Transcription:
The Future of Technology in Health Care

Prakash Chandran: Technology is always developing and changing to satisfy what we need in society, and the same can be applied to healthcare. Here to discuss the future of technology in healthcare is Craig Anderson. He's the Director of Innovation at BayCare Health System. Welcome to BayCare HealthChat. My name is Prakash Chandran.

So Craig, thank you so much for joining us today. I truly appreciate your time. Now, when we talk about innovation, what exactly does that mean?

Craig Anderson: Well, thanks, Prakash. It's good to be here. Innovation's different to everyone. I think some of the common themes we've come across when we ask other folks what does innovation mean, it's new, exciting, different. It involves change to make things better. It's advanced, it's high tech. It's really a combination of an idea and timing. You've got to have the right idea at the right time and the right place and executed in the right way and have all of that adopted by the right people to really make innovation succeed.

Prakash Chandran: Yeah. I'm so glad you broke that down. I think so often people think it's like maybe a software or a hardware update, but it's basically a confluence of many different things together that really pushes the ball forward. Is that more or less correct?

Craig Anderson: Absolutely. And when you get it right, adoption proves that. Adoption is everything. You can build something that's beautiful and amazing, but if no one uses it, you're still behind the eight ball.

Prakash Chandran: Yeah. So when we talk about innovation in healthcare, what exactly does that mean and how does healthcare benefit from it?

Craig Anderson: Well, when you look at healthcare, we're traditionally behind in the adoption of technologies, just look at our record keeping. You know, an advance in the last 10 years or so has been moving from paper to electronic records, while finance, that industry's been there for decades. So really, we're somewhat of a laggard in terms of technology adoption and that's where innovation can step in and help accelerate that change and bring forward the advantages if we pick the right technology at the right time.

Prakash Chandran: So, you mentioned it's traditionally been behind. What do you think is the primary cause of that?

Craig Anderson: I would say it's really our focus on care. Our care is the number one true north for BayCare, quality of care. And we do everything we can to promote that and do that as best as possible each day. But with a focus like that in devoting resources to that care, it's often the systems that support those teams that lack a little bit of that innovation. And that's really when where we've been able to be successful, is bringing forward new technologies that can bring our teams to parity with other industries and give them the same advantage that we see every day in other industries and in our outside lives.

Prakash Chandran: Okay. Understood. So, what are some sources of challenges and problems to solve with innovation at BayCare?

Craig Anderson: I'd say that kind of comes in two flavors as far as targets. First, we're looking at, let's see this analogy of nails. What are the challenges, issues, things we know we need to solve? What are the nails that we need to pound in to to smooth out everything here in healthcare? Some are pretty obvious. You know, find a way to have a primary care physician, be more efficient and help three more patients each day. Others are not so obvious and often they come forward in terms of problems, gripes, issues that seemingly may not be able to be solved. So, we kind of dive into those issues as well and really get to the root of that. What is the cause for that repeated gripe that we hear? And is that really a hidden opportunity to innovate? So, that's really where those nails become the targets for us to solve.

So now that we know what we want to solve, we're also out there looking for those hammers. So, we do that with much of my team's time in learning about the new technologies in the market. BayCare is a buy, not a build shop. You'll see some groups love to build their own. We're pretty confident that, from Silicon Valley to Miami, there's plenty of technology solutions coming out, and it's our job to be aware of those and partner with the right vendors to bring those solutions to bear for us.

Innovation again is a timing game. So, we seek to find the new, to see if it's solving an old problem in a new way. We want to get that first mover advantage so that we can bring that value to our patients and/or our care teams first. Sometimes that does put us on the bleeding edge, where we see an idea, we see the possibility, but we need to do a lot of work with our solution partners to make that something that's actually a fit for BayCare and the way we want to use it. But if we do that right, we can get that first mover advantage. We can also secure that best pricing because often we're helping a partner of ours develop some IP that will be valuable to them out in the market and they're willing to help us find some savings to do that. And really, we often learn too, when we look at all these solutions out there in the market, we may not even realize that we have that same opportunity to solve with this solution that's brand new, never been seen in the market. So, often we find ourselves asking the question, is this something that could help BayCare? If so, let's go ahead and move fast to get to that advantage for our teams.

Prakash Chandran: So, you know, you talked about a number of different things there, and I love the analogy of looking for those nails and you kind of described at a high level, sometimes it's problems of efficiency or lack thereof that technology can help with or it's basically helping through accessibility, how do you make it easier for people to find primary care physicians that match up with them. Are there any other low-hanging fruit nails that can be addressed through innovation?

Craig Anderson: Sometimes it's just modernizing current systems, and that's where we really need to make sure that we're focusing our innovation resources to truly innovate. We don't want to just build the next best mousetrap. BayCare has quite a few teams that are very adept at grabbing a new solution and making it go well within BayCare. We need to make sure that there is a flavor of innovation to whatever my team works on.

I can give you an example of that. In 2016, 2017, we were still using what you might call a dumb phone. It's not an iPhone, it's not a Samsung device. It was standard phone with buttons, and that was our major clinical comms platform. Well, I was out at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino with Tim Thompson, our CIO, and Scott Patterson, our CTO. And Apple introduced us to a concept and a solution called Patient Safe, now known as Vocera Edge.

And fast forward to the good part, we looked at that, we piloted that with my team in 90 days, we knew this was something that could change the way BayCare handled clinical communications. So, we rolled out all of those old dumb phones, rolled in all new iPhones on a brand new secure platform designed for clinical communications with a link back into Cerner, our electronic medical record. And now, every nurse at BayCare has an iPhone in their pocket that they can access patient records, they can securely communicate. We do over 3 million text messages a month between our team members, and that's really just leveraging an idea that we all adopted in our outside lives. How many text messages have you sent today? I know I've sent probably 20, 30 of those out. If we could do that securely within BayCare, could we bring that same speed of messaging to our care teams? And we did.

Prakash Chandran: I love that. So, one of the things that you mentioned is that BayCare is a buy not a build shop. So when we talk about finding innovative solutions, where exactly are those sources?

Craig Anderson: You know, it's kind of the fun part of the job where we get to get out there and see what the world is bringing to bear. We all know tech is huge and there's no shortage of VC dollars going into healthcare technology. In fact, it's one of the leading areas. So really, industry conferences that are popular, things like HIMSS, Vibe, Health, CES, all of these acronyms, but they are all focused on healthcare technology for innovation. The way I put it, you know, if you want to see the animals, you got to go to the zoo, and this is the zoo where all the new animals are going to be. Talk with founders, talk with groups that might only be three or four people strong, but they've got an idea. And maybe if we work together, we could help them and they could help us, and we could really bring that innovation forward.

There's also accelerators out there like Plug and Play and DreamIt. They find small companies, maybe it's through a university's tech transfer office, and they get behind those and help those small ideas become actual companies that develop real products for markets. So, I am connected to many, many of those across the country and around the world.

And then, here's one that I kind of blazed the trail a little bit. I didn't really think it was a big deal, but it really has turned out to be something. It's collaborating with other health systems. Outside the healthcare industry, competition, competition, competition exists. But in healthcare, as long as it's not the guys across the street, it's a really a unique way that we can collaborate with other health systems. We're basically facing all the same challenges and we're seeking the same opportunities to improve the way we do things. So, I've formed a group of 15 to 20 different health systems innovation leads, and we get together and we talk and we look at what's worked, what problems we haven't figured out to solve, what have we wasted time and money on that we don't recommend anybody following those footsteps, and it's really become a collaboration.

We also work with Big Tech. I was just out at Amazon last week for three or four days with five other health systems, and we were helping Amazon. And our teams design what we want voice technologies to do in the future for healthcare. So, it can come from big or small groups, but you need to be out there. You've got to have your finger on the pulse of what's happening. And there is a good opportunity to influence what the market is bringing to bear simply by playing an active role.

Prakash Chandran: Totally makes sense. So, you kind of gave an example use case at BayCare with the whole text messaging implementation. Are there any other innovative solutions that you can share that BayCare has adopted?

Craig Anderson: Sure. Well, I had mentioned earlier about the iPhone, so that our clinical teams can call and text and reference records securely. We did a really neat thing to give patients a better access to that care team. We worked with a company called Ava, as well as Amazon, and we now have an Alexa device in just about patient room. It's not just any old Alexa device. It's on a very secure platform developed by a company named Ava. And what it allows patients to do is simply ask ask Alexa for anything they need. "Alexa, I'm thirsty" or "Alexa, I need a blanket" or "Alexa, I need help to the bathroom." The nature of that technology understands what that request is and who is meant to fill it. The person bringing a cup of water to a patient is a different role than maybe the person that's a full registered nurse there to help the patient if they're in pain or need help to the bathroom. The technology understands that and it routes it to that right iPhone of the right person.

But there's all that other stuff within Alexa that we all love, the entertainment, the games, the news, the sports scores, and the music. Just to let the patients select from music and entertain themselves while they're a guest of ours has been an amazing thing.

We've also seen a need to help our folks that do some of the most critical work, like delivering food. We just can't find enough people to fill every role at BayCare post-COVID. So, we brought in some technology, which are artificially intelligent robots that move food ready to go from the kitchen, and it finds its way through the hospital, through the elevators and brings it to the right nursing station to be delivered to the patient. So, the patients get hot food. We can let our people work on more critical tasks and we can take advantage of some of the technology out there. We have it doing food right now and we see opportunity to do linens, move supplies and logistics throughout the hospitals. And this is one that we learned from collaborating with some of our other colleagues out there in the healthcare world.

So whether it's artificial intelligence, Alexa, voice technologies, iPhones, any of that, it all mixes together to be the right recipe for BayCare to bring innovation forward for the care teams and for the patients.

Prakash Chandran: Yeah, I absolutely love that BayCare has an individual like yourself that is dedicated to this because it's going to really improve everything in the long run. And that kind of leads me to the last question around what exactly do you feel like the future of innovation looks like?

Craig Anderson: When I look at things, the future of innovation is really what we make it. We've been able to craft over this last seven years a very good approach to innovation in healthcare that is leading the industry in many areas. BayCare's leadership is such a strong supporter of innovation. It's the reason I have a role in a team and the means and the resources to do what we need do.

If we can use all the ideas and challenges and issues our teams bring forward, collaborate with our other healthcare colleagues out there in the industry, and then actively engage with the solution providers, we can really shape the future as we want it. Technology is an amazingly powerful tool, but without the right people behind it, it doesn't go very well. We can combine our people, the people in the market with that technology, I'm sure we can make the future look like anything we want.

Prakash Chandran: Absolutely. And it actually sparks me wanting to ask one last question. It really feels like BayCare has embraced technology in the future of innovation. But I know that that is not the same for a lot of hospital systems. So if someone from another hospital system is looking at this and they're interested in introducing more innovation in a hospital system that has traditionally been a little bit behind, do you have any recommendations for the best way that they can do that?

Craig Anderson: Yeah, I would recommend the blueprint that BayCare built, they knew they needed innovation. They didn't quite know what that looked or felt like, but they knew they needed it to make change possible, and they knew they needed a leader to spearhead that. They went and found me, but they had already cleared the hardest parts of this. And that was they developed a budget model so that we can do our funding. Innovation is a timing game, and you need to move fast at the speed of innovation. Dollars certainly help that. So having the right resources, having the right individuals, and then the toughest part of this is just getting everybody to embrace change when it comes. We all like the idea of change until it's time to shake up the way we do some of our most critical tasks, then we might be a little bit anxious or unwilling to do that.

So, there's a lot of education and sharing of ideas with our teams to let them know what we're doing, how it could help them, and what we need them to do to participate and adopt that technology. But if anybody has any questions, I'm happy to talk with them and share how it's worked for BayCare. It won't be the same everywhere, but I think we've got a lot of those right ingredients off the bat.

Prakash Chandran: Well, wonderful, Craig. I really appreciate your time today. This has been a truly fascinating conversation.

Craig Anderson: Prakash, thank you for the opportunity.

Prakash Chandran: And that wraps up this episode of BayCare HealthChat. Head on over to our website at baycare.org for more information and to get connected with one of our providers. Please remember to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast in all other BayCare podcasts. For more health tips and updates, please follow us on your social channels. Thanks for listening. My name is Prakash and we will chat next time.