This is Laura Dierdo with the Becker's Healthcare
podcast.
I'm thrilled today to be joined by doctor
Humberto Chakanardi,
senior vice president and chief health digital officer
at UCHealth. Doctor Chakanardi, it's a pleasure to
have you on the podcast today.
Good morning, Laura. It's a pleasure being in
the in this podcast.
Thank you for inviting me.
Absolutely. The pleasure's all mine. And, you know,
I'm excited for this conversation because I know
there's a lot of great things you're doing
at UCHealth, and it'll be fantastic to to
share some of those successes with our our
broader audience and then also how you're thinking
about the future. But before we do that,
can you tell us a little bit more
about UCHealth and what makes it unique?
Well, UCHealth is,
is an academic medical center,
which makes it,
not unique, but
particularly,
special in my opinion in our market here.
We are connected to University of Cincinnati,
more specifically,
the College of Medicine
of University of Cincinnati,
where our our clinicians come from. So our
clinicians are all faculty at the College of
Medicine.
We also,
I think we are special in a sense
that we serve the
the the most, underserved
part of the population of the Greater Cincinnati
area.
So,
that makes us,
you know, a a hospital that is open,
has the doors open to
most of, everyone,
from the very poor to everyone else.
That's great to hear. You know, in such
an important population of people to serve,
those who may not have access otherwise to
care and truly providing the innovative type of
care that the community needs as well from
academic setting. I'm wondering from the last year
or so, what accomplishment are you most proud
of?
Well,
while we are still,
like any other,
health care organization these days, still struggling financially,
to
go over the
the
this big tsunami,
financial tsunami caused by the pandemic and and
other things,
after that.
So we we are still working hard to
grow and continue to advance,
in many areas. So a few examples would
be
our digital,
more specifically in our digital area.
We we are reshaping,
to be ready for this, for today's days
where AI,
becomes an important
collaborator
and an element of strength,
to help us
do what we do better and more efficiently.
And we recently introduced, for instance,
this technology
that helps the the clinicians,
when they are consulting with their patients to
use voice only, and then AI transcribes and
interprets and codifies
everything that happened in the consultation.
So while this is not the
a complete innovation,
not a lot of places,
have adopted that yet, so I would consider
that to be proof of our innovations.
I also,
wanna call out that we are,
expanding in in a number of, other areas
like, supply chain and other administrative
areas to bring more efficiency.
It's really impressive to have that kind of
adoption rate among patients,
in having them use it and appreciate the
tools that you put out there for them,
and to continue to to grow and evolve
care. Now where do you see some of
the biggest growth opportunities for your team in
the next twelve months or so?
Yeah. Obviously, we we always need to keep
an eye on on on things that are
already there. So we need to keep our
infrastructure,
operating properly.
We need to,
keep renewing
our infra
our devices.
We need to make sure that the,
the cybersecurity
component is up to date, and that's a
a constant battle,
as as you may know.
We also
have a a a goal to expand on
on on our clinical informatics group,
which is
a group that is key to make sure
that all those,
those new things that we
I was referring to up to recently,
All those tools are properly,
assessed, vetted, validated
before we introduce them,
in the in the real world.
So why we are not afraid of, trying
something new? Because we are an academic center,
so,
having something new is not unknown to us.
We actually developed some of those, novelties.
But it's important that before we turn them
into,
true reward,
assets and resources,
we are sure that they are
appropriate, that they are safe to use, and
the the outcome,
is the intended outcome and not an unintended
outcome.
That's such a a really good point. And,
certainly, as you mentioned with all the technology
that is advancing at such a rapid pace,
being able to sometimes it seems like slow
down and and make sure you've got those
validations and,
have mitigated risks as much as possible,
is truly important, especially in the patient care
setting. How do you manage
that,
you know, if somebody is really excited about
new technology or, you know, there's something that
seems that it could be really beneficial,
how do you make sure that you are
taking the right steps in order to keep
it safe, as you mentioned, and without waiting
too long or or falling behind in some
of these technology trends that's been moving so
quickly?
Yeah. We we use a combination of,
methods and and and approaches.
If if if those are are
are solutions that come from valid
commercial,
and large companies.
And we we know other, peer organizations
are starting to use or or did did
go through the
the the proof of concept phase of those.
We would
just adopt them as the others and keep
an eye. So, usually, what we do is
that we start with pilot,
implementations
that will not be,
across system,
initially,
making sure that we have a controlled
environment for this early stages of the implementation
so we can see if they are really
working as expected,
if they are producing any,
unintended
outcome,
those those kind of things.
The other methods we use are more scientific.
So if those innovations
are
are too new and we don't have any
other peer organization
using that or this this was developed
in house.
For those,
innovations,
we we we do,
the same as we do with new drugs
or or new devices.
We put them under proper scientific
experiments.
So,
we control how we do that. We have
the proper,
patient safety and ethical reviews.
We make sure that we have an
a proper statistical,
method so we can evaluate the results later.
So we follow,
the rules. We we go through IRBs, which
are institutional review boards, and those,
are organisms
in in academic centers like ours that review
every new protocol,
that is experimental
in nature
to guarantee patient safety.
So, obviously, patient safety is only one side
of, the equation here because we we want
to be patient safe, of course, but we
also want the two to benefit the
the process that the two is, supporting.
So we want we want this to be
beneficial
not only to the patients but also to
the organization.
So then we add
the components in the evaluation
process that will help us measure,
the efficiency,
from that standpoint also.
So,
there is not a big secret here. We
follow, practices that, science use for years and
years,
to to make sure that we are doing
the right things and we are using the
right, tools.
That makes a lot of sense, and thank
you so much for walking us through that
process. Now I know a lot of opportunities
ahead, but also challenges.
What are some of the big challenges that
you're anticipating in the next year or two?
So,
that's that's a hard question to answer, but
it's a it's a an important one.
I think the the I mean, there there
are many challenges because like anything completely new,
and we are seeing that AI in particular
is is a game changer. So
while we we were used to be on
the edge of, new things with the digital
innovations,
Clinical decision support is something that we are
doing,
for a long time, but not necessarily
at the pace and the extent that AI
allow us to do.
So I think the one of the challenge
comes from that
is the is the speed
and the and the size and the complexity,
of of those,
newer things.
So while they may not be in isolation
completely new, but they are coming in in
in such a big volume and and so
fast that,
that's a challenge.
So we need to to learn how to
deal with that avalanche
of, new things, coming at very fast speed.
So
I would count that as one challenge. The
other one is we are adding more components,
to the ecosystem, to the digital ecosystem.
And and the management
of that,
fabric, the new fabric that is now
much more plural and diverse and,
bigger,
that also becomes a challenge. How you manage,
how you govern
so many
pieces working together
from different vendors, from different,
origins
using different technologies on the back or on
the front.
So
that alone,
is is, constituting to me,
a second big challenge.
With the first one, I would add that
everyone now in in the organization
feels that, they could be helped by,
some of those,
advancements.
So that becomes the third challenge, which is
how do you
govern the prior prioritization
of deployment,
acquisition,
introduction of those technologies? Because everyone wants everything,
and, that becomes,
it it it's kind of a we have
we have a huge
demand,
in front of us and, how how to
manage
expectations,
educate people,
in in this new digital literacy,
world,
those are are the third part of the
so
those are the three challenge I I would
mention right now.
Well, that's fascinating to hear. And, you know,
I I really appreciate you talking through all
of that because I I think, as you
mentioned, the rate of change is faster than
ever before and the pace,
you know, really makes a big difference. And
now that we're past the the point of,
you know, people being introduced to AI and
and then they really see the benefits and,
you know, noisy space out there and wanting
to incorporate more and more into the organization.
Really, you know, it dovetails nicely to everything
else that you've been talking about on making
sure that,
you're selecting the right things. I know we
talked about the financial challenges a bit as
well for most hospitals and health systems.
You know, the the technology does, require some
resource investment as well.
So, you know, the the governance process, I
can imagine, really, really,
is helpful and beneficial to have a strong
one when you're faced with the rapid change
plus the desire for many more, technologies,
coming into the health care organization.
Yeah. I I I will add one other
dimension to that, which is
with something that people tend I mean, people
that are not in my seat
tend to not, appreciate is the fact that
different than when we are deciding on technologies
like that for our own,
personal lives.
So we decide, let me try ChatTPT or
let me try DeepSeek or something like that.
And then if you don't like, you stop
using it or things like that. When we
are in a,
in a professional and formal organization like ours
or any other like ours,
Those decisions are long lasting. So you you
you cannot just turn on and off those
things,
every day,
not only because it's costly, but also because
there is data
there is liability connected to those,
resources,
and and and those may require,
for compliance,
long term,
agreements.
So
once you decide for something, you will need
to live with that for a while.
When we are doing our pilots, we have
an exit,
way because it's a pilot. But once you
turn
pilot into production,
things change dramatically. Because from that point on,
that becomes part of your
formal,
environment,
and you have responsibilities,
over that.
That's really helpful insights, especially coming from, someone
that you see with the expertise, you know,
and and the top digital accountabilities for what's
happening, just really, really seems vital.
I think, you know, given everything we've talked
about today, I wanted to wrap up here
in asking,
what is the number one thing that you're
doing right now to set, your organization up
for long term success?
Well, we we we set up this, digital
council,
which is constituted from stakeholders
from all over,
our organization.
And, we want that to be we we
we are using that platform
to help guide,
where we go,
at what speed,
what are the priorities,
and and the sequencing,
of of our,
of our evolution in this area.
So, I think that's
one of the critical components is to have
a a complete a a broad engagement,
from from the organization.
The other one is to make sure that
we we elevate
the
the knowledge of people about the things that
are that we are,
putting to help them
so they understand that nothing is a %
perfect or
infallible.
Things will will fail here and there, and
they may produce
wrong
outcomes.
So it's important.
And and, obviously, we want
tools that will produce
the least amount of that possible,
close to zero.
But but, you know, it's important that people
understand
that they also have to continue to reason
and to, pay attention and to monitor how
those, technologies
are are,
behaving.
So
in order to do that, we need to
elevate the literacy of our people. They need
to be educated, and that's one of the
challenge one of the the big movements that
we are trying to develop,
starting
with our own people, the people on the
technical side, which were not prepared until recently
for those innovations.
And now we need to update their education
and their knowledge,
And we also need to raise the education
and knowledge of everyone in the in the,
health care business. So
I think that, education
because people in the end are the
are not only the the target of what
we do. We do everything for people because
that's what health care is about.
But we are also using people to,
care about people. But we are using resources
that are not necessarily humans,
like the digital ones.
But the humans need to understand
what those technologies,
are doing,
and and that requires
knowledge that
most of our workforce don't have yet.
Absolutely. That's fascinating to hear. And this seems
like a really, really critical point of moving
forward,
having that right type of education knowledge base
and then being able to truly unleash the
technology plus human, side of things that can
make, you know, health care so much more
efficient and provide better outcomes and everything along
those lines.
Doctor Tacanardi, thank you so much for joining
us on the podcast today. This has been
a very inspiring conversation, and I look forward
to connecting with you again soon.
Thank you. Thank you all for listening.