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Hello, everyone. This is Scott King with the

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Becker's Healthcare podcast. Thrilled today to be joined

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by Carrie Webster, vice president and chief analytics

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officer over at Children's Hospital

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Colorado. Carrie, how are you doing today?

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Doing well, Scott. How are you? I'm great.

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You know, weather's not too bad in Chicago.

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We missed the northern lights as we're talking

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about before, but, you know, maybe next time

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it comes around, we'll we'll try to make

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it.

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A lot

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of great topics here to to get to

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in health care. A lot going on, as

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always. But before we kinda dive into the

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questions, just wondering if you could please tell

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us a little bit about your your background.

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Sure.

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As you know, I'm a nurse by training,

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and my professional journey bridges

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anything from health care innovation, technology leadership. But,

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truly, I have a passion for empowering

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organizations

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to thrive in a digital era, helping our

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patients. I think that's why we're here.

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So I think the intersection between health care

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and technology

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helped me shape my perspective on the potential

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and

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responsibility that we have in Petersen hospitals.

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Thanks so much for that background info. And

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the first thing I I wanted to ask

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you, Carrie, is what opportunities and headwinds in

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health care do you kinda have your eye

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on right now?

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Well, I imagine that you're never gonna have

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a conversation in the next couple of years

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without hearing the word AI.

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I'm I'm going to say that I do

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think AI represents one of the most exciting

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opportunities in our industry,

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and that's anywhere from predictive analytics,

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personalizing

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care,

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any, you know, large language models, soup to

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nuts. I I like to joke and say

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I've been using AI since spell check back

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in the day.

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But regardless, I do think that AI has

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the potential,

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to transform how we deliver value, which in

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turn means we're caring for our patients better.

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I do think these opportunities, we have to

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be very careful. We can't,

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use technology in search of a problem. We

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have to really think about what our problems

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are and how technology can can shape and

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change those. And I think that means that

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the challenges we're facing is we have to

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make sure that

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organizations

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as a whole

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and individuals

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are educated about how AI works,

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understanding

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where where it might be limited,

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and then help cultivate those critical thinking around

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the output.

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As an analytics leader, I think very critically

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about the quality of data

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that's feeding our, AI systems, and I think

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that's critical.

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And without our rigorous standards and governance,

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we might be,

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introducing some flood logic into our ecosystem.

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So I think these are some of the

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things that I think about,

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from education and collaboration and make sure that

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we're doing

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hypervigilance

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on, what we're producing with these tools.

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Absolutely.

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Carrie, you mentioned value. I just curious if

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you're

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finding ways to add growth and value to

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your org,

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maybe without AI, or or are you still

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using AI AI to do those things to

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help with with growth and value?

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I think a little bit of both.

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As I alluded to before, I think growth

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comes from

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responsible adoption of technologies. They just can't throw

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AI problems and expect it to everything to

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be solved.

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But I think if you foster a culture

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where critical thinking about any technology,

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it helps us, across the board. And when

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you think about adding value, I think about

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outcomes. I think about are we changing the

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lives of our patients. So one example where

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we're not using AI is we've impacted

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our CLABSI rate

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with the analytics support. So a partnership between

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clinical leaders and our analytics team has found

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a way to deliver real time insights at

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the fingertips of our clinicians that have helped

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drive our CLABSI rates down.

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You mentioned culture. What's a good way to

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make sure you're

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implementing the right culture right now with everything

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going on and all the advances in health

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care?

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Oh, that's a great question. I think

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thinking about

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the why

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helps keep the culture in this area of

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rapid change. In fact, I've spoken to my

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team about it. I I know people are

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fatigued by

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the changes that are coming up in every

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day,

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and

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keeping

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in touch with why you're here is paramount.

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And so

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I think I'm very deliberate about my culture.

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I make sure that

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we have, keep our why front and center.

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We understand that we're here for the kids,

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and we talk about,

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practicing ruthless self care. We talk about diversity.

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We talk about

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work life balance. And so I think those

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things are important.

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Yeah. I think those are all great things

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to focus on for that culture.

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Carrie, I also wanna ask you, what do

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you think is one risk or investment right

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now,

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worth making for your system?

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I don't know if this is a risk

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or not, but I think and it's not

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gonna be a very sexy answer. I think

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we need to start investing

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in the education,

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of the citizen data consumer, especially in this

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digital age.

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And that means,

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helping them understand

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what outputs are coming out, questioning everything,

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under helping them do prompt engineering as we

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talk about agentic AI and increment you know,

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investigating the data.

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So I think that is it's worthwhile. It

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might not cost a lot of money, but

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it is time and people are busy. So

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I think maybe a little risk because you're

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taking people away from their jobs, but I

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think it's worth the investment.

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No. I I think that's a good answer.

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With everything going on and how quickly things

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are moving, just to make sure people understand

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what they can do and and results.

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Carrie, where do you see the best opportunities

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for growth in the future?

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I think growth in the future relies on

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us fostering

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a we talked about culture, a culture of

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thoughtful engagement with technology. As I said before,

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clearly understanding what problems we have and how

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we can leverage that technology to our best

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advantage.

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I think,

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our organization

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will be able to adapt rapidly and deliver

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these services

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if we think about these things problem first,

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not technology first. And the

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the growth of technology

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is is always there. It is gonna keep

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growing and growing and growing. I think we

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really need to be problem centered and then

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adapting

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that technology

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to those problems versus the other way around.

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Hey, Carrie. The last thing I wanted to

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ask you, I I think, obviously, right now

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with with systems and and the industry

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in general and health care, leadership is so

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important. And there there's so much changing. There's

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so much at stake. Can you talk a

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little bit about your leadership journey and and

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how you evolved as a leader?

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Yes. Thank you. I, I'm not gonna tell

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you how long I've been in health care,

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but a very long time.

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And,

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I've learned from the best of the best.

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And and I think

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from anywhere from being a charge nurse in

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a night shift ICU

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to being a a clinical educator leader to

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a technology leader, I think authenticity is key.

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And,

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just letting people know what is,

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what's happening, why it's happening, what their roles

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are. I also believe in having fun. You

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have to love what you do, and you

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have to,

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take that love of what you do and

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combine that with your passion to make amazing

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outcomes.

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Well, Carrie, thanks so much for joining us

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on the podcast. It was a great conversation.

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I appreciate all your your expertise, and your

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insight, and I look forward to working with

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you again soon. Thanks, Scott. Great to talk

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to you.