CIO Leadership Live Middle East with Dr. Joseph George, Chief Technology Officer at Smart Salem
hello welcome to this new episode of CIO leadership light today with Dr Joseph George chief technology officer at smart salm hello Joseph how are you thank you so much hey Andia great meeting you and thank you so much thank you so much for inviting me for this session no it is my pleasure and especially well I have a lot of questions for you there are a lot of things that we want to know about you because you were awarded as one of the 50 winners in the Third Edition of CIO 50 Middle East Awards many congratulations thank you thanks Ana thank you so I I really want to discover more about our winners more about yourself and I think that my first question will be like why did you decide to work in technology is it something that you always wanted uh yeah it's a it's a very interesting question to be very honest um during my um school days I was very much fascinated towards electronics and my aim was to become an electronics engineer um could be that time you know Computer Engineering was not that popular and I'm maybe I didn't find many computer Engineers around me but later uh I got you know attracted towards computers and then ended up in software engineering or maybe Computer Engineering and I'm so happy that I choose that stream well you never know honestly I met an interview with one of our winners uh recently and he wanted to be a pilot W and now he's I don't know uh that's the beauty of engineering right I mean you can just make I definitely you can't a computer engineer cannot be a pilot but of course a pilot can be a computer engineer same way a mechanical engineer he can be a software programmer but but you know but the reverse might not be possible you know uh yeah I mean I had this kind of passion towards Electronics you know I don't know maybe uh devices are getting you know that's something kind of Attraction during those days but and when I started my passion towards computer then there was nothing to look back and finally I'm so glad that you know ended up being that stream so I guess because of this decision you never took any theour you have been always focused on technology but let us know a little bit about your career like where did you start it um my first job was again you know um was a software programmer um like let me just start with my first that would be very interesting you know uh it was in early 2000 andlike any other fresh technology graduate at that time in India I also took the role of a software program oh that two was in healthcare Healthcare Systems know we call it h developer I was I'm very fortunate that you know I started my career in healthcare and um and even now still I'm in heare so you're that was my first job that was my first job and coming to the journey you know um I'm started the journey as a programmer then moved to management role and then the leadership role now after a couple of what do you call the management roles my first leadership role was with Rashi Center for diabetes and research with the Ministry of Health and prevention uee uh that is back in 2009 um as a head of technology so rcdr again was a PPP public private Partnership of Ministry of presidential offers and a Swedish Healthcare firm called Global Health partner so that was my first leadership role after a couple of management roles um then um I mean can I continue the journey yes yes please let us know I have so many questions for you but I I want to have all the information sure sure sure so then 2015 I joined sha Medical City AA which was under Ministry of presidential Affairs that time as a director of technology and TM uh the medical office that was the healthcare arm of mopa and you all know that now shria Medical City mopa they are all coming under Pure Health so when I joined it was coming under Ministry of presidential Affairs uh it was a great time and actually we could introduce so many changes and Innovations know in healthcare at that time and yeah one of the first AI Solutions in this region in healthcare was implemented in skmc at that time so Ian this sorry yeah yeah yeah please go and you know if you look at these two roles right both these roles were mostly on government and the PPP or a public private partnership side and my first private healthcare Journey started in 2020 just before the pandemic now I joined Aster in 2020 as the GCC Regional head of technology for Astro Hospitals and Clinics so so I was handling UA Oman katar Saudi and bahin um during this pirod um yeah that was actually um and um and now again back to PPP join smart Sal that's what I was gonna say and again back to PPP smart Salam smart Salam is again a PPP of Dubai Health yeah that's the right name the name is now changed to Dubai Health Dubai health and v v is a French Healthcare firm and my role on smart Salam is a chief technology officer and has joined in q1 this year and again at smart Salam um I'm focusing actually on and again the PPP has two phases right the public phase and the private phase on a public perspective um with smart Salam and with Dubai health I'm focusing on the Dubai region specifically on medical free and on the private side of smart Salam we are expanding in Saudi and definitely I'm focusing more on sou the region on the private pH of smart ZM and yeah we are coming to other GCC country wow I always I mean I met you before and I always checked LinkedIn profile of the person with who I'm going to speak to but you told us a lot of things that maybe we don't know about you when you started in healthcare in India when I met you you were in a DN I didn't know all of this you know background in the early 20s in the in the healthcare sector so I wanted to ask you like how do you think your background in asdm help you and support you in your new role and do you think that it was beneficial for you for a while to change from the public sector to the private you have you know to be more open-minded to know what is going on not only in the public sector also in the private you think that help you in your new role at SM salm it's a very good question and I really would like to say you know asra has a very special place in my heart and even in my career part no it was a multi- regional experience and I could work with almost all GCC Healthcare Regulators during my as time and during and during Co and of course and you know I could a lot of different perspectives and you know different views during As Time know my previous roles were mostly on PPP and government but as was my first private healthcare environment you know as is really an ocean of you know learnings and experiences there is no doubt about it and in smart Salem we are especially in Wellness Spectrum um I'm not in illness um and I got exposal to GCC region from Master only so now as I told you know we are expanding to GCC region and the knowledge and the experience what I gained from ason GCC actually I'm utilizing that for smart salum expansion that's that's very true and you know to be very honest if you ask one thing we should not miss actually if you ask any healthare CAO on a technology for sure he will say or he will touch Bas on one specific term called RCM revenue cycle management so for most of them it's a pain or an achievement I got a whole lot of different dimensions and different perspectives on RCM for master what are your top priorities as a CTO um yeah straight to the point I mean if you ask this question to anyone the answers are most same right so straight to the point cyber security um and um a sustainable technology environment and uh a customer engagement more uh engagement with customer or empowerment empowering the customer or satisfaction so these are the three main priorities which I have know penciled down for the year now the first two thing right you know cyber security and sustainable these are very common with with any CIO that's a priority but for the third point you know the customer engagement and satisfaction um this has a different level of magnitude at smart now the reason why I'm saying yeah yeah yeah no please please this is super interesting yeah the reason why I'm seeing um you know uh the customer satisfaction is one of the key priority or empowering the customer is higher priority in SM Sal turn around time and the customer satisfactions are always tightly coupled I mean smart Salam is in medical Fitness we are offering premium medical Fitness service um at every stage of the customer Journey we are trying to uh we are ensuring at most satisfaction so I'll give you some kind of you know statistics um if you are coming to smart salum for your medical Fitness if you are a new Visa or let us say if you are a renewal Visa you are not going to spend more than 6 minutes in the CL everything is done within six minutes and your results are ready the next 30 minutes wow I think yeah so if you are a new entry to the country and if you need like to do the medical Fitness as a new Visa definitely some Radiology servic are involved then you might be taking like 11 to 12 minutes so we have dealing with minutes we are dealing with seconds so our idea is to reduce the time as much as possible I think that that you're bringing this we need to talk about generative AI we are on it I mean maybe in maybe in a different conversation we can work on it we are actively into AI generative Ai and even on Healthcare AI so I mean there the reason why we are able to deliver it in 30 minutes right and when I say reducing turnaround time it's it's only 30 minutes then then why you want to reduce no we are working on seconds so what we are trying to do all the repetitive task are identified and we are trying to automate or even automated with RPS and you know we do have even service robots available whenever you get some time just please visit smart Salam you will feel now you will see all our Robotics and our robotic friends there yph do you think that in the healthcare sector you know every time I attend panels about Healthcare and with CIO of course everyone know is talking about generative AI it looks like the Hot Topic uh there are a lot of things that are not that easy like everything sounds beautiful but I know like the potential is not 100% yet because you have access to the data of your network you don't have access to all of the data of the citizens in in a country within a country I think that's something that in the you know National Healthcare System it is something that uh the countries want to aieve also cyber security of course we are talking about sensitive data but the third barrier that in healthcare we have I will say we will say are doctors because uh we are seeing a lot of advancements as you say we are able to treat our patients so fast how doctors are embracing all of these new technologies do you struggle sorry do you struggle with this um see Healthcare is a sector um I should say till pandemic Healthcare was very resistant to adopt the Technologies right I know they were the last one um known for adopting technology healthare so after pandemic we can see that you know uh this exponential growth in healthcare sector in terms of Technology adoption um see if you ask me generative Ai and the different aspects of AI are we directly utilizing that healthare as of now I am not we are I mean see AI is in again in the infant stage now but there are some know narrow AI Solutions which are proven like for example when uh in Radiology interpreting Radiology images so this kind of AI mostly narrow AI things are established they are going to help the doctors and the clinicians to support the patient Journey right so I normally don't use the term artificial intelligence I always say collective intelligence so AI has its own capabilities right it can do wonders the same way human can also do wonders at least in the current stage we are in AI it's infant stage so what we are doing which we should combine both the capabilities of AI and the capabilities of human when we combine it together the collective intelligence what you are getting that's what I'm using right now so um um utilizing generative AI straight into the Health Care Systems and how can we utilize it I know a lot of resources are going on lot of use cases are going on we need to just know wait and watch definitely as you always say AI is going to replace those who are not going to are not using AI so I mean remember in AI assembly I hope you are there in the AI assembly um the minister was saying you know if you're not using um AI you're completely finished no absolutely like everyone has to be there even for you know in media it is happening as well so exactly exactly uh yes coming back to your role um what are the top questions a c should ask before saying yes to a new job wow very good question so let us put this in a very simple way right so when you are getting an organization it's it's a two-way communication right the employer would be asking many questions to you why they're asking to ensure that the incoming CIO would be performing well professionally and would align with the business and his culture right that's the way they are asking the question the I me to the candidate the same way the CEO is going to utilize his reputation and his experience for sure and he will be using it to deliver uh you know the expected things from the employer so it's a promise you are accepting a lot of responsibility and at the same time it is risky right because you are coming out from a comfort zone you are well established you are a CIO or maybe next to a CIO you are in your comfort zone you are trying maybe you are going to accept can you be in the comfort zone as a CIO uh yeah maybe that's a wrong wording uh but um yeah that could be a wrong but when I say comfort zone I mean like you are established yes yes you established you are established in a role I mean no role is Comfort definitely yeah that's true I mean you are established and you trying to make your next gem so in that case you have to ask a lot of questions to yourself and to the employer in terms of a the business B the technology and C definitely on personal growth perspective as well like know for a CIO all these three dimensions like business um technology and definitely the personal growth I mean all these are very important all the three dimension in current the cios are not merely a technology leader right they are more on business leadership than a technology leadership so I would say 70% business and 30% technology that is a CIO or at least 6040 you know when how the CIO role have changed I always say uh cios are no longer Tex leaders they are Business Leaders that's very true that's very true and you know now caos are increasingly involved in business decisions and strategy there's no doubt about it so that's why I was telling cios are like 70% business and 30% technology i j what are your priorities for this year um this year as I told you my priority is one of the priority is basically the what do you call the cyber security and the sustainable technology third one as I told you I really want to make our environment like a five star retail luxury like Health environment wow that means I really want to give the luxury five star atere to our customers and you know and The Limited around time and again you know I me actually we didn't complete our question on the previous role you know what are the question to be asked it's it's very very you know a lot of debates were going on what we should ask you know as a CIO before accepting I really would I mean maybe from my research and oh again what I did you know definitely we have to ask a couple of questions like is it an equal business partner or the organization is treating it like a department so or are you maybe if the CIO name is just like a title and theard M are involved po members are involved also in the t uh decisions yeah or I mean see C cannot be treated as a head of IT department no it's more actually right so that's something which we need to get from the organization what kind of perspective the organization has you know in terms of cios is it going to be like you know just a technology leader or business leader that's something very important I know a couple of inent there are couple of CIO they rejected their offer you know once they came to know about you know organization and you know what sort of approach they give to the cios definitely we should ask you know about the role itself you know and the previous CIO so why he lives and what did they like the most in that CIO right I mean those kind of questions when you ask I it's not about asking this I mean it's there is nothing wrong in that because you are going to take up a role so you are established and you are going to come out from that role you are going to read lead an organization not a department I will never say a department you are going to lead an organization it is no more supporting function it is no more an enabler it is a driving Factor you are going to drive an organization so you should get all those kind of commitment most importantly we should ask hey guys what sort of budget you guys have just by recruiting a CIO nothing is going to change CIO needs it its correct tools and resources to operate right and also you are being recruited as a CIO to make changes so now the question is how willing I mean the organization what is your change management culture what kind of authority will I have on driving my changes and what kind of support I'm going to get from the you know other CC members so I think these are the things which we definitely should ask I mean I I don't say maybe in the first meeting no in the forthcoming session definitely we should get clarity on all these I think everyone that is watching us can notice like you have been an IT leader for a long time you have been in the market for a long time you are an expert in the healthcare so I think it is amazing that you are sharing all of this Insight with with us it will help for sure it leaders our readers but also it leaders who working in the healthc care sector Dr Joseph yours thank you so much for your time it's been amazing like all your expertise all your knowledge that's why you were one of the winners in the C 50 Middle East Awards thank you so much for your time thank you thank you Andrea thank you thank you so much
2024-02-17 02:10
