely will stay with us for a long time. Take a listen.

Providence Health has also successfully launched creative efforts to crowdsource PPE such as the 100 million mask challenge to ensure adequate availability of PPEs to protect the caregivers at the frontlines. Take a listen.

Wolters Kluwer Health has invested significantly in digitizing their products and offerings over the past few years. They now use advanced technologies such as AI and NLP to enhance their heavily curated content to provide quick and easy-to-find answers for evidence-based clinical decisions. They are also enhancing the delivery of their content with emerging technologies such as voice-recognition. Additionally, they are also improving the user interface by delivering smaller nuggets of curated information customized for individual patients and caregivers. Diana and her team are using voice-enablement to enable clinicians to learn in a setting that’s more interactive and stay updated on the latest practices and clinical knowledge.

Diana believes in evidence-based data to enhance user experience with the latest available technology. Their focus now is on getting patients to engage more, especially those that need stay on very good pathways for their own health.

At Novant Health, digital care is not just about new models of care delivery using digital tools. It is also about enhancing traditional models of care delivery through digital means. Angela, along with her team, provide advanced digital capabilities to improve the quality of care for patients and community members and ensures increased access to care through digital means.

Angela believes that healthcare organizations must adopt contemporary methods and technologies to improve patient engagement and care delivery. However, this opportunity is closing rapidly due to the emergence of unconventional entrants in the healthcare ecosystem. In the podcast, she discusses how she and her team have developed approaches to identify and rapidly onboard innovative digital health solutions for high-impact areas such as stroke care. She advices health systems leaders to bring in people from outside of healthcare for diverse perspectives to solve the most complex problems.

In the context of the ongoing debate about patient data access and the proposed ruling by the HHS, Paul states that Allscripts strongly supports legislation or regulations that address information blocking in healthcare. He suggests that health systems, looking to harness innovation, must bring together outside help with industry experience and their own organizational knowledge from a clinician standpoint to accelerate transformation.

Healthcare, like in other industries, is transitioning to digital communications in all aspects of care including care coordination, patient safety, unnecessary ER visits, and analytics. To address this marketplace requirement, careMESH provides a set of secure services that helps health systems easily share patient records from their own EHR to any outside physicians/ clinicians, reducing the time consumed by traditional means of communication such as phones and faxes.

At Epic, the focus has always been on providing patients with access and tools to view and have control over their data. Epic works with over 300 health systems today to help them manage their data. Over 160 million consumers have or are using its MyChart patient portal which has been around for nearly two decades. The company uses advanced analytics such as AI/ machine learning and monitors how they are performing on different populations before embedding it into workflows, be it clinical-facing or patient-facing.

Epic has lately started focusing on providing transparency around healthcare costs and has been working on creating accurate estimates for patients so that they have price transparency at the point of care.

According to Daniel, a good technology is one that saves clinicians and caregivers time without getting in their way. He believes that healthcare technology is “80% people, 15% process, and 5% technology.” He further cautions that while using advanced technologies such as AI, health systems need to be thoughtful, careful, and respectful of the way technology interacts with patients.

The healthcare system as a whole has very low thresholds for measuring progress in adoption rates for digital health tools such as digital front doors. Digital health startups have a lot of brilliant ideas; however, they are years away from being integrated into core EHR systems. Daniel advices startups to get deeply embedded with their clinical partners to develop innovative solutions for healthcare.

With a focus on patient flow automation, Qventus helps hospitals and health systems in reducing the length of stay and other operational metrics. Based on early insights that machine learning models and prediction scores can be confusing to users in the absence of an accountability engine, the company has developed an interdisciplinary approach, augmenting AI with behavioral science principles to drive sustained improvements in healthcare operations.

Graham discusses the challenges of introducing digital innovation in healthcare and provides some counterintuitive advice to other digital health startups looking to overcome challenges in sales cycles and achieving enterprise-wide adoption for their platforms.

Leah believes that digital adoption in healthcare often needs to start with simple use cases with near term returns (the short story). Although technology risks are high in healthcare, Leah encourages health systems to remain focused on the long story of needing to transform healthcare by investing in the right opportunities to create a healthcare experience that is personalized for consumers.

Wildflower Health has raised venture capital from leading health systems such as Providence Health and is considered a leading “FemTech” startup. Leah points out that while women are primary users of her platform, they are also the Chief Health Officers of their homes and influence 80% of all healthcare decisions for the entire population.

PCCI operates with the assumption that health begins “where we live, work, play, and pray.’ The key aspects of PCCI’s journey have always been to partner with organizations, locally and nationally, who share the same goal and understanding. Steve discusses the success they have had in improving the lives of their communities and reducing the costs of care through their machine learning-based approach. He highlights the importance of a robust data management and infrastructure environment for success with predictive and prescriptive analytics in healthcare.

According to David, successful organizations always put patients, quality, and the outcomes first and everything else follows. Technology at Inova is taken as an enabler to the patient experience. Inova Health’s approach to patient experience and digital transformation is focused on a suite of technologies rather than focusing on a specific technology.

David shares his thoughts on building high reliability within information technology and how the underlying infrastructure is a critical enabler for digital health solutions.

He discusses the “tyranny of a large number of good ideas” which often leads to increased workloads for physicians and increases the overall costs for the health system with little or no business rationale for implementing many of those changes.

John notes that big tech firms are laying down the infrastructure to surround consumers with healthcare offerings based on online behavior and preferences, and how technologies like voice recognition and AI will dramatically change our healthcare experience in the future.

At NYU Langone Health, digital transformation means taking an enterprise approach to care delivery that is integrated, smart, and intelligent. Their vision is to provide a connected digital health service that is convenient for patients and their families, close to where they stay or work. The health system sees technology and digital as a great enabler and strategic asset to propel the organization forward in its mission.

Nader also believes that making the foundational technology work is critical for enabling the organization to build the digital capabilities of the future.

At Cleveland Clinic, where Ed is leading an enterprise digital transformation strategy, ‘digital’ means leveraging technology to produce seamless experiences. Recognizing the need to support legacy environments while advancing the enterprise digitally, he suggests that CIOs and digital leaders must be “bimodal” and be able to show progress and success despite constraints.

Digital transformation is not a solo trip; Ed stresses the importance of global partnerships, and aligning with the right partners can help achieve wonderful things.

Innovation at Walgreens is to have consumers manage their healthcare in a convenient and cost-effective way with great outcomes. It is all about delivering care to consumers when they want it, how they want it, and where they want it. Some eight million customers walk through a Walgreens store every day. Through their recently released Find Care app, Walgreens has started providing a range of personalized and localized healthcare services to consumers. Going well beyond the traditional e-prescription function, the app is a digital front door that delivers services from a curated set of 30 partners that can be accessed anytime anywhere with price transparency.

Giovanni’s current role at Walgreens is to focus on extending these partnerships by working with the right innovators at the right time in their product and market growth.

Most healthcare organizations are reactive today as opposed to being proactive. Digital transformation is off to a slow start but disruption will be here before we know it. According to Sylvia, innovation at Atlantic Health System starts with developing internal innovation and standardizing it across the health system. It also means developing external partnerships to build an innovation pipeline. However, she does not believe in investing in “shiny new things” that do not help their health system move forward.

Sylvia believes that digital transformation is not simply automating or digitizing all the current workflows. It has to go beyond replacing in-person visits with one-on-one virtual visits and look at reimagining patient and caregiver experiences.

Innovation at Geisinger means taking a fundamentally different approach to solving a problem that has quantifiable outcomes. According to Karen, focusing on specific problems like price and quality will move the needle in a meaningful way. Currently, the innovation team at Geisinger is developing a new care model that leverages AI and machine learning, along with remote monitoring for a more holistic approach towards patients.

Karen also believes intelligent bots will help decrease overall cost of care as they are more efficient. However, while adopting new technologies we need to be careful and prevent increase in the total costs of care due to technology.

The collaboration between a leading regional health and a national health insurer in a 50:50 joint venture helps develop and deploy new technology solutions to improve healthcare outcomes while focusing on keeping costs low. Tom believes that joint ventures such as Banner|Aetna can also accelerate the shift from the fee-for-service model to value-based care. He discusses the incremental benefits of Aetna merging with CVS, their approach to strategic technology partnerships, and sharing of best practices among JVs of Aetna with other health systems.

Tom advises ACO leaders and Chief Population Health Officers to focus on relationships and try to align with partners who share a common vision and believe there is a better way to transform the whole healthcare system.

For Providence St. Joseph Health, digital is all about moving consumers from an offline to an online relationship. The focus of digital health innovation is about prioritizing problems and identifying “needle-moving” solutions that can have a big impact. He believes that entities that deliver convenience, access, and personalization will win and keep patients in future.

He advises startups to have a “small story” which addresses the here and now of delivering returns to investors, as well as a “big story” which addresses the larger impact of the solution over time. More in the podcast.

Digital innovation is an applied science; it is about finding new ways to solve existing problems through emerging or sometimes through traditional technologies as well. At Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), a core part of the overall technology stack is their homegrown EHR system. BIDMC is the only health system in the country to run their own EHR system. In this podcast, Manu Tandon discusses the many benefits and challenges that arise from having a homegrown EHR system.

BIDMC is in the process of migrating their existing services substantially to the AWS cloud platform; this has opened the gateway to new and innovative technology solutions for BIDMC’s digital transformation journey. Tandon advises digital health startups to focus on workflow integration and points out that creating new, technically smart solutions is not the only way to achieve success with digital health solutions; people and process matter as much as technology in the journey of digital innovation.

In the world of digital health, we are seeing an explosion of apps, cloud services, wearables, etc. Knowing how to integrate them into the workflow where they are helpful to the patients, providers, and payers is the next big step.

With over 23 years of experience as a CIO, John Halamka now mentors young colleagues and faculty at the Harvard Medical School. He advises health systems executives coming into CIO roles to be agile, take risks, and keep experimenting with new technologies.

Clinicians need a “digital formulary” that they can easily prescribe to patients. However, there are significant challenges in onboarding, integrating, and implementing digital health solutions at scale. Xealth attempts to address these challenges through a cloud-based “plug-in” that operates within EHR systems. Xealth, which was incubated within Providence St. Joseph and spun out recently, just completed a $14 million funding round with strategic investors such as Cleveland Clinic to help develop the platform and drive growth.

Digital health startups often struggle to gain traction, partly due to the lack of a reimbursement model. Mike, a successful serial entrepreneur, advises digital health startup founders to pay attention to who is paying for the solutions and work closely with providers to help build scalable solutions of the future.

Unlike Facebook in social media and Google in the world of search engine and advertising, healthcare is a giant industry where there is plenty of room for many companies. Incumbents, health tech innovators, or brand-new startups they are all going to make significant investments to innovate in different aspects of healthcare – patient engagement, care delivery, telehealth, prescription drugs, diagnostics, and more.

In this Podcast, John discusses what digital transformation means and how he sees it playing out in healthcare today.