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.
Thrilled today to be joined by very special
guest, doctor Richard Zane, chief medical officer and
chief innovation officer with UCHealth. Doctor Zane, how
are you doing today?
I am awesome. Thank you for having me.
Thanks so much for joining us. I know
we're gonna get into kind of a lot
of big topics and issues in health care,
today. But can you just tell us a
little bit about your background, please, before we
dive into some of those questions?
Sure. I'd love to. I am an emergency
physician, still practice. Until recently,
I was the chair of the department of
emergency medicine at the University of Colorado School
of Medicine,
and
took on the role as chief innovation officer
approximately seven years ago. And then recently,
stepped down from my chair role, and I'm
now the chief medical and chief innovation officer
for UCHealth.
So just from an operations standpoint, what what
kind of day to day things
do you not have to deal with now
stepping down from from being a chair? What
what what have you have you kind of
been freed up from?
As chair of an academic department, I had
responsibility
for
a faculty,
25 emergency departments, 27 urgent care centers,
and a large research and educational
entity.
Yeah. In that role, I participated in many
of
the initiatives and strategic priorities for the medical
school. So, essentially, I don't do that anymore,
and I have oversight for
a
system, and UCHealth is at 9 and a
half billion dollars, soon to be 15 hospital
system.
So I have oversight for quality and safety,
clinical operations,
as well as medical staff functions, And combined
with my chief innovation officer role, which I
think is really
incredibly interesting to have both,
can think about how best to deploy technology
to innovate the point of care.
That's certainly something that will keep you busy.
Thanks a lot for sure that that background
info and
and info on your roles.
Getting into some topics, what opportunities and headwinds
do you have your eye on right now
in health care?
Well, the headwinds are pretty remarkable.
And right now, it's it's both financial and
regulatory.
And I don't think I have to tell
the audience what the financial headwinds are given
that we're on the twenty fourth day of
a government shutdown
and that
hospitals and health care
are on the chopping block for every budgetary
initiative
in every municipality,
state,
and federal,
and federal government.
From a regulatory
Colorado has increased
almost exponentially in the last decade,
So much so that we are routinely hiring
more and more people to simply deal with
the regulatory burden.
How is that hiring process going for you
and your system?
Are you filling those roles that you need
to fill right away? Is it is it
kinda drag dragging on a little bit?
Well, it depends on what it is and
what it's for. It's it's difficult because as
you know, local legislatures and local governments
can,
pivot, and it's hard to anticipate what the
next thing is going to be.
So we have generalists, and then,
hopefully, we'll talk about this. But
we try as best we can to administrate
to automate administrative functions.
And so we have a combination of thinking
about how we can automate administrative functions, what
roles we do need
to
meet the regulatory burdens, and what those regulatory
burdens are gonna do to our ability to
deliver care.
Yeah. Yeah. There's certainly you you mentioned, going
back to the headwinds, kind of, you know,
a lot that you're dealing with. I know
a lot of systems are overall. Some are,
you know, specific to a certain region. Some
are can be specific to even a a
certain system.
In terms of just kind of the overall
headwinds, do do you think it's one of
the toughest times you've seen to to have
so many challenges to deal with in health
care, or do you kinda look at it
as, you know, that just presents a lot
of solutions that we can that we can,
give to our community?
It's probably yes. And,
I don't think anything can compete compete for,
challenges like the first year or the entirety
of the pandemic.
So compared to being in a pandemic,
things seem more quiescent.
But compared to,
decades previous,
it seems as though this is the most
challenging time in health care, certainly from a
hospital system perspective
and certainly from an academic perspective.
You mentioned having to do a lot of
hiring currently.
How else are you thinking about adding growth
and value to your organization?
Well, right now, we're thinking about
how we meet patients where they are.
So thinking about
whether or not we need to have incremental
bricks and mortar,
what that is. As you know, for hospital
systems, the majority of the business has shifted
or is shifting
from inpatient to to outpatient.
And that sometimes is simply a regulatory definition.
And frequently, it's an evolution of technology and
science to allow things to be done in
an outpatient environment. So we think about how
we can virtualize care, how we can make
synchronous
care asynchronous,
how we can digitize care,
how we can bring technology to the point
of care. So we really think about how
we're gonna meet patients where they are,
and that's both from a digital perspective, a
virtual perspective, and a
mortar perspective.
What's
one risk or investment
worth making this year
for your system?
So if you do a search, however it
is that you search,
on what
health systems are working on,
AI is gonna come up 14 out of
the top 15 things.
And it seems as though it's AI, AI,
AI, AI all the time.
The reality is that in health care,
or really in any industry, if you ask
10 people what they mean by AI, you're
gonna get 14 different definitions.
The reality is for us that we've been
doing AI,
for the last decade plus. So we think
about AI as
rules based logic, machine learning, computational linguistics,
lots of different things, including,
generative AI, which is what I think people
are referring to. So
we are thinking about how we can take
technology,
information, and intelligence,
including AI,
and decrease
the administrative burden on humans,
to increase our ability to force multiply,
and that's on every level, whether it's at
the point of care,
whether it's
customer facing,
or administrative automation on the back end.
Kind of sticking with technology, where do you
see the best opportunities for growth
in the future?
Broadly, it's intelligence.
So it's it's automating,
human tasks so that we can allow humans
to do what only humans can do, which
is adjudication,
and, you know, certainly procedures.
So that is where I think we're in
an exponential time. It's really exciting. It's great
for patients. It's created,
regulatory hurdles and financial hurdles.
But at the end of the day, it's
the right thing to do, and it's the
best thing for our patients.
If you if you had to kinda look
ahead and,
you know, guess, you know, it'll take this
much time so we're not dealing with so
many headwinds. When when do you kinda see
that on the horizon?
I don't.
I mean, I don't envision,
a time
59 years old, and I don't think in
my career,
we will have
an administrative simplification or a regulatory simplification in
health care. There's some basic blocking and tackling
things, which makes sense, and it has worked
in every other industry
that has not come to fruition in,
health care. For instance,
the FDA,
is antiquated in its approach and is not
ready to deal with with AI.
Hopefully, that'll change, probably not in my career.
Same thing,
with
the CDC, the same thing with HHS and
CMS.
We are
really have a regulatory entity that's based on
nineteen nineties technology and nineteen nineties medicine.
So that is where I'm hopeful
that we get to streamlining.
But if you think about
what can be done
via technology,
there's really no reason
that your primary care physician can't be in
Albuquerque when you live
in Austin, Texas.
There's no reason why you can't have
different specialists, especially in some of the more
cognitive based specialties,
across the country. But we still have the
issue of
local,
credentialing, local licensing,
insurance issues across state lines, those sorts of
things. Don't does not make any sense.
No. No. I agree. That's especially for just
kind of routine
checkups and and things like that, certainly can
it can be done virtually, and we've kind
of already proven that. Well, think about even
things that are not routine.
Think about some very complicated cancer care.
So if you think about
sub subspecialty
cancer care, some of the diagnostics can be
done locally.
But having a sub subspecialist
cancer specialist in a small town in a
rural community is
probably an a zero event.
But by assimilating all those data, you can
have centers of excellence
that can essentially guide local care. And that's
what the what we should evolve or aspire
to do.
That's fascinating to think about. I hope we
get there soon. Yeah. I think that present
a lot of great solutions for issues patients
have.
Last question I wanna ask you, doctor Zane.
How have you evolved as a leader in
your career? Have I evolved as a leader?
Yeah. As a leader. I think that
my style has changed, and I've become more
adaptable.
I've had
infinity annual reviews from
my bosses who have always said that my
impatience is a blessing and a curse.
And I think that I've become more patient
as a leader,
but I've become more deliberate as well. So
focusing
more and more on execution
and output
and holding the people that work for me
accountable in that same vein.
Well, doctor Zane, thanks for joining us on
the podcast today. I thought it was a
great conversation. I look forward to working with
you again soon. My pleasure. Thanks for the
opportunity.
At athena Health, we know your ambulatory practice
wants healthier, a healthier business, healthier care teams,
and healthier patients.
But the complexities of modern healthcare tech make
it hard for you and your care teams
to focus on what matters most.
That's where athena Health 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.