Healthcare AI: Beyond the Hype—How U.S. Leaders Can Implement for Real Impact

<p>hello everyone this is Cole from the American Journal of healthc care strategy I'm joined today by a very special guest Rick Morland Rick please introduce yourself thank you Cole my name is Rick Morin and I'm the CEO for modality Global advisers a healthc care consulting firm where we specialize in optimizing healthc Care organizations thank you for having me today [Music] we're so happy to have you on thank you so much for for sharing your time with us we're really excited to talk about um some very important topics here first I want to ask how new is modality Global advisors you founded it right I founded uh modality uh last year but I've been doing consulting uh for a little while so uh just formalizing the company last year and you know moving forward we're expanding uh rapidly and um and excited for our continued growth uh I've been looking through the organization it's very impressive what you've built in just a year incredibly impressive and and like you said this comes from a large background of experience right you've been in healthc care as a leader for at least 20 years from what I've seen right yeah um I I've been in uh Healthcare over 25 years I actually started uh my healthc care Journey uh in the operating room and um grew uh from there into uh other areas in terms of uh both clinical um you know experience but also leadership and uh finally ending in uh at dignity uh before Consulting um a fulltime nice so you're not just a uh a business uh you know major coming into cons you have huge amounts of practical experience yeah very much so in the Interventional spaces uh of course surgery uh program and service line development but also you know in the ambulatory space uh whether it's surgery centers Imaging uh clinics and even federally uh qualified Health Centers wow nice uh really happy to have you on to talk about this topic about AI right because what we see going on is people see a lot of the benefits of AI but at the same time is it just hype you know is it's expensive how do we implement this there's all of these concerns I first want to ask what do you see as the real benefits the true benefits and then how do you separate that from the hype yeah so I think a lot of people are scared that it's going to take jobs let me start there that it's going to take jobs and and that um you know there's not a lot of guard room s um and what I think that I first want to tell um our listeners today is that we've been using AI we've been using it in several of the spaces that that we'll cover today there's several real potentials uh that I see uh in the industry that we can use AI um the first is uh you know at the at the most granular level is we can use AI to personalize treatment plans for example we can use AI to analyze patient data um in the EHR and it can even generate customized treatment plans um that are tailored to the actual patient um this helps doctors um also as well as uh any caregiver I would also say in the drug uh Discovery Space of course like uh for example in the cancer space where we can um really use uh AI to um to to analyze uh large databases of drugs or biosimilars uh whether from a cost perspective or a clinical perspective in terms of um what's right for the patient uh in that drug delivery and then also uh even patient engagement so um using uh chat Bots or virtual assistants that provide that 27 uh 365 support uh for patient questions any time any any time of the day or or night um even manage appointments so that that can be done 24 hours a day a lot of our CFOs especially are skeptical right we saw the huge cost of EHR and it's ended up causing some problems of its own right and so a lot of our CFOs especially are worried are we gonna sync Millions into Ai and then have it backfire on us what are some of the concerns surrounding hype that you are aware of people are scared about uh in the in the finance realm I think about what will it do with the data or what does it um what does It capture and what I'm experiencing in the app on the implementation side and what I also want to remind everybody is that AI is uh a helper to the already in place data so we as a firm will help uh for example customers or clients clients um optimize their data or how they uh actually receive the financial data what does it look like so on and so forth where AI in the background will aggregate it and make suggestions for example on optimization of that data but really even outcomes um and make projections and it's always running there to um to help uh optimize the financial performance of that database but also the organization absolutely that makes a lot of sense so it's not just like AI is gonna come in and do all of this all this stuff you have to be prepared and have your data prepared to implement it correctly from what you're saying yes Cole that that's absolutely correct number one number two AI is a helper to our analyst so we all experience um not having enough analyst in some situations and so AI can help analysts keep up on their work and even optimize their work uh so for our Frontline staff this is seen as a benefit because it um helps them in their work every day how about the hip and privacy situation there's been so much being discussed about that is there anything that you have done at your firm to to help people with that yeah so when we uh work with a client call the first thing that we make sure that wherever AI um is already currently running and where it's not and could be is that we're doing that within the organization so if it's their Cloud it is their Cloud if it is their servers it's only on their servers versus uh maybe a lot of third parties if it is third parties what are their um what are their security uh guard rails that they have in place and how are they and how well are they working but we really try and keep Ai and the um AI that is working for the organization within the organization to help with uh preventing those um you know those anything related to hipper breaches Etc that's really good advice because I know that that's been a thing a lot of people have been saying is it's it might be cheaper to do it externally but then I worry about the cost of having to deal with one of these data breaches right so internal is what in your experience is really necessary in as many cases as possible yes excellent okay and so implementations that we've actually seen you know what AI implementations have you been involved with or have you seen that have been the most beneficial the you know the best bang for your buck you could say and the Imaging and I would say in the ulatory spaces is that having AI that really uh works in the background to optimize uh reads like iming reads um and help the physician because it is a support to The Physician it does not replace physicians in um in diagnosing or being able to read those exams um and help Physicians uh look for those potential and some like for example cancers right and so um it can help uh Physicians you know detect that if you will also an early disease detection I would say a good example of that could be in the lung cancer screening uh Arena and helping with early early stage um uh cancer detection for example in that that service line um robotic surgery has come a long way now using AI um uh and surgeons using AI I should say um in minimally invasive procedures um but what it's doing is it's improving the Precision of uh the procedures so for example total joints is is uh really um where we're seeing it used as one example um and then that all helps with patient outcomes right it also helps with um healthc care delivery cost um to the patient and to the organization uh moving forward I would also say from an operational standpoint um predictive uh analytics that comes from uh AI like we talked about in the finance uh Arena also it can uh run in the background on a from a regulatory standpoint uh when it comes to um potentially identifying any fraud uh whether it's with claims denials preventing denials uh so on and so forth billionaires is a really good um example I think we're going to see a lot more uh coming forward in the Rev cycle uh Arena when it comes comes to AI more and more um and then also any dashboard that we have and that we use in healthcare if it's not already using AI in the background coal it's going to um and and that really is going to begin to help us in our operational flows one good example there call is Staffing so how we um manage uh Staffing especially in the qare facilities uh AI will help us predict um you know patient uh ratios to Staffing ratios etc etc because that's been a major pain point right is the Staffing ratio the Staffing shortages you know having to dedicate a charge nurse just to arranging schedules that's have you seen that as a be solved by Ai and your some of your clients the answer is yes it's a huge pain Point um for um our house supervisors for example in the hospitals and what's great about AI is that it will help the house supervisor ERS or those that are managing Staffing um especially in real time uh be able to just highlight where there's opportunities um so it's not just simply looking at a dashboard anymore right a staffing dashboard it'll actually predict and also show uh our team members in healthcare you know where there's opportunity in real time excellent yeah that's that's huge and then so going back your organization does Consulting in a variety of areas and one of those is the quality you help organizations improve their Healthcare quality metrics have you seen firsthand where some of these technological solutions have really leveled up an organization quality we were talking about a few earlier but have you implemented any of those personally yeah so AI um being a part of the EHR really really helps us in predictive um modeling for patient outcomes yes but it's also helping us in uh realtime patient care and predicting um their outcomes while they're there maybe also to help prevent uh readmissions and all of this ties back to the quality of care of patients and their outcomes yes but it also helps our quality departments and our physicians um in that predictive modeling of um what it's seen with other patients yes but then aggregating it for that particular patient in real time so that it's not making the decision for the uh physician that is not at all what I'm saying what I am saying though is that it uses all of the information and Aggregates it in that particular patient um chart and then can um point to uh opportunities for the care team to look at which is huge um for the optimization uh of the patient so a lot of this sounds very convincing and of course a lot of organizations are trying to adopt AI but it's not as easy as signing up for a subscription on the internet right right what are the challenges that people are facing and really what I'm asking is why do we need people like you to help us implement it what are you helping us to overcome you know um we don't know what we don't know and so that's where we come in and help um teams to understand um how AI can help them in their organization you know we we really assess with the teams on the ground around uh where it can most benefit uh them and their patients and their bottom line and we create those customized uh Solutions um where they need the help the most whether it's quality um outcomes for patients and their patient experience or on the finance side or on the operation side like we talked about for example with Staffing and so that is where um we help um you know our clients is where they need the most help and then creating that solution or I should say helping them to implement AI um to to help them um optimize what they need you know the most help in that helps with that Roi right so what you when you come in you found that you know with your of course Consulting fees and everything that it actually gains them a lot of return because they're not doing the shotgun approach they're actually being targeted towards what they really need that's a really a great point because Cole you know we're coming in to um you know to work elbow to Elbow with um them on their particular um on their particular um issue in terms of um what they need to help with the most and so coming away from our engagements uh every organization will have that customized solution that goes on and on and on it's not um a Band-Aid it is it is a solution that will help um them from that cost perspective and and a patient um Quality perspective how do you overcome some of these issues that as a society you know as a healthc Care Society we've really struggled to overcome and I'm I'm talking about data interoperability data access regulatory you know approvals standardization what have you done to help organizations overcome these problems so you know we all know that Healthcare is really complex and it's really uh Dynamic and so you know in in a lot of cases you know it's not just one thing and so that is where we come in as a team of clinical uh experts and also business uh experts to marry all of that together um and be able to look at the current flow and the current situation in in that particular organization and really um help them in um in maybe a technology that they don't have a process that they don't have or a process that just needs to be looked at and um looked at then differently and maybe even implemented and and um and this saving them you know whether it is a financial impact or a patient experience impact and so um you know it's just very very Dynamic and that's why we uh employ experts into you know our clients facilities so that we can do uh that you know work with them how important has it been having a team that consists of not only business professionals process Improvement professionals but also clinicians how important has that been it is well to me it is there's no other way to do it otherwise I'd be doing it differently but but listen what what what benefits um who I should say who who benefits the most here is the patient CU they get that perfect um scenario of clinical meets uh business meets a executive meets um meets people that have actually done this work had these challenges um and they and we help other organizations so it's a perfect marriage to help organizations um maybe they have a lack of resources Cole or maybe they've never done it before um or maybe they just haven't had the opportunity to change and so we can help them do that in a uh way that is customizable but then also is you know friendly to our physicians friendly to our staff in terms of change because change is hard what's one of the just because I'm curious you know what's one of the first steps that you do and that the team does when they get you you get a request from a hospital you know I want to bring AI to my hospital I want to improve my quality or my financial status what what's the first step we spend time with um the key stakeholders to understand really um what they're trying to accomplish what their goals are and then really we um ask those questions um that really dive deep into maybe some of their pain points right and what they're experiencing because uh without that understanding it's really hard to to do an analysis or to make any suggestions so we spend some time on the front end um that is not a charge to the client and really understand um you know what they're trying to accomplish maybe it's a few different things maybe we just need to start with a one uh particular area and then go from there so it's just really really important that we get all of those key stakeholders together Physicians leaders even Frontline staff so overall the implementation just to summarize it's be specific right don't shotgun approach AI be specific be targeted use physician clinician patient stakeholders ask the questions those are all really good advice for for our Hospital administrators what do you think the future is holding for AI where do you think we're going to be heading in the next couple years I think three things the first is AI is not going anywhere and it is uh people like myself and our firm to help educate health care facilities and organizations um and hopefully take the um I guess the being scared about it away right and give some and give some education and purpose to AI second um AI is only going to grow in in more and more areas in the spaces of healthc care we know that it's not going to take um you know Physicians it's not going to take away the need for healthare providers and number three in the next two years and to be very specific we're going to see more and more regulations um and I would say guard rails again in how we're to use Ai and what um what it's really uh intended for and those um those benefits yes that we're going to see out of it but I think in the it Arena there's going to be a lot lot more scrutiny over how AI is used and and where but that makes it more challenging right that makes it so you have to spend more time as an institution you know you'd almost have to have an entire AI department at some of these hospitals right yeah in fact there's um a couple of uh well-known organizations in the US that are actually already starting to hire AI um SE Suite uh Executives yep wow so people are investing in it they see the need for for investment then do you think that it's going to be possible to be competitive especially in markets that are competitive like California and in the Northeast without implementing AI remember AI is helping us in the finance space and so if we are not using it in the finance space to optimize coding and to optimize the recycle um portion of that as well as supply chain and patient outcomes I'm going to 100% say no I have to ask a final question this is also for my personal information you and your organization manage many different things AI is a small piece of it but it applies to so many different areas how do you stay up to date and stay so knowledgeable on this uh it is uh in a few different ways uh talking with industry uh experts research you know it's always uh there's always new um you know stuff studies coming forward um but number three it's really immersing yourself in this critical topic um attending conferences uh just networking and talking with people that are in this realm that have created AI that know where it's going I'm really close to Silicon uh Valley uh folks that um that are literally at The Cutting Edge of creating Ai and optimizing it so those are some of the ways that I keep up to date nice yeah and very impressive and it makes sense why you're so knowledgeable on this you dedicate a lot of your time to it that's impressive uh thank you so much for for coming on and sharing some of these really crucial tips it it looks like we have to start implementing them soon right with the landscape the way it's changing so I really appreciate you sharing this with our audience I'm sure a lot of people are going to find it useful uh you know as they read or listen to the episode thank you Cole</p>