| | MARCH 20199CIOReviewmeans providing video visits for patients in our Emergency Departments and from their homes, and virtual consults with specialists to speed their emergency care. In every way, we seek to leverage technology not as a tool in itself, but as the medium that allows our physicians to extend care to the patient in the appropriate setting. Q4.Security has become a prime concern for all enterprises alike, especially healthcare. Given this, what is your take on how to effectively address Digital/IT concerns?Information security is a global concern and the risks it presents in healthcare are significant. We believe patient data is theirs to own and we are merely stewards of that data. Our patients trust us both to keep their data safe, but to share it when appropriate to speed their care. To make this happen, we invest significant resources to create barriers and processes to ensure that patient data is safe at all times. I see blockchain as a key tool for future sharing of patient data in a known, predictable, auditable way. For now, however, we have invested in a large team of professional information security experts, industry tools, and a security operations center to monitor and control access to patient data. Q5.Could you elaborate on some interesting and impactful projects/initiatives that you're currently overseeing? What might make them unique?We know that artificial intelligence will be a game-changer across all industries that use highly skilled workers. The next 5-10 years of artificial intelligence will not lead to wholesale job replacement, but it will likely involve increasingly active guidance from machines where they see opportunities for efficiency or safety. Vinod Khosla has commented that AI will not replace 80 percent of physicians, but it will replace 80 percent of the tasks physicians do. In many ways, this is a good thing. If AI can find and chart lab result trends, plot blood flow curves on imaging studies, compile family medical histories, and do other routine tasks that otherwise take physician time, our doctors will be free to focus more on using that information to care for and communicate with patients. Q6.Can you draw an analogy between your personality traits, hobbies and reflect on your leadership strategy?When we care for patients, we need to be right 100 percent of the time ­ the right drug, the right procedure, the right blood type. In business decisions, however, we need to be comfortable with the idea that we are not certain of an outcome and that spending more time to get to 90+percent certainty has diminishing returns. As healthcare leaders, we need to be bold, set a vision, and support our teams by being willing to make decisions and choices with the information that we have at the time. Q7.What would be a piece of advice that you could impart to a CIO who is looking to embark on a similar venture along the lines of your work?We are proud of what we have achieved in virtual health and telemedicine, but it did not happen overnight. We took risks; started small projects, learned what worked, and followed successful development paths with additional investments. Bottom line ­ I encourage anyone doing this to simply start, learn, and iterate towards success. We believe patient data is theirs to own and we are merely stewards of that data
< Page 8 | Page 10 >