The Healthcare Mixtape: CIO & CTO Voices

Hema: There is always a drain on resources and finances in healthcare.

Dr Luis: In the United States, we’re facing a major shortage of healthcare workers.

Girish: The biggest challenge about US healthcare is It didn’t focus on health care or caring for health.

Narrator: You just heard from three healthcare leaders addressing some of the most pressing challenges The industry faces today – resource shortages, financial strain, and the disconnect between healthcare and patient care.

Today, healthcare CIOs are stepping up to solve multiple issues using cutting edge technology like AI, telemedicine, and automation To relieve administrative burdens and refocus on what matters most: patient outcomes.

Narrator: Welcome to the Business Resilience Series of the Zinnov Podcast. In this episode, we’ll dive into how these innovations are transforming the healthcare landscape and the pivotal role of CIOs in leading this change. Let’s begin by exploring how technology can relieve some of the burden on healthcare professionals.

The administrative workload in healthcare often reduces the time professionals can spend on patient care. Hema Purohit, Director and CTO of Public Sector and Healthcare at Microsoft for the EMEA region explains how technology from AI to telemedicine is helping ease these burdens and shift the focus back to patients.

Hema: I think that the biggest problem that we have worldwide is resources. So physical labor, to manage the overflow of patients. The enablement of technology and the creation of the hospital of the future, I think is a better way of working. It’s a more intelligent way of working. So we extend out those services that we expect to receive in a physical location out into the home, into the community, into social care.
So the use of that technology of telemedicine, telehealth is going to have a big impact on actually relieving the burden. The use of technology in areas such as emerging tech, so ai, machine learning, et cetera. Where we start to automate tasks that will be very important, so we take away the time that is spent on doing administrative tasks and we start to give back those resources, the time to spend with patients.

Narrator: Technology isn’t just a way to manage resources. It’s a tool that can transform patient experiences. As Girish Venkatachaliah, CTO, agilon Health, points out, the administrative fixes that were meant to improve patient experience have sometimes caused more issues than they’ve solved.

Girish: So I think probably the biggest challenge about us healthcare is really in the title, right. It didn’t focus on healthcare or caring for health. Probably the biggest is that patients, and consumers of healthcare feel like they’re somewhat underserved. That’s probably the number one thing. That we spend a lot and yet in terms of the overall wellness of a population, it seems to still be lagging behind, as you rightly pointed out. Probably the second biggest challenge is that the fixes that people have tried to make this to where the patient experience is better, the wellness is better, have largely caused a lot of administrative overhead and that is putting an incredible burden on physicians who are then, getting crushed under that load. So the manifestation of that, is actually, making things worse, right? Third technology, as you rightly said, can be a real answer to these challenges.

Narrator: While AI is transforming patient care, it’s also playing a critical role in supporting clinicians themselves. Burnout is a growing problem in healthcare, especially with the increasing workload and administrative pressures placed on doctors and nurses. AI is stepping in to alleviate that burden. Amit Phadnis, Chief Innovation Officer at RapidAI, explains how AI tools reduce the time clinicians spend on repetitive tasks like image reading and diagnosis, helping them avoid burnout and stay focused on patient care.

Amit: For it to be really useful for a clinician, for a radiologist, for example, right?
Burnout is a big issue. Okay. So you have to really help them, you know, reduce the time that it takes for them to actually read an image, for example, right? Or be able to diagnose something or write a report. And that requires us to do a lot more than, sort of suspect something, right?
And I think that’s what makes it very, very difficult.

Narrator: The use of real time data and automation is another crucial component in the fight to reduce healthcare inefficiencies. Michelle Greene, CIO of Cardinal Health, outlines logistics how data-driven logistics are improving the speed and accuracy of care.

Michelle Greene: We pull real time logistics data is critical to healthcare providers, cost savings, not just producing but distributing. How are we making sure that we get things to patients quicker, easier, faster? How are people able to track where orders are? I mean, these are all things that seem like they just should run in the background, but it takes effort. It takes energy. We have to make sure that our teams are pulling the right type of information and making it available for our customers, for our providers, for our suppliers and for our business. When you start thinking about patient care, that’s an important thing. You really could change or alter life for a patient. You could change or alter healing for a patient, getting them medication, making sure that our partners get what they need.

Narrator: Another significant issue is the shortage of healthcare workers. Dr. Luis Taveras ex plains how automation can make existing staff more efficient, which is crucial given the limited number of healthcare workers.

Dr Luis: In the United States, we’re facing a major, major shortage of healthcare workers. And part of the solution, not the entire solution, but a good part of that solution is how do we bring automation into the processes so that we can make the people that we do have much more efficient and therefore not require as many people, which we can’t get anyway, right? So we are a big part of the solution to the shortages that we’re facing across all healthcare workers. That’s really big. So that’s one challenge. The second challenge is just, people need to change the perception of IT as a partner, not as somebody you’re going to give orders to. So that transformation to the partnership, it’s absolutely critical in moving forward and creating this high performance organization.

Narrator: Looking forward, the concept of intelligent hospitals is becoming a reality. Hema Purohit shares her vision of how technology will reshape healthcare delivery from faster diagnoses to better patient outcomes.

Hema: So for me, the intelligent hospital is where technology will be enabled from the ground up. And it will be there to, ensure that we have faster diagnosis, faster treatment, better outcomes for patients, and we overall we’re going to improve the quality of life. So I think there’s lots of scope and lots of potential there. I think if we look at Saudi Arabia, we look at Abu Dhabi, they have resources available, they have technology available, and they have the desire to go and want to do this, right? So you will already see. Some amazing examples already there of hospitals that are very intelligent and very smart, and I think they’re very advanced. If we come back to the UK and Europe, I think there are hospitals in pockets that are doing individually things that could be classified as intelligent. So I think probably over the next sort of five years plus, we will start to see more facilities adapted to become intelligent.

I would love to see some technology really being used to, reduce waiting times, get people better faster, become more predictive, but also to become more efficient. there is always a drain on resources and finances in, in healthcare, and actually I think technology can help to contribute to bring that down.

Narrator: One of the most exciting developments in healthcare technology is the rise of AI driven medical interventions. From diagnostic tools to treatment plans, it’s revolutionizing how healthcare providers deliver care offering faster and more accurate solutions. In the past years, significant progress with the FDA approving several AI driven tools and techniques.

Girish talks about how AI has advanced and why the future of healthcare will be heavily influenced by these technologies.

Girish: So there has been a lot of talk around. technology not being impactful in healthcare, but over the last, I’ll say three years, you’ve seen a lot of AI driven medical interventions actually bearing fruit where FDA has approved things that are AI driven and 100% AI driven, right? Whether it’s detecting something from an ophthalmology standpoint or all the way to, mental health issues or any number of those. You’re seeing actually where the entire protocol is, technology-based, which has never existed ever before and FDA approving it is a non-trivial thing.

So as much as technology is being impactful in just about everything in like speeding up drug development, as you rightly pointed out or analyzing a patient genome much faster, technology has been impactful. But purely having a technology driven medical intervention I think is a new frontier that I’m supremely jazzed about.

Narrator: At the heart of these technological innovations are healthcare CIOs. Dr. Luis Taveras discusses how the CIO’s role has evolved from maintaining systems to leading transformative change in healthcare organizations.

Dr Luis: How do we take this time to engage the leadership in the organizations to develop a plan to take us from where we are today to a highly operational excellence environment, and ultimately to a high performance organization in a five to seven year period? So in that first 90 days, you have to really build the foundation for that five to seven year journey that you’re going to take as a CIO in any organization. So a part of that 90 day is changing the discussion because the way that it’s looked like is IT is a cost center.

How much are we spending in IT? We have to change the way that we speak about it. And the way that I want people to phrase it is: how much are we investing in IT? It’s an investment that we’re making. And if you’re making an investment, you expect a return in two ways in healthcare. One is value to the organization. And second, and most important, is improvement in patient care. What are the outcomes that we’re going to drive for our patients that are better than they are today if you make this investment in this IT solution. So the nomenclature, the key buzzwords that we use have to change and the way that we think from an IT perspective has to change. We’re not just delivering a solution because somebody says here’s what we need to do. We’re delivering a solution because it has value both to the organization and to the patients and their families.

Narrator: As we wrap up today’s episode, we’ve witnessed how AI and automation are revolutionizing the healthcare landscape. These technologies are more than mere tools, they’re catalysts for meaningful change that enhance patient outcomes and reduce the burdens faced by healthcare professionals. Healthcare CIOs stand at the forefront of This transformation leading initiatives that prioritize both technological advancements and the human experience in care. Their leadership is pivotal in creating environments where innovation thrives and patient care is truly at the center of every decision.