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This is Laura Dirdo with the Becker's Healthcare
podcast.
I'm thrilled today to be joined by doctor
Tina Tadeshe, who is the system CMIO
at Boston Medical Center. Doctor Tadeshe, it's a
pleasure to have you on the podcast today.
Thank you very much. I'm excited to be
here.
Absolutely. Well, I'm looking forward to our conversation
because I know there's a lot happening at
Boston Medical Center right now, and particularly as
you're bringing on some new hospitals and just
a lot of transformation. So I'm excited to
learn more. But before we dive in, can
you tell us a little bit more about
yourself and your background?
Yeah. I'll be glad to. Thank you. My
name is Tinutadeh.
I'm a physician executive,
currently serving as a vice president and system
CMIO,
at Boston Medical Center.
I got into health IT,
about fourteen years ago,
and, I am originally trained as a pediatrician.
And today, my passion lies in building the
informatics
structures
and
multidisciplinary
teams that support the complex health care system.
So that's where my passion lies.
I'm really committed to raising the next generation
of informaticians,
especially physicians.
So,
that's my focus right now at this point
in time, making sure our clinical and operational
sides of health care
and health IT all all work well together.
That's a little bit about myself. I'm sure
we'll talk more.
Absolutely. Well, that's fantastic to hear. And I
know, you know, there's so much need for
especially that bridge between the clinical and IT
side, and so it's fantastic to hear that
you're so committed to growing in that space.
Now what opportunities and headwinds do you have
your eye on right now?
So, that's a great question.
One of the most exciting opportunities
where I work right now
is is is it's a little complex, but
but I'm excited about it.
Right now, we're focused on scaling and integrating,
all our informatics structure to to so to
support this very
diverse health system.
So
our health system, we have a health plan.
We have several things going on. So
when you think about it, we have two
new hospitals we have just on onboarded or
we're onboarding.
We're blessed to have, Boston Medical South.
We used to call it Good Sam or
Good Samaritan. It's now called Boston Medical South.
And then we also,
onboarded, and part of our family now is
Saint Elizabeth. So we call it Boston Medical,
Center Brighton.
And then our WellCents health plan, our Clearway
Health, and we just have a lot going
on with community health centers. So with that
kind of complex,
environment,
we do face headwinds, of course.
Right now, we are,
expanding our EHR to this new hospitals we've
just acquired,
and,
yet we continue to to provide,
great patient care. That's our plan with this
new hospital. So
the opportunities
are ahead of us, making sure we're able
to do this speedily so our our physicians
and other clinicians can work
and so that we can continue to provide
great care for for our patients.
So
my headwinds,
not headwinds like we can't solve it, but
how to
expand our informatics structure
across these two hospitals, our health plans, our
community health centers,
and build teams that will,
continue to support not just, patient care, patient
experience, patient safety,
but also make sure that we're reimbursed
appropriately
as we deliver this care.
So
headwinds in a way,
very complex challenges trying to make sure that
we keep the cultures
alive
and yet be integrated
as one.
So that's where my head is right now.
That's what I'm focused on, and it's exciting
but challenging.
Absolutely. Wow. There a lot going on there
for sure, especially
looking at, you know, just trying to make
sure you've got that great patient care, bringing
on the new hospitals,
and then,
forming a team and a culture that is
excited about,
providing that experience for patients. And and really,
truly, I know technology supports a lot of
that. So how are you thinking about growth
and adding value for the organization in the
future?
So,
that's another good question.
Growth for me and,
for my team
in in this health care space would be
making sure that we have the right people
in the right place. So make making sure
that we're investing
in in our physician,
informaticians,
and,
informatic structures, and our non physicians as well
to make sure that they can actually bring
all this vision to pass.
When you think about it, creating quality,
safety, and equity, it's it's not just about
the tools. It's more about the work flows
and an understanding
of who our patients are,
making sure that whether they're underserved,
population
or whether they they're robust
financially,
making sure that patient care does not suffer.
That will give them great care. That's our
mission at at Boston Medical Center. But then
you now need folks who can who can
deliver this. We have great physicians, great nurses,
but you need great
physician informaticians.
So I am thinking that we need to
not just have what we have in house,
but we need to grow it. I'm looking
forward to growing a pipeline of physician informaticians,
at our,
health system,
looking into our medical school, Boston University's,
affiliated with us, looking into our,
ACGME
programs, making sure that we're creating pathways for
residents and fellows who might be interested in
this,
and and just mentoring them and and and
also making sure that we're well,
integrated with our clinical operations,
our revenue cycle space, and and that we
have a very tight culture when it comes
to health IT.
So that's how I I foresee us adding
growth and value,
to our health system at this point in
time.
I love that. I I think it's such
an important thing to remember
as you're looking at that pipeline of new
physician informaticists
and figuring out a way that you can
bring that level of, connectivity to them right
from the beginning when you're mentoring them as
residents and fellows.
Fellows and and developing,
not only the clinical and technology expertise, but
then also understanding how revenue cycle comes in.
I I know you mentioned earlier just some
of the challenges with reimbursement and figuring out,
how you can, you know, truly
capture all the the pay that's,
there and available for you. So I think
that's, amazing to hear, and what a great
way to,
set up the program. Now from your perspective,
what is one risk or investment that's still
worth making this year? Even as though I
I know, you know, there are a lot
of hospitals and health systems are facing tight
margins and some uncertainties,
what would you still say is crucial for
hospitals and systems to invest in as they're
thinking about digital transformation in the future?
Yeah. That's a great question too. I when
I look at it and,
in informatics,
the field of clinical informatics especially is is
pretty young when you compare it to the
rest of,
the specialties and subspecialties
in medicine.
So this is an opportune time for us
to expand it more,
practically.
So when we cut back, and we are
cutting back in every way, just like other
health systems are, just just the headwinds in
the in the country right now as we
try to become more fiscally responsible
in every way as a nation,
one of the things that I think we
can pull back on is, again, developing
the next generation of informatics leaders.
I know folks think about technology
as, oh, you're in the EHR space, you're
in the tech
space. At the end of the day, people,
humans actually use this technology,
and you got to get folks in there
that understand
clinical informatics. That is you understand the clinical
side, but you have to design systems that
work. So
if I'm gonna make any investment this year
as we get into the new physical year,
it will be in people,
People that support our physicians,
our nurses,
making sure that
even if I don't add a new application,
new technology,
I invest in folks that can support
our clinicians,
make sure that what we're doing is helping
our rev cycle space,
it's helping our finance space.
But I also wanna invest in physician informatic
leaders,
make sure they're well mentored, they're well trained,
make sure we give them the materials they
know they need to grow.
So that would be my investment. It's worth
making. You will reap the benefits,
for for many years to come.
Technology
and AI, all of these things come. They're
very shiny, but they do pass away because
new things replace them. But for people, when
you invest in them and you develop them,
they give you,
a lot of,
I guess, return on investment over in the
next years to come. So that's where my
head is, investing in people and developing new
physician informatic leaders.
That's fantastic to hear. You know? And, certainly,
it makes a lot of sense when you
look at where the future is headed and
how technology is integrating into basically every aspect
of the health care system.
Now when you look for yourself, where do
you see some of the best opportunities for
growth in the future? How are you continuing
to elevate,
from your role as the system CMIO?
Well, for myself, looking inwards, the same thing
I would want for for my team and
people around me is is development.
I must continue to evolve. I must continue
to develop.
I must continue to understand the new technologies,
that we have. Understand
AI.
I'm into that space. But understand beyond AI.
Get beyond the shiny
new objects into the practical details of how
does this help us, how can we make
it so useful that,
it drives our systems, but it does not
replace
our people.
You will always need a human. There's just
nothing that can replace a human, but then
yet I still need to understand this new
technology. So that's where I see myself developing,
understanding how I can use this support to
support our population health initiatives.
It it it's new in the health care
space.
We've been driving this for a while since
my days,
when I just started in
in informatics,
in one of the vendor spaces where there
was a lot of development,
in in mass machine learning.
There there's a lot going on now. It's
front and center for everyone,
but
we need to move beyond, oh, I wanna
use AI into
let's start to get a return on investment
on that. So I wanna develop in that
area
AI, but more in the area of actually
having practical,
tangible
ROIs,
in the AI space.
And it's it can't just be,
a catchphrase
where using AI, it has to be, we
used AI and in pop health, this is
what we delivered with it. With our primary
care physicians, this is what we delivered with
a tangible ROI. That's where I see myself
growing
and and just invest in my own time.
That's amazing to hear. Doctor Tadeshi, thank you
so much for joining us on the podcast
today. This has been a a really amazing
conversation. I've learned a lot, and I I
look forward to,
connect continuing the conversation again soon.
Thank you so much. I am grateful for
this opportunity.