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Philips is a health tech leader focused on

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innovation that improves the health and well-being of

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people. Our health care technology and informatics solutions

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help care teams diagnose, treat, and manage more

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patients with greater precision, speed, and confidence across

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the care journey. With Philips, clinicians are empowered

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with streamlined insights in the moments that matter

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for every patient. Better care for more people.

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Philips.

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Hello, and welcome to the Becker's Healthcare Podcast

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recorded live in Chicago at the 9th annual

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Health IT Digital Health and RCM conference.

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I'm joined today by doctor Suresh, vice president

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and chief medical information officer at UPMC Children's

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Hospital of Pittsburgh.

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Doctor Suresh, to get us started, can you

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please share a little bit about yourself, your

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background, and your role at your organization?

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Sure. I am Srinivasan Suresh. I go by

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Suresh. I'm a pediatric emergency physician at UPMC

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Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. I serve as a

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vice president and chief medical information officer of

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the hospital. I have a faculty appointment as

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a professor of pediatrics with the University of

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Pittsburgh.

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My scope of responsibilities

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are the electronic health record and related, technology

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applications,

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patient portals, digital health, and now AI and

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ML based tools.

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Chillis Hospital of Pittsburgh is a leading

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nationally ranked, Chillis Hospital with over 1,400,000

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patient encounters annually,

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and we are part of a large 40

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plus hospital health system, UPMC,

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which is an integrated

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payer provider system and also an academic medical

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center.

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So AI adoption has exploded in health care.

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In your view, what would you say, you

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know, the most significant or promising application of

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this technology is right now, and how is

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this informing your organization's innovation strategy?

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Sure. There are

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lots of use cases and, practical applications of

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this relatively

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new technology.

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AI is not new, but, generative AI is

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new.

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And

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one of the applications that we have,

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in our hospital, which has been adopted pretty

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well, is Ambient AI Technology for clinical documentation

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and note creation. The reason why it has

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been successfully adopted

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is because it saves clinicians time.

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We're talking about Ambient AI Technology,

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which is in use currently for clinical documentation

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and note creation because it certainly saves clinicians

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time. And the cognitive overload and documentation

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burden that clinicians have has has worsened over

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the past few years post pandemic.

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So

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such efficiency and productivity tools will be will

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be very helpful. And generative

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AI outside of this application has tremendous potential

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in clinical research and patient engagement and hospital

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operations and and the like. So health care

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leaders like yourself are, on a daily basis,

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managing

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greater volumes of data

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and on more devices across a growing number

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of care settings and populations.

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In this complex environment, what clinical data integration

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tools or practices are you seeing drive improvements

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in patient outcomes and operations? And do you

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have an example or few you you can

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share?

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Sure. I would go with the self-service

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analytics.

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You know, reporting tools and, requirements,

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are pretty complex. So the more we engage

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clinicians and researchers and administrators on what exactly,

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you know, data and, reports they need and

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build the tool so that they can access

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it, themselves

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is a huge win. It does require a

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little bit of, learning curve. But once

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that time is spent by,

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the end user to know how to use

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it, it really saves a lot of time,

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for everyone

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if, self-service analytics can be,

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can be used appropriately.

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So how can health care organizations better support

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IT and clinical teams as they carry out

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innovation efforts, and what are some of the

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common pitfalls here?

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Sure. A fairly common pitfall is not engaging

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clinicians

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early. And it's not just physicians. It could

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be nurses,

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pharmacists, other technologies.

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So for any kind of IT operation, which

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essentially in a hospital or health system is

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a clinical operation supported by IT, is to

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engage the clinicians early.

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And I would say have a very clear

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understanding of what the goals and targets are,

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what are the priorities

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from a clinical perspective or a research or

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an administration or a hospital operations perspective because

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they're always gonna be competing priorities.

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So,

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a key point for success for

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health care organizations

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when they embark on

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especially large IT projects is to engage all

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the stakeholders,

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really early and really often.

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You know, how does your role being at

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a children's hospital make that unique as compared

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to maybe a hospital or health system that

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sees, patients of all ages? Yeah. That's a

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great question. I think we have additional

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needs and checks and balances, I would say,

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when you work at a at a children's,

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hospital.

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The needs of our patients are unique. The

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needs of our pediatric clinicians are, unique.

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And taking care of children in a complex

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environment,

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we also have additional

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safety and quality of care

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regulations.

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And and if you think about it at

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a individual patient level, whether it is dosing

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of drugs

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or

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how does a 14 year old child access

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his or her patient portal. I mean, these

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are very unique needs Mhmm. For

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pediatricians and other clinicians taking care of, children,

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and working in a children's hospital.

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So in your role, are there, you know,

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any pieces of technology or AI that, you

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know, you see that might have a great

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impact on,

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you know, pediatric hospitals in the future that

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you're particularly excited about that may be something

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that, you know, someone in more of a

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traditional hospital might not be? Absolutely. That's a

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great question. I've had the opportunity to use

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generative

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AI driven

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patient care instructions Mhmm. At the patient's bedside.

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I'm an emergency physician, so I practice in,

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a busy,

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emergency department in the city. And I've had

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the opportunity to use this technology at the

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bedside

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where

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you can have the aftercare instructions being read

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out

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by a smartphone Mhmm. To directly to the

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child,

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which is very interesting. So somebody's actually talking

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to the 5 year old or the 10

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year old or the 15 year old child.

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And, that way we're addressing,

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something which typically does not happen in traditional

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care. So it's it's combining the newest technology

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with good old fashioned medicine,

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you know, taking care of,

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the patient and the caregivers and the family

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as a whole. It is a huge plus

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for patient engagement and experience. Mhmm. Mhmm. So,

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you know, I can hear the passion in

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your voice as you talk about your job

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and and, you know, your organization.

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So, obviously, you know, fostering that next generation

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of leaders in health care and health care

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IT is very important. So but what would

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you say your top piece of advice for

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health care leaders as they prepare for, you

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know, further advancements in technology and greater demands

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of care? What would that be? Yeah. It's

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a great question, but I would say it's

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an easy answer.

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Always keep the patient in mind.

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At UPMC Children's, we actually do not have

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technology goals, but we have goals for patient

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safety. We have goals for quality of care.

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We have patient engagement and, employee experience goals

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and goals for growth and access. And technology

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is an enabler. Mhmm. Sorry. Technology is an

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enabler

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and a medium, but not the solution.

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So the key is not to deviate from

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our mission, vision, and goals. If we have

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to include technology and digital tools and generative

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AI applications to get there, that's great, but

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we should not lose sight of the values

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of our organization.

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And finally, I would say

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for upcoming health care leaders, to focus on

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execution.

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Implementation in health care settings

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is incredibly hard, and most of us do

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not need more ideas. We just need to

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focus on our current goals and execute.

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Well, doctor Suresh, this has been a great

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conversation. But before I let you go, do

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you have any final thoughts you'd like to

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leave with our listeners today?

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I would say especially for, the younger generation,

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you know, please, get into health care. Health

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care information technology is, at an inflection point,

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especially with the promise and the potential of

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generative AI,

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what it can do to

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medical research and and patient care in general.

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So

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if you're considering a career, please look into

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health care information technology.

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That was awesome. Thank you so much for

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joining us today, and I hope you have

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a lovely rest of your day. Likewise. Thanks

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for having me. Thank you.