- Welcome to Becker's Healthcare Podcast, made
for the people who power US healthcare.
I am Molly Gamble with Becker's,
and today I am so happy to be sitting down with Jody Rosen.
Jody is the Vice President of Innovation
and Digital Strategy with C of Hope.
Jody, welcome to the podcast.
Thank you so much for being my guest. How are you today?
And, and where does the podcast find you?
- Thanks so much, Molly. It's terrific to be with you,
um, and our listeners.
Um, I'm doing really well.
I'm very excited to be, uh, having this conversation
with you, especially in the context of Women's History Month
as we, uh, get to the end of, uh, end of the month
and really thinking about sort of some women, um,
who have inspired me in in my career
and in so many other people's careers.
And, uh, you're at that list as well.
And I'm gonna try to weave in some important women who, um,
have done great things in healthcare
or brought equity to healthcare, um, in some
of our conversation For sure.
- Oh, so thoughtful of you.
And this, this march as we're connecting,
like you said, we are winding down.
It's been a particularly fast one,
it seems like for for many of us.
I'm sure for you too, Jody.
Um, so, so to get us started today, you know, for listeners
who are not as acquainted with c of of Hope as they'd like
to be, can, can you share an overview of the organization
and then your role within it just to kick us off?
- Absolutely. Absolutely.
Um, city of Hope is over a hundred year organization,
um, and our mission of making hope a reality
for all touched by cancer
and diabetes is, is a very powerful mission
and one that that resonates, um,
with many people, um, in their life.
And, you know, I would share a little bit, uh,
about the Roots and the history of our organization
as well is, um, really founded in, um,
Southern California as a non-sectarian
sanitorium back in, uh, 1913, really looking
to help treat, um, individuals who were afflicted
by tuberculosis
and providing care for all, regardless
of their ability to pay.
Is is just truly in the roots of, of who we are
as an organization.
And as tuberculosis was eradicated City of Hope,
um, which at initially it was established
as the Jewish Consumptive Belief Association, um,
began to, um,
and it was consistent of these two campus cottages.
And ultimately that did launch a over a century long journey
that would become City of Hope, um,
and leader at the forefront of our nation's medical
and research institutions.
And we've begun to take on mounting a fight against
diabetes rare diseases, um, hiv aids, and then oncology.
And really in the spirit of, um, one of our,
our early leaders, um, Samuel Galcher coined a phrase
that there is no profit in during the body.
If in the process we destroy the soul.
And these words have really become city of hope's, uh, credo
and are resonate in our mission, vision,
and values, um,
as we are a national comprehensive cancer center, um,
with now a national footprint,
not just in Southern California, but also with hospitals
and outpatient locations in Phoenix, Arizona,
in the Chicagoland area,
and also, um, in, uh, Atlanta, Georgia.
So becoming a national research
and clinical care provider focused on oncology care
and diabetes, um, goes back
to our early roots well over a hundred years ago.
And that piece of, um, uh, philanthropy
and, um, care for all
and equity is very central to our mission
and how we provide care daily. Mm-Hmm,
- , you know, I, I was going to
touch on this toward the end of our conversation,
but I, I think we should stick with it, that the history
that you just shared, I mean, really remarkable.
And it's rare to find an organization
that initially was established to specialize or,
or really set out to treat one disease like tuberculosis,
so successfully in its scale.
And then there's advancements with the antibiotics,
and they then the organization then pivots
to specialize in another pressing disease, uh, in this case,
HIV aids, oncology, diabetes, you know, Jodi, what,
what lessons can we draw from this unique origin story?
- So, great, and, and I, I really do feel as an employee
of the organization and in speaking, you know, with any
of my colleagues, um, I, I think this would come across that
the visionary work we began well over a hundred years ago,
continues today, um, in a very mission-focused way
as we look forward to continuing to be a leader in the fight
to eradicate cancer.
And every day we advance new breakthroughs in cancer
research and cancer treatment in different ways
to support patients
and their loved ones on the oncology journey, um, so
that we can give more patients everywhere, more hope
and new hope because of those, um,
groundbreaking advancements that are happening, um,
at the bench side that can quickly move to the bedside
and then be on to the larger, um, healthcare community,
um, of those who,
who are joining us in the fight against cancer.
Um, and I think the other piece
that I would say about just kind of our, you know, early,
early roots and,
and some of the things that are thematic daily, um, is that,
you know, we were founded by donors
and volunteers determined to make sure that
no one was left out of care.
And that vision for health equity does drive us, um,
and it drives our supporters from a philanthropy
perspective, um, daily in our organization.
Very powerful. Mm-Hmm,
- .
Well, I, I, I am really happy to sit down with you, Jody,
for a number of reasons, but one is
because I, I was sharing with you
before we began a podcast, how much
audience interest we've seen in the past several months
around issues related to cancer.
Um, this is gonna be,
or it's set to be a, a pretty taxing year
for the US Cancer care system with new diagnoses projected
to hit a, a new high in the US
exceeding 2 million for the first time.
Uh, that's about 5,500 cancer diagnoses a day.
The mortality piece, that that is a rosier outlook.
There's some improvements there from the American Cancer
Society projections, but
nonetheless, this is a lot, this is a, a large volume
of diagnoses we're looking at.
How, how does this projection f tie into
or factor into your work today on innovation
and digital strategy at City of Hope?
- Great question. Um, you know, at at the root of,
of the growing rates of, of cancer, early detection,
prevention awareness screening is so important.
Um, and that really rings true for me personally with,
with my public health background.
Um, and, and I'll say that I am very pleased to share that
City of Hope has recently launched, um, a mobile clinic
offering, uh, clients and our patients, um, and,
and those individuals who'd never known the city of Hope,
but by having a mobile van that can, uh, reach out
to neighborhoods out into the community that, um,
clients receive state-of-the-art screening services from
multiple different types of cancers
and, um, genetic disorders that may, um,
and sexually transmitted infections
that might actually increase cancer risks,
um, and other conditions.
And so our mobile clinic clients, um, have access to city
of hope's, world renowned clinical trials are
research programs and, um, technologies
and innovations, breakthrough treatments that are, um,
being used around the world.
And so those mobile clinics is, is one type
of the commitment that we have to, again, the equity,
the outreach, the prevention, um, early diagnosis,
and they're staffed, um, by nurse practitioners, um,
technicians, mammogram technicians, support team nurses, um,
they have changing rooms, private exam rooms.
And it, we're currently scheduling screenings
and events across our Southern California community, um,
with other community-based organizations
'cause partnership on screening, especially to address,
again, back to our roots, um, those
who may not always have access to care is so important.
So I would say one piece of that is,
is definitely the work on early diagnosis.
The other is more
and more oncology care is moving to outpatient
or ambulatory settings.
And I'm excited to share that.
Um, we will be opening in February
of 2025 at our Duarte campus,
a new state-of-the-art Hope Plaza facility, which has, um,
housed within it over 352,000 square feet
of outpatient care being
provided at, uh, for our patients
across nine different levels.
Initially, we'll have 84 new exam rooms, um,
eight procedure rooms, uh, 59 infusion spaces,
a, um, dedicated outpatient, um, imaging,
um, and women imaging modalities.
We are very excited to be having new digital experiences
within that building that can reach patients, um,
and address what their oncology journey needs are,
and begin to move healthcare delivery from sort
of a one size fits all to more of a personalized,
experienced orientation, which is so much of
where the market is going to,
and that ability to think about meeting patients
where they are on their oncology journey, whether it is
that early diagnosis, whether it is they were screened
and treated somewhere else,
and are now looking for, um, other options
and more advanced options with clinical trials.
Where can we meet the needs of patients now,
not just in Southern California, but across the country, um,
and with some of our enhanced digital capabilities, um,
we're very much equipped
and ready to take on that challenge.
- Mm-Hmm. . And the other distinction too is
that there's rising diagnoses
among younger people too, right?
The, the number of diagnoses
among people under 50 are on the rise and cancer.
It's, it's not always been equated as a, a young person's
or a middle aged person's disease.
What does the shift also signal or, or mean for your work?
- Absolutely. I, you know, there's been such an interest in
different, uh, age cohorts.
Um, especially right now as we're,
and we may talk about this a little bit
of the 2030 problem we're, we're looking at with, uh,
an an aging baby boomer population.
But as you think about, um, millennials, gen X,
and other populations as it relates
to seeing cancer diagnoses, rates rising,
but also other types of, um,
diseases affecting younger populations, I, I think one
of the things we have to think about, um, as
provider based organizations is how to meet those needs
of the younger generation.
And really omnichannel comes to mind,
I think meeting the patient slash consumer expectations
and making provider side care welcoming,
making it simple.
Um, and often that means transparent
and mobile first, making it convenient, um, with on demand
or 24 7 access, um, even to some amount of mobile tools
and highly personalized
and contextually relevant to
that patient consumer population with customized products
services offering and opening up self-service tools
that a younger generation is so accustomed
to using in every other part of their lives.
I think those are the types of, um, experiences that, um,
we are definitely investing in.
And I know the broader healthcare provider ecosystem is
investing in, because patients don't wanna be treated
differently when they walk into healthcare
than when they're interacting with so many other verticals.
Whether that is in travel, leisure banking,
lifestyle reservations, what they can do for health
and wellness in a, in their, you know, workout environments,
um, with educational institutions that they interact with.
They're looking for some of those same pieces. Mm-Hmm.
and being able to make sure
that we have simple, transparent, convenient, frictionless,
and personalized services are so important.
I think the other piece that we're seeing around, um, uh,
our, our younger generation is really how
to have partnerships with primary care providers.
We know that that stickiness of orientation, um, uh, around
providers, um, patients
and who are millennials, um, not having as strong
of relationships as maybe a baby boomer population does
with their primary care doctor, how do we reach out
and partner with a whole host of primary care providers
to be able to better educate them on screening
referral management into NCI comprehensive cancer centers
like City of Hope when there is a concern that a patient,
um, may be faced with cancer.
- Mm-Hmm. . No, I appreciate those comments
so much, Jody, because I think you,
you said on this earlier, but so often, I mean the,
the language has said that we have an aging
and graying population,
and that was correlated to health outcomes.
But I think what that can miss is, like you said,
the millennials, the Gen y, the, the people
who are in their early forties right now, um, yeah.
That they aren't necessarily gray,
but they are struggling with different health challenges,
like you said, and then they kind
of are operating the system where so much of it is built
around Medicare recipients and, and,
and retirees that have very different access
and availability for a care team compared to someone
who might still be working or with a young family.
So I, I really appreciate that point.
'cause I think in some ways, um,
this group can be overlooked in some
of the traditional ways about thinking about agreeing
population or an aging population.
- Absolutely. Absolutely. And, and,
and I will say you have both, you have younger
diagnoses happening with a, uh, population of individuals
who have different types of consumer, um, expectations
around care delivery and service delivery.
And at the same time,
you do have this 2030 problem people discuss of
as it relates to insufficient resources
and an ineffective, um,
delivery system supporting the doubling
of baby boomer generation, um, from 2002
to 2030.
And what that means for us as it relates to a workforce
that will be retiring at the same time you have baby boomers
who may be resulting in needing additional care.
And so that begins to put a lot
of compression on a nationwide shortage of care providers.
Mm-Hmm. , um, and, um, you know,
where are those opportunities
to continue to take care of people.
And so, you know, I do think some of those shifts
and patterns and of trends are really interesting.
'cause I do think those are real opportunities
that we can be looking to leverage, um, more,
uh, you know, the places that deep learning, um,
how artificial intelligence can help us lead
to improved health outcomes, improve early detection,
improve access, uh, decrease burnout, really foster top
of licensed care for clinicians who, who are working daily
and taking care of patients daily.
But some of the noise of
practicing medicine gets in the way.
And I think, um, you know, ultimately with
leveraging the right generative AI strategy
algorithms, you really can affect both
the entire care journey experience for our patients,
but also so importantly for our clinical providers, um,
to really, you know, bring the joy
of practicing medicine back, um, as well as, um,
allowing patients to feel more human again
and not as robotic in a system.
Right. If you can automate the, the stuff that doesn't, um,
is not additive to the human part of care delivery, um,
but is so vital and give people more time to interact
with their provider on a oncology journey.
I think those are some tremendous opportunities we have
as it relates to trends and,
and things that we are looking forward
to continuing to explore.
And that the, the entire, uh,
academic medical community on the healthcare side is
continuing to explore,
which is very exciting. Mm-Hmm. .
- Well, Jody, are there any other trends, any other shifts
or patterns that you wanted to note related to cancer care
or other care offered at City of Hope?
Um, or any other closing thought for our listeners
as we wind down today?
- Sure. Sure. I, I really just think that the piece
that we are beginning to focus on, um,
for all patients is really this
hyper-personalized care orchestration
and really thinking about omnichannel care.
And so that ability to call, click
or come is so important for us, especially
as we have become a national
NCI comprehensive Cancer center across the United States,
is really beginning
to think about those interconnecting pieces that
patients are really desiring in their experience,
whether it is know how to connect with me, um, know, me,
know, know my preferences, help me orchestrate my care.
And that is all of that ability to think about how
to reach patients both inside our,
our four walls as well as outside.
And, and the same in the flip side could be true
for our workforce, right?
And so, so much of, uh, the workforce, um,
since the global pandemic pieces of
that workforce are remote, so how to continue
to create team-based care, um,
to best support our patients on their, on their journey.
These are very important projects
and, and work we're leading.
And, um, hopefully you'll have me back
and we can share some updates on
those things. Uh, next time
- You can plan on that.
Uh, listeners, this has been Jody Rosen, vice President
of Innovation Digital Strategy at City of Hope.
Jody, thank you so much for your time
and for connecting these trends
and projections around cancer rates
and cancer care in the year ahead, back
to the work you do in innovation, digital strategy.
Truly so helpful to see the bigger picture.
We really appreciate you being our guest today.
- Thank you so much, Molly. A pleasure. I.