TDP 107: MEDITECH's COO, Helen Waters: Redesigning The EHR From The Ground Up, Leading With Boldness and Humility, and Utilizing LLMs and NLP to Empower Clinicians With Informed Decisions

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On this episode of "The Digital Patient" podcast, hosts Alan Sardana & Dr. Joshua Liu speak with Helen Waters, COO at MEDITECH, about "Redesigning The EHR From The Ground Up, Leading With Boldness and Humility, Utilizing LLMs and NLP to Empower Clinicians With Informed Decisions, and more..." Click the play button to listen or read the show notes below.
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Audio:

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Video:

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Guest(s):

• Helen Waters (@HelenMEDITECH), Chief Operating Officer at MEDITECH
• Dr. Joshua Liu (@joshuapliu), Co-founder & CEO at SeamlessMD

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‍Episode 107 - Show Notes:

[00:02:00] Why Ms. Waters was drawn to health tech due to early experiences in a community-based hospital, where she witnessed hospital operations and interactions with patients and families, fueled by her family's healthcare background and people-oriented nature, and upon joining MEDITECH, she saw the potential of technology to enhance healthcare experiences for patients and providers, driving her goal to combine the human side of healthcare delivery with technology, ultimately improving the overall healthcare experience for everyone involved;

[00:04:00] How the team at MEDITECH is special; composed of wonderful, committed, and passionate individuals who deeply care about healthcare, work together in a supportive culture that transcends divisions, and are inspired by their customers, making the company and its culture fit for success;

[00:06:08] How Expanse, MEDITECH’s next-generation EHR, differs from previous MEDITECH versions, with its complete, sophisticated, and person-centered approach, leveraging revamped architecture, technology, and UI, paving the way for a promising future in healthcare;

[00:08:00] How Expanse has reimagined the experience, shifting to person-centered care, and making the system easier to use and access for patients and clinicians, resulting in a proud and prepared team dedicated to building for the next decade and beyond, positively impacting the industry;

[00:09:06] How MEDITECH’s approach to redesigning Expanse required a shift from a technology-driven focus to a healthcare technology company by engaging with intended users and continuously improving the platform;

[00:12:22] Why Ms. Waters believes MEDITECH’s success in Canada–with over 50% of the hospital market share–is attributed to their long-standing presence, strong customer relationships, patience, and innovative solutions tailored to the unique needs of the Canadian healthcare system;

[00:15:43] How MEDITECH leverages partnerships with external solutions to enhance patient and provider experiences at the point of care, recognizing the importance of continuous innovation and remaining open to integrating with proven, external innovators like SeamlessMD and others while maintaining Expanse as the strong core platform for digital healthcare;

[00:18:00] How embracing openness and humility in the process to creating Expanse ultimately allowed for greater flexibility in a fast-paced technology landscape and positions them as a leader in cloud-hosted solutions;

[00:18:45] Why MEDITECH aims to cultivate a vibrant and thriving ecosystem of positive innovation and augmentation for their EHR, supporting their customers to integrate and benefit from valuable innovations while continuously improving the Expanse platform;

[00:18:58] How MEDITECH has partnered with Google Health to improve clinician workflows, combat burnout and staff shortages, rehumanize healthcare, and enhance the care delivery process through the integration of a fast and efficient search within their electronic health record;

[00:20:00] Why Ms. Waters is excited for the partnership's potential, particularly in utilizing Large Learning Models (LLMs) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) to intelligently search and surface information from diverse sources, including live, legacy, and third-party systems, including non-discreet text and even handwriting, mapped into the database, to ultimately reduce the burden of information hunting and empowering clinicians to make more informed decisions, faster;

[00:22:16] How, in 2022, significant progress was made in coding and delivering an advanced solution to customers, receiving an extraordinary response from physicians,  and how MEDITECH had been exploring AI and LLMs using Google’s previous BERT model for some time now, with the integration aiming to streamline access to patient information and alleviate the burden of information management;

[00:22:48] Why MEDITECH chose the name "Expanse" for their platform, signifying uninterrupted space and symbolizing a person's life and healthcare journey;

[00:24:20] How MEDITECH approaches the rollout of breakthrough technologies, such as LLMs and generative AI, thoughtfully and deliberately, working closely with their partners;

[00:28:23] The value of gender diversity in MEDITECH’s executive team and the importance of recognizing and embracing the unique perspectives women bring to leadership, encouraging organizations to invest in strong leaders regardless of gender to effectively address challenges and seize opportunities;

[00:30:00] Why Ms. Waters advises women in health IT to embrace the exhilarating and human-centric healthcare industry, encouraging those who are curious, embrace change, and seek challenges to pursue technical roles, idea generation, and potential healthcare opportunities, as they have much to offer in the dynamic and rewarding field;

[00:32:15] How MEDITECH prioritizes customer feedback for their product roadmap through formal forums, advisory committees, networking, and research, leveraging their experienced technical team, active presence in the field, and "solution streams" to make agile decisions based on customer needs, market demands, and industry research;

[00:35:48] Why Ms. Waters invests time participating in social media discourse due to her passion for the subject matter, desire to learn and share perspectives, and enjoyment in hearing different views from others, viewing social media as a digital town square for exchanging ideas and enlightening each other on various topics and opinions, while embracing new platforms to stay ahead in the digital landscape despite time limitations and account management challenges;

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‍Fast 5 / Lightning Round:

1. What is your favorite book or book you’ve gifted the most?
   "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch

2. Who is a person–dead or alive–you’d love to meet?
   "Franklin Roosevelt"
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3. Would you rather have Super strength, super speed, or the ability to read people’s minds?
   "Super speed"
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4. What is something in healthcare you believe that others might find insane?
   "How manual and inefficient certain processes are in healthcare"
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5. If you could travel back in time to any event or moment, what would it be and why?
   Meet her ancestors; learn about their lives, understand their similarities and differences, and the adversities they faced prior to immigrating to the United States.