The Crucial Conversations series provides dynamic opportunity for participants to hear diverse perspectives and insights from an expert panel with varying vantage points. Attendees also participate in collaborative discussion on what they understood, share their own unique perspective and talk about ways we could collectively address challenges and opportunities in care moving forward. Through curated small group conversations, participants in these sessions unpack the complexity of our industry and think about realistic steps that can be taken to make improvements, even incremental ones.
In our recent AI is Nothing Without Data Crucial Conversation our expert panel, comprised of Sherri Zink, SVP & Chief Data Engineer, BCBST, Dr. Lynn Simon, President, Healthcare Innovation & Chief Medical Officer, CHS and Tammy Hawes, Founder & CEO, Virsys12, moderated by Amy Deaton, COO of EvidenceCare, discussed the critical role of socio-technical factors—such as user training, organizational culture, and technology infrastructure—in the success of AI initiatives in healthcare.
Tammy Hawes, Founder & CEO, Virsys12, highlighted the need to foster a culture that is open, ready and willing to adopt innovation - like any technology or business strategy set into motion. Notably, this culture needs to be a trusting culture of accountability. In early stages of implementation there is a need to adjust and course correct data (as required), making it imperative to support a culture focused on not introducing any bias into the data. Additionally, strategic change management can make or break the success of an adoption. Many organizations that fail in their adoption of new technology, be it AI or another technological innovation, do so by not having a meaningful change management strategy or culture of accountability.
Government regulations, as we move towards a higher utilization and application of AI in healthcare, will either facilitate or hinder AI adoption. There is an opportunity for government regulations to enhance healthcare's ability to adopt AI efficiencies.
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Key Takeaway:
On the provider side, Dr. Lynn Simon, President, Healthcare Innovation & Chief Medical Officer, CHS, explained when trying to deploy technology involves changes in workflow and how these changes can be incorporated into the existing workflow. Each interaction represents an important component in the chain of patient care, making adoption slower as it is critical to understand each use case, each deployment and so on. When these changes affect patient care or important decisions surrounding patient care it is imperative not to move too fast, but rather with diligence and pragmatism.
Key Takeaways:
When it comes to challenges related to disparate systems and pulling large amounts of data into a single repository, there is a high level of governance required to normalize the data in a meaningful manner - the key comes down to infrastructure. To execute successfully organizations need the right infrastructure, technical capabilities and/or partners (if necessary). The data has to be normalized, definitions must be agreed upon, and there needs to be a solid governance process as it is being built. Once the infrastructure systems have been set into place, the next challenge becomes maintaining those systems over time.
Key Takeaways:
Sherri Zink, SVP & Chief Data Engineer, BCBST underscored the importance of technological change management initiatives to be aligned with corporate culture and goals. Regardless of the solution and its potential advancements, if your culture is not positioned to adopt and the model is not integrated into the workflow then it has high potential to fail.
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Sherry highlighted the need to integrate clinical data. BCBST creates a supplemental database that converts clinical information into a claims-like format, ensuring compatibility with both upstream and downstream systems. This process emphasizes the need for portability, configurability, and ease of maintenance. As we look to the future, consolidating both structured and unstructured data will be crucial, particularly for leveraging generative AI to manage and classify documents across the organization effectively. This evolution towards normalizing unstructured data is significantly impacting our capabilities.
Key Takeaways:
The evolving landscape of data sharing in healthcare will play a pivotal role in advancing AI capabilities. Overall, the panel highlighted that the success of AI initiatives in healthcare hinges on a combination of cultural readiness, robust change management, strategic alignment, and advanced data integration techniques.
In our next "AI is Nothing without Data" Crucial Conversations recap we will dig into data sharing practices and security with our expert panel: Sherri Zink, SVP & Chief Data Engineer, BCBST, Dr. Lynn Simon, President, Healthcare Innovation & Chief Medical Officer, CHS and Tammy Hawes, Founder & CEO, Virsys12, moderated by Amy Deaton, COO of EvidenceCare.
The conversations continue November 13, 2024 on the crucial topic of workforce. Members of the Nashville Health Care Council can register today. Not yet a member? Join our experienced and robust ecosystem of healthcare leaders.
The Nashville Health Care Council strengthens and elevates Nashville as the Healthcare City. With a $68 billion economic impact and 333,000 jobs locally, Nashville’s healthcare ecosystem is a world-class healthcare hub. Founded in 1995, the Council serves as the common ground for the city’s vibrant healthcare cluster. The Council offers engagement opportunities where the industry’s most influential executives come together to exchange ideas, share solutions, build businesses, and grow leaders.