In this episode, Tanya Townsend, CEO of LCMC Health, a New Orleans-based non-profit health system, discusses how they are leveraging their digital capabilities across the continuum of care and improving patient access and clinician experience across their facilities.

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.

In this episode, Julia Hu, Founder & CEO of Lark Health, a leading AI virtual healthcare counseling platform, is helping nearly 2 million people manage and prevent chronic conditions, stress, and anxiety. Having invested more than $100 million in R&D, Lark combines cutting-edge AI with remote patient monitoring capabilities to provide 24/7, real-time, text message-based health counseling to patients whenever and wherever they need it.

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.

In this episode, Michael Hasselberg, Chief Digital Health Officer at University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC), discusses their digital health priorities and technology solutions to engage the patient population they serve. URMC is a unique organization as it is the only health system still attached to its parent university, and Michael talks about how that differentiates them from others.

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.

In this episode, Jacob Effron, Principal at Redpoint Ventures, discusses the venture capital (VC) environment for digital health. Redpoint Ventures is a venture capital firm focused on investments in seed, early, and growth-stage companies and has been investing in the healthcare tech landscape for the last decade.

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.

In this episode, Russ Thomas, Chief Executive Office of Availity, discusses their core business of clinical and claims data to drive better healthcare outcomes and reduce costs. Availity optimizes information exchange between two of the most critical stakeholders in the healthcare ecosystem – health plans and providers – through a single, secure network.

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.

In this episode, Zane Burke, CEO of Quantum Health discusses the current state of digital health and how Quantum is working towards creating a different and better healthcare experience with better financial and clinical outcomes.

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.

In this episode, David Evendon-Challis, Executive Board Member and Chief Scientific Officer at Bayer Consumer Health discusses their approach to help consumers adopt digital health tools to manage and improve their healthcare outcomes. David also explores trends driving better self-care among consumers.

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.

In this episode, Reid Stephen, VP and CIO of St. Luke’s Health System, discusses how consumer research drives digital priorities, mobile applications, and other digital features. He also talks about creating a robust technology infrastructure to deliver the superior experiences consumers demand and expect today.

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.

In this episode, Jared Antzack, Chief Digital Officer at Sanford Health, discusses the special considerations that go into serving their widely dispersed population and how they design digital solutions for that population. Sanford is a large health system that primarily serves the rural population across the upper Midwest, stretching over 250,000 square miles.

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.

In this episode, Adam Landman, MD, Chief Information Officer of Mass General Brigham (MGB), formerly Partners Healthcare, talks about the four distinct user groups that Mass General’s digital engagement programs have identified and prioritized for improved experiences. In addition to fast and convenient patient experiences, Mass General’s digital programs focus on the needs of diverse population segments to improve access to care and eliminate systemic racism, which they consider a public health issue.

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 Gardenhire is the Chief Digital Officer of Centene Corporation – the country’s largest managed Medicaid services organization. In this episode, she talks about why it is important that their most vulnerable populations “show up” in their digital transformation programs. She highlights the importance of innovation for underserved and vulnerable populations and urges the technology vendor community to focus on building solutions for the most vulnerable populations.

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.

Dr. Denise Basow, a primary care physician by training, is the Chief Digital Officer of Ochsner Health – a health system that predominantly serves Medicaid populations in a risk-based payment model. She talks about how they’re using digital programs to drive improved healthcare outcomes and reduce care costs.

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.

Terry Myerson leads a very interesting organization – Truveta – that’s trying to aggregate healthcare data from health systems across the country in a de-identified form. They then combine this data with other sources to generate insights that drive clinical research and outcomes and develop new therapies and molecules.

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.

In this episode, Emily Kagan-Trenchard, SVP and Chief of Consumer Digital Solutions at Northwell Health in New York, discusses a range of topics related to the new focus on consumers, patient data, technology, and analytics infrastructure required to drive consumer and patient engagement in this coming era of digital health.

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.

In this episode, Tarun Kapoor, MD, SVP and Chief Digital Transformation Officer at Virtua Health talks about the diverse population segments they serve in Southern New Jersey and how they drive digital health priorities and investments. He also discusses how to drive digital health programs in an incremental fashion and gain stakeholder buy-in within the organization for digital health.

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.

In this episode, Pranay Kapadia, CEO and Co-founder of Notable Health, discusses Notable’s value proposition in the automation space for easier patient access and reducing friction in patient access processes. He also talks about the trends driving digital health investments, what clients are looking for, and the opportunity landscape for automation and digital health startups.

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.

In this episode, Sara Vaezy, Chief Digital Officer of Providence talks about her new priorities, the increased focus on patient acquisition through marketing and patient engagement tools, and the role of identity-based marketing programs that get tied with the returns on investment. Sara also discusses the digital health innovation ecosystem, the startup funding environment, and all the tough choices that health systems make in the context of an economic slowdown.

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.

In this episode, Susan Collins, Global Head of Healthcare at Twilio, discusses how they are making a difference in the healthcare space through their platform using a combination of intelligent communication tools and real-time data on patients. Susan talks about how messaging tools can improve patient engagement and healthcare outcomes using behavioral economics such as nudge principles.

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.

In this episode, Tom Leary discusses the recently published report by HIMSS titled “Public Health Information and Technology Infrastructure Modernization Funding” which recommends over $36 billion worth of investments over the next ten years in public health technology and infrastructure modernization. Tom unpacks the report to discuss why they have published the report now, what it means, and what the opportunities are from a public-private collaboration and partnership standpoint.

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.

In this episode, Dr. Taha Kass-Hout discusses Amazon’s investments in AI and ML for the healthcare space. He also talks about their work with healthcare organizations across the globe in empowering healthcare and life science organizations to make sense of their health data with a purpose-built machine learning platform.

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.

In this episode, Tim Skeen, SVP and CIO of Sentara Healthcare, discusses how he determines his technology priorities and initiatives for driving digital transformation. Norfolk, VA-based is an integrated, not-for-profit healthcare system comprising 12 hospitals. As CIO for Sentara and its affiliated health plan (Optima Health), Tim focuses on driving synergies through technology to improve member/patient experiences, manage population health, and drive efficiencies.

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.

In this episode, Kristin Myers, CIO of Mount Sinai Health System, discusses topics related to the digital transformation journey at Mount Sinai – telehealth and access, digital patient experiences, remote care, home health, and more. Kristin also talks about the multi-year cloud transformation journey at Mount Sinai with Microsoft and the key themes that her team is focused on this year.

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.

In this episode, Justin Norden, Partner at GSR Ventures, shares his personal story to inform the investment thesis behind GSR Ventures’ health tech-focused venture fund. Justin is both a physician and a computer scientist by training and has a real passion for the Medicaid sector. He discusses the many challenges in healthcare for startups and points to the potential that lies with the Medicaid population and how technology can help turn it into an opportunity. GSR Ventures specializes in funding early-stage digital health companies.

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.

In this episode, Brian Davis discusses the perfect storm of competition for patients, labor, and medical supplies that even a small hospital in remote Mississippi, such as Magnolia Regional Medical Center now faces. Brian describes Magnolia as a large ambulatory facility that happens to own a hospital. He explains how he uses federal grants and state programs for rural broadband access to drive telehealth and improve technology adoption among patients and caregivers.

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.  

In this episode, Paula Turicchi, Chief Strategy Officer, Parkland Community Health Plan (PCHP), talks about how the organization went from a completely outsourced service model to taking more control over their operations. PCHP primarily serves a Medicaid population of pregnant women and children in North Texas. Paula discusses how they use digital engagement tools and technologies with their members to improve the quality of care and health outcomes. She outlines how economic factors such as rising gas prices impact their members and their ability to afford access to healthcare.

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.

In this episode, Matthew Warrens, Managing Director at UnityPoint Health Ventures, shares some of the learnings from their portfolio companies, and how UnityPoint Ventures approaches digital health investments.

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.

In this episode, Lee Kim, Senior Principal, Cyber Security and Privacy at HIMSS, discusses the findings of their annual survey of cybersecurity. She talks about the emerging landscape of cyberthreats, the current state of security controls, and the heightened risks due to the interconnectedness of healthcare with other sectors. She also shares her thoughts and observations on the new threat that has emerged in the wake of the Ukraine crisis and what she is hearing from HIMSS members.

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.

In this episode, Dr. Ashis Barad, Clinical Lead, Digital Health at Baylor Scott & White Health, discusses their digital patient engagement journey, their highly rated best-in-class homegrown patient mobile app, and how they are creating a seamless digital experience for patients and consumers.

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.

Andrew Le started Buoy Health after he realized healthcare consumers were relying on Google search and other sources to make decisions about their care. After seeing bad outcomes from consumers relying on inaccurate information or failing to seek timely care, he decided to build an AI-powered service that helps consumers manage their health in a more informed way.

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.

In this podcast, Anish Sebastian, Co-Founder and CEO of Babyscripts, shares how they are reinventing the standard of prenatal and postpartum care by enabling improved virtual and remote maternity care. Babyscripts focuses on the delivery of pregnancy care through the power of technology and remote patient monitoring and addresses the critical shortage of obstetrical providers in the U.S. 

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.  

In this podcast, Kyle Kiser, CEO of RxRevu, discusses how they have built a data network to provide real-time patient-specific prescription pricing information to providers at the point of care. 

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. 

In this podcast, Ryan Younger, VP of Marketing at Virtua Health, discusses the consumer-driven era of healthcare, emerging digital health technologies, and why active listening to the consumers at every phase is crucial. Virtua is a leading New Jersey-based not-for-profit healthcare system that operates a network of hospitals, surgery centers, and physician practices.

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.

In this podcast, Dr. Lucienne Ide, Founder and CEO of Rimidi, acknowledges the rapidly evolving healthcare market and discusses her passion for making healthcare scalable and better for all stakeholders by leveraging the right tools, insights, and analytics needed at the points of care. Rimidi is a clinical management platform designed to optimize clinical workflows.

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.

In this podcast, Cynthia Brandt, President and CEO of the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health shares her passion for giving back and encourages others to do so with their financial support, time, and expertise. The Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health unlocks philanthropy to transform health for all children and families.

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 this podcast, Richard Ashworth, President and CEO of Tivity Health, discusses why senior fitness is an important space and brimming with opportunities waiting to be capitalized. Tivity Health leverages core healthcare capabilities to deliver market-leading fitness, nutrition, and social engagement programs that improve health and lower healthcare costs.

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.

In this podcast, Dr. Mark Weisman, CIO and CMIO of TidalHealth, Maryland, discusses the role of analytics and informatics in identifying bottlenecks and the opportunities where technology may be harnessed to enhance the quality of care. Tidal Health is a two-hospital health system on the eastern shore of Maryland, serving largely the rural population of Delmarva Peninsula.

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.

In this podcast, Srulik Dvorsky, Co-founder and CEO of TailorMed discusses how healthcare organizations can improve patients’ financial management and enable the chronically ill to reduce their out-of-pocket costs and financial burden, thereby enhancing access to care. TailorMed is a Tel Aviv-based innovative financial management platform.  

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. 

In this podcast, B.J. Moore, EVP and CIO of Providence Health discusses the organizational structure at Providence to drive transformation and how he draws on his 27 years of experience at Microsoft to drive change.

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.

In this podcast, Jason Considine, Chief Business Development Officer at Experian Health, discusses the critical role of data in digital healthcare systems. He explains why organizations as data collators must first understand data privacy and security, adhere to regulations, and then use that data to better the situation for stakeholders in the healthcare domain. Experian is a data and technology company that transforms data into meaningful analyses to help people across the globe make smarter decisions – for themselves and their businesses.

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.

In this 100th episode of the podcast, Unity Stoakes discusses about their life-long mission to improve people’s health and well-being worldwide and how the healthcare landscape has witnessed significant changes over the last ten years.

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.

In this podcast, Amit Phadnis, Chief Digital Officer at GE Healthcare reflects on how a geographical transition and a change in domain from IT networking to healthcare has worked out for him and shares his learnings from this shift. GE Healthcare is a leading global medical technology, pharmaceutical, diagnostics, and digital solutions innovator. 

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.  

In this podcast, Darshak Sanghavi, MD, Global Chief Medical Officer of Babylon Health talks about how digital healthcare providers can deliver on the sales promise they make about bringing affordable and accessible healthcare to everyone. Babylon Health is the global end-to-end digital healthcare provider serving over a dozen countries and millions of people.

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.

In this podcast, Amber Fencl, VP of Digital Health and Engagement at Novant Health, discusses how innovations in technology are driving healthcare and enabling its seamless, effective delivery into patients’ homes today. They are transforming the home into the new healthcare hub.

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.

In this podcast, Tony Ambrozie, Chief Digital Officer of Baptist Health South Florida, shares his journey and learnings embracing digital in healthcare. Transformation in any sector requires sustained effort, a budget, a cohesive team and most importantly, a well-drafted communication plan.

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.

In this episode, Jacob Sattelmair, Co-Founder and CEO of Wellframe discusses how technology solution providers can collaborate with health plans to deliver impeccable quality care to people whenever and wherever they need it. With Telemedicine adoption rates gradually on the rise, it’s imperative to enhance investment in a digital concierge type service that puts the patient first, breaks down silos within the health plans, and facilitates improved collaboration between plans and providers vis a vis support.

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.

In this episode, Dr. Roy Schoenberg, President and CEO of Amwell, discusses the current state of telehealth in the U.S. and how its adoption is impacting the experience for healthcare stakeholders – consumers, providers, and payers. Amwell is a leading telehealth platform in the United States and globally, connecting and enabling providers, insurers, patients, and innovators to deliver greater access to more affordable and higher quality care. 

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.   

In this episode, McKinsey partners Oleg Bestsennyy and Jenny Rost discuss the findings of their recently published report – ‘Telehealth: A quarter-trillion-dollar post-Covid-19 Reality?’ The conversation highlights the rapid growth of telehealth since the pandemic and explores several important differences in adoption rates based on types of care, demographic profiles, and other factors.

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.

In this episode, Matthew Roman discusses how Duke Health is implementing a number of foundational technology platforms for effective patient engagement and care delivery over the next couple of years.

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 episode, Mike Restuccia discusses the state of telehealth in the pre-and post-COVID era and how the overall workload for the technology function has expanded significantly with the onset of virtual care models. He discussed the role of the IT function in the context of the overall mission of Penn Medicine that covers education, research and care delivery.

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.

In this episode, Dr. David McSwain, Chief Medical Information Officer at The Medical University of South Carolina discusses the lessons learned in integrating technology into clinical care and its impact on the workflow of physicians, care team members, and patients. He also shares best practices in telehealth implementation from a clinical and operational standpoint.

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.

In this episode, Ian Shakil discusses how Augmedix became the first company to launch a clinical application using Google Glass and a phone to convert the natural clinician-patient conversation into medical documentation.

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.

In this episode, Murray Brozinsky, CEO of Conversa Health discusses how conversational AI can complement care delivery models and the need for AI and clinicians to work together to apply these tools to clinical use cases. Conversa’s virtual care and triage platform leverages a 360 view of the patient in real-time to predict clinical pathways and make recommendations.

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.

In this episode, Sean Duffy, Co-founder and CEO of Omada Health discusses their journey as a virtual care company, primarily serving self-insured employers with a focus on supporting chronic disease care. Sean also talks about the thought process behind their newly launched offerings and how they stand against their competitors.

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.

In this episode, John Donohue, Vice President of Entity Services at Penn Medicine talks about their 6-years long, $1.5 billion investment in a hospital of the future to be launched by the health system in their West Philadelphia campus. The hospital features new interactive technology for improving patient care and Disney-inspired user experience design.

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.

In this episode, Sachin Patel, Chief Executive Officer of Apixio, discusses how data science can help solve critical healthcare problems and empower individuals, providers, and health plans with reliable, actionable intelligence. Apixio is a healthcare AI analytics company that was recently acquired by Centene Corporation.

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 this episode, Grace Kitzmiller of AWS and Dr. Michael Snyder of Stanford University’s School of Medicine discuss AWS’ Diagnostic Development Initiative (DDI), a two-year, $20 million commitment that uses cloud computing to scale up diagnostic innovations.

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.

In this episode, David Cohen, Chief Product and Technology Officer of Greenway Health, highlights the need for RCM service providers to scale up to meet the revenue cycle needs of the larger healthcare practices. Greenway Health is an electronic health records (EHR), practice management, and revenue cycle management solutions company serving more than 50,000 ambulatory practices.

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.

In this episode, Mike Alkire, President & Incoming CEO of Premier Inc., discusses the ongoing vaccine roll-out and the lack of resiliency in the medical supply chain for U.S. healthcare.

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.

In this episode, Jim Beinlich discusses the current state and maturity level of data and analytics in healthcare.

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.

In this episode, Kash Patel discusses his role as the Chief Digital Technology Officer at Penn Medicine and provides an overview of their digital transformation initiatives covering all aspects of the institution, including research, academic programs, and patient engagement.

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

In this episode, Dr. Rich Parker and Jennifer Polello discuss their vaccination distribution program, challenges around vaccine hesitancy, and how they have overcome this.

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.

In this episode, Josh Goode, CIO of SCAN Health Plan, discusses their digital programs, the patient population they serve, and how they evaluate digital technologies and deploy it at every stage of the care journey for improved outcomes. 

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.

In this episode, Dr. Stephanie Lahr, CIO of Monument Health, and Peter Durlach, Chief Strategy Officer of Nuance Communications, discuss voice recognition technology, its demand and adoption level in the marketplace, emerging use cases, and the next stage of improvements in the technology.

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

In this episode, Casey Ross, National Technology Correspondent at Stat News, discusses his recently published report on FDA-approved AI-enabled tools. These are Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) tools that work as decision support tools to supply patients’ data to physicians and help them diagnose and treat the patients.

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.

In this episode, Mona Baset discusses how SCL is transforming its digital capabilities to provide a seamless digital patient experience just like other industries – retail, travel, and financial services.

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

In this episode, Katherine Lusk discusses how AHIMA works at the intersection of healthcare and technology to empower patients with their health information, and ensures to keep the data accurate, accessible, and safe.

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

In this episode, Harry Fox discusses his role at Whitman-Walker Health (WWH) and how as a community-based health center they are serving a diverse patient population with technology disparity and making healthcare inclusive for everyone.

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.

In this episode, Bill Krause, VP and GM, Experience and Consumer Engagement at Change Healthcare discusses how the CMS’s price transparency rule will affect consumer’s shoppable behavior, the providers, the traditional payers, and the new emerging payers – the employers.

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.

In this episode, Dr. Colin Banas discusses how they are uniting different stakeholders in the healthcare space through their concept – Healthiverse^TM – and providing actionable solutions for a better healthcare experience and outcome to all.

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.

In this episode, Pamela Landis discusses how they brought together a ‘digital ecosystem,’ a.k.a. a digital front door strategy. She also talks about how they engage patients at every major touchpoint of their journey by providing a seamless digital experience that is intuitive, consumer-friendly, and easy to use.

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.

In this episode, Ray Lowe discusses the multi-year digital “overhaul” at AltaMed and the challenges they faced while driving adoption of digital solutions in the organization.

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.

In this episode, Dr. Lee shares some examples of how the intersection between traditional healthcare and technology can be beneficial to improve healthcare outcomes and reduce costs of care.

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.

In this episode, Daniel Nigrin discusses how digital at Boston Children’s Hospital is about transforming healthcare by improving the care experience for consumers, patients, families, and clinicians and their interaction with the health system.

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.

In this episode, Craig Richardville discusses how they have created an organization within SCL Health to design digital programs for building new levels of engagements keeping the future in mind. He also points to the need to empower patients, one of the most underutilized resources in the healthcare industry, and how one can be part of SCL Health’s digital journey.

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.

In this episode, Anshul Pande, VP and Chief Technology Officer at Stanford Children’s Health discusses their digital journey and covers digital programs such as remote monitoring, telehealth, and how to make data useful and readily available to the clinicians.

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.

In this episode, Pamela Arora, SVP and CIO of Children’s Health discusses how their holistic approach towards digital health is transforming the experience of their team members, providers, patients, and the whole continuum of care. At Children’s Health, digital health is about effectively applying digital capabilities across the continuum of care to maximize efficiency, effectiveness, and experience.

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.

In this episode, Dr. Stephanie Lahr, CIO and CMIO of Monument Health, discusses how as a community-based health system, they transformed their healthcare delivery in a short time during the pandemic. With the knowledge of technology and informatics, Dr. Lahr’s clinical background is helping the health system choose the right tools at the right time to solve the right problems.

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.

In this episode, Dr. Nick Patel, Chief Digital Officer of Prisma Health discusses his role and how the pandemic has transformed the healthcare industry with emerging technologies like online scheduling, virtual visits, chatbots, remote patient monitoring, and AI.

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.

In this episode, Drew Schiller, Founder and CEO of Validic discusses how COVID-19 has impacted and accelerated the demand environment for remote patient monitoring and other virtual care technologies.

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

In this episode, San Banerjee, Vice President of Digital Experience at Texas Health Resources, discusses how they create a connected ecosystem to provide a seamless digital experience for patients wherever they are through digital channels that includes virtual health.

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.

In this episode, Marc Probst, who served as CIO of Intermountain Healthcare for 17 years, speaks about digital health technologies, telehealth, virtual visits, and how these will determine the future of healthcare.

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.

In this episode, Puneet Maheshwari, CEO of DocASAP discusses their platform and their recent survey on consumer experience and attitudes to telehealth/ telemedicine.

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.

In this episode, Diana Nole and Dr. Yaa Kumah-Crystal discuss the progress, future state, and challenges of voice-enabled technology in healthcare. They also talk about its usability and application in a post-COVID-19 world.

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.

In this episode, Dr. Michael Bouton, Chief Medical Information Officer of New York City Health and Hospitals describes the significant changes that NYC H + H had to implement in their organization to deploy and integrate new technologies in response to the pandemic. NYC H + H installed hundreds of vital sign monitors linked to EMRs in the first few weeks of the pandemic and integrated them into the EHR system to enable caregivers with actionable, real-time information to address patient needs.

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.

In this episode, Sara Vaezy, Chief Digital Strategy & Business Development Officer of Providence Health talks about their recently published series of reports – COVID-19 Digital Insight Series – that describes new digital requirements and opportunities brought by the acceleration of virtual care models due to COVID-19. Sara also speaks about the current state of telehealth adoption level and possible reasons for its drop after the industry witnessed a surge in telehealth visits in wake of the pandemic.

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.

In this episode, Dr. Steve Miff, President and CEO of Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation (PCCI) discusses how they build connected communities of care with a focus on cutting edge uses of data science, social determinants of health, and clinical expertise across clinical and healthcare community settings. Steve also speaks about his recent book – Building Connected Communities of Care – based on the experience at PCCI.

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.

In this episode, Jeff Short, Vice President and Chief of Staff at Montefiore Health System describes how Montefiore prepared for one of the biggest surges of COVID-19 cases in the country, and how they used emerging healthcare technologies to manage capacity and deal with the crisis.

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.

In this episode, Mike Alkire, President of Premier Inc. and Dr. Jonathan Slotkin, Vice Chair of Neurosurgery and Associate Chief Medical Informatics Officer of Geisinger discuss how technology and data is helping public health officials to keep a balance in opening the economy versus managing the spread of COVID-19 virus.

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.

In this episode, Bill Krause, Vice President of Experience Solutions at Change Healthcare, talks about removing friction points in healthcare – finding, accessing, and paying for care – throughout the consumer experience journey.

According to Bill, COVID-19 created a big explosion of interest around the role digital can play in the healthcare system. He states that there are several barriers that consumer experiences while accessing care through digital means. To accelerate digital patient experience, healthcare providers must understand the role of payers in a patient’s journey and work together to provide a frictionless digital consumer experience.

Recently, Change Healthcare collaborated with Adobe and Microsoft to launch a connected consumer health suite that enables healthcare providers to create a more streamlined digital health experience throughout the patient journey. Change Healthcare is one of the largest independent healthcare technology companies in the U.S. Take a listen.

In this landmark 50^th episode of our podcast, Aaron Miri discusses contact tracing and UT Health’s contribution to prevent the spread of COVID-19 through their public-private partnership with city of Austin, TX.

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.

In this episode, Dr. Ashish Atreja, Chief Innovation Officer, Medicine at Mount Sinai Health System discusses how virtual care technologies – remote monitoring, video visits, telehealth, and digital medicine – will bring value to health systems by decreasing cost, increasing efficiency, and improving healthcare outcomes.

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.

In this episode, Ceci Connolly, President and CEO of Alliance of Community Health Plans discusses the findings of their recent survey on how COVID-19 has shifted consumer behavior towards healthcare and tripled the use of telehealth and other virtual care technologies.

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.