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Apr 13 2023
Management

Healthcare Leaders Share Their Perspectives on Digital Transformation at ATA, ViVE

The annual industry events made for a busy spring filled with insights from CIOs and other executives.

HealthTech had a busy spring, covering this year’s American Telemedicine Association conference in San Antonio and ViVE 2023 in Nashville, Tenn. The two healthcare industry events featured great lessons on digital transformation and hybrid care from CIOs, physicians, nurses and more.

At one ViVE session, healthcare leaders discussed the challenges that older legacy systems present to digital transformation. Many in the industry have traditionally seen technology as a cost center rather than a strategic revenue contributor, said Mt. San Rafael Hospital CIO Michael Archuleta.

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“We’re one of the most antiquated industries out there. We’re doing the most important thing by saving people’s lives and enhancing patient care, but we’re behind the curve,” he added. “Healthcare should be leading the pack in innovation and digital transformation. We don’t need a business makeover but a true technology revolution.”

Health systems also need to transform their approach to data. “We’re just scratching the surface of learning from the data we already have. Most of that data is unstructured,” said University of Pittsburgh Medical Center CTO Chris Carmody. “Generative AI can be used in different forms to extract meaning, which will help with digital transformation.”

After ATA 2023, HealthTech caught up with Sara Vaezy, executive vice president and chief strategy and digital officer at Providence, to ask about her takeaways. She said she understands how difficult it is for health systems to operationalize hybrid care.

“It requires major transformation: major care model redesign, major compensation redesign, staffing redesign — all of that,” Vaezy said. “We have an offering called ExpressCare, and it’s an on-demand care approach that we built from the ground up to be hybrid. Rather than retrofitting something, that’s where we started. We’ll continue to expand it because there are so many benefits to other service lines as well, such as primary care and follow-ups for specific types of care.”

UP NEXT: HealthTech is covering HIMSS23, taking place in Chicago April 17-21.

Chris Gash/Theispot (illustration)