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.
This is Laura Dierda with the Becker's Healthcare
podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by
doctor Greg Nicanry,
chief medical information officer at the University of
Rochester Medical Center. Doctor Nicanry, it's a pleasure
to have you on the podcast today.
Super excited to be here. Thank you for
having me, Laura.
Absolutely. Now I'm excited for our conversation because
I know we're gonna be digging into some
of the cool things that you're doing at
the University of Rochester Medical Center and specifically
around artificial intelligence and virtual care. But before
we dive in, I'm wondering, can you share
a little bit more about yourself and your
work in health care?
Sure.
So I'm the chief medical information officer at
the University of Rochester
Medical Center, which is in Upstate New York.
We're a mid sized system,
basically covering
the area between kinda Syracuse and Buffalo
down to,
the the Pennsylvania border.
I also am a practicing
orthopedic surgeon,
and, have been CMIO now for about six
years.
That's amazing to hear. And, you know, what
incredible experience,
especially leading into,
you know, what is happening today in health
care and the digital transformation.
I know nearly half of medical practices reported
using
AI in some capacity over the last year,
and it remains a key topic for health
IT leaders. From your perspective, what are some
of the use cases that are making a
difference right now, and how are you leveraging
them within University of Rochester Medical Center?
Yeah. So I think,
the, you know, biggest use case, at least
in in my wheelhouse where as chief medical
information officer,
my main task is
really to try to improve
clinician experience
through leveraging
technology
to optimize
workflows and and well-being. And,
you know, ambient documentation
has been revolutionary
really for,
the group of providers, particularly on the, ambulatory
clinical side.
You know, we've had a pretty big rollout
with about,
a thousand,
licenses now distributed to providers who are using,
our ambient documentation solution.
We've got 75%
of those are actually active users,
and, we've had really good outcomes,
across the board from our,
well-being measures, our work after work measures, our
chart closure rates,
and even, revenue improvement.
That's amazing to hear. And, you know, certainly
interesting to have that opportunity to use technology
in a new way and and see,
some pretty stark results.
As virtual care expands from AI enabled tools
and remote monitoring to broader digital health platforms,
introducing new technology brings its own challenges.
What advice do you have for leaders who
are navigating everything from governance to patient engagement?
And can you share an example of how
your organization is balancing innovation and operational constraints?
I think,
you know, our, motto at URMC is meliora,
which means ever better.
And it's important,
as you're kind of a continuous quality improvement
organization
that is always seeking and striving to improve,
to understand
that
the capacity for the organization
to actually
change and adapt
is limited. And so you really have to
understand
who will be using the tools, how it
will impact them.
And, ideally,
you're working very closely with the people who
design the technology, either the the
vendors or,
our own,
IT
group to ensure that it's usable
and that it's solving a problem
people who are going to be using the
technology actually see. If it solves a problem
for them, obviously,
adoption is, much higher. And we we learned
that, you know, through the
ambient documentation initiative.
You know, this was solving a huge problem,
and so it was very easy to get
adoption,
wide uptake, and to very quickly see results.
Whereas,
you know, other technologies depending on the level
of impact
and the level of usability,
sometimes we've we've fallen short of that.
Got it. That makes a lot of sense,
you know, and it is really great advice,
especially thinking through all of the different changes
in technologies that are coming down the pipe
today. And to your point, when you look
at, the change management on the people side,
what has worked well to
really help them understand, you know, the technologies
and
increase the adoption as well as,
you know,
I guess, willingness to try new things and
jump in?
I think, really, what works well is
kind of having a strategy and a rationale
and having the strategy
actually come from
the people who work in our organization,
frontline
clinicians and staff.
So I I think it's very easy to
get stuck into the trap of, you know,
talking to vendors,
who, you know, say, hey. I've got this
really cool technology,
and I think
you have this problem,
and you could use
our technology to solve that problem. Or even
with our, you know, our EHR saying,
you know, we think that you should do
this because we think it'll be great for
your organization.
Well,
you know, nobody knows our organization
better than
the people who work in it. And so
really
being close to them, staying close to them,
understanding
their pain points
in saying and writing down kind of, you
know, these are the things that are challenging
us.
Let's try to find some solutions that address
these challenges and then go out and partner
with your EHR vendor or some of the
major, you know, incompetent,
technology players like,
you know, Microsoft or or Doximity or others,
to to try to see if you can
solve those problems together. I think that's been
way more effective than,
you know, just saying, everybody's got a chatbot.
We should probably
use a chatbot. What what should we what
would should we use that chatbot for? And
then just kinda trying a pilot and seeing
how it goes.
I think, you know, you need to start
from the inside and and move out to
the vendors as opposed to, the other way.
Got it. That makes a lot of sense
and is a really helpful way to look
at things and make sure you've got yourself
focused and the team focused as well. Now
I know there's been a lot of reach
recent legislation,
coming down the pipe when it comes to
technology as well as health care. So how
are you seeing some of both the state
and federal regulations affect health care organizations and
IT specifically? Have you had to adjust any
of your strategies in response?
So it has been
very challenging, especially with the recent, you know,
government shutdown.
Right? We had a pretty good,
telehealth operation,
going,
and we've we've had some providers because it's
been in place for,
you know,
now four or five years who have converted,
you know, their entire practice to remote.
And, you know, unfortunately, if they see Medicare
or Medicare Advantage patients,
we're no longer being reimbursed for those visits
because home for the patient is not
any longer considered an appropriate site of service.
We also, you know, stood up a hospital
at home program that we actually launched and
went live with in September, and we were
getting some some really good results, to the
point that,
you know, when we had to shut the
doors,
on October 1, our,
major insurance partner
contacted us and said, hey. Well, can can
you just kinda keep keep that open for
our patients at least?
But it really wasn't
viable, unfortunately,
for for us to do that. And so,
you know, I think it's
it's caused us to have to do a
lot of extra work coming up with contingency
plans. Not necessarily saying we're
organization
and
pivot, you know, to,
all brick and mortar in person visits,
but really kind of trying to understand how
we can be agile as an organization and
pivot,
see how see how quickly the policies can
change and then the broader impact that it
has upon programs like your,
telehealth virtual visits as well as hospital at
home. I mean, I think it's a great
point you made that it can be challenging
to spend time and energy and resources on
those contingency plans just because, you know, there
are so many other things that you have
to be focused on as well.
Yep. Abs absolutely. Yeah. It's it's almost like
you're doing,
you know,
probably a third extra work, because now you're
having to come up with the solution based
on the rules of today, but you've also
gotta think about, a lot of what ifs,
to make sure that the whole thing makes
sense and you know what's gonna happen,
if, you know, different rules and regulations,
change or come into play or come into
effect.
Absolutely. Well, I think as we wrap up
our conversation here, I'm curious, what's your top
piece of advice for health care leaders
as they prepare for further advancements in technology
as well as the increasing demands for care?
So I think, you know, it's really
just
adhering to to kind of sound,
continuous
improvement
principles. Right? You wanna set up a system
that facilitates
agility. You want to continue to focus on
clinician
well-being, staff
well-being,
because that keeps them
kind of engaged,
and more willing to adapt to changes, which,
as we've seen, are constantly coming, whether that's
regulatory or whether that's brought upon by,
technology.
And just to remember that, you know, you're
solving problems for patients and providers and keep
it focused on them,
not necessarily,
you know, what's the easiest or what's the
coolest new thing that you wanna try.
I think, you know, there's a lot of
things out there that, you know, you can
do. There's a lot of problems to solve.
And
sometimes it's hard to kinda not chase after
the shiny object,
but to really focus on those things that
are important,
as opposed to always, you know, what seems
like it's the urgent thing of the day.
Absolutely. That's such a important reminder.
Doctor Nicanjeri, thank you so much for joining
us on the podcast today. This has been
a really fun and fascinating conversation, and I
look forward to connecting with you again soon.
Alright. Thanks so much.
At athena Health, 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.