1 00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:02,319 This is Laura Dierdo with the Becker's Healthcare 2 00:00:02,319 --> 00:00:04,559 podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by 3 00:00:04,559 --> 00:00:05,299 Tim Callahan, 4 00:00:05,599 --> 00:00:08,320 chief technology officer at University of Michigan Health. 5 00:00:08,320 --> 00:00:09,519 Tim, it's a pleasure to have you on 6 00:00:09,519 --> 00:00:10,580 the podcast today. 7 00:00:11,039 --> 00:00:13,199 Yeah. Thank you so much. Excited for the 8 00:00:13,199 --> 00:00:13,699 conversation. 9 00:00:14,865 --> 00:00:16,704 Now I I'm looking forward to as well 10 00:00:16,704 --> 00:00:18,464 learning more about what you're doing at University 11 00:00:18,464 --> 00:00:20,704 of Michigan Health and really digging into how 12 00:00:20,704 --> 00:00:22,464 you're thinking about the future, some of the 13 00:00:22,464 --> 00:00:25,024 cool technologies and initiatives. But before we dive 14 00:00:25,024 --> 00:00:26,464 in, could you tell us just a little 15 00:00:26,464 --> 00:00:28,385 bit more about University of Michigan Health and 16 00:00:28,385 --> 00:00:29,364 what makes it unique? 17 00:00:30,489 --> 00:00:33,229 Yeah. So, Michigan Medicine is, 18 00:00:34,010 --> 00:00:35,390 the health care provider, 19 00:00:36,409 --> 00:00:38,810 component to the University of Michigan as well 20 00:00:38,810 --> 00:00:39,310 as, 21 00:00:40,250 --> 00:00:41,869 the medical school itself. 22 00:00:43,004 --> 00:00:45,405 So in terms of the size of the 23 00:00:45,405 --> 00:00:48,545 academic medical center, we're a fairly large, 24 00:00:49,164 --> 00:00:51,744 academic medical center. We also have, 25 00:00:52,445 --> 00:00:54,445 what we refer to as affiliates, but, 26 00:00:56,010 --> 00:00:58,030 they're wholly owned subsidiaries, 27 00:00:59,530 --> 00:01:00,329 that we have, 28 00:01:01,049 --> 00:01:02,729 UmH West on the Western side of the 29 00:01:02,729 --> 00:01:04,270 state and Sparrow, 30 00:01:04,730 --> 00:01:05,770 which is more of, 31 00:01:06,969 --> 00:01:09,390 the North Central portion of the state, 32 00:01:10,105 --> 00:01:12,605 which again contributes to the the size 33 00:01:12,984 --> 00:01:13,885 and footprint, 34 00:01:14,185 --> 00:01:16,765 to our organization. So if you really, 35 00:01:17,865 --> 00:01:20,025 take the aperture back a little bit and 36 00:01:20,025 --> 00:01:21,805 take a look at Michigan Medicine, 37 00:01:22,420 --> 00:01:25,640 the medical school, Sparrow, their medical school, 38 00:01:25,939 --> 00:01:27,000 UmH West, 39 00:01:27,780 --> 00:01:30,819 and the provider network that they have, it's 40 00:01:30,819 --> 00:01:33,299 a fairly large academic medical center, one of 41 00:01:33,299 --> 00:01:34,680 the largest in the country. 42 00:01:35,915 --> 00:01:38,234 Absolutely. Well, it's fascinating. And, you know, I 43 00:01:38,234 --> 00:01:39,995 I know being able to serve so many 44 00:01:39,995 --> 00:01:42,795 different communities, I can imagine, has, great benefits, 45 00:01:42,795 --> 00:01:45,454 but also some challenges involved there too. So, 46 00:01:46,075 --> 00:01:48,890 that's great to hear. Now when you're thinking 47 00:01:48,890 --> 00:01:50,649 back to the last year or so, what 48 00:01:50,649 --> 00:01:52,430 accomplishments are you most proud of? 49 00:01:53,450 --> 00:01:55,069 Yeah. So as I look back, 50 00:01:55,530 --> 00:01:57,289 over the last year, really over the last 51 00:01:57,289 --> 00:01:59,609 couple years, I've been in the role about 52 00:01:59,609 --> 00:02:00,349 three years. 53 00:02:00,984 --> 00:02:02,524 And I came into the role, 54 00:02:03,305 --> 00:02:04,924 with the organizational 55 00:02:05,384 --> 00:02:06,604 directive of, 56 00:02:07,224 --> 00:02:08,204 we need to, 57 00:02:08,905 --> 00:02:11,625 modernize our IT infrastructure that we have within 58 00:02:11,625 --> 00:02:12,604 Michigan Medicine. 59 00:02:13,069 --> 00:02:15,010 And really what that meant to the executive 60 00:02:15,069 --> 00:02:18,110 team being Marshall Runge and Andrew Rosenberg and 61 00:02:18,110 --> 00:02:18,770 and others, 62 00:02:19,550 --> 00:02:21,169 David Miller and and others, 63 00:02:21,710 --> 00:02:23,469 was really around the fact that they wanted 64 00:02:23,469 --> 00:02:26,590 to inject public cloud into how they move 65 00:02:26,590 --> 00:02:29,645 the organization forward. And I have been moving 66 00:02:29,705 --> 00:02:31,465 Epic to the cloud for the last ten 67 00:02:31,465 --> 00:02:31,965 years. 68 00:02:32,264 --> 00:02:34,504 So I was super excited about the opportunity 69 00:02:34,504 --> 00:02:36,685 of not just moving Epic to the cloud, 70 00:02:36,985 --> 00:02:39,705 but, our imaging application, all of our general 71 00:02:39,705 --> 00:02:40,685 purpose applications. 72 00:02:41,979 --> 00:02:43,819 Because we're a public institution, we had to 73 00:02:43,819 --> 00:02:45,580 issue a lot of RFPs. So in the 74 00:02:45,580 --> 00:02:46,400 early days 75 00:02:46,939 --> 00:02:48,560 of me coming into the organization, 76 00:02:48,860 --> 00:02:51,020 it was really about doing a lot of 77 00:02:51,020 --> 00:02:52,159 administrative paperwork 78 00:02:52,460 --> 00:02:54,379 to get these RFPs out, to get system 79 00:02:54,379 --> 00:02:56,159 integrators to respond to it. 80 00:02:56,625 --> 00:02:58,644 We're now over the last year 81 00:02:59,025 --> 00:02:59,924 in the exciting, 82 00:03:00,784 --> 00:03:02,224 point to where we've made a lot of 83 00:03:02,224 --> 00:03:02,724 decisions 84 00:03:03,104 --> 00:03:03,584 around, 85 00:03:03,905 --> 00:03:04,724 those RFPs 86 00:03:05,344 --> 00:03:06,245 that went out. 87 00:03:06,544 --> 00:03:08,485 We've signed legal paperwork, 88 00:03:09,310 --> 00:03:10,909 and we're now beginning to roll up our 89 00:03:10,909 --> 00:03:12,050 sleeves to actually 90 00:03:12,349 --> 00:03:14,669 begin the implementation of this very hard work 91 00:03:14,669 --> 00:03:16,830 that's in front of us. So, in terms 92 00:03:16,830 --> 00:03:17,730 of the accomplishment, 93 00:03:18,110 --> 00:03:20,669 it's closing out the book, so to speak, 94 00:03:20,669 --> 00:03:21,650 of the initial, 95 00:03:22,685 --> 00:03:23,905 tranche of RFPs, 96 00:03:24,444 --> 00:03:25,504 that we sent out, 97 00:03:26,284 --> 00:03:28,764 being able to execute on those successfully and 98 00:03:28,764 --> 00:03:30,205 being able to roll up our sleeves and 99 00:03:30,205 --> 00:03:31,745 start to execute on the work, 100 00:03:32,284 --> 00:03:33,664 is is really, 101 00:03:34,925 --> 00:03:37,389 we're we're very proud of that. We're very 102 00:03:37,389 --> 00:03:39,629 excited about that, and we're very optimistic about 103 00:03:39,629 --> 00:03:40,289 the future. 104 00:03:41,229 --> 00:03:43,069 Well, that's great to hear, you know, and, 105 00:03:43,389 --> 00:03:45,789 amazing experience you have, as you mentioned, moving 106 00:03:45,789 --> 00:03:47,310 up into the cloud and other, 107 00:03:47,710 --> 00:03:48,210 applications. 108 00:03:48,590 --> 00:03:50,270 I know there's a lot of hospitals and 109 00:03:50,270 --> 00:03:52,425 health systems out there today that are really 110 00:03:52,425 --> 00:03:55,465 just starting that journey, into incorporating the cloud 111 00:03:55,465 --> 00:03:57,245 into their health systems. So, 112 00:03:57,545 --> 00:03:59,865 I guess, is there anything that any advice 113 00:03:59,865 --> 00:04:01,865 you'd have or words or wisdom for those, 114 00:04:02,185 --> 00:04:04,349 leaders at hospitals and health systems that are 115 00:04:04,510 --> 00:04:05,889 beginning some of that migration, 116 00:04:06,270 --> 00:04:07,950 into the cloud to make sure it says 117 00:04:07,950 --> 00:04:09,889 moving as efficient as possible? 118 00:04:10,909 --> 00:04:12,930 Yeah. One of the things that we did, 119 00:04:13,310 --> 00:04:15,650 when I first came into the role is 120 00:04:16,270 --> 00:04:18,264 we really did take kind of a step 121 00:04:18,264 --> 00:04:19,884 back to better understand 122 00:04:20,425 --> 00:04:22,585 what exactly we had within the in the 123 00:04:22,585 --> 00:04:23,085 environment. 124 00:04:23,625 --> 00:04:25,305 And even if you weren't new to the 125 00:04:25,305 --> 00:04:27,404 role, I think that's a really important 126 00:04:27,705 --> 00:04:28,205 piece, 127 00:04:29,064 --> 00:04:29,805 to conduct, 128 00:04:30,985 --> 00:04:31,964 before you 129 00:04:32,350 --> 00:04:34,290 start to engage with cloud providers. 130 00:04:34,670 --> 00:04:36,610 The a lot of organizations 131 00:04:37,149 --> 00:04:39,550 who start to have the executive mandate of 132 00:04:39,550 --> 00:04:41,089 what we need to move to the cloud, 133 00:04:42,990 --> 00:04:45,470 the natural question that cloud providers are gonna 134 00:04:45,470 --> 00:04:47,245 ask you is great. What are you gonna 135 00:04:47,245 --> 00:04:48,224 move to the cloud? 136 00:04:48,925 --> 00:04:50,285 How much are you gonna move to the 137 00:04:50,285 --> 00:04:51,964 cloud? And when are you going to move 138 00:04:51,964 --> 00:04:53,964 those things to the cloud? And all of 139 00:04:53,964 --> 00:04:56,176 that those questions and the answers to that 140 00:04:56,176 --> 00:04:56,313 are really, really important. So we spent about 141 00:04:56,313 --> 00:04:57,664 the first nine months of 142 00:05:09,100 --> 00:05:11,040 detailed analysis of the environment. 143 00:05:11,425 --> 00:05:12,245 So we knew, 144 00:05:12,625 --> 00:05:15,425 how many CPUs, how much memory, how much 145 00:05:15,425 --> 00:05:17,285 storage we had within the environment. 146 00:05:17,585 --> 00:05:20,305 And we also had a very rough plan 147 00:05:20,305 --> 00:05:22,245 already mapped out in terms of, 148 00:05:22,865 --> 00:05:23,365 moving, 149 00:05:23,939 --> 00:05:26,819 those assets to the cloud and how quickly 150 00:05:26,819 --> 00:05:28,340 we would be able to do that over 151 00:05:28,340 --> 00:05:30,580 a five year period. So when we issued 152 00:05:30,580 --> 00:05:32,580 the RFPs and we started to engage with 153 00:05:32,580 --> 00:05:33,400 the cloud providers, 154 00:05:33,779 --> 00:05:36,600 we were very clear, and they clearly understood 155 00:05:37,125 --> 00:05:39,125 exactly what we were gonna move and how 156 00:05:39,125 --> 00:05:41,205 quickly we were gonna move it. And that's 157 00:05:41,205 --> 00:05:42,904 really important and instrumental 158 00:05:43,685 --> 00:05:44,085 in, 159 00:05:44,485 --> 00:05:46,025 engaging the cloud providers 160 00:05:46,645 --> 00:05:48,665 and really helping them understand 161 00:05:49,250 --> 00:05:50,470 how they will wrap, 162 00:05:51,089 --> 00:05:51,829 an engagement 163 00:05:52,209 --> 00:05:53,029 around that. 164 00:05:54,449 --> 00:05:56,129 Got it. That's a a great piece of 165 00:05:56,129 --> 00:05:57,189 advice and certainly, 166 00:05:57,729 --> 00:05:59,810 well worth that reflection point. So you make 167 00:05:59,810 --> 00:06:01,889 sure you're moving forward in the smartest way 168 00:06:01,889 --> 00:06:02,389 possible. 169 00:06:02,955 --> 00:06:04,634 I I appreciate that. Thank you so much, 170 00:06:04,634 --> 00:06:05,455 Tim. Now, 171 00:06:05,834 --> 00:06:07,435 when you look ahead, where do you see 172 00:06:07,435 --> 00:06:09,115 some of the big growth opportunities for you 173 00:06:09,115 --> 00:06:10,875 and your team over the next twelve months 174 00:06:10,875 --> 00:06:11,455 or so? 175 00:06:12,634 --> 00:06:14,395 Yeah. So as we look over the next 176 00:06:14,395 --> 00:06:15,295 twelve months, 177 00:06:16,154 --> 00:06:17,584 whether you whether you call it a growth 178 00:06:17,584 --> 00:06:18,269 opportunity or whether 179 00:06:20,750 --> 00:06:22,509 the pure excitement of the move. I'm not 180 00:06:22,509 --> 00:06:24,050 sure which is which. 181 00:06:24,910 --> 00:06:26,289 But we you know, you've 182 00:06:26,669 --> 00:06:28,589 there's probably not a month or two that 183 00:06:28,589 --> 00:06:30,189 goes by that you don't see a health 184 00:06:30,189 --> 00:06:32,535 care system moving up into the cloud. It's 185 00:06:32,535 --> 00:06:34,074 a fairly common occurrence. 186 00:06:34,935 --> 00:06:36,774 And you're beginning to now see health care 187 00:06:36,774 --> 00:06:37,274 systems, 188 00:06:38,294 --> 00:06:38,794 moving, 189 00:06:39,175 --> 00:06:39,995 their imaging, 190 00:06:40,615 --> 00:06:41,435 to the cloud. 191 00:06:42,214 --> 00:06:44,954 And and that's beginning to be a fairly 192 00:06:45,014 --> 00:06:45,995 common occurrence. 193 00:06:46,399 --> 00:06:48,660 And you're beginning to hear health care institutions 194 00:06:48,800 --> 00:06:51,040 beginning to move general purpose workloads to the 195 00:06:51,040 --> 00:06:53,439 cloud. That, again, is kind of a common 196 00:06:53,439 --> 00:06:55,439 occurrence. What we're gonna do over the next 197 00:06:55,439 --> 00:06:56,960 twelve to eighteen months is we're gonna do 198 00:06:56,960 --> 00:06:58,180 all three of those things. 199 00:06:58,625 --> 00:07:00,465 And I don't know of another health care 200 00:07:00,465 --> 00:07:00,965 institution 201 00:07:01,504 --> 00:07:03,045 that is going to embark 202 00:07:03,425 --> 00:07:05,665 with kind of the scale, the speed, and 203 00:07:05,665 --> 00:07:08,225 the velocity that we're about ready to engage 204 00:07:08,225 --> 00:07:10,465 in. And that's really the growth and the 205 00:07:10,465 --> 00:07:10,965 excitement, 206 00:07:12,899 --> 00:07:14,839 that we have in front of us. 207 00:07:15,860 --> 00:07:18,759 And that'll allow all of the existing staff, 208 00:07:19,459 --> 00:07:21,540 to really spread their wings in terms of 209 00:07:21,540 --> 00:07:22,819 this is how you used to do things 210 00:07:22,819 --> 00:07:24,580 in the on prem world. This is how 211 00:07:24,580 --> 00:07:26,180 you used to do this is now how 212 00:07:26,180 --> 00:07:28,040 we will do things in the cloud world. 213 00:07:28,144 --> 00:07:30,245 And they're already beginning to, 214 00:07:30,865 --> 00:07:33,264 kind of unwrap those packages and beginning to 215 00:07:33,264 --> 00:07:35,524 understand how they're gonna do things like infrastructures 216 00:07:35,824 --> 00:07:36,324 code, 217 00:07:36,944 --> 00:07:39,425 and how we're gonna do service catalogs and 218 00:07:39,425 --> 00:07:40,705 and all of the future, 219 00:07:41,500 --> 00:07:42,939 things that we've been talking about for the 220 00:07:42,939 --> 00:07:44,939 last three years, they're actually now beginning to 221 00:07:44,939 --> 00:07:47,660 play with those toys and understanding, oh, this 222 00:07:47,660 --> 00:07:49,339 is how this works, and this is how 223 00:07:49,339 --> 00:07:50,319 that works. So, 224 00:07:51,660 --> 00:07:54,060 that's the excitement that we have within Michigan 225 00:07:54,060 --> 00:07:56,125 Medicine is beginning to be able to do 226 00:07:56,125 --> 00:07:57,504 all three of those things 227 00:07:57,884 --> 00:08:00,285 at once. And the reason that we're doing 228 00:08:00,285 --> 00:08:00,785 that, 229 00:08:02,204 --> 00:08:04,125 is because we have to shut down one 230 00:08:04,125 --> 00:08:06,544 of our data centers in 2027. 231 00:08:06,685 --> 00:08:08,764 And that's part of our cloud goal and 232 00:08:08,764 --> 00:08:09,264 initiative 233 00:08:09,680 --> 00:08:11,600 is to decommission one of our data centers 234 00:08:11,600 --> 00:08:13,540 and leverage public cloud for Doctor. 235 00:08:14,160 --> 00:08:16,399 But it's gonna be really, really exciting and 236 00:08:16,399 --> 00:08:18,560 really, really challenging kind of in the in 237 00:08:18,560 --> 00:08:19,220 the same, 238 00:08:19,759 --> 00:08:20,500 same vein. 239 00:08:22,014 --> 00:08:24,814 Absolutely. Wow. What a huge initiative. And as 240 00:08:24,814 --> 00:08:26,095 you mentioned, you know, in doing all of 241 00:08:26,095 --> 00:08:27,535 those things at once, I I think it 242 00:08:27,535 --> 00:08:28,735 makes a lot of sense, but at the 243 00:08:28,735 --> 00:08:30,035 same time, I can imagine, 244 00:08:30,495 --> 00:08:32,174 requires a lot of planning, a lot of 245 00:08:32,174 --> 00:08:33,394 coordination, and, 246 00:08:33,855 --> 00:08:36,575 really truly, being focused in on the tasks 247 00:08:36,575 --> 00:08:37,259 at hand. 248 00:08:37,980 --> 00:08:40,399 When you look at, that and and how 249 00:08:40,460 --> 00:08:42,220 the team will evolve and change, 250 00:08:42,540 --> 00:08:44,860 based on moving all of that to the 251 00:08:44,860 --> 00:08:45,360 cloud, 252 00:08:46,700 --> 00:08:48,620 what do you see as being paramount for 253 00:08:48,620 --> 00:08:50,000 for your team? Do you see, 254 00:08:50,940 --> 00:08:53,725 needing new skills or or, any kind of 255 00:08:53,725 --> 00:08:55,404 expertise that you would like to bring on, 256 00:08:55,564 --> 00:08:57,485 whether from the outside or or build from 257 00:08:57,485 --> 00:08:59,725 within? I I'm just curious as how you 258 00:08:59,725 --> 00:09:02,444 see, on the team level things changing as 259 00:09:02,444 --> 00:09:05,024 you make this big shift, to the cloud. 260 00:09:06,110 --> 00:09:07,730 Yeah. No. It's a great question. 261 00:09:08,750 --> 00:09:10,990 One of the one of the other things 262 00:09:10,990 --> 00:09:12,990 that we did is, you know, during the 263 00:09:12,990 --> 00:09:13,970 RFP process 264 00:09:14,909 --> 00:09:16,209 is we knew and understood 265 00:09:17,070 --> 00:09:17,570 that, 266 00:09:18,269 --> 00:09:19,649 our existing staff, 267 00:09:20,414 --> 00:09:23,214 we'd have to put good training programs in 268 00:09:23,214 --> 00:09:25,695 place, and we would have to upscale those 269 00:09:25,695 --> 00:09:27,154 staff. A tremendous, 270 00:09:28,495 --> 00:09:30,894 organization and tremendous staff in terms of running 271 00:09:30,894 --> 00:09:32,815 on prem data centers, but that's different than 272 00:09:32,815 --> 00:09:33,875 running in the cloud. 273 00:09:34,519 --> 00:09:36,139 So we actually did an RFP, 274 00:09:36,600 --> 00:09:37,100 to, 275 00:09:37,480 --> 00:09:38,300 bring in, 276 00:09:38,920 --> 00:09:40,300 kind of a training package 277 00:09:40,679 --> 00:09:41,820 that would assess, 278 00:09:42,519 --> 00:09:45,000 kind of where people are currently at as 279 00:09:45,000 --> 00:09:47,879 well as recommend training pass and programs to 280 00:09:47,879 --> 00:09:48,540 get them, 281 00:09:48,904 --> 00:09:52,285 better acclimated and prepared for public cloud. 282 00:09:52,904 --> 00:09:55,065 So we'll be putting that in place as 283 00:09:55,065 --> 00:09:57,245 well here in 2025, 284 00:09:57,865 --> 00:09:59,865 to kind of set the team up for 285 00:09:59,865 --> 00:10:00,365 success, 286 00:10:01,500 --> 00:10:03,420 as we begin to move things to the 287 00:10:03,420 --> 00:10:05,519 cloud and as we begin to operationalize, 288 00:10:06,460 --> 00:10:08,220 these components in the cloud. So we're super 289 00:10:08,220 --> 00:10:09,360 excited about that. 290 00:10:10,540 --> 00:10:12,379 The other thing that we did as part 291 00:10:12,379 --> 00:10:14,560 of the RFP process is we actually, 292 00:10:15,980 --> 00:10:19,514 asked, some system integrators to, help us. 293 00:10:19,975 --> 00:10:23,274 So we got some, really exceptional system integrators, 294 00:10:24,215 --> 00:10:27,115 ahead out of Chicago and, Optimum, 295 00:10:27,815 --> 00:10:30,215 to kinda help with our migration as we 296 00:10:30,215 --> 00:10:30,955 were moving, 297 00:10:31,580 --> 00:10:33,340 out into the cloud, both for our general 298 00:10:33,340 --> 00:10:35,360 purpose workloads as well as Epic. 299 00:10:35,820 --> 00:10:36,320 Sector, 300 00:10:36,860 --> 00:10:38,240 is a managed services, 301 00:10:38,700 --> 00:10:41,340 so they're they're providing skills and expertise as 302 00:10:41,340 --> 00:10:41,840 well. 303 00:10:42,299 --> 00:10:44,299 So I think when you when you look 304 00:10:44,299 --> 00:10:45,120 at the totality 305 00:10:45,660 --> 00:10:48,934 of that, it's really the the exceptional system 306 00:10:48,934 --> 00:10:50,955 integrators that we're gonna bring into the organization 307 00:10:51,575 --> 00:10:53,915 and the natural learning that will happen, 308 00:10:54,695 --> 00:10:55,835 from from, 309 00:10:56,375 --> 00:10:58,295 kind of the over the shoulder help and 310 00:10:58,295 --> 00:10:59,674 assistance that they'll provide, 311 00:11:00,549 --> 00:11:03,129 the on the job training that will transpire 312 00:11:03,190 --> 00:11:05,269 as we begin to move these things, as 313 00:11:05,269 --> 00:11:07,370 well as the training plans and programs 314 00:11:07,829 --> 00:11:08,490 and tools 315 00:11:09,029 --> 00:11:09,350 and, 316 00:11:10,069 --> 00:11:12,409 capabilities that we'll put within the organization. 317 00:11:13,105 --> 00:11:14,945 I think that will really set us up, 318 00:11:15,264 --> 00:11:16,004 for success. 319 00:11:16,625 --> 00:11:18,245 And our cloud provider, 320 00:11:18,705 --> 00:11:21,764 we we actually selected Azure as our, preferred 321 00:11:21,825 --> 00:11:24,705 cloud provider. They're also providing a great deal 322 00:11:24,705 --> 00:11:25,764 of, training, 323 00:11:26,399 --> 00:11:29,120 and have opened up their training curriculum to 324 00:11:29,120 --> 00:11:29,620 us, 325 00:11:30,079 --> 00:11:33,379 to further provide additional tools and capabilities 326 00:11:33,679 --> 00:11:36,159 to the existing staff. So that's a really 327 00:11:36,159 --> 00:11:37,120 important piece. 328 00:11:37,519 --> 00:11:39,620 We think that we've got it well covered, 329 00:11:40,595 --> 00:11:42,294 in a variety of different ways. 330 00:11:42,834 --> 00:11:44,995 And, again, that these are the things that 331 00:11:44,995 --> 00:11:47,815 are making the staff super excited to to 332 00:11:47,875 --> 00:11:48,934 be a part of this. 333 00:11:49,875 --> 00:11:52,034 That's amazing to hear. And, you know, really 334 00:11:52,034 --> 00:11:53,334 cool to have that opportunity, 335 00:11:53,794 --> 00:11:55,495 to be part of that team, I'm sure. 336 00:11:55,639 --> 00:11:57,259 Now I I know a lot of opportunities 337 00:11:57,320 --> 00:11:59,399 we've talked about, but there are challenges, I'm 338 00:11:59,399 --> 00:12:01,240 sure, that you have your eye on. What 339 00:12:01,240 --> 00:12:03,399 are you really anticipating coming down the pipe, 340 00:12:03,639 --> 00:12:04,700 in the near future? 341 00:12:06,600 --> 00:12:07,100 So 342 00:12:07,894 --> 00:12:09,674 so even though we're, 343 00:12:10,294 --> 00:12:13,274 we have this significant cloud initiative, 344 00:12:14,294 --> 00:12:15,434 in front of us, 345 00:12:16,855 --> 00:12:17,674 and and 346 00:12:17,975 --> 00:12:19,495 it's not a small amount of work. As 347 00:12:19,495 --> 00:12:21,575 you can imagine, moving everything that we're planning 348 00:12:21,575 --> 00:12:24,230 on, moving. It's it's a mountain of work 349 00:12:24,230 --> 00:12:25,450 that we plan on doing. 350 00:12:26,070 --> 00:12:27,690 But we're really doing that, 351 00:12:29,110 --> 00:12:29,610 to 352 00:12:29,990 --> 00:12:33,429 make our IT operations more efficient and more 353 00:12:33,429 --> 00:12:33,929 modern. 354 00:12:34,629 --> 00:12:37,370 The organization itself is still looking 355 00:12:38,164 --> 00:12:39,625 to our IT organization 356 00:12:40,004 --> 00:12:42,424 to continue to innovate and drive innovation. 357 00:12:43,204 --> 00:12:45,044 So we're looking at things like, you know, 358 00:12:45,044 --> 00:12:47,284 how do we implement AI? And we've actually 359 00:12:47,284 --> 00:12:48,264 stood up OpenAI 360 00:12:48,725 --> 00:12:51,125 within our Azure environment. We're beginning to play 361 00:12:51,125 --> 00:12:52,024 with those platforms. 362 00:12:52,850 --> 00:12:55,169 We've been looking at how do we provide 363 00:12:55,169 --> 00:12:57,889 end user computing for our epic environment and 364 00:12:57,889 --> 00:12:59,110 how do we reenvision 365 00:12:59,730 --> 00:13:00,709 end user computing, 366 00:13:01,649 --> 00:13:04,449 further down the road to enhance and increase 367 00:13:04,449 --> 00:13:05,190 our security, 368 00:13:06,304 --> 00:13:08,164 that we can deliver back to the organization. 369 00:13:09,504 --> 00:13:11,825 So not only do we have this mountain 370 00:13:11,825 --> 00:13:13,424 of work that's in front of us, we're 371 00:13:13,424 --> 00:13:14,884 still being asked by the organization, 372 00:13:16,225 --> 00:13:19,365 by our patients to continue to drive innovation, 373 00:13:20,070 --> 00:13:22,389 which the institution is is well known for. 374 00:13:22,389 --> 00:13:24,629 So it's a it's a tricky balancing act, 375 00:13:24,629 --> 00:13:26,950 and that's really, you know, one of the 376 00:13:26,950 --> 00:13:28,389 challenges that we have in front of us 377 00:13:28,389 --> 00:13:30,309 is how do we do this mountain of 378 00:13:30,309 --> 00:13:32,710 work yet continue to drive the innovation that 379 00:13:32,710 --> 00:13:34,250 we're so well known for. 380 00:13:35,434 --> 00:13:37,455 That's a really good point. And, definitely, 381 00:13:37,835 --> 00:13:40,315 it seems like, something that you have to, 382 00:13:40,475 --> 00:13:42,315 again, kind of plan for and put in 383 00:13:42,315 --> 00:13:44,894 place. I'm curious. Given this, 384 00:13:45,355 --> 00:13:47,615 tension in being able to innovate but also 385 00:13:47,835 --> 00:13:49,054 doing the strategic 386 00:13:49,519 --> 00:13:50,639 things that are in front of you. 387 00:13:51,440 --> 00:13:52,960 What is the number one thing that you're 388 00:13:52,960 --> 00:13:55,440 doing right now to, set your organization up 389 00:13:55,440 --> 00:13:56,820 for that long term success? 390 00:13:58,320 --> 00:14:00,240 Yeah. I think there's a variety of things. 391 00:14:00,240 --> 00:14:02,000 So you've heard about, you know, kind of 392 00:14:02,000 --> 00:14:05,105 the, the training initiatives and the skills initiatives 393 00:14:05,164 --> 00:14:06,144 we have in place, 394 00:14:07,004 --> 00:14:08,365 being able to bring in some of the 395 00:14:08,365 --> 00:14:10,684 system integrators to kinda help and make sure 396 00:14:10,684 --> 00:14:11,585 that we're successful. 397 00:14:12,125 --> 00:14:14,304 We're also going through a reorganization, 398 00:14:15,950 --> 00:14:16,670 that's also, 399 00:14:17,070 --> 00:14:19,410 beginning to take, shape and transpire. 400 00:14:20,190 --> 00:14:22,610 And that's really standing up a cloud capability 401 00:14:22,750 --> 00:14:24,450 center or cloud center of excellence, 402 00:14:25,230 --> 00:14:28,029 depending on on, how you would prefer to 403 00:14:28,029 --> 00:14:30,190 call that. But really what that is is 404 00:14:30,190 --> 00:14:31,009 that's really 405 00:14:31,575 --> 00:14:35,274 creating a specialized team that is super focused 406 00:14:36,134 --> 00:14:38,075 on driving cloud adoption, 407 00:14:38,774 --> 00:14:42,075 and integration initiatives. And we're doing that, 408 00:14:44,100 --> 00:14:45,559 in order to accelerate, 409 00:14:46,019 --> 00:14:47,539 our move to the cloud. Again, we need 410 00:14:47,539 --> 00:14:48,340 to shut down, 411 00:14:48,660 --> 00:14:50,899 that data center. And we're also doing that 412 00:14:50,899 --> 00:14:52,340 so that we can go back to the 413 00:14:52,340 --> 00:14:52,840 business, 414 00:14:53,620 --> 00:14:54,759 and drive innovation, 415 00:14:55,715 --> 00:14:56,535 through the business. 416 00:14:57,075 --> 00:14:59,575 Michigan Medicine has a lot of research, 417 00:15:00,434 --> 00:15:03,335 wants and needs, and we know that we 418 00:15:03,394 --> 00:15:04,134 can be, 419 00:15:05,154 --> 00:15:05,975 more responsive 420 00:15:06,355 --> 00:15:08,695 and more agile in those requests. 421 00:15:09,309 --> 00:15:11,870 And we see cloud as a vehicle to 422 00:15:11,870 --> 00:15:12,930 be able to do that. 423 00:15:13,870 --> 00:15:16,029 So so those are some pieces that we 424 00:15:16,029 --> 00:15:16,930 wanna continue, 425 00:15:18,430 --> 00:15:20,430 to make sure that we move the needle 426 00:15:20,430 --> 00:15:22,910 on. We also I mentioned the fact that 427 00:15:22,910 --> 00:15:25,605 we have these affiliates with UmH West and 428 00:15:25,605 --> 00:15:26,345 with Sparrow. 429 00:15:27,284 --> 00:15:27,784 There's, 430 00:15:28,164 --> 00:15:31,044 an organizational wide initiative in terms of how 431 00:15:31,044 --> 00:15:32,424 to do further integration. 432 00:15:33,125 --> 00:15:35,125 So we're all not only are we challenged 433 00:15:35,125 --> 00:15:38,024 with Michigan Michigan Medicine's moved in the cloud 434 00:15:38,389 --> 00:15:40,070 and all of that mountain of work that's 435 00:15:40,070 --> 00:15:42,230 associated with it. We also have the mountain 436 00:15:42,230 --> 00:15:44,090 of work of how do we then integrate, 437 00:15:44,950 --> 00:15:47,269 Sparrow and UmH West. What pieces would we 438 00:15:47,269 --> 00:15:48,090 wanna integrate 439 00:15:48,470 --> 00:15:51,269 for those respective organizations if they would wanna 440 00:15:51,269 --> 00:15:52,250 borrow pieces 441 00:15:52,625 --> 00:15:54,245 and parts of our cloud strategy, 442 00:15:54,625 --> 00:15:56,144 what would those look like and how can 443 00:15:56,144 --> 00:15:58,404 we be good stewards back to those organization? 444 00:15:59,345 --> 00:16:02,084 Those are also some of the the challenges 445 00:16:02,144 --> 00:16:03,985 that we have in front of us. But 446 00:16:03,985 --> 00:16:05,745 if we look for how we're gonna set 447 00:16:05,745 --> 00:16:07,445 the organization up for success, 448 00:16:07,959 --> 00:16:11,019 further integration and consolidation where it makes sense, 449 00:16:11,399 --> 00:16:12,459 allowing regional, 450 00:16:13,159 --> 00:16:14,620 preferences and and, 451 00:16:15,480 --> 00:16:16,700 and and and allocations, 452 00:16:17,559 --> 00:16:18,299 and configurations, 453 00:16:19,399 --> 00:16:20,539 where it makes sense, 454 00:16:21,654 --> 00:16:24,215 and really providing a good ecosystem that other 455 00:16:24,215 --> 00:16:25,835 organizations can come into 456 00:16:26,215 --> 00:16:28,875 are gonna be fundamental to our success, 457 00:16:29,654 --> 00:16:31,975 as we move forward. So there's a lot 458 00:16:31,975 --> 00:16:33,894 of things that we need to do to 459 00:16:33,894 --> 00:16:34,394 ensure, 460 00:16:35,519 --> 00:16:38,240 that we're meeting those organizational goals of moving 461 00:16:38,240 --> 00:16:40,259 to the cloud and modernizing our infrastructure, 462 00:16:40,799 --> 00:16:42,959 getting really good at integration, and how do 463 00:16:42,959 --> 00:16:45,600 we create synergies that don't exist today. And 464 00:16:45,600 --> 00:16:47,860 then how do we prepare for maybe other 465 00:16:48,225 --> 00:16:50,225 organizations that may wanna come in to the 466 00:16:50,225 --> 00:16:51,524 Michigan Medicine family, 467 00:16:52,544 --> 00:16:54,804 so that we can continue to to spread, 468 00:16:55,264 --> 00:16:56,004 our footprint 469 00:16:56,464 --> 00:16:59,264 and serve, the needs, of the people of 470 00:16:59,264 --> 00:17:01,504 the state of Michigan? All of those are 471 00:17:01,504 --> 00:17:02,884 are super great challenges, 472 00:17:04,200 --> 00:17:05,799 and those are all of the things we're 473 00:17:05,799 --> 00:17:07,480 trying to do in order to set up 474 00:17:07,480 --> 00:17:09,420 the organization for long term success. 475 00:17:10,839 --> 00:17:12,679 Oh, it's fantastic to hear. It seems like 476 00:17:12,679 --> 00:17:14,519 you have a great pathway into, 477 00:17:14,920 --> 00:17:15,740 a much stronger 478 00:17:16,119 --> 00:17:19,505 cloud atmosphere and ecosystem. And, certainly, it's exciting 479 00:17:19,505 --> 00:17:21,904 to think about all the possibilities once you 480 00:17:21,904 --> 00:17:23,825 achieve that. Tim, thank you so much for 481 00:17:23,825 --> 00:17:25,424 joining us on the podcast today. This has 482 00:17:25,424 --> 00:17:27,744 been a really informative and fun conversation, and 483 00:17:27,744 --> 00:17:29,345 I look forward to connecting with you again 484 00:17:29,345 --> 00:17:29,845 soon. 485 00:17:30,605 --> 00:17:32,765 Sounds great. Thank you so much, Laura. Appreciate 486 00:17:32,765 --> 00:17:33,265 it.