#97 Health Systems and Digital Health conversation with Jan Beger | João Bocas- The Wearables Expert
three years old [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] welcome back to the digital elf and wearables Series today I have another magnificent episode and guest leader for you but before I go ahead let me remind you to subscribe to the channel and check all the previous great content there and this week great gives me great pleasure to introduce you to a young beggar he's the senior director digital ecosystem at GE Healthcare yeah I know are you I'm very good thanks a lot for having me draw oh brilliant I mean thanks for accepting the invite I've been following your great work and you're very active now in a digital level of space so today we are here to discuss the topic Health Systems and digital health and the first question that I have for you is what are the key considerations for successful adoption and implementation of digital Health tools I think that's a great question to start with Joe look when we think about digital Health there are great ideas out there create Innovations but when it comes to adoption right there are additional several additional hurdles to tackle but before I get started uh answering your question let me just say a few words about right digital health and Healthcare in general I think when we think about the digital transformation as Healthcare overall um right and you know this very well we are late compared to other Industries right yields behind other Industries and there are several different reasons for this and one of them is just the fact that Healthcare is very complex complicated industry but also very fascinating one right um there's a lot of good stuff happening here but it's highly regulated at the end of the day it's about health about patients and everything what we Implement into Healthcare settings that impacts the work of healthcare professionals that impacts outcomes to patients need to be validated tools and capabilities so this is something very important and this is why things are usually a bit slower here I mean look I'm with G Healthcare and we have uh years-long experience in deploying digital Health tools deploying Health I.T systems and Innovations also to large healthcare provider in uh institutions and coming to your question I would say um what we have seen the last couple of years is really uh crows of digital Health tools and capabilities that can really significantly improve the delivery of of Health Services uh and this has really massively grown and on the flip side to this we we also see that uh the the real usage the adoption of those tools especially like in in large complex Health Systems uh remains comparatively limited um because the the adoption of of those Technologies uh at an Enterprise level is really uh something quite challenging and there are multiple Dimensions from my perspective along which clinically validated digital Health tools should be examined by Health Systems Prior to selection and adoption and let me talk a little bit about this if if you want I mean first and I think this is something we'll we'll talk a bit later as well as um what is actually the the optimal uh product selection approach um because digital Health tools can uh be built in a number of different ways and I will talk about this a little bit uh later the second is um is there a clear uh demonstration of Return of investment yeah and when we think about Roi in Health Systems uh there are a number of different factors uh in which this is driven and it should be clear which factor uh the tool really addresses uh for example in considering uh the financial value of the tool it is important to measure how much the tool costs to acquire of course but also maintenance need to be taken into account and also who will Who will pay for this right and especially in a large complex system this is something to be clarified as quickly as possible another important Point uh right beside like the financial Roi is like the the clinical value a clear demonstration of of clinical uh value um and here also because I mean there are a number of of clinical Dimensions uh along which to evaluate a digital health tool uh and and those values and risk as well and identifying a meaningful clear um outcome metric that would be improved by the adoption of the Tool uh in the short term is essential from my standpoint when considering um a digital Health uh VR capability more to this uh right when we think about adoption when we think about implementation uh it's always relevant um what what data assets are required uh for for the for the new tool to to function properly and of course um those digital Health tools are typically informed by a variety of different data sources usually um and we need to make sure we have access to those data sources um be it like EHR be it administrative systems billing systems and so on and so forth and we have to make sure that uh this new tool has access to the appropriate stream of data at the appropriate uh interval as well right meaning real time on a weekly basis on a monthly basis to properly and fully function um in addition to this right when it comes to other factors that need to be considered when you think about adoption uh one important uh aspect when you think change management is always and also from a g Healthcare uh experience is always having an internal Champion yeah this is from my standpoint truly important that you have uh such an internal uh stakeholder on the Health institution Health System site right someone who is really interested and Keen to understand and learn about a new tool who supports you to deploy it who motivates others right in his organization or her organization to to test it out try it out and use it this is something critically important uh and then also when you think change management one thing that you always need to uh be aware of right and and be laser focused on is as well who is actually the like executive sponsor right and there are two different types of uh sponsors from our experience usually one is of course um right when it comes to digital nit the like what is the organization's digital strategy or I.T strategy and um how does it fit into the existing and evolving I.T ecosystem of a health system and the second of course is what is the health carers like overall Healthcare delivery strategy so the clinical strategy and for those two areas uh informatics I.T and and clinical Healthcare you need to make sure that you have the right let's say level of executive sponsors um supporting you and in addition to this and I I slowly come to an end to answer your question I know it's it's a bit of a lengthy answer but uh what we also uh need to take into account besides sponsorship is also how does uh the tool the capabilities your product provides how does it fit into the overall let's say institutional priorities yeah um along with what I said earlier return of investment thoughts clinical value and so on um and then maybe one last point before I stop is uh what you also need to consider when thinking about adoption of tools is uh how much effort is it and and what are the resources required to implement right your new tool um because it's not enough to select one you also need to have like the the power the the Manpower the capacity and bandwidth to actually um deploy and implement it um and when you have done all those things there is one important thing uh that uh oftentimes uh right you start thinking about this at the point of uh right when you have done your implementation but you should start thinking about this much earlier and this is what is like the long-term operational home for your tool right is it does it belong more like to the I.T Department to the clinical side if so to which specific department or care area right make sure that you work at day one already with those people who are responsible and kind of maintaining hosting your tool um in in the longer term and maybe um Joe I I know was a long one I stopped here for now no that's brilliant yen is the long answer but it was a magnificent asset Thank You For This brilliant overview you mentioned so many important aspects it's not just going implementing technology from change management management to advocacy to understanding what you actually trying to achieve in other words you mentioned and also I'm initiating uh conversations with very large Health Systems in U.S and um is always a challenge to kind of prove the return on investment on lni technology because it's like is a bit of a catch-22. if we don't Implement you don't try things out you can't really
get the gauge if actually is going to be impactful or not because many organizations as you know are at starting point we've been talking about digital health for a long time but they are a starting point so what you got was a very uh comprehensive picture of the overarch digital transformation strategy considering from I.T to operations to strategies so thank you for thank you so much for this amazing amazing essay moving on the second question is can you share some best practices and mind challenges encountered too yeah and and maybe here this is a good point to talk a little bit about more of the like early stage right close to Market ready type of digital Health innovators I mean Joe you know very well that um and it's it's still an interesting number um and a sad one as well that statistically uh 96 of healthcare Innovations actually fail and uh one reason why this happens is the fact that um there is a knowledge gap between industry innovators and and those being on the front line of healthcare each and every day yeah um I mean Healthcare is uh like an Ever evolving industry and in order to gain competitive uh like Edge it's important for companies to innovate continuously and engage with experts in the industry um other data shows also for example that um clinicians are often frustrated with innovators and uh and institutions that uh uh yeah believe that those innovators those Technologies developers Engineers data scientists do not understand well enough the problems they want to address and also I'm talking about this gap between Tech and innovators and and Healthcare delivery actually and often what we hear is that clinicians believe that investments in the healthcare sector are not aligned with the needs of of of of current Healthcare professionals essentially clinicians want to be part of those conversations that decide what types of Innovations are going to be most uh useful for the healthcare sector um and they feel that they are not part of those conversation nowadays um look what I'm trying to say is here we need to make sure as an industry right as a digital Health startup for example that you um get in touch as early as possible and with many as possible Healthcare professionals right don't Focus I don't know if you develop a tool that uh solves a problem in cardiology make sure you not only talk to a cardiologist right for sure talk to multiple from across different markets institutions countries talk to nurses right talk to um other people in the healthcare space to get really a broad perspective and not just like single individual standpoints that's important another point to your to your question is um what we also see a lot uh right when we talk about Healthcare uh Innovation is that ins startups a lot use the term disruption um right and disruption means actually like shaking up the status quo and replacing it with something better or more innovative um clinicians usually feel disruption as something negative now I don't want I mean nobody wants to disrupt patient care right we want to improve it we want I don't know even reinvent it make it better get to better outcomes but we don't want to disrupt Healthcare so right this is maybe something as well when you build your talk track when you build your value proposition think about the term disruption um and yeah I think uh what we also need to think about is that really clinicians feel part of solutions right so as I said earlier make sure you connect those two worlds this is also what we for example at GE Healthcare do a lot in our open Innovation programs connecting uh those technical domains data science software development bring them together closely with those who deliver Healthcare day in day out well brilliant fantastic points I mean we hear a lot about the importance of involving different stakeholders now there is a big push as you know in the industry for patient voice and including the right people and I I've been guilty of I was a startup founder of doing the common mistake that you just described in other words is like let's build a product and see where it fits so yeah what the mission is actually um really critical about the digital Health ecosystem in the startups involving as many people as they can from from the outset from the beginning instead of going to a later stage and actually find out which is very costly and sometimes fatal that it doesn't work out or actually you make an assumption build a product that we're gonna sell to an insurer or an hospital and is not as straightforward as that and unfortunately is a very high rate of um failing for one reason or another you mentioned on the first question the healthcare is very complicated it's not like other industries that you show a return on investment is a quick sale and is a direct benefit is is much complex and I I would play a bit of a devil's advocate in here and these are there as ever because now we have the big Tech uh the big uh Tech players involved without mentioning any names they naturally shrinking the market for startups because they're getting a market quota with their Technologies with their code Solutions within own Innovations and products and solutions so it's I think the environment I'm sorry to say but it's a more difficult than ever for startups to succeed um I'm sure you agree with that and you have a a clear foot on the ground that's seeing the startups evolving and everything and moving on to the third and last question the question is what is the optimal product selection approach that we talk about digital tools before you Mission you mentioned before yeah I mean maybe just to your comment uh Joel before I answer your question I think uh right uh big tech companies right of course make the market make the environment more more challenging as everywhere right across the board beside Healthcare but I think they also provide tremendous value to Startup ecosystem by providing like the technology let's say uh fundament right to make digital Health really flourishing happen right I just mentioned Cloud as one example here I mean look coming back to your question um what is like the optimal product selection approach I mean first of all um depending on the let's say the needs or the constraints or characteristics of an healthcare provider institution it may be best to purchase of course a complete uh new product right another option could be configure an existing tool right in a way that it it works for your new needs or what we also see more and more actually especially in like large academic University type of sizes building your own digital health tool entirely in-house yeah so I would recommend actually um in investigating the viability of uh like the following possibilities first does um one of your current vendors right have a solution for your problem right one I mean like the EHR EMR vendor or do they have already something or any kind of other system and vendor you work with already because if this is the case there is already a relationship in place uh which eventually simplifies I don't know procurement implementation and support um the the relevant uh question here is uh are they responsive enough in terms of further developing the tool right that you want to uh want to use uh going forward based on your changing needs what we've seen often is that those large EHR vendors a bit slow to adopt new capabilities and Technologies but uh if this works for you so I would recommend look into an existing vendor you work with another option I would recommend exploring is is there actually a vendor you have good experience with who's willing to co-develop co-create yeah because then the development can be tailored to your institutional needs and adoption requirements and maybe the the pace of development uh right until let's say implementation may be faster but when you do this especially with more early stage vendors then there may be a risk that this vendor does not longer exist after some time post development and and and post implementation of course a third option is actually um is there another like external validated right proven solution already uh in the market which may be uh even have a track record with other institutions or Health Systems um right something to explore the question here would be um is there like a customization interest update frequency responsiveness uh does this fit to uh what you have in mind right and how you want to cooperate and last but not least I would say um right and I mentioned this earlier if you have the bandwidth and capacity and the know-how uh is it something to explore if you can build this tool you need as a healthcare provider institution is it something new better um put together in-house now because then the tool may be built as a I don't know for example as a configuration of an EHR or another in-use digital Health product already um or you build it completely from scratch and developers maybe uh more familiar with your let's say workflows with your user needs uh and your overall organization and um when you do this I think you then also have uh the flexibility and uh can yeah further develop and update your tool as your needs and requirements evolve but of course as I said earlier we see a lot of Institutions uh lacking just this capacity and expertise to build in-house uh and and those need really external partners brilliant Ian thank you so much for this amazing uh points important and very valid things to consider from co-creation to find solutions that already have like a pedigree in the market they've done things with other institutions these are actually uh very valuable uh points and steps thank you so much we could talk for hours about digital Health we could create more questions and and talk all day about this amazing subject is a passion of mine and and of yours too and yeah I appreciate your time we coming to the end of the interview I'm not sure if we've seen the other episodes I finished all my episodes with them A peculiar question it's not really a question as such it's called one minute of time you can mention anything personal achievements your professional a career you can mention any projects at GE Healthcare you're doing your startup Innovation thing I mean anything whatsoever to you to run that one minute of time over to you thank you very much and look actually Joe I have a call to action to your audience um what we see in the healthcare spaces that there is incredible Talent right I think about right in digital Health there are fantastic data scientists developers Engineers we have in our industry but I also feel like there is more great talent out there in other Industries right I've sometimes I feel like the mo the most or the best the world-class data scientists for whatever reason work in gaming so my call to action to your audience would be whenever you speak to a data scientists developers Engineers that work in other Industries Empower and engage them to join us in healthcare right because what we do here has an impact when I think about digital health I mean I wake up every morning and I feel like I do something for thousands or sometimes even millions of people so there's a real purpose we can really make an impact to our own health to the health of our families and and and and friends and therefore right help me in this approach to crap data scientists engineers from other Industries and bring them into our exciting space brilliant yeah and that's a fantastic way to finish a fantastic call to action well let me well convert to let you on your work also thank you so much for sharing your expertise this amazing insights very valuable learning things for the for the audience um and and thank you so much for for being in here and I'm going to round up now thank you again thanks for having me uh to all our viewers and listeners make sure you subscribe to the channel also I'm gonna post Yen's social media near connect with him on LinkedIn and also on Twitter is very active ask him questions about the industry about GF care anything that you find appropriate and I'll see you all next week [Music]
2022-12-16 01:59
