At athenahealth,
we know your ambulatory practice wants healthier, a
healthier business, healthier care teams, and healthier patients.
But the complexities of modern health care tech
make it hard for you and your care
teams to focus on what matters
most? That's where athenahealth can help. Our AI
native all in one solutions reduce administrative burdens,
streamline billing and payments, and deliver critical insights
when clinicians need it most. That means fewer
clicks, more time for patients, and stronger bottom
lines.
Practicing medicine is complex, but running a practice
can be that much simpler with athenahealth.
See how simpler is healthier@athenahealth.com.
Hello, everyone. This is Scott King with the
Becker's Healthcare Podcast. I'm thrilled today to be
joined by Charlotte Stallworth,
vice president business development and innovation,
Stanford Medicine Children's Health. Charlotte, how are you
doing today?
I am well, Scott. How are you? I'm
great. Thanks so much for joining us. I
know we're gonna kinda dive into some of
the big issues facing health care today. Before
we get started, I just kinda wanna ask
you a little bit about your your background
and your work in health care, if you
don't mind sharing.
I am happy to share. So,
my professional background includes
serving as an officer in the United States
army.
And then after graduate school, I was a
commercial banker and then entered health care
in capital finance, then research, and now finally
business development.
And I'll say each one of those roles
has prepared me for my current position
at Stanford Medicine Children's Health,
where one of my key responsibilities
is developing, structuring,
growing partnerships with entities that help advance our
mission. And so those are relationships with health
care systems,
hospitals,
community physicians,
counties, school districts, tech companies, and startups.
And really thinking about how we use innovation
to enhance and build,
those solutions
that improve health care for our patients and
our communities.
Well, thank you for sharing that background information,
and thank you even more for your service.
We appreciate that. And I just curious to
follow that up. What made you wanna get
into health care after being in the military?
Yeah. So, like everyone, it's it's like a
journey. Right? And there are different choices that
come up. So really I left the the
army and went to graduate school at Baylor,
got my MBA
and became a banker first at JP Morgan
and then at BBVA Compass. And then,
one of my clients as a banker was
a health care system,
Scott and White
in in Texas and,
ended up joining them. They made an offer
for me to join in capital finance and
managing their
debt leasing bonds.
That part of the business. So, like, a
lot of consultants,
bankers attorneys,
you know, hired by a client, but really
love our mission and
really
aligned with the kind of the innovation, the
business and the analysis
all coming together,
in business development is, you know, really,
appealing to me.
That's a really interesting trajectory there for for
your career.
You know, something I wanted to ask you
about
is our research has told us that nearly
half of the medical practices
reported using AI in some capacity last year,
and it remains a key topic for health
IT leaders.
From your perspective,
what are the use cases that are making
a difference right now,
and how are you leveraging them in your
organization?
Yeah. I really appreciate this question.
AI is is
very intriguing. And I say I would say
the use cases create efficiencies
in
workflows that are compelling for all industries and
particularly healthcare
as we've been kind of poised for innovation
for a few years now.
You know, at Stanford Medicine Children's Health in
our clinical space, our providers have access to
ambient listening technologies that can create clinical notes
for review and update by the physicians.
Additionally, we are developing AI solutions to improve
efficiencies in scheduling and decrease the number of
missed appointments.
We're also looking into agentic AI solutions focused
on access, human resources, quality and safety,
revenue cycle and digital information
systems. As you know, agentic AI can complete
routine tasks with high levels of accuracy and
really allowing the human team members to focus
on more complex tasks.
And, you know, some of those routine tasks
really kind of go across
departments like troubleshooting or problem solving.
And then, like, for revenue cycle, billing questions
and payment processing. So we're super excited about
AI, agentic AI, and all of the ways,
it can enhance,
our mission and the work we do at
Stanford children's.
With the different types of AI you were
just mentioning, what do you think it will
take to kind of bridge the gap from
using the AI and health systems
from the routine tasks you just mentioned into
kind of the more complex ones?
I think really, you know, the the advancements
we're seeing, you know, there are those kind
of,
incremental
advancements. So as we're using agentic AI for
those routine tasks and
it the AI continues to learn and,
you know, typically we're looking at a human
in the loop for a certain more complex
tasks. So I think as the AI continues
to learn
and their uses and tests to determine
if it can handle that next level.
Maybe with the human taking another
action versus, you know, stopping everything for the
human to make a decision. Maybe the AI
makes the decision and consults the human or
there'll be another way to look at it.
But I think some of that
incremental
advancement is
inevitable. Right? It's just the function of AI
and our human nature, right, to continue to
push for something more.
Absolutely. And I and I think it sounds
like a lot of health systems are gonna
try to to keep humans involved in the
process, obviously, as long
as possible.
Getting to the next question,
I wanna ask what advice you have for
leaders navigating
everything
from governance to patient engagement. And can you
share an example of how your organization has
balanced
innovation with operational constraints?
Sure. So advice, I would say, you know,
Stanford Children's. We definitely are embracing digital innovation,
and it's really about harmonizing that cut kind
of cutting edge technology
with our foundational values and operational realities.
And I would just say some of the
advice I would give is just remain,
patient focused and patient centric. So we wanna
prioritize the patient experience and engagement.
We wanna use patient feedback to tailor digital
health solutions and make them as intuitive and
as beneficial as possible.
And I think another key thing and maybe
even before you get started is really developing
that
robust governance
framework.
So you wanna implement clear governance structure to
guide the technology adoption and set clear policies,
especially on establishing data governance protocols and ensuring
compliance with legal and ethical standards.
I am chair of our AI oversight committee,
and this is work we're doing to understand
AI solutions that we've already integrated into the
organization
and then new solutions,
that we're considering.
How are you seeing recent legislation in both
at the state and federal level
affect health care organizations
and health care IT specifically?
Have you adjusted strategies in response to to
that?
Yes. Stanford children
regularly
monitors federal and state legislation that impacts our
families and patients and health system.
And we proactively
build relationships
with our federal to state policymakers
in order to educate them on children's
hospital issues. So
we really hope that
federal flexibilities
regarding telehealth services continue into 2026 and beyond.
And considering that we are a health care
system
headquartered in Silicon Valley,
we are really excited about digital health innovation
and piloting new technologies
with a focus on providing efficient, secure, patient
centered healthcare.
If you had to give one top piece
of advice for health care leaders as they
prepare for further advancements in technology and rising
demands for care, what would it be?
I would say we have to continue to
be curious and brave and ethical and always
patient focused.
As we acquire and partner in technologies that
support
our shared mission to provide high quality health
care to children and families.
And then, of course, I'm always motivated by,
you know, technologies
that we have seen in movies and read
about in books. So
I think we have to remember that our
use of,
say, AI and virtual reality and wearables and
other technologies,
could advance to the next tricorder or universal
translators, which will benefit, you know, health for
all our local and global communities.
And my last question for you, Charlotte,
how are you evolving as a leader?
How am I evolving? That's a great question,
Scott.
I think I'm evolving
very well as a leader. I think we
all grow based on our own experiences
and experiences of others. Right? So
always I'm very curious and always learning and
really trying to be
the best leader I can be and hold
true to my values. And, you know, I'm
always driven by doing the right thing.
And I think,
that's kind of my guiding light in leadership.
Appreciate the response and your thoughts there. Thanks
so much, Charlotte. It was great to have
you on the podcast. I hope to work
with you again very soon. Thanks so much,
Scott.
At athenahealth,
we know your ambulatory practice wants healthier,
a healthier business, healthier care teams, and healthier
patients.
But the complexities of modern health care tech
make it hard for you and your care
teams to focus on what matters most.
That's where athenahealth can help. Our AI native
all in one solutions reduce administrative burdens, streamline
billing and payments, and deliver critical insights when
clinicians need it most. That means fewer clicks,
more time for patients, and stronger bottom lines.
Practicing medicine is complex, but running a practice
can be that much simpler with athenahealth.
See how simpler is healthier at athenahealth.com.