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the 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 Dr. Salim Saed,
vice President of and Chief Medical Information Officer,
as well as the diplomat of clinical informatics at U P M C Central Pennsylvania.
Dr. Saed is a pleasure to have you on the podcast today.
It's pleasure to be on. Thank you.
Absolutely. Well, you know,
I'm looking forward to jumping into our conversation because I know there's so
much happening and innovative things going on in the health technology space,
and especially that intersection between, uh,
clinical care and informatics and it,
but before we dive into the broader discussion,
will you tell us a little bit more about yourself and your background?
Yeah, sure. Um, so I'm, as you mentioned, I'm the CM i o at, uh,
U P M C in central pa, uh,
double board certified in clinical informatics as well as family medicine and a
practicing, uh, physician. Um, I oversee our, uh,
region of seven hospitals, uh, over 200 clinics,
um, with one and a half million encounters per year with 2,800 doctors.
Um, I lead all implementation of, uh,
clinical technology optimization, informatics analytics,
digital health and telehealth solutions. Um,
lead all innovations in terms of reimagining healthcare, um,
thinking outside the box, and really passionate about improving, uh,
clinician and patient experience using, uh, technology.
Also published, uh, quite a bit on both telehealth and, uh,
informatics as well.
Fantastic. Well, I, I suppose we can dive right in and,
and I'm excited to learn more about just, you know,
your background in all your expertise and experience in, uh, informatics, uh,
telehealth, virtual care, and more.
So when you look at all the things you're accountable for as a C M I O,
where do you see the big opportunities for growth and development in the future
as well as, you know, what are some of the challenges that you have your eye on?
Yeah, so, you know, since covid, um,
a lot of health systems have been appended and, uh,
economic uncertainty that most of healthcare organizations are,
um, going through, and, um, that has led to, I think,
created a lot of opportunities. Uh, first one is, uh,
is ranked as patient access. That,
that remains a big challenge in how we can improve that, uh,
using technology. Our, uh, center of connected medicine with,
with class had done a,
a survey of almost 61 health systems where, uh, executives,
a variety of executives ranked, um, access as, as the biggest challenge.
And I think that's where, uh, growth opportunities lie as well.
Um, and how we can improve access for our patients,
how we can take care of the most patients, uh,
delivering still the top quality healthcare, uh, in our region. And,
uh, we see, um, telehealth as, as a big part of that, uh, solution as well.
And I think the second opportunity is how, how do we use, um,
how do we improve healthcare efficiency as burnout and turnover
effects, um, not just physicians, but nurses and other clinicians as well.
Um, and probably have seen AI as artificial intelligence is,
uh, the hot topic right now with, uh, Chad, G P T, and, uh,
other such, uh, generative AI models, and how can we sort of leverage those,
uh, technologies to improve, uh, not just efficiency,
but automate a lot of those tasks.
So I think those are two big opportunities in healthcare, um, currently.
Absolutely. I, I think that makes a lot of sense. And, you know,
when you just mentioned some of the generative AI chat, G P T and automation,
you know, those are areas that seem to be emerging very fast and,
and changing rapidly. So how do you keep up with all of that?
How do you really make sure that as you're, um,
implementing those types of technologies as well as, um, other things, you know,
you are adding value in, in overall, um, growing, you know, um, what,
I guess bringing the organization closer to the mission,
vision and values that you wanna see in improving care as well as efficiencies
internally?
Yeah. Um, so I, I think, uh, one of the,
one of the biggest, um, initiatives, uh,
for us in terms of AI is, uh, using a bridge,
which is using generative AI to help, uh,
physicians and clinicians, uh, improve the documentation burden.
Um, we have been piloting and, uh, leveraging that, uh, technology like,
um, some of the other healthcare organizations have as well. Um,
early results we're really seeing, um,
docs being able to quickly get through their documentation, save,
uh, an hour or two of their day in, in terms of just documentation and,
uh, EHR burden, uh, which really frees up time, whether, uh,
they're able to get home early or, um,
being able to get back, uh, get back some of the time to, um,
see patients, um, instead of being, um, stuck with, uh,
EHR sort of tasks. So that's, that's one, uh,
one way we're looking at it in terms of improving, uh, efficiency,
um, and future. We're looking also, um,
as how do we automate some of the tasks? Um, so whether it's, uh,
removing some of the in basket, um, uh,
messages that we receive, um, whether it's just simple things as,
um, using machine learning to remove, um,
thank yous from patients that might not be as, as critical to, um,
to our clinicians, but still create nuances and, um, create that extra,
um, cognitive burden. So how do we improve that, uh, workflows?
And then also teeing up, uh,
some of the responses for, uh,
for our clinicians to different types of routine, uh,
messages and, uh, really helping, um, make them faster,
um, and getting, uh, again, um,
getting out of the, um, uh,
the burden of sort of the EHR automated, uh,
our EHR tasks and kind of how do we automate that? So that's one way,
one way we're looking at it, um, in terms of, you know,
how do we get back to the mission of providing, um,
more accessible healthcare?
Absolutely. I love that. And that's so important, you know, to,
to really improve that access to care and to the experience of the clinicians
and, and team members who are, um, working through the operational processes in,
in using the E H R. Um, you know, i, I, you talked a bit about it,
but making sure doctors aren't, um, you know, spending too much time, um,
doing that record taking and keeping and whatnot,
that they're getting burned out. You know, that's,
it's just a huge challenge and a huge issue. So, um, you know,
thank you so much for talking through that,
and very impressive to see what you've been able to do at U P M C. Now,
when we look at, um, you know,
obviously right now there's just a lot happening in the healthcare space.
Healthcare resources are precious, whether it's on the human capital side or,
um, you know, on the financial side for most organizations. So, you know,
where do you see an area that's still really important to invest in, especially,
um, you know, as,
as resources are a little bit more scarce than they have been in the past?
Yeah. Um, absolutely. So I think, um, um,
so going back to access as our top, um,
priority in terms of, um, investments and, uh,
in ways of, um, access. I think of, of course,
how can we leverage some of the digital tools and
technologies, um, such as patient portals, um,
self-scheduling, um, symptom checkers,
navigating the, the healthcare space, um, you know,
from eTech in, um, to,
to refills and, and other sort of tools that can improve,
um, patient access, uh, but also engage, um,
patients in that, um, in their, in their healthcare. Um, so we are,
we are heavily, uh, investing in it as well as, um, some of our, uh,
peer healthcare organizations in terms of digital front door, uh,
technologies and how can we, um,
implement some of these self-service tools, uh, that not only, um,
helps patients sort of take, um,
ownership of their healthcare, but also really streamlines, um,
access, right? Um, most of us are right, used to, um,
just getting on a phone, um, you know, opening an app to,
from, uh,
whether they're booking for an airline ticket or e checking
and for or boarding, um, on a plane, right? Um, I don't know,
when was the last time you probably booked an airline ticket calling a phone,
uh, calling an airline, right? Maybe 10, 15 years ago. Um,
so we're, we're sort of reimagining that, right?
Most of the healthcare appointments, if you look at it, uh, right now, uh,
I would bet 90 to 95% of, um,
appointments are made either in person or by calling, uh,
a call center. And usually there are long wait times. Um,
patients don't prefer that we, right, uh, majority of the patients, uh,
some of the surveys we've seen, uh, 70 to 80% of the patients would prefer,
uh, doing it themselves and doing it online, um, and, uh,
doing it on times that they are, uh, that they can, right?
Whether it's an evening or when they're off work. Um,
and not only does it streamline, right,
it also saves them patients time as well. Calling, uh, human usually takes,
or calling a call center usually takes, uh, a little more time than, um,
than, uh, just doing it online also gives them, uh, opportunities.
Things come up, uh, whether you want, you want to reschedule,
you want to cancel an appointment or, or things like that. Um, so that's,
that's, that's the start. Um, but also we, uh,
we want to sort of flip and reimagine the entire workflow
of patients arriving to clinic, whether checking in, um,
grooming the patients and how do we, um,
leverage, uh, some of these, uh, workflows, uh,
leverage technology to improve some of these workflows.
And not only it helps improve the efficiency, but also, uh,
helps the staff that we have, uh, to focus on things, um,
that, that can, uh, on other things that can really help, uh,
help our operations.
Absolutely. I think that makes a lot of sense. And, and, and, you know,
really is helpful to think through from the operational perspective as well as,
um, you know, the, um, the people perspective,
how the technologies can really make a difference and why it's so important to
the future success to, to be able to put some of this stuff in place, um,
right now and, and continue to make investments there. Um,
now before we wrap up our discussion, I just wanted to ask as well,
where, where do you see some of the big opportunities to grow in the future?
What does that look like for you?
Yeah, so I think, um, um, kind of summarizing right, I think two,
two big areas of, uh, opportunities I think are, um,
expanding, um, ambulatory care, um, in, in different, uh,
uh, different ways. Uh, not just the traditional brick and mortar, but also,
uh, virtual first care. Um, so we're betting heavily on, uh,
virtual first care. We have several, um, programs from, uh,
virtual first primary care, but also, um, after hospital,
um, discharges, which we're delivering via telehealth, um, as well as remote,
uh, patient monitoring and hospital, um, home programs that leverage,
uh, not just technology, but also, uh, telehealth to deliver, uh,
some of the care outside the traditional, um, healthcare spaces.
Um, so I think, um, that those opportunities will continue to grow,
um, and be leveraged as we, um,
as more and more care is delivered outside the hospital for walls.
Um, and on to layer on top of that,
there's this huge opportunity, uh, of AI to,
um, help with some of these tasks as more and more, um,
more of these, um, ways of, uh, care that is being delivered is using,
um, technology, right? Whether it's on a portal or it's on,
um, uh, on a portal, uh,
messaging app or our other remote monitoring apps. How,
how can we use sort of ai uh,
generated AI type technologies to streamline some of that, uh,
some of that work. Um, so I think, um, a a lot of, uh,
value shift is, is going to happen, uh, right? And, and one of the,
one of the reasons, right, as, as care is moving away from, uh,
from hospitals is also to, uh, reduce cost, uh, and improve value,
um, um, to what we deliver to our patients.
Absolutely. Got it. I think that makes a lot of sense. You know,
and it's really a great place to focus, um,
as we are trying to inject more value into the health system, as you said, um,
you know, the outpatients setting, the virtual care and whatever you can do to,
to really give people access at an earlier stage. And,
and so they're able to manage their health a lot better. And, um, I,
I just really appreciate you taking the time with me today, Dr. Syk,
and this has been such a fun conversation.
I'm looking forward to continuing it in October when you are at our Health IT
Digital Health and Revenue Cycle event. Um, it should be a really fun one,
and I'm looking forward to meeting you there in person.
Yeah, really looking forward to, uh, vias speaker at the October, uh,
conference and, uh, meeting, uh, other, uh,
steam speakers and colleagues there, as well as, uh, Becker's uh, staff there.
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