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- This is the Becker's
Healthcare Podcast, created

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by the team of Becker's Healthcare,

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a multimedia company devoted to the people

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who power us healthcare.

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Four new 15 minute episodes
are released daily containing

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and thought leadership.

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From powerful healthcare
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Thanks for listening.
Now here's the episode.

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- This is Chanel Bunger

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with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast,

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and I'm recording live at the
eighth annual Becker's Health,

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it Digital health and RCM
conference in Chicago.

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Right now I'm sitting
with Shaker Ramathan from

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Atlantic Health Systems.

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Shaker. Thank you so much
for joining me today.

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Could you please take a
moment and introduce yourself

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and tell us a bit about your background?

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- Sure. Um, shaker Ramathan,
uh, executive director at, uh,

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uh, of digital transformation
Atlantic Health

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Systems, as you mentioned.

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Um, so my responsibility is really around

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how do we kind of reimagine
how we're using technology

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to really transform,
um, how we deliver care.

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Um, and that's really kind
of focused on the total

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experience, um, from kind
of patient to provider

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and everything in between.

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Um, and so we're really kind of looking at

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how do we incorporate digital
tools, digital solutions,

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everything else to kind
of solve real problems

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that our clinicians and
patients are facing.

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- Perfect. And are you
leveraging technology in

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any specific ways to do that?

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- Yeah, absolutely.

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So I mean, uh, um, we're,
we're using it for a number

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of things for things like,
you know, um, virtual care,

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remote patient monitoring,
um, making access easier,

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making it more available for
patients to be able to, um,

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you know, communicate with their providers

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and, you know, all of the, all,
all the typical things that,

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that people are doing as well
as a number of things around,

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um, more innovative ways to
deliver care as well. Perfect.

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- Thank you so much. And moving forward,

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what is your growth strategy
for the next year or two?

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- Yeah, so we're in, we're
investing a lot into kind

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of really experience

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and how do we pull together
the disparate pieces

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of, uh, care

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and of different
technologies in together so

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that we're actually really
delivering that as a

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unified experience, um,

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focused on the consumer journey.

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And in general, we have
a tendency to, you know,

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really wanna focus on,
on, on the idea of, of

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a patient journey.

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We're really looking
at that at holistically

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as a consumer journey,
looking at, you know, all, all

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of the different things that
impact the patient beyond just,

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um, their clinical care

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and looking at them holistically, uh, and,

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and looking at their care,
um, from beginning to end.

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- Got it. And can you tell
us about the most exciting

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and impactive initiative

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or project you're working on right now?

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- Sure. So we are in the process

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of creating our digital
experience platform.

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Um, and that is kind of the framework

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for a lot of this to happen.

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That becomes kind of
our orchestration engine

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on connecting different pieces
of care, delivery experience,

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access, all of those kind of
things together so that as a

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patient navigates through
the system, we're able

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to deliver more of that
Amazon-like experience.

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Um, that involves, you know, all

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of our cool integration
technologies, everything, you know,

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the, all the different APIs,
fire integration, all that kind

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of stuff tied together in
a way that it becomes a

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cohesive architecture, um,
that we can easily, you know,

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use all of our major
systems, our, you know, epic

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and Microsoft and all
these other kind of tools

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that we have, um,

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and be able to kind of
string them together in a way

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that it feels like one Atlantic

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health experience for the patient.

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- Well, shaker, I wanna thank
you for taking the time today

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to talk to me, but before I let you go,

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what is the most important
thing healthcare executives

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should do now to make sure

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that their organizations are
successful in the future?

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- Yeah, well, um, I'm
probably a little biased.

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Um, so I'm going

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to say embracing digital
transformation <laugh>.

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And I think a lot of that
really comes to, I mean,

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I think kind of post covid,
we, we've kind of seen the

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potential impact of digital at scale.

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Um, I think there's obviously those of us

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who have believed this for a long time.

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Um, but I think when we start
looking at, um, you know,

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health system executives,

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we start looking at most
importantly patients,

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people are really gravitating
towards leveraging digital

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solutions to be able to solve
these problems, especially

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as we look at scaling,
addressing staffing issues, um,

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identifying, you know, new
ways, um, to reach patients.

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Uh, I identify patients
that, you know, um, have,

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um, access barriers, those kind of things.

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I mean, there's so many
things that we can do

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from a digital perspective.

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Um, and, you know, I
think the timing is right.

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I mean, we're, we're here, uh,
at, at the, at Becker's, uh,

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you know, kind of, uh,
half of the, uh, half

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of the discussions around
how AI is going to, you know,

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kind of impact the future.

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And, and I think there's a
really, um, you know, a, a lot

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of transformative
possibilities in terms of kind

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of the application of
technology in healthcare, um,

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and really excited for, you know,

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kind of where the future is heading.

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- Got it. I love it. Well, shaker,

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thank you again for joining me
today. It's been a pleasure.

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- Yeah, it's been a pleasure
as well. Thank you, Chanel,

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- It is so important for leaders
at the top of organizations

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to keep learning, stay
sharp, grow their networks,

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help our audience better do
this in a more simplified,

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personalized, and meaningful way.

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