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This is Laura Dirda with the Becker's Healthcare

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podcast.

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I'm thrilled today to be joined by Carrie

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Webster, vice president and chief analytics officer at

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the Analytics Resource Center for Children's Hospital Colorado.

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Carrie, it's a pleasure to have you on

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the podcast today. Thank you.

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Now I'm really looking forward to speaking with

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you further about what you're doing at Children's

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Hospital and really how health technology is changing.

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But before we dive into my questions, can

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you tell me a little bit more about

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yourself and your background?

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You bet.

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As you know, I'm the vice president, chief

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analytics officer at Children's Hospital Colorado,

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but I'm a nurse by training. I've been

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in health care over forty years,

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from the bedside in the ICU and labor

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and delivery and into the IT community and

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finally in analytics.

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And I've been serving at Children's Hospital

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for almost seven years now.

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Oh, that's amazing to hear. And I can

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imagine that background in nursing really helps you

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understand how to work through some of the

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big challenges that I can imagine come up

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on a regular basis on the technology side

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and, you know, really is beneficial for your

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current role.

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I think so. I I like to think

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I'm a great translator,

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translating the needs of the clinicians and the

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patients into,

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analytics or techno technological

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solutions that can support the best possible outcomes.

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Well, it's amazing to hear. Now could you

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tell me about the most successful projects in

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the last year or two that you've had?

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What did you do, and how did you

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measure the results?

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I love that question, and it's it's gonna

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be really difficult to just come up with

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one.

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But I think,

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as I think about what I do and

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how we add value to the organization,

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the thing that is most top of mind

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to me is our work that we've done

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with our patient flow team in predicting census.

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And this project is

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kinda has two arms. It's the ability to

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predict the census in the hospital,

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in near term. So four hours, eight hours,

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twelve hours, up to seventy two hours out,

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which really enables our frontline staff, our leaders,

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our house supervisors to make sure that we

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are adequately

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staffed for the patients in the hospital at

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the time. And we are doing that with

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a a precision that enables us to be

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within one or two patients, which is pretty

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significant.

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We're also using that same technology to predict

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eighteen months out,

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and we are within five five patients eighteen

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months out. And what that enables our nursing

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and physician leaders to do is really plan

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for the future

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in case we need traveling nurses or other

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support or need to think about flexing space

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to add more space during our busy season.

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That really enables us to have a forward

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thinking approach

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so that we are doing this thoughtfully

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and in a way that,

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you know, isn't isn't panic or reactionary. We're

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really planning for the future.

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And, we've measured our results in two ways

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for this. One is, you know, just the

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accuracy of our prediction so that we are

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really aligned with our staffing,

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making sure that we have the the staff

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that we needed to take care of the

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patients.

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But also,

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in our contracting that we've been able to

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go to market earlier

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for,

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contract labor because we have,

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a fair idea of when we're gonna need

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them. So we're able to,

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go and and they're not sensing that that

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we're in an urgency, so we have some

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time and ability to negotiate those contracts.

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Got it. That's great to hear. And certainly

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exciting types of technology to be able to

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incorporate into the hospital.

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And, really, having that, you know, ability to

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be a little bit more predictive, I can

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imagine, is really helpful.

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When you're applying technology like that, how do

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you do that operationally?

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Is it pretty seamless and easy to get

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people the information they need and have the

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technology integrated in the work flows, or does

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it take some time and, you know, culture

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change management as well to really rely on

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something like this, to to,

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think through census and and really help with

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your strategy?

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Right. That's a good question, and I think

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technology is often the easiest part of any

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project. And I think it's the it's the

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relationships, the processes,

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and the partnerships that really make, projects successful.

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And understanding,

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as a technologist, understanding what the problems are

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trying that are trying to be solved, approaching

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it from where they are, I think is

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really beneficial.

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And it it is it is a partnership.

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It isn't about just, oh, hey. Here's a

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project. Turn it on. No. No. It's understanding

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how how do you work? How do you

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conceptualize

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this in what you do every day? What

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makes the most sense? And you hit hit

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the nail on the head.

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We have three guiding principles, and it it's

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automate,

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integrate, and innovate.

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And we like to think about doing things

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seamlessly. So we're taking those tasks out of

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people's hand that don't need to be manual.

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So automating them, but integrating them, putting them

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in the workflow so they don't have to

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go and search for things. It's automatically there

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when they need it so they don't even

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have to think. And then, of course, innovate,

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doing things creatively,

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in a way that might not have been

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thought of before.

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I love that. Automate, integrate, innovate. I feel

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like I need, you know, that mission statement,

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above my desk here. I love that. Get

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above my sticker.

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Exactly.

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Exactly.

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So I I love that mantra. And, you

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know, looking into the future, what do you

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see as being some of your top priorities

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over the next twelve months or so?

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Sure. I I, you know, I can't have

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a conversation about analytics and technology without saying

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AI. Right?

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So, I mean, we're looking more for more

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predictive models. We're looking at large language models

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to do some,

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analysis both on our research and on our,

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operational front. But we're also looking at governance.

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And I think,

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as,

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health care,

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I feel a a higher calling to be

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good stewards of the data that we own

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and to make sure that we're using it

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to make the right decisions. So putting a

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framework of governance on how we use the

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technology and the data, I think it's incumbent

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upon us, and we need to make sure

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that we're front and center on that. So

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all the things.

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Yeah. That's that's a huge undertaking. And I

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can imagine, especially looking at AI governance, it

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seems like to be top of mind for

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so many health systems right now. But where

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do you tend to be

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in thinking through that governance process?

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What is kind of the top or or

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forefront, you know, the the number one guiding

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principle that you're taking as you're trying to

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put some guardrails around

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AI, which can expand very quickly?

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Yeah. I think, you know, we're in health

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care, so the first thing that comes to

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mind is first do no harm.

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So, you know, thinking about hallucinations,

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thinking about,

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bias, thinking about ethics. I think first do

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no harms. We are here for our patients

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and we are, here to make sure that

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no matter what we do that they are

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safe and well cared for. So that that

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is top of mind in our governance process.

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That makes a lot of sense.

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Perfect. And, you know, before we wrap up

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here, I'm wondering, how do you anticipate your

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role in teams will change in the next

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year or two here? What do you see

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as being elevated in importance, and what do

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you need more of? How will things change?

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Yeah. That's a good question. And I think,

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if you've ever talked to me at any

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lengths, you'll know I'll stand on the soapbox

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of the transition from my role from transactional

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to transformational.

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And I think it's no longer, hey. I'm

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gonna put in a request for data or

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analytics, and you're gonna give me a report

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or a dashboard and more about those partnerships

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that I talked about earlier with our project.

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It really is

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myself included and all of my team members

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really need to understand

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the business problems, the health care problems,

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and the technology and the convergence of which.

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So it's partnering. It's partnering. It's partnering.

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Absolutely.

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Partnering and definitely, like you mentioned, having those

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business relationships. And when you talk about that,

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making that transformation from a transactional,

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leader, somebody who's dealing with a lot of

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requests and and kicking off the list to

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then becoming transformational, becoming more strategic,

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and and really elevating in how you are

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working with other leaders within the organization as

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well as building,

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growth and development for the future.

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How do you

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see yourself elevating in that space? What do

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you need to do differently one to two

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to three years now, to make sure you're

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building those right relationships and thinking through and

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building that foundation for additional

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strategy as health care becomes more digital?

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Yeah. I think it it becomes,

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it's incumbent upon me to be a listener,

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to understand,

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the landscape in which we live,

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our operational

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and strategic imperatives,

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and to really to really listen

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and, you know, understand almost at the DNA

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level what what problems we're trying to solve

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and then, reach out,

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and have,

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that deep understanding can help me transform

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into solutions that that really make a difference.

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Fantastic. Well, Carrie, thank you so much for

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joining us on the podcast today. This has

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been such a fun and informative discussion, and

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I look forward to connecting with you again

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soon.

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Thanks so much for your time.