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 doctor Marcus
Speaker, associate chief medical information
officer with the Carlinian Clinic. Doctor Speaker, how
are you doing today?
I'm doing great. Thanks, Scott.
Thanks so much for joining us. You know,
we have a lot of big topics,
some trendy things to address here in health
care. But before we get started, I was
wondering if you could please tell us a
little bit about your background.
Sure. I've been in health care IT now
for close to twenty years.
Started started out here at at Carilion,
and did a, a medical informatics fellowship back
in the,
in the mid two thousands.
That was after,
family medicine
training.
So,
family medicine board certified and also then, along
the way, picked up a certification
in clinical informatics,
helped with our with our EPIC implementation,
and then have,
continued to
to stay on and and work to optimize,
our EPIC solution and have worked in,
clinical decision support,
work through meaningful use,
you
know, and and kind of all the changes
that have taken place over the past couple
decades. And and now most recently,
have been leading our Ambient Scribe
rollout,
across the organization. So lots of,
lots of fun things over the over the
past couple decades that we have seen.
Absolutely. I appreciate you sharing all that background
info. And I'm definitely gonna ask you about
some of those areas in this conversation. But
the first thing I want to ask you
about, you know, our research tells us that
nearly half of medical practices reported using AI
in some capacity last year, and it remains
a key topic,
obviously, now for health IT leaders.
From your perspective, what are the use cases
that are making a difference right now, and
how are you leveraging them in your organization?
Yeah. It's a great it's a great question,
and,
certainly,
I'll I'll attack it,
from two different perspectives.
So their
the perspective of the physician or the or
the frontline clinician
and the the things that,
that those clinicians are doing in in AI.
And and probably three things bubble up.
Certainly,
the one that it that has everyone talking
these days is
the AmbientScribe
technology,
and, you know, the the ability to to
walk in and and have a conversation with
a patient to to set your phone down,
press a button, record the entire conversation, have
your notes written,
that has been,
the first
major
positive game changer, I I think, for our
physicians in a long time. And so I
have,
I have
physicians,
APPs coming up to me,
telling me about how,
impactful
the the AmbientScribe
technology has been, on their practice, getting them
home,
getting home on time, getting their notes done
on time, not having to work,
as much,
at night or on weekends.
So
incredible impact there. So I think that's probably
the the biggest one. But
we are also seeing inroads into
some of the augmented responses
around,
in basket,
when patients have questions,
that,
through the patient portal
coming coming in, being able to take
the the conversation,
and
create a draft response for the,
for whomever is responding to the to the
message.
Again, it helps,
helps with efficiency,
and in some cases, helps with tone,
helps make those
those responses
a little more a little more pleasant and
and patient friendly.
And so, that has been a a a
large success.
And then finally,
a newer
piece of technology that we have rolled out
in the in the generative
AI space around node summarization.
So
being able to,
pull up a patient chart,
for a patient that I'm seeing today and
see a
summary of everything that has taken place,
you know, in the in the past six
months or since the last time that patient
was in to see me.
Gives me the ability to,
to kind of
get all those those really important points. And
and then if there's something in that,
summary
that I wanna drill into a little bit
more, being able to,
to click on some of the annotations and
go back to the notes,
where,
where the generative AI
found where it surfaced the information from
so I can dig in deeper. And so
we're seeing that,
catch on.
But but, really,
kind of these game changers,
for our clinicians.
Now that's on the clinician side.
Now the other,
the other hat that I I wear is
on the IT side, and so we are
seeing,
generative AI,
through the business applications.
So our application analysts,
our solution architects,
our project managers,
all using
generative AI to help,
put together
project plans, help craft,
emails,
help craft
patient education.
So being able to to take information,
at whatever
educational level you you wanna put together and
then have the generative AI rewrite that at
a at a sixth grade level,
or at a fifth grade level or or
to whatever target audience,
you're looking for. So gaining efficiencies in in
those spaces. Obviously, that's not,
those are not the clinical applications, but,
other other areas that we are are using
generative AI across the system. So, just
a a variety of
of use cases.
Yeah. It's definitely a variety. We, you know,
we hear a lot about the note taking
sounds
like a simple use, but it really does
free up clinicians and physician. It it it
frees up so much time and makes things
more efficient
just to, you know, gather what's going on
with the patient and really make the most
of that time with the patient. And then
hearing about how you're able to adjust it
for, you know, different people at different levels,
I I think that's just phenomenal and just
just
tends to lead to great patient care. So,
yeah, wonderful use cases. And
as we continue to see virtual care expand,
from AI enabled tools and remote monitoring
to broader digital health platforms,
introducing new technology always, you know, brings challenges.
So what advice do you have for leaders
navigating everything from
governance to patient engagement? And can you share
an example of how your organization has balanced
innovation
with some operational constraints?
Yeah. I think,
at a at a high level,
having
having a good governance process,
is
is going to be absolutely
key for organizations.
And
in that in that governance process,
making sure that that that at least some
of the people that are are engaged
really have a
more a deeper understanding in terms of how
AI and generative
AI work, some of the the issues that
can be found,
and, obviously, both both positive and negative.
I also think,
at that at that high level,
making sure
at least in the in the near term
for most applications,
that
organizations
are
are looking for solutions to problems that they
have.
There are
there are a large number of,
generative and and other AI companies
that have,
some really
interesting
solutions
to problems that we never knew that we
had. And so,
having conversations
with,
with these companies,
trying to trying to figure out if they're
a good fit for us,
we have every day talking to to different
leaders around around the company about something new
and exciting that they that they saw that,
you know, may maybe is not the the
best fit in the in the short term
because,
it really is not addressing a a problem
that we currently have. And so so really,
trying to figure out what problems are you
trying to solve and then having conversations with
with those IT areas
that
that can help solve the problem rather than
rather than putting in the the new and
and bright shiny piece.
No. I I think it's a great great
question to to start from. And
also want to ask, how are you seeing
recent legislation, both state and federal,
affect health care organizations and health care IT
specifically?
Have you
had to adjust strategies in response?
We we have. And and probably the the,
the the biggest thing that that we're looking
at right now,
involves payment.
And
what,
you know, looking out into the future and
how is
how is reimbursement
going to change,
trying to to figure out,
what that looks like,
over the next couple years,
especially around,
the the governmental programs, Medicare, Medicaid.
We have
a a large Medicare and Medicaid population,
within
with our clinic that makes us a little
bit different than, you know, some of our
some of the other health systems a little
farther north and and east that are have
a majority of a private payer system.
So,
trying to figure out,
what that's going to look like. And,
and so
scrutinizing
our IT spend.
So making sure that
that the systems that we have in place
are truly needed.
We have a a number of legacy systems,
our older systems that we're looking at that
we have,
recently
determined that we could,
with our core systems, we can do
maybe 80 to 90% of what the the
specialty system or the third party system can
do. And so we're looking at
moving away from
some of these third party systems that we
have had for a number of years, moving
back into our core system and really,
beefing up
in our epic implementation.
And
and so again, some of the, some of
those other core systems,
which,
results in,
savings
and puts us in a better place as
we look to to weather some of the
the headwinds that are that are coming.
Certainly, in the in the telehealth arena, looking
very carefully at what's going to happen
with telehealth, telehealth reimbursement
and
yeah. So trying to keep our our finger
on that pulse so we can be reactive,
because
we,
wanna wanna keep those margins at a at
a safe place.
So
for my last question, doctor speaker, you you
you've covered so much
in terms of AI and
and emerging technology and some great use cases.
But if you had to kinda zero in
on one top piece of advice for health
care leaders
as they prepare for further advancements
in technology and and rising demands for care,
what would that be?
Yeah. Great great question. I and I think
that goes back to what I said earlier.
Make sure that you're focused on,
your the the health system or the or
the organization's
strategy,
understanding
what your
what your problems and your goals are, and
then layering in the appropriate technology
to
to help maximize those goals.
There's a lot
of really
fun,
exciting,
cool things that that people are are showcasing
from a technology standpoint,
but really making sure that,
that the technology that you're putting in,
is going to help solve those those core
problems that,
and and align with core strategy.
I think that's a great piece of advice.
And thank you so much for a great
conversation, doctor Speaker. I look forward to working
with you again soon.
Absolutely. Sounds sounds great. Thanks, Scott.
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
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.