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- This is Chris Oso with the
Becker's Healthcare Podcast.

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I'm thrilled to be joined by Dr.

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Zafar Chari, senior Vice
President and Chief Digital

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and Information Officer
at Seattle Children's.

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Dr. Chari, thank you so
much for joining us today.

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- Thanks for having me.

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- Certainly our frequent
guests on the Becker's podcast,

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we definitely thank you for that.

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But for those who may
not be familiar with you,

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could you please introduce yourself

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and give us a bit about your background?

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- Yeah, thank you. So Z Childry
over at Seattle Children's.

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Uh, I've been in the role of Chief Digital

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and Information Officer
now this is year seven

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and I've been in healthcare
it, it's year 39.

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Wow. Time has flown by.

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I'm a physician by training,

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but I have been in the uh,
CIO space for over 20 years

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and I've worked in multiple
health systems across the world.

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- 39 years is certainly an
impressive amount of experience

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and knowledge that you bring to the field.

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Dr. Chari, what would you say are your top

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priorities for 2024?

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- Yeah, so my top priorities
for top 24, probably,

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definitely top of the list would be

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cost improvement programs.

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As you are aware, healthcare is going

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through some difficult challenges
where margins have shrunk

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and costs are uh, escalated.

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So we're doing a lot of work
on the cost improvement side

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of things, but at the same time,

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you can't be successful in
healthcare without innovation.

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So in the innovation space,
the magic word is now ai.

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So that is definitely on our priority list

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because we're getting a lot of discussion

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and request from our
clinical colleagues about

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what does this mean for us,

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how this will impact our health system.

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And then to sort of round off
that top three, the third one

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that's the top priority for me
is going to be cybersecurity.

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- I'm glad you mentioned
both AI and cybersecurity.

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Could you expand a little bit about

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how your role will change
with regard to those

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elements over the next 18 months

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and how it will change your team's role?

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- Yeah, so I think what I'm likely to see,

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certainly from a CIO

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and IT team health IT team perspective is

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that we are now playing
a more strategic role

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in the organization.

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Nobody really cares anymore
about infrastructure

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and flashing lights and
hardware and equipment.

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They want the health IT teams

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and the leader of those
teams to have a bigger say

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and be instrumental within
the business itself.

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The whole overall system, there's a push

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to leverage technology to drive innovation

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and business growth.

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So that's where the sort
of AI component comes in.

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How do you automate, how do
you streamline processes?

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But at the same time, we are
seeing a massive increase in

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demand for services.

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Uh, kids will continue to get sick

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and we'll continue to need medical care.

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They also want health
IT groups to adapt more

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to new technologies and
trends in a more agile pace

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than we've done in the past.

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And you know, if you see the onslaught

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of AI literally in months,
it's gone from a non thing to,

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everybody wants to be
involved in that space.

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But of course, whilst you're
doing all these interesting

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and cool things, you
can never give up focus.

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So there'll be a huge focus
on cybersecurity data privacy.

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The bad threat actors are not stopping,

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they're getting worse.

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Healthcare data is so valuable.

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So we're seeing a lot of attacks, um,

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in this healthcare space.

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So we can't forget to
focus on that on that

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cybersecurity area.

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We've gotta keep our data secure

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at the same time we have to be more agile.

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And I'm also finally seeing
a better collaboration

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with the business unit,

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the clinical units
within our health system,

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and a closer relationship
with external vendor partners

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where it's more of a partnership
than a sort of push pull

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type of engagement.

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- Your points are well taken
on all those front doctor

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and segwaying a little
bit, uh, from those topics.

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What are you excited about right now?

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And it can be within AI

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or data security as you
mentioned, or, or something else.

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- Yes, I'm definitely excited about

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how we unleash innovation.

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So AI is one of those components.

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You've got other things like robotics

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and if you look at the
development in the robotics space,

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it's also accelerating.

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And I work in a pediatric hospitals,

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I'm always gonna love little robots.

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And then the other thing
I'm excited about is

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making better decisions

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using the data that we're sitting on.

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I think healthcare systems
have massive amounts of data.

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We don't always use it to
the best of our abilities

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to make better decisions,
especially in the clinical space.

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I'm excited about getting outta
the infrastructure business.

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I think health IT teams are
in the patient business,

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not the IT business.

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And therefore I'm excited
about what cloud can bring,

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how we can scale into the
cloud much faster than we have

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done in the previous years.

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- Doctor, I'm glad you mentioned

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that health IT teams are
in the patient business.

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Last thing I wanted to ask
you about is on our podcast

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and another media, you've
emphasized the importance

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of connecting with
stakeholders in healthcare.

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So how would you recommend
someone in your position as a CIO

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to best engage these stakeholders while

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keeping an eye on innovation?

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- Yeah, so you're not,
you're not really going

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to get innovation without
your stakeholders, right?

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I mean, stakeholders are the ones

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that have all the great ideas.

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You as a person leading the
health IT team are going

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to be the individual who translates

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those stakeholder requirements into

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how do you actually execute that.

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So the, the best way to sort of engage

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with stakeholders is to
meet them where they're at.

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So I always recommend to my teams that if,

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if you are spending more time
in your office than actually

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on the clinical floors,
then something's wrong.

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You have to go out there,
you have to walk the floors,

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you have to round with the teams, you have

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to participate in different
committees, you have

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to attend the clinical presentations,

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you've gotta do all of those things.

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That's really the job that we have

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because we have to go out not
only educate the stakeholders,

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but get their input into what they need.

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This helps us keep up with
how technology is changing

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and how it can adapt to help clinicians

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do the best job that they can.

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And certainly for us provide hope, care,

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and cure for the kids that we serve.

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Uh, and at the same time,
you are the evangelist

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for technology and my team is as well.

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Um, then when you're
talking about security

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and security risks, that
is the same opportunity

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to then educate those stakeholders
on what risks are coming,

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how people can behave in
a safe manner whilst, uh,

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being in the clinical space.

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You know, we all, it's,
it's quite interesting

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'cause in healthcare,
we all love to click on

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that magical link that will
give us millions of dollars,

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but we have to educate
people not to do that.

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And at the same time, if you're
engaging with stakeholders,

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you're gonna be able to articulate
what your constraints are

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as a technology group,

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because we're all facing
budget constraints as well.

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So there, there's no unlimited checkbook.

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AI is great and robotics is great.

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Those innovations are great,
but they do come at a cost.

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And so we, we are allowed to
educate people in terms of

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what is the art of the possible
within the budget versus

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what needs to be deferred
to another fiscal year.

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- Dr. Shari, thank you so
much for being so generous

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with your time and all
your insights today.

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We definitely cannot wait to
share them with our audience

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and we look forward to
connecting with you soon.

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- Yeah, thank you so much for having me.

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- It's so important for leaders
at the top of organizations

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to keep learning, stay
sharp, grow their networks,

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help our audience better do
this in a more simplified,

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personalized, and meaningful way.

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