TDP 115: Vanderbilt's CIO, HealthIT, Dr. Neal Patel: Pragmatic Views on AI and Why Virtual Nursing Will Be as Ubiquitous as WiFi

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On this episode of "The Digital Patient" podcast, hosts Alan Sardana & Dr. Joshua Liu speak with Dr. Neal Patel, Chief Information Officer of Health IT at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, about "Pragmatic Views on AI, Why Virtual Nursing Will Be as Ubiquitous as WiFi, 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):

• Dr. Neal Patel, Chief Information Officer, HealthIT at Vanderbilt University Medical Center
• Dr. Joshua Liu (@joshuapliu), Co-founder & CEO at SeamlessMD

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‍Episode 115 - Show Notes:

[00:01:08] Why Dr. Patel chose medicine and pediatric critical care and how he first got involved with computer systems in healthcare as a resident skeptical of physician order entry;

[00:03:27] How Dr. Patel attended a user conference and realized that many hospitals were using physician order entry systems and how this led to a role as clinical systems liaison and presenting for the first time at HIMSS in 1996;

[00:04:49] How Dr. Patel landed at Vanderbilt, where they had a prolific informatics department and their own system;

[00:05:25] How Dr. Patel learned from, and collaborated with, Dr. Stead to develop pediatric dosing for medications and an infusion calculator, leading to the adoption of CPOE;

[00:06:40] Why there aren't many critical care doctors leading digital and IT roles in healthcare;

[00:07:22] How being an ICU physician and understanding the dynamic relationships between different stakeholders and treatment approaches can be beneficial in leading digital and IT roles

[00:08:55] How Vanderbilt transitioned from their homegrown EHR to Epic as the main EHR system with tightly coupled bolt-ons and domain-specific applications;

[00:09:30] How Vanderbilt designed their integration architecture to allow for the transition to Epic without affecting other systems;

[00:12:00] How Dr. Patel learned change management from failures and why he believes it’s critical to consider the perspective and workflow of each member of the care team, not just the physician;

[00:13:35] Why Dr. Patel believes the technology for virtual nursing, such as cameras and two-way video capabilities, will become table stakes in smart rooms, similar to the way Wi-Fi infrastructure is embedded in hospitals today;

[00:17:00] Why Dr. Patel believes that leveraging technology to reduce burden and optimize workflows can actually keep frontline clinicians more engaged at the bedside;

[00:18:00] A reference to Taylor Swift;

[00:19:00] How Dr. Patel keeps his team motivated and focused on the things that matter in digital transformation by emphasizing the importance of providing feedback on the impact their work is having and showing them how their solutions are being manifested in real life;

[00:20:00] How Dr. Patel rounds with his technical team in the care environment to help his team see the direct impact they have on patients;

[00:22:00] How bringing IT teams into the clinical environment helps them understand the context and challenges faced by clinicians, leading to better collaboration;

[00:23:00] How Vanderbilt designed their self-check-in and centralized welcome desk model to free up healthcare providers so they can focus on complex tasks and patient care;

[00:26:45] Why security posture is important for new digital solutions, and how startups need to demonstrate robustness and withstand rigorous testing;

[00:29:00] Calculating the true cost of ownership for a new initiative;

[00:29:44] Dr. Patel’s beliefs about how AI can be useful in aggregating and summarizing data, and the importance of differentiating between different types of AI and educating ourselves about them;

[00:33:44] Why Dr. Patel believes healthcare needs to take a stepwise approach and evaluate the effectiveness of large language models before moving forward;

[00:37:00] The importance of understanding the nuances and complexities of determining ROI for digital technologies;

[00:38:50] Why digital tools must align with institutional goals and help achieve them;.

[00:41:39] Meeting President George W. Bush;