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Philips is a health tech leader focused on

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innovation that improves the health and well-being of

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people. Our health care technology and informatics solutions

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help care teams diagnose, treat, and manage more

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patients with greater precision, speed, and confidence across

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the care journey. With Philips, clinicians are empowered

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with streamlined insights in the moments that matter

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for every patient. Better care for more people.

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Philips.

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This is Gracelyn Keller with the Becker's Healthcare

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Podcast, and we are recording live at the

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tenth annual health IT, digital health, and RCM

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meeting. I'm currently joined by John w Gachago,

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who is the vice president of digital innovation

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at Parrish Healthcare.

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John, thanks for being here. Let's start off

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by having you share a little bit more

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about yourself and your work in healthcare.

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So,

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as as you mentioned, I am the VP

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of digital innovation

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at, Parrish Healthcare,

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and, really, my work focuses on really

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how we deliver care digitally.

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And and I wanna say first and foremost,

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primary to that is the patients.

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That is why we do what we do.

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So, essentially,

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in our area, we particularly have a large

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population of elderly patients,

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rural patients, underserved patients.

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So everything we do digitally is about serving

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them.

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I spent the last three years helping health

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care organizations

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basically

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rethink or redesign their digital transformation

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strategies.

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That includes,

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governments

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in various parts of the world and just

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really advise them on how to

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begin that process of digital transformation for their

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health care systems.

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And by that, I mean, we're talking about,

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things like from telehealth expansion to AI integration,

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all with always with a focus on basically

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equity,

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access,

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and sustainability.

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At the same time, I'm also the author

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of two books. One is Digital Health, the

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How to, and the other is the, the

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impact of AI on the maturity of hospitals.

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So I love to write, love to do

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research, as well as, certainly develop those digital

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transformation plans.

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Right now, like I said, I'm leading basically

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the effort to modernize Parish Healthcare through smarter

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infrastructure,

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better data use, and certainly more patient centered

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digital tools.

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Wonderful. Well, thank you for being here. Excited

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to talk to you today. Yeah. And let's

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start our conversation with AI. Nearly half of

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medical practices reported using AI in some capacity

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in the last year, and it remains a

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key topic for health IT leaders. So from

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your perspective, what are the use cases that

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are making a difference right now, and how

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are you leveraging them in your organization?

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So, first of all, I'll say one of

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the things we've done,

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with the excellent leadership of our CEO, George

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Mccatarian,

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is we looked at the entire organization, thought

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first thing we have to do is redesign

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our health care AI policy.

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Right?

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So that we can actually begin to

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use AI, but, certainly, use AI in a

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responsible fashion.

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Now what does that mean? That means making

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sure the AI we use certainly meets regulations,

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federal, you know, government regulations,

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making sure it's auditable, making sure it is

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explainable,

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and certainly making sure that

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it does not cause any harm.

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Right? So that's where we are starting right

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now. But where we are going in terms

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of leveraging leveraging the technology itself

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is we're going to be looking at so

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many tools.

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I'm talking about Ambient Clinical Solutions. K?

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Federated learning and privacy preserving

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AI,

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digital twins for precision medicine,

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edge computing,

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for remote monitor monitoring and acute care at

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home, and even health care specific LMs.

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For us, that is going to be the

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trajectory.

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Absolutely.

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And going off of that Yeah. As virtual

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care expands from AI enabled tools to remote

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monitoring to broader digital health platforms,

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Introducing these new technologies

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does bring challenges. So what advice do you

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have for leaders navigating everything from governance to

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patient engagement? And can you share an example

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of how your organization has balanced innovation with

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operational constraints?

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So

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one thing we can say is innovation is

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very exciting. It's it's a great thing to

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be doing, and, certainly, that's one of the

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reasons I'm doing it. But at the same

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time, I think it has to be grounded

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in reality,

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which I think leaders, particularly in this field,

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need to be very conscious of at all

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times.

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My advice is start with governance and build

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trust,

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and build it early. Build that trust early

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because you will need it down the road.

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The earlier you can build a trust, the

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better off you are down the road. And

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that obviously means involving clinical leaders,

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involving IT,

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involving

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local leaders in the community, right, who you

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otherwise may not think of. But really just

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getting everybody involved

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involved in the design process so they have

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equity in it. Right? At the same time,

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when I think of the example of how

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we are rolling out things like remote patient

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monitoring,

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It's not just giving patients devices. Here you

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go. Monitor your weight. Here you go. Monitor

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your diabetes.

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Here you go. Monitor your asthma. No. There's

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trainings.

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There is engagement that takes place. It's about

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really helping

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the patient

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and the providers understand on both sides what's

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in it for all of them.

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A 100%.

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And and shifting gears slightly, how are you

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seeing recent legislation, both state and federal, affect

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health care organizations and health IT specifically?

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And have you adjusted strategies in response?

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So, certainly,

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legislation

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is shaping our road map in a big

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way.

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Local,

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funding is very important to us from the

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Florida legislation

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as well as certainly legislate funding that's coming

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from the big beautiful bill, so to speak.

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Yeah. There's a lot of funding there that

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we're looking

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to certainly be a recipient of so that

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we can do the things I just talked

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about.

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At the state, level funding opportunities like the

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Florida House Appropriations Project are driving our decisions

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in certainly big ways,

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and they will help us invest in the

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rural infrastructure we need to develop.

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Certainly, federal changes around interoperability

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and reimbursement models

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impact everything we do on a day to

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day basis. I mean, how would we do

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what we want to do if we don't

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get paid for it? Right? So it's certainly

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pushing us to be more agile, and we've

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certainly adjusted prioritizing

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our digital

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transformation strategy

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around that funding, which is very critical

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to, certainly, the goals we expect to attain.

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Now

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on the other hand, I will also say

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it's a balancing act. Funding is always a

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balancing act any which way you look at

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it, but it's also an opportunity to align

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innovation with policy.

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And as we wrap up our conversation, I'd

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love to know what your top piece of

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advice for health care leaders is as they

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prepare for further advancements in technology and rising

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demands for care. Yes. Well,

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I think probably the most important thing I

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I can say is

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stay focused on value and people.

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That's what I would say. Stay focused on

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value and people. We we we all have

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to keep in mind that technology is

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a tools.

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It is actually a tool. It's not the

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goal.

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So that's very important for us to keep

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in mind. And so my advice is to

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invest in digital literacy

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across your health service organization,

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build flexible teams that can evolve,

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and always keep the patient experience front and

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center.

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I think the future of health care is

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not just high-tech.

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It's definitely gonna be high touch.

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So we need leaders that can balance both

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high-tech

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and high touch

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to actually deliver the quality care that we

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expect to deliver.

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Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for joining

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me today, John, on the Becker's Healthcare podcast

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and sharing these insights and thoughts. Again, we

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are recording live at the tenth annual Health

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IT Digital Health and RCM meeting. Thanks so

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much. Thank you.