Speaker 0: This is where health care leadership comes together. Becker's sixteenth annual meeting brings more than 3,500 hospital and health system executives and nearly 800 speakers to Chicago April. This year's event includes keynote conversations with Dallas Cowboys legend Troy Aikman and former president George w Bush. For the agenda and event details, visit beckershospitalreview.com and click on the events tab in the upper right. We're looking forward to hosting you in Chicago.

Speaker 1: Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Becker's Healthcare Podcast. I'm Scott King. Thrilled today to be joined by a very special guest, Simon Nazarian, executive vice president and chief digital and technology officer with City of Hope. Simon, how are you doing? Thanks so much for joining us.

Speaker 2: I'm doing great. Thanks. I appreciate you, inviting me and, happy holidays.

Speaker 1: Of course. Happy holidays to you. We're just talking. We both gotta do a little bit of shopping we, noted before the show. So hopefully we'll do that later.

But for now, we got a lot of kinda big trending topics in in health care to dive into. But even before we do that, Simon, do you mind sharing just a little bit about your your background and your work in health care?

Speaker 2: Oh, I would love to. Let's see. I've been in health care since, 2008, where I joined Kaiser Permanente as a chief architect for one of the regions and then grew into regional technology officer for our care delivery. From there, you know, I joined, McKinsey and Company, focusing on core technology enablement, for health care practice. So, payer provider, pharma, biotech, etcetera, and, really helped, develop the that team for, execution.

And then I had an opportunity to join Optum as the chief information officer for Optum Health and, was, really able to, focus on, taking, Optum as a holding company into more of an operating company, by bringing all the technology organization on the one arm, focusing on value based care and all the things that goes along with it. And, then I had the, you know, good fortune and opportunity to join City of Hope as, the chief, Deshauna technology officer focusing, specifically on, you know, technology transformation, health care transformation, to, really, drive our mission here at City of Hope. Throughout my career, I've also focused across multiple industries, which really helps me in my role within health care as well. And I'm excited to pull on those experience and expertise in order to, really help our patients and providers during this journey.

Speaker 1: Well, thanks so much for sharing all the details about your journey in in health care, Simon. It sounds like it's been a great one. You you know, there's there's so much going on always in health care. It's certainly not gonna die down for the holidays, but I'm just curious, what opportunities and headwinds do you have your eye on right now?

Speaker 2: Well, I mean, you know, health care is really, at an inflection point as we speak. So for the first time, you know, we have the data, the computing power, and the tools like AI, to really meaningfully accelerate, you know, how discovery is turning to better care for our patients. And at the same time, we're dealing with, financial pressure, workforce challenges, and, you know, growing cyber risks. So, the question really isn't, whether we innovate, it's, how do we responsibly, how we do it responsibly and at scale. Right?

Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely. You know, I've actually just talked to some COOs of some systems, about cybersecurity yesterday. My question for you is, do you think with all the use cases we're hearing about AI, are systems maybe in terms of technology a little maybe too concerned with AI and kind of forgetting to invest in cybersecurity? Is that something you're seeing or or think?

Speaker 2: You know, most of my colleagues and everywhere, you know, we talk to, we always take security at heart and security first when we wanna, you know, approach, anything we wanna build and develop and deploy. Right? PHI and PII are very important to us, and we wanna make sure that it's built into. So most of the organization that I I speak to are my colleagues. You know, we, really have it at the center and on top of our mind.

Speaker 1: No. I think it's a great idea. And something else I wanted to ask you, Simon, is how are you thinking about growth and adding value to your organization?

Speaker 2: You know, I I don't think about, but when I think about growth, I don't think about technology for technology's sake. You know? I think about impact. You know? If additional investment, you know, doesn't improve patient outcomes, expand access, or make life better for the clinicians, you know, we have to, make sure we take a close look at it, you know, and possibly take a look at that, you know, return on opportunity.

But, our focus is really on removing friction, and connecting systems, you know, automating the mundane and letting our clinicians and researchers spend more time on patients and science.

Speaker 1: Simon, what are some of the things you maybe ask yourself about before you invest in and implement a new technology to kind of evaluate it?

Speaker 2: Well, you know, there are a number of things, that we have to take a look at. We talked about the return on investment or return on opportunity. Right? You look at, you know, what does it take to deploy, you know, and jump start it. You know, it's really, really important how to be on supported on an ongoing basis.

You know, how does it integrate within our workflows and really support our technicians and, you know, accuracy and efficiency and how we monitor it. And if it's AI based, how do we govern it and, everything that goes along with our governance. And, you know, frankly, we just wanna make sure that, we're delivering impact with, whatever it is that we're building.

Speaker 1: What do you think is one risk or investment worth making this year?

Speaker 2: One risk ahead is absolutely worth taking is scaling AI in a thoughtful and governed way. Right? The bigger risk right now is standing still. Health care is really moving quickly, and organizations that don't learn how to operationalize AI responsibly, you know, will fall behind in care quality, research speed, and efficiency. The key is, you know, starting with real problems and building trust as you go.

Speaker 1: Where do you see the best opportunities for growth in the future?

Speaker 2: Great question. The biggest opportunities, to me, that's ahead, you know, set up the intersection of data, AI, and precision medicine. Right? As we connect with all of this clinical data with research insights, we can deliver more personalized care and move discoveries to patients much faster. I also see huge, potential in digital and virtual care models that, really extend care beyond the hospital innovation nationally.

Speaker 1: And Simon, the last thing I wanna ask you is, obviously, it takes great leadership to help invest in and implement AI usage and emerging tech across systems now with with everything we're seeing. My question for you is just how have you evolved, as a leader? How have you grown as a leader?

Speaker 2: I, you know, being in health care, you always put the patient at the center, and you look at how do you support the care teams as well as, the support teams outside of our four walls. Right? And you look at the patient holistically overall. Also, you know, with my teams, I have learned that, they can achieve amazing things when you, approach them with a problem to solve. You know, bring your minutes that this is what the problem we need to solve.

Let's solve it together. And, it has done, great for me in that manner rather than just saying go do this or go do that. So by just really maintaining that focus on bringing my teams closer and the problem solving has really helped me evolve as a leader and I've become more of a, people person as well.

Speaker 1: Well, I think it's a great mindset as we see emerging tech, continue to evolve across health systems. And, Simon, thanks so much for your time. Thanks for joining us on the podcast. I thought it was a great conversation. I look forward to working with you again soon.

Speaker 2: Thank you so much.