- Welcome everyone to the Becker's
Healthcare podcast series.
I am Maria Mohammed, writer
and moderator with Becker's Healthcare,
and I'm thrilled to have with me today Dr.
Sagar Patel, radiation oncologist at Cape
Radiation Oncology.
Doctor, it's very nice to have you
back on the podcast today.
It's always a pleasure to speak with you to get us started
with you, may please introducing yourself
and telling us a bit about your background.
- Hey Mariah, thanks again for having me.
I'm very appreciative always of having the opportunity
to be on the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
Uh, so as you mentioned, uh, my name is Sagar Patel
and a little bit about me guess from a training perspective.
I completed an undergraduate degree in classics, um,
at Brown, completed my medical school there as well.
And then I completed my specialty radiation oncology
training at the University of Iowa hospitals and clinics.
From a practice perspective, I'm a radiation oncologist,
as you mentioned, at St.
Francis Healthcare System in, uh, southeast Missouri.
And I'm one of the radiation oncologists
with my colleague Dr.
Ben Goodman there. And thankfully I have the opportunity
there to also be the medical administrative officer
for the oncology service line as well as the vice president
for the medical staff executive committee.
And from a leadership standpoint, uh,
where I've focused on primarily is trying to develop
and integrate meaningful access
and care pathways across primary care
and multiple specialties
with my colleagues in our care teams there.
- Wonderful, wonderful.
Thank you so much for giving us that background.
Um, so with your title
and everything that you are currently doing, what are some
of the biggest issues you're following
in healthcare in this year?
- Yeah, sure. So Mariah, as you know, what we see
and experience daily is that care delivery
across the health ecosystem today, I'd say is very complex
ever changing and quite demanding.
When I kind of break this down, I think that globally
we see patients in need
accessing health services at differing points of care
with unclear direction, navigation,
and various outcomes while their personal costs
of healthcare market entry
and exit for these patients continue to rise and accumulate.
When you look at the hospital
and health systems side, they're,
they're collectively continuing to face mounting pressures
of closures, mergers
and acquisitions from these rising costs of delivery,
while they're also trying to attempt
to secure favorable operating margins,
competitive payer contracts.
And they're ultimately grappling
with maintaining these critical health services amidst,
as we know the pervasive, uh, workforce shortages.
And then when you look from the provider side, I'd say from
the physicians and other healthcare provider's viewpoint,
they're confronted with
high increasing administrative burdens, increasing barriers
to practice meaningful medicine,
and this daily perennial pressure to produce,
which I think are ultimately contributing
and leading to increasing rates of burnout,
disengagement and moral injury.
As we know, when we look at this from a global perspective
and a societal perspective,
I'd say from a macroeconomic perspective, we know
that healthcare spending is about 20% of the GDP.
And you look, you see this stark discordance in the level
of quality and outcomes achieved across the data
and literature that we see.
And so when I internalize this, I see with the high spending
and suboptimal outcomes, there's clear opportunity
for accruing benefit from entry within the healthcare
sector of the economy.
What do I mean by that? Specifically?
We see that the traditional healthcare stakeholders are now
met with new entrants
and investors seeking opportunities to influ influence,
control and capitalize from the healthcare ecosystem.
And what I think is specifically happening,
these new entrants within the healthcare ecosystem
have identified particular niches in areas
to implement innovations technologies
and ultimately secure strategic product placement.
In addition, I think they've been very smart.
Uh, they've made sure that their marketing focuses
and depicts that they will increase access
and availability, address care gaps
and efficiencies contain overall cost, as well
as provide the particular technology in resources
to enhance data retrieval to make quick strategic decisions,
which we really need while optimizing overall system health,
system security and patient privacy.
So why, you know, summarize that I think we
therefore clearly see
a seismic shift in the healthcare landscape
and eco ecosystem accordingly.
So to go back to your question, your initial question,
when I put all this together
and I see all this manifest, I'd say the prime issue
or question that I'm following
in in healthcare trends right now is whether the motivation
of and market forces
of transforming the healthcare industry.
Is it truly to deliver high quality, low ca,
low cost patient-centered health?
Or is it once again simply a monetization
of certain market segments within the health ecosystem,
which ultimately may lead to an acceleration
of these health inequities that we see And ultimately,
unfortunately deriving value
for every entity aside from the
patient who's the most important.
So I'd summarize by saying,
will these transformative elements within the healthcare
landscape, secure population health,
or ultimately simply be one more
evidentiary process of driving profit margins?
- Yeah, wonderful. Thank you so much
for giving us that detail.
Very, very interesting.
And moving on to anything that you're seeing
that is making you excited
or is making you nervous,
whether it's something you're working on personally, um,
or something that you're seeing constantly come up.
- Yeah, absolutely. I think there's a lot
to be excited about and equally nervous about.
I tried to, you know, think about
what specifically impacts me
as an oncologist and also globally.
So, you know, I tried to think about framing this, uh,
from my own perspective and you know, building on that.
So I'd say as a radiation oncologist, I truly enjoy
the daily privilege and opportunity of defining
and depicting the diagnosis stage
and overall treatment paradigm with my colleagues
and care team for my cancer patients
and ultimately being a part
of our patient's care in a multidisciplinary fashion
and evidence-based approach.
I think this is very, this is very important.
In turn, I recognize and seek
and enjoy this daily responsibility
and challenge of being informed as possible, as prepared
as possible, and most importantly,
being the most present possible for each individual moment
and the summative longitudinal journeys our cancer patients,
our cancer patients face the particular opportunity
to in impact or influence our patient's overall outcome
and quality of life with our care team is endlessly
rewarding and unequivocally why I'm here.
However, at the same time every day I wish we
as a team could further drive the best outcomes
for each individual patient
and at the same time limit our collective administrative
burdens accordingly along the way.
So I would say building on this idea
and experience this very sentiment is
what drives my excitement in the current
and future applications of both predictive
and generative AI
and its potential to ultimately transform the level
and ability to deliver either personalized
or precision medicine.
In oncology, I would say the ability
to I identify and diagnose cancer early
and tailor cancer therapies to the specific characteristics
of each individual utilizing genomic profiling
and molecular diagnostics is no longer un unimaginable,
which is super cool.
And it's also the only outcome
that which we would expect and accept.
So as an oncologist,
imagining the potential high reaching scale pace
and magnitude to which artificial intelligence may deliver
precision medicine to cancer patients is not only amazing,
but also reinvigorating as a physician.
The same time you asked about being nervous.
So I would summarize by saying,
while the transformative potential impacts
of artificial intelligence is what I'm most excited about,
it also makes me most nervous as well, why
we know that the adoption, implementation
and regulation of artificial intelligence in healthcare
decision make in healthcare decision making would certainly
bring forth immense challenges with respect
to ensuring no bias, true patient representation,
transparency, privacy, trust, accountability,
and most importantly explainability.
So when I think about this,
I truly wonder whether the transformative elements
of generative AI will lead to true care augmentation
patient empowerment as a consumer of healthcare
and administrative burden simplification,
or will it once again ultimately accelerate the exclusivity
and healthcare delivery further disempower the patient
and limit the opportunity to deliver healthcare to
a select few entities who hold and control the data.
- Yeah. Thank you so much for giving us
that insight, doctor.
That is definitely so important.
And the last thing I wanted to ask you
before letting you go is what would the most effective
healthcare leaders need, uh, need in order
to be successful in the next two
to three years, do you think?
- Yeah, so just going back earlier, we already emphasized
that healthcare delivery is very complex, always evolving,
and the pressures and demands on health systems globally are
quite high and only increasing.
So I'd begin by saying that the ability to adapt
and be resilient when addressing rising costs,
implementing technology
and innovation to optimize health services offered
and maintaining data security
and patient privacy are essential for healthcare leaders.
Now more than ever, I ultimately think health systems will
adopt and implement diverse strategies
to address these challenges and meet market
and meet market forces likely resulting in both progress
and additional struggles.
But amidst these challenges and uncertainty,
however, I think what I know is still important
is always primarily focusing on who the healthcare
ecosystem serves.
And that's the patient no matter what,
we must keep the patient at the forefront
and that overlying sentiment must permeate
and be embodied within the culture
and vision of the health system.
Its providers and particular stakeholders, both individually
and collectively with patients in mind.
Health systems must clear, have a clear strategy,
and establish the right partnerships to drive care together.
I think certainly there may be a few vertically integrated
health networks and
or a few health systems that may arguably have potential
to provide comprehensive patient-centered care
as one entity, but even then they certainly will need
strategic collaborative partnerships as well.
Thus, I think partnerships and collaborations are central
and critical across health systems in order
to achieve scale, meet, demand,
and share costs, both to secure health services
and to ensure safety, security,
and privacy for our patients.
And I think along with strategic partnerships,
leadership must engage governance structure
and boards to look beyond the financials
and to determine appropriate physical footprint, scope,
and infrastructure and to integrate appropriate technology
and innovation to augment care
for the particular communities and regions it serves.
Ultimately, I would say healthcare is not easy.
We know this, but it's the most rewarding
and like no other sector
because of the consumers we serve, which is our patients.
So I think healthcare leaders along with their internal
and external networks must continue
to embrace these opportunities
and must all always hold on to the why of what we do
as they meet these challenges.
- Yeah, wonderful. Thank you so much
for those final thoughts, doctor.
This has definitely been an amazing, informative discussion.
So again, I wanna thank you so much
for coming back on Becker's Healthcare.
We really do appreciate it
and I look forward to connecting with you again soon.
- Thank you very much, Mariah. Have a good day.
- You too.