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description. We are excited to welcome you in October.
This is Laura Dedo with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
I'm thrilled today to be joined by Brian Shay,
who's the Chief Information Officer of Med One Healthcare Partners,
as well as the interim CIO at Lexington Clinic. Brian,
it's a pleasure to have you on the podcast today.
It's a pleasure to be joining you.
Now. I know there's a lot happening right now in the healthcare space,
and especially thinking about digital transformation and technology and what
role that can play within healthcare operationally as well as clinically.
But before we dive into my questions,
can you tell me a little bit more about your yourself and your background?
Sure. Um, so as you said, I'm, I'm Brian Shay. Um,
I've been in it for about 30 years, so been in it for a little while.
Um, and about 20 of that has been in healthcare it,
and I've held various leadership positions in healthcare. Um,
it really, um, everything from a CIO to a ciso to a cto,
to a compliance officer. Um, but really my background in healthcare,
it has been focusing on kind of digital transformation, uh,
IT operations and in compliance for organizations.
Got it. Absolutely. I, I think that makes a lot of sense. You know,
and it's really helpful to think about in, in, you know, from your perspective,
when you look at where we're at today in healthcare,
what do you see as being some of the biggest opportunities right now,
as well as the headwinds that you have your eye on?
Yeah,
that's a really good question is healthcare kinda has been evolving quite a bit,
uh, especially healthcare IT along along with that, um,
I think some of the big opportunities at the moment, of course,
the big buzzword, you know, with chat GBT and, and ai, I think, you know,
when you kind of get through the buzz words and the, you know, kind of the,
the sales pitches around chat GBT at the moment,
I think a lot of it is gonna be focused around how do you leverage AI actually
operationally, you know, for your organization in two, two ways. One,
how do you, how do you leverage to improve efficiencies in your,
in your day-to-day operations?
But then also how are you leveraging that technology to provide differentiator,
you know, better patient care type things.
So I think there's gonna be a lot of opportunities around how people are using
AI with, in conjunction with data analytics, uh, report generating,
um, problem solving, all those kind of things, I think are gonna be,
see a lot more healthcare organizations kind of, uh, dabbling in it, you know,
more, more and more. Uh, there's gonna be a lot more vendors, of course,
that are gonna be offering up different use case solutions for it.
So I think that's gonna, this year,
I think it's gonna be a pretty interesting year, uh,
when it comes to AI and see where, uh,
the use cases really kind of bubble up because, uh, as I said,
it's kind of two pronged, people are trying to figure out,
like in our side as a, uh, consumer of it, we're trying to figure out how to,
how to leverage it to our advantage. And of course,
there's a lot of vendors that are looking at how can they leverage it to have,
um, you know, solutions that they could provide to, uh, to us.
The other big one, I think is gonna be around, um, just continual,
how do you find different ways to provide patient care? Um,
I think there's been a lot of things on the news with, you know,
Amazon making purchases of healthcare organizations or partnerships,
same with like the CVSs and, uh, even Optum or UnitedHealthcare.
So I think everybody's trying to figure out how are,
what are the different mechanisms in delivering patient care? Let that be at,
you know, hospital at home or, uh, remote patient monitoring, you know,
those kind of technologies.
I think you're gonna see some of that stuff continue to vet itself out,
especially around, you know, when Covid hit,
telemedicine was kind of the big hot topic, right? And how do you do televisits,
uh, if you're a provider and, you know, if you're a patient,
how do you make sure you could see your provider, uh, you know,
in your home or wherever? I think, you know,
that's kind of worked itself out a little bit from telemedicine type, uh,
video type visits and consultations and things like that. But I think, you know,
that everybody's still trying to figure out, you know, how is that paid for, um,
you know, from an insurance perspective or, you know, how do providers get ran,
you know, get re So that's still kind of out there,
a little bit of trying to figure it out,
but I think you're gonna see that go to the next level of all these different
companies that are coming into the mix that are actually technology type
companies that are trying to disrupt and figure out how to provide better
delivery of care, um, to, you know, to people.
So I think you're gonna see a disruption in our world from,
from the health systems to the healthcare providers on, on how that comes,
comes into play. But I think, you know, the,
the whole care at home or care everywhere is gonna continue to be a real thing.
That makes a lot of sense and certainly aligns with what I'm hearing from a lot
of hospitals and health systems. And like you mentioned,
trying to figure out what virtual care means and how they can get paid for it,
what the reimbursement model is gonna be,
and then how to efficiently and effectively execute that, uh,
from an operational standpoint as well as clinical standpoint with their teams.
Uh, and then what you mentioned on AI is very interesting as well. I,
I know that's been on the tip of many people's tongues,
especially in the last few months. Um, and so, you know,
when you look at both of those areas,
how are you thinking about organizational growth and development and adding
value, um, when those are the trends that are upcoming in,
in really where we see healthcare headed as being more digital,
more technology enabled, uh,
more space where technology and data are becoming increasingly
important within the organization?
Yeah, so I think it's one of those things.
If you don't think about it and you don't embrace it and deal with it, um,
you're gonna become irrelevant really quick. Um, I think it's important that,
you know, not only, you know,
med One Healthcare Partners or Lexington Clinic or any healthcare provider or
really any organization,
you need to focus on growth really through innovation and strategic
partnerships, especially in healthcare partnerships. Uh, there's a lot of,
you know, consolidations and, and acquisitions and, you know,
health, you know, health systems are, uh, you know,
their relationships to a partners or vi you know, vice versa. It's,
it's one of those things that partnerships are gonna become critical,
but I think every one of those organizations have to really look at, you know,
their growth through innovation. They're not just a,
say a provider group or a hospital or a clinic. You're almost a, you know,
an IT company as as well. It's a combination of,
and I think not having an understanding of those
technology changes that are gonna be occurring with, uh, the enhancements of,
of AI and how that, what that means with better
business, you know, analytics or clinical analytics, you know, information.
If you're not doing that, you're gonna be left behind in providing
comparative care to some of your counterparts. Right. You know, and you know,
what's the additional value add that you continue to bring to the table?
And if you're not leveraging some of those technologies that are,
that are coming out, you will get, you know,
you'll be coming irrelevant or left behind.
That's such a great point,
and something I know so many different industries are struggling with is
applying this technology and figuring out ways to make that transformation.
Or from your perspective, when you're looking at, um, you know,
the best way to create not only the technology change,
but also the culture change on adopting ai, on adopting innovation and really,
especially in healthcare space, where a lot of times there's been, you know,
the culture around moving slow and being more thoughtful about making any types
of change. Um,
how do you make that transformation on the cultural side to really adapt to
how fast technology is moving and how quickly change needs to happen in the
healthcare space?
That's a great question too. Um, I,
change management is always the hardest part of, of anything. Uh,
technology usually becomes the easy part of, uh, of things. Uh,
change is always of the part that needs a little more finesse.
It could take a little more time. I think it's baby steps a little bit, right?
I think you have to find those quick wins within your organization.
You have to tack it from multiple fronts. So Chape GT for instance, you know,
or just using that I guess as an example, um,
started even sharing that within some of our organizations of just the,
the basic use cases for it, helping write, you know,
policies or even job descriptions, you know, for that matter,
those kind of things that are easy to understand, right?
You are kind of more tangible and then you keep taking it and notching it up a
little bit to the next level, right? Of, oh,
they could understand that it could provide this kind of information back to
them, or maybe make their life easier on how they're operating.
Then you take that to the next step of maybe, you know,
report writing or looking up certain information based on
certain criteria out of a database, right? So it's,
you keep think taking those baby steps and then it becomes more real for people.
I think you definitely have to have true business case, because right now it's,
you know, very nebulous to a lot of people of what is this? You know, you know,
it's not like some magical thing, you know, it's, but it's how,
how do they use it in their, in their world?
And you have to make it very real for them, right?
So I think it's finding specific business cases,
showing how you get leverages technology to improve, um, you know, their,
either the information that they're getting or improving their,
making them more efficient through operational improvements.
I think if you could take those baby steps in doing that, your adoption,
you know, will, will be a lot better, right? You're a lot easier to, uh,
to roll something out within the organization.
That's so helpful to think through and understand, um,
really those core concepts and then the steps to, to make it happen. Um, and,
and, you know, along those lines, I think, uh,
as we've talked about a little bit today,
there's been a lot of change happening in healthcare,
but a lot of organizations are really faced with some tough times,
whether it's staffing shortages, financial challenges, inflation hitting,
there's a lot going on within healthcare,
but it's still important to think about the future.
And as we were talking about earlier, making sure that hospitals,
health systems, clinics, and practices don't get left behind.
So where do you see, is it,
where is it important for them to continue to make investments or take risks
this year, even as healthcare resources become more and more precious?
Yeah, so resources, we're all kind of fighting for the same resources,
it seems like, um, let it be on the clinical side or the tech,
the technology side.
And I think making investment with the problem is gonna,
and that's gonna continue to be, you know, the trend for, for a while, right?
I think especially when you start getting into newer technologies that are
coming into an organization. So when we say investing,
if I'm gonna invest into more robust data analytics capabilities,
for instance, and, and leveraging ai, you know,
I might not necessarily have that skillset internally,
and it might be hard to even find partners that have that skillset that we need
really, you know,
leverage it because everybody's trying to fight for these same, same resources.
So, you know, I'd say from an investment perspective, you need to find,
you know, if, if you can't do it yourself, which is difficult sometimes, uh,
finding really good partnerships that are out there that have expertise,
you know, in, you know,
machine learning or AI and figuring out who can you partner with.
As I go back to that statement earlier,
it's a lot of it's about building partnerships.
So I think you gotta really find good partners out there that have those
resources available to you to actually do something in a timely manner.
Cause again, otherwise,
if you're trying to build a lot of this on your own and you don't have the
funding or resources to bring in that talent in house,
you're going to have to invest in external talent to,
to help you move that ball forward with it. I think that's something, you know,
where that's gonna be investment there.
I think it's also just trial and error with certain technologies, um,
figuring, you know, kind of figuring it out a little bit as we talked about,
you know, care at home or hospital at home or remote patient monitoring.
There's so many different technologies that are out there right now.
There's not a good, um, centralized platform for a lot of these things.
So there's a lot of startup companies and a lot of different companies that have
different pieces and parts. But pulling all that together has really been, uh,
difficult. But I'd say that for organizations that are trying to get into that,
they gotta start, uh, investing and trying it, trying different things,
um, getting a better understanding of how these things work, um,
in some sort of kind of testing or piloting cap, you know, capabilities.
So I think there's gotta be some investment there as, as well, uh,
because if you don't do it again, it's like, where do you start? Right?
You know, and how do you get, how do you get the ball moving?
If if you're not consciously making those efforts with those different things,
I think again, that's where you'll, you'll start to fall further,
further behind.
That's such an excellent point. And definitely, you know, kind of looking at,
as you mentioned, assessing where you can really, um,
most effectively and efficiently apply some of these technologies in spaces
where, um, you know, growth and development will really add to, um,
the, the bottom line as well as thinking about, you know,
where you need to be positioned to be successful in the future is so critical.
Um, before we wrap up our conversation,
I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about some of the best
opportunities you're seeing, uh,
for growth and development for yourself as well as the teams that you're working
with. Uh,
what will it take in order to set yourself up for success in the future?
Yeah, I think the most critical thing for organizations or individuals to set
themselves up for future growth opportunities is really, um,
prioritization, right?
So it's really gonna be as a group prioritizing what you're trying to accomplish
and what you're trying to, to achieve.
And then that way everybody is kind of rowing in the same direction. Otherwise,
if you don't set that first,
you're gonna become very fragmented and you're only gonna be able to go so deep
into any one area of, of focus. So for instance,
you know, as a group, you might say, you know, we want to invest and focus in,
um, we really want to take on telemedicine with an aspect of, uh,
remote patient monitoring. Then you as a group, at least you're focusing,
you could go that direction, or for instance,
we want to use data to improve patient quality or have some sort of
metric, and then, then you could dive into using, you know,
what technologies are there, like AI or, uh, machine learning or whatever,
right? But at least that way you're focused,
and if you're focused on those type of things and you're really prioritize,
you're more likely to accomplish those goals. Um,
otherwise you could only go so deep into any one direction.
And with all the different initiatives and technology that's, that's out there,
uh, you could become almost paralyzed and not making traction or movement
in the area of growth through the usage of technology because you're,
you're too thin in any one area versus really prioritizing and focusing as a
group. So that would be my recommendation for, for anybody,
for future growth opportunities,
is really make sure that you're prioritizing as a group, um, as an organization,
and that you're all on that same page.
Another excellent point. Brian,
thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today.
This has been a really fantastic conversation,
and I look forward to connecting with you again soon.
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