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This is where health care leadership comes together.

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Becker's sixteenth annual meeting brings more than 3,500

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hospital and health system executives and nearly 800

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speakers to Chicago April.

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This year's event includes keynote conversations with Dallas

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Cowboys legend Troy Aikman and former president George

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w Bush. For the agenda and event details,

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visit beckershospitalreview.com

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and click on the events tab in the

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upper right. We're looking forward to hosting you

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in Chicago.

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Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Becker's Healthcare

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Podcast. I'm Scott King. Thrilled today to be

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joined by a very special guest, Simon Nazarian,

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executive vice president and chief digital and technology

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officer with City of Hope. Simon, how are

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you doing? Thanks so much for joining us.

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I'm doing great. Thanks.

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I appreciate you, inviting me and, happy holidays.

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Of course. Happy holidays to you. We're just

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talking. We both gotta do a little bit

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of shopping we, noted before the show. So

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hopefully we'll do that later. But for now,

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we got a lot of kinda big trending

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topics in in health care to dive into.

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But even before we do that, Simon, do

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you mind sharing just a little bit about

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your your background and your work in health

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care?

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Oh,

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I would love to.

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Let's see. I've been in health care since,

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2008,

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where I joined Kaiser Permanente

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as

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a chief architect for one of the regions

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and then grew into regional

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technology officer for our care delivery.

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From there,

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you know, I joined McKinsey and Company,

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focusing on core technology enablement,

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for health care practice.

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So, payer provider, pharma, biotech, etcetera,

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and,

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really helped,

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develop the that team for,

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execution.

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And then I had an opportunity

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to join Optum as the chief information officer

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for Optum Health

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and, was,

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really able to,

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focus on,

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taking,

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Optum as a holding company into more of

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an operating company,

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by bringing all the technology organization on the

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one arm, focusing on value based care and

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all the things that goes along with it.

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And,

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then I had the, you know, good fortune

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and opportunity to join City of Hope as,

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the chief, Deshauna technology officer focusing,

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specifically on, you know, technology transformation,

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health care transformation,

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to,

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really,

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drive our mission here at City of Hope.

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Throughout my career, I've also focused across multiple

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industries,

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which really helps

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me in my role within health care as

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well. And I'm excited to pull on those

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experience and expertise in order to,

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really help

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our patients and providers

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during this journey.

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Well, thanks so much for sharing all the

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details about your journey in in health care,

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Simon. It sounds like it's been a great

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one.

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You you know, there's there's so much going

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on always in health care. It's certainly not

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gonna die down for the holidays, but I'm

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just curious, what opportunities

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and headwinds do you have your eye on

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right now?

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Well, I mean, you know, health care is

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really, at an inflection point

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as we speak. So for the first time,

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you know, we have the data, the computing

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power, and the tools like AI, to really

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meaningfully accelerate,

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you know, how discovery is turning to better

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care for our patients.

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And at the same time, we're dealing with,

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financial pressure, workforce challenges,

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and, you know, growing cyber risks.

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So, the question really isn't, whether we innovate,

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it's,

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how do we responsibly,

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how we do it responsibly and at scale.

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Right?

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Yeah. Absolutely. You know, I've actually just talked

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to some COOs of some systems,

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about cybersecurity yesterday.

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My question for you is, do you think

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with all the use cases we're hearing about

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AI, are systems maybe in terms of technology

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a little maybe too concerned with AI and

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kind of forgetting to invest in cybersecurity? Is

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that something you're seeing or or think?

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You know, most of my colleagues and everywhere,

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you know, we talk to, we always take

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security at heart and security first when we

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wanna,

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you know, approach, anything we wanna build and

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develop

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and deploy.

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Right? PHI and PII are very important to

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us, and we wanna make sure that it's

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built into. So most of the organization

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that I I speak to are my colleagues.

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You know, we, really have it at the

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center and on top of our mind.

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No. I think it's a great idea. And

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something else I wanted to ask you, Simon,

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is how are you thinking about growth and

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adding value to your organization?

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You know, I I don't think about, but

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when I think about growth, I don't think

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about technology for technology's

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sake.

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You know? I think about impact.

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You know? If additional investment, you know, doesn't

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improve patient outcomes, expand access,

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or make life better for the clinicians, you

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know, we have to,

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make sure we take a close look at

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it, you know, and possibly take a look

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at that, you know, return on opportunity.

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But, our focus is really on removing friction,

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and connecting systems,

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you know, automating the mundane

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and letting our clinicians and researchers spend more

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time on patients and science.

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Simon, what are some of the things you

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maybe ask yourself

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about

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before you invest in and implement a new

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technology to kind of evaluate it?

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Well,

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you know, there are a number of things,

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that we have to take a look at.

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We talked about the return on investment or

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return on opportunity.

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Right? You look at, you know, what does

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it take to deploy,

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you know, and jump start it. You know,

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it's really, really important how to be on

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supported on an ongoing basis.

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You know, how does it integrate within our

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workflows and really support our technicians

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and, you know, accuracy and efficiency and how

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we monitor it. And if it's AI based,

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how do we govern it and, everything that

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goes along with our governance.

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And,

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you know,

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frankly, we just wanna make sure that, we're

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delivering impact

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with, whatever it is that we're building.

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What do you think is one risk or

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investment worth making this year?

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One risk ahead is absolutely worth taking is

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scaling AI in a thoughtful and governed way.

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Right?

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The bigger risk right now is standing still.

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Health care is really moving quickly,

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and organizations

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that don't learn how to operationalize

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AI responsibly,

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you know, will fall behind in care quality,

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research speed, and efficiency.

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The key is,

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you know, starting with real problems and building

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trust as you go.

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Where do you see the best opportunities for

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growth in the future?

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Great question.

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The biggest opportunities,

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to me,

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that's ahead, you know, set up the intersection

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of data, AI, and precision medicine.

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Right? As we connect with all of this

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clinical data with research insights,

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we can deliver more personalized care and move

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discoveries to patients much faster.

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I also see huge,

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potential in digital and virtual care models

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that, really extend care beyond the hospital

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innovation nationally.

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And Simon, the last thing I wanna ask

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you is, obviously, it takes great leadership to

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help invest in and implement

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AI usage and emerging tech across

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systems now with with everything we're seeing. My

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question for you is just how have you

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evolved,

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as a leader? How have you grown as

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a leader?

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I,

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you know, being in health care,

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you always put the patient at the center,

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and you look at how do you support

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the care teams

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as well as,

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the support teams outside of our four walls.

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Right? And you look at the patient holistically

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overall.

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Also, you know, with my teams, I have

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learned that,

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they can achieve amazing things when you, approach

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them with a problem to solve.

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You know, bring your minutes that this is

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what the problem we need to solve. Let's

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solve it together. And,

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it has done, great for me in that

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manner rather than just saying go do this

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or go do that.

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So by just really maintaining that focus on

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bringing my teams closer and the problem solving

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has really helped me evolve as a leader

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and I've become more of a,

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people person as well.

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Well, I think it's a great mindset as

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we see emerging tech, continue to evolve

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across health systems. And, Simon, thanks so much

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for your time. Thanks for joining us on

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the podcast. I thought it was a great

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conversation. I look forward to working with you

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again soon. Thank you so much.