Hello everyone. This is Erica Spicer Mason,
writer and editor for Becker's Healthcare.
Thank you so much for tuning into the Becker's Healthcare podcast series.
I'm pleased to be joined today by Iil Samit,
the general manager of Cardiology solutions at GE Health Care,
who will discuss the role of cardiology tools in hospital and health system
technology strategies. Ail, welcome to the podcast,
and thank you so much for being here today.
Thank you so much for having me, Erica.
Uh, we're thrilled to have you.
And I know I already shared your name and your role,
but I think it might help to give our listeners some context.
If you could just share a little bit more about yourself,
perhaps your background and maybe a little bit about your role too.
Absolutely. So again, my name is IGEL Samit.
I am the general manager for the cardiology care area in GE Healthcare.
Uh, I'm located in Oslo, uh, Norway, and, um,
coming from an engineering background, but really, uh,
somebody who has been working very closely with, with clinical, uh,
medicine throughout my whole career. Uh,
I really started to become in love with the whole cardiology field back in 96
when I was at Stanford, working on developing intravascular ultrasound and, um,
also have had quite a bit of an academic career.
I have a PhD in medical imaging and also hold a,
a faculty position at the University of Oslo, where I supervis PhD students,
mostly in artificial intelligence in medicine,
but I've been leading the cardiology care pathway for GE Healthcare for the
past, uh, three years, and, uh,
and really excited about the whole space of, uh, where cardiology is going,
where all the innovations that are are happening.
So it's a super exciting time to be in cardiology and,
and see how we can contribute to, uh, healthcare in the future.
Fantastic. Well, thank you so much for sharing that, for sharing that.
It sounds like you're bringing in so much experience, uh,
a diverse background with engineering.
I know you mentioned some experience with AI in medicine too,
and to your point about where cardiology and innovation is going, I know you,
you noted some excitement around that.
So technology and innovation really are healthcare leaders,
at least some of their top priorities right now.
So what trends are you noticing in regards to hospital and health systems
adoption of new tools, especially in the cardiology space?
I think that's a super exciting question, and, and to me,
it really doesn't start with technology or innovation, but it starts with the,
the needs and,
and the trends that we know are important for both patients and for healthcare
providers in, in this space. So maybe if I,
if I just were to talk about quickly some of the top trends, uh,
that we see in this space,
and number one for me would be really related to rapid diagnostics and therapy.
Uh, you know, we see that a lot of time is being spent, uh,
to really find the right diagnosis and treatment for,
for patients where they may need to wait for certain exams or there's
complicated pathways that really leads to, to the most optimal outcomes.
But with the, the advent of a little non-invasive testing, you know,
we can talk, take Corona art disease,
an example where we're moving from invasive testing with invasive angio
to noninvasive testing with coronary CT angio or, or stress imaging.
I think that's really an,
an opportunity for providers to really jump on a new set of
technologies that can be beneficial for patients,
but really also for healthcare systems, uh, in providing a,
a TRIR for patients much faster. Uh,
and I think maybe related to that is it's the whole growth of new tools in,
in decision support. And we talked about AI here,
that we can leverage data to help optimize those pathways for, for patients,
uh, to predict, uh, the risk of having, uh,
severe disease or the risk of progressing to more severe disease,
really by looking at, at data.
So we see a lot of healthcare providers spending more time and more energy into
understanding data and maybe even training machine learning models to,
to predict that for, for patients. Uh,
and just to add a couple of other trends that I think are super important. One,
one is the, the trend towards, uh, chance catheter therapy in the, in,
in the cardiology space. You know,
in the past most procedures for patients were done invasively or, or surgically,
uh, but with all the, uh, all the implantable devices now,
particularly in the valve space, we're seeing an enormous growth of,
of procedures. Uh, and this really needs to be supported by,
by better technology as well. And on top of all that, you know,
the third thing I wanna mention is just the transformation of our,
how care is being delivered,
where we're seeing a shift from inpatient to outpatient to out hospital
community, and even to the home.
So I think those are some of the main trends for me,
sort of in the healthcare space that all are very important to cardiology.
And I, I think we as, uh,
as technology providers need to just meet with the best possible tools.
Absolutely. Thanks il.
And it really sounds like a lot of those trends align with what we're seeing in
the greater healthcare industry, not just cardiology, but certain,
certainly other specialty areas too.
And when it comes to the decision support that you mentioned, rapid diagnostics,
the shift from inpatient to outpatient, you know,
it sounds like there's a lot of need for efficiency and streamlining here,
and uh, I bet technology will have a huge role there.
Absolutely. So if,
if we were to double click a little bit on that sort of the digital space, uh,
and go a little bit deeper into some of those challenges,
I think that some of the things we're seeing is that oftentimes care to these
patients is given in a quite of episodic way.
And by that I mean that we're not always thinking about the whole trajectory of
how the disease for this patient that might have been developing over,
over months or, or years. Uh, and, you know,
with big care teams that are today very multidisciplinary to oftentimes
handoffs between different people,
different specialties can be quite ineffective.
And I think there's a lack of process standardization.
Sometimes even choices are being made in silos. And, uh, you know,
I talked about the, the data here and which is a huge opportunity, I think to,
to leverage. But, uh,
I wonder if there's sometimes a lack of data stewardship in the sense that a lot
of data has been collected in healthcare,
but maybe not too much of it is really being leveraged to, to create new,
new insights. So one of the exciting things that GE Healthcare is doing, uh,
in this space, uh,
and we just actually had a personal list last week about this,
is that we launched a new tool that we call Cardio vio. And,
and Cardio VIO is a fully digital tool that is creating a
longitudinal patient view,
really looking at data across the full PA pathway for the patient.
So I talked about sort of maybe two episodic care sometimes,
but with cardio you can see as a care team what happened to the patient
in terms of trends and any biomarker or imaging biomarker, medications,
clinical data,
everything sort of put together in a single pane of glass to sort of give the
whole care team that very simple understanding about history,
but also an understanding about what needs to be done next.
Because this tool is also looking at using the, uh, the guidelines for, uh,
and this, uh, initially for atrial fibrillation patients, uh,
to detect potential care gaps and really just may help the care team to build
the PO best possible care plan for, for that patient.
Uh, thank you so much for sharing that. It sounds like an exciting new tool.
I know that that holistic view of the patient across the care teams must be so
helpful, not just for the care teams themselves,
but also probably helps the patient to avoid having to repeat so much
information about themselves.
A absolutely, because, you know, sometimes we care for these patients in silos.
You know, we might think about it as, uh, when we do an Echo or an E cg, like,
you know, an Echo patient or an M R I patient, but you know, really,
uh, what we need to look at is, is holistically a patient-centric, uh,
approach to this and, uh, and now think about specific technologies,
but really think about how can we improve the outcomes there. So in this tool,
there's really a common data layer that goes across any modality or any data
repository. And,
and there's even potential here in the future to use artificial intelligence to
predict, uh, disease progression. Um,
so I think that's kind of one super exciting opportunity with, uh, you know,
really breaking the silos within the hospital and pull all those data data
together. And on top of that, we also have some other exciting news. We,
we just launched, um,
a new ultrasound product that we call vCAN airl, which is, uh,
is looking at doing a cardiac ultrasound,
handheld wireless that can be deployed in almost any care setting.
So we talked about, uh, you know, care being delivered in the hospital,
but with this fitting in your pocket, we can do ultrasound exams, uh,
in the community, even in the home, home and uh, and um,
through address some of that change and shift in where care is being delivered
and just make it more accessible, uh, to, to anybody.
So I think that there are so many opportunities days with ultrasound or,
you know,
even doing ECGs in the home and connect that to the hospital with our alive
core, uh, partnership that, um,
that we are really looking at a,
a shift in what's possible in terms of, uh, consolidating data and,
and creating insights for the care team that they can actually act upon.
Absolutely. And I'm glad you mentioned accessibility.
I think that's such an important point as well.
So considering all of these tools, you know,
the two new ones that you've mentioned, and of course others,
how can these digital cardiology tools really be part of a hospital or health
system's broader technology strategy?
Wondering if you can share your thoughts on that.
No, I think that's a,
it's a very important question because when we talk about care pathways,
we don't just talk about digital tools. You know, there's,
there's a little lab tests, there's a little imaging tests,
there's really a whole pathway for diagnostics. And then the next step is to,
is to plan procedures if there's any intervention needed, and to actually, uh,
support those procedure with, with guidance.
And I think that the important thing is to really start with the end game and
think about what outcomes do we wanna create, uh,
to sort of make that whole pathway better. And, and through that,
digital in many ways becomes the thread or the fabric that makes, uh,
makes it possible to optimize those, those outcomes. So,
so we've been working with several healthcare systems to help sort of design a
better pathway for, for patients. And when,
one example is, uh, is capital Cardiology associates that, uh,
really wanted to create the one day, like one stop shop for, um,
for cardiac workup. And, uh, you know,
by putting together these different modalities,
we talked about everything in a single facility, um,
they were able to reduce wait times by more than more than 80%
and, and really increase patient volumes and sort of achieve the,
the goal that so many are looking for to be able to do more with the,
with less or, or more, with the same amount of people and time there.
So I think there are, that's just one example of how, um, you know,
looking at the care pathway holistically, uh, can, can help. And, uh, and also,
you know, we put a lot of emphasis in our digital tools in terms of automation,
helping people spend more time with the patients and less time doing tedious
tasks and with things like reporting or, you know, measurements. Uh,
and I think that's just another example of how digital and AI can actually help
to significantly reduce, um,
the time to do a report by maybe something like 50%, uh, or,
uh, and, and through that just, you know, free up time for, for physicians to,
to spend more time with their patients and,
and less time in front of the computer for.
Sure. And I know that as the staff shortages across healthcare,
they're really not expected to go anywhere, anytime soon.
So automation and kind of augmenting the staff that are currently there,
I know that, that, um, it sounds like automation really plays into that,
helping with that challenge for sure.
Absolutely.
Great. Well,
I know you had started to touch on some of the benefits that organizations are
starting to see and implementing technology in this area.
I think you mentioned a reduction in wait times by 80%.
I just kind of wanted to zoom in there.
Are there any other benefits or outcomes that you're seeing organizations
realize in innovating in the cardiology space? Any examples that come to mind?
You know, I,
what I'm thinking is that we can really differentiate here between three
different types of outcomes. So one is really related to financial outcomes for,
for providers.
And then I touched on the operational outcomes related to either waiting times
or, uh, or just time spent, uh, reporting, for example. And lastly, of course,
clinical outcomes is maybe the most important thing, you know,
how can we make sure that patients are, um,
are treated better and that the outcomes are, are better?
So it's another example, just thinking a little bit about the,
the financial element here. We, we worked with Advocate, uh,
or our health in really streamlining their, um,
their regular programs and, uh, and looking at both, uh,
increasing top line,
meaning helping them to treat more patients in the same amount of time,
and also to take out cost by making the whole thing more, more efficient. So,
so we're, we're really seeing that there's financial drivers around this type of
efficiency, uh, efficiency, um, tools. And,
and by looking at ways to take both, uh, time out and,
and potentially increasing the volume of patients, uh, in the cath lab,
for example, by, by using AI and, and digital, but also just using,
uh, smarter ways to set up, uh, the whole, uh,
interventional program to, to increase those financial outcomes.
And then I think also financial also for patients, it's very important,
like I talked about, moving from invasive to noninvasive diagnostics.
If you can avoid an invasive angiogram, um, that, you know,
many cases would be negative and would not lead to a, uh, a stent, for example,
I think that's huge for patients as well, that, uh, that they can get a,
a cardiac CT and, uh, and see that they can get reassured that there's,
there's no risk, uh, or no immediate risk at least for, uh, for any, uh,
adverse events and not having to go through an interventional procedure unless
that's necessary.
Hmm, absolutely. That last point you made just really resonates with me.
My mother just went through, um, a pretty intense cardiac procedure. And so, uh,
to your point,
she really appreciated any moment that the doctor could identify a procedure or
an area where they didn't have to be, uh, fully invasive. So, um,
it's great to thank you again for sharing that. And before we,
we close our discussion today,
I also wanted to make sure that we were able to touch on a recent study that I
know GE Healthcare published. So I understand it was a large study of patients,
clinicians, and healthcare staff,
and it was really intended to uncover their needs or their hopes and also
expectations for the industry.
So I wanted to ask you if there were any findings from that study that support
what we've talked about today,
and also if there was anything in those results that surprised you?
Yeah, I mean, that, uh, study was actually super exciting to me. We,
in GE Healthcare, as you mentioned, we interacted with more than 2000,
uh, clinicians and more than 5,500 patients and, uh,
and their caregivers to try to understand, uh, better, you know,
some of the challenges in, uh, in, in, in medicine overall. And, you know,
so many of these things obviously relate specifically to cardiology today.
And what we found was that sort of one common goal, um,
was to create the healthcare experience that is more human and more flexible,
and that is focused on the needs of both clinicians and patients.
And I think this, this focus on,
on patients and having a common goal there is critically important in,
in the cardiology space,
and really having the patient and the care team to work in the partnership.
So for example, I mentioned cardiovascular here earlier as a digital tool,
which I think potentially can help, um, the care team to do exactly that,
to sort of visualize together with the patient, um,
what is the pathway and what are the treatment options, for example.
So to take that look at that together and create a better partnership between
patient care team, I think that's one of the,
the trends we found in that study that I think, again,
is really important in the, in the cardiology space.
And also another trend that came outta the study was, um, the need for, um,
smart and connected technology. So we talked about this earlier,
about being good data stewards and,
and leveraging the data in a smart way and in a connected way.
And I think that's really gonna open the door for, uh,
what I'll mention as for this, the third key finding here,
the potential for predictive, preventative and, and precision medicine.
So I'd say say that none of these things really surprised me,
but I think in many ways it underlines, um, our mission and, uh,
and our vision. You know, we want to,
we really wanna create a world where healthcare has no limits.
And I think it starts with imagining that world and then just think about how
can we create it in the world around us. And, and that's, that's our purpose.
And, and that's my personal purpose, uh,
as well to help be one of those innovators that can imagine a world where
healthcare has no limit and we can go about to,
to create that world together with providers and with our partners, uh,
so that we can make the best possible outcomes for for patients.
Absolutely. Iil, thank you for sharing all of that.
It's really exciting to hear about all the exciting developments going on at GE
Healthcare and then the findings in the large study that the company conducted.
Sounds like you're going in the right direction, and, um,
I'm looking forward to seeing what's to come in the next few years with
technology in this space. So thank you again for your insights.
And thank you so much for, for great questions. It was, uh,
great to talk to you.
Likewise.
And we'd also like to thank GE Healthcare today for sponsoring this episode.
You can tune into more podcasts from Becker's Healthcare by visiting our podcast
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