TDP 89: Former CommonSpirit Chief Information and Digital Officer Suja Chandra: Emerging Digital Health Trends, The potential for AI in healthcare, and How Big Tech is influencing Digital Health

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On this episode of "The Digital Patient" podcast, hosts Alan Sardana & Dr. Joshua Liu speak with Suja Chandra, Global Chief Executive and former Chief Information & Digital Officer at CommonSpirit health, about "Emerging Digital Health Trends, The potential for AI in healthcare, Big Tech's influence on Digital Health, 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):

• Suja Chandra (@sujachandra), Global Chief Executive and former Chief Information & Digital Officer at CommonSpirit Health
• Dr. Joshua Liu (@joshuapliu), Co-founder & CEO at SeamlessMD

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‍Episode 89 - Show Notes:

[00:00] Introducing Suja Chandra, Chief Global Executive and former Chief Information & Digital Officer at CommonSpirit Health;

[1:08] How Ms. Chandra’s journey began as a software engineer and progressed into business technology and operations roles in retail and consumer-centered industries, with a focus on providing access, convenience, transparency of pricing, and enabling both internal and external processes for efficiency and productivity, as well as new revenue sources and product innovation;

[02:42] Why Ms. Chandra got into healthcare to be more purpose-driven after recognizing prevalent trends such as the consumerization of healthcare, the rise of wearables, the growth of digital health funding and technologies such as remote patient monitoring, personalized medicine, and AI;

[05:41] How big tech is playing different roles in the industry such as Google, offering the cloud and AI for drug discovery, Microsoft playing a nuanced role, and Amazon exploring direct care delivery; 

[08:00] Why health systems are challenged to create equitable experiences for all consumers including tech-native and non-tech-savvy patients;

[11:51] Why healthcare suffers from limited interoperability and application of advanced techniques to parse the corpus of data, everything from handwritten notes to equipment in an intensive care unit, leading to varying data models;

[13:00] How radiologists are overwhelmed by the number of images they have to review, and how the mindset shift towards AI is happening, with radiologists now seeing it as a meaningful assistant, despite its infancy;

[15:40] How Ms. Chandra believes AI is, and will continue to, transform healthcare in regards to drug discovery, precision medicine, prediction, prevention and management of patient care;

[19:20] Why Ms. Chandra emphasizes the importance of being careful when using patient data in AI algorithms in healthcare and the need to personalize the patient journey through the use of this data, noting that the industry is still in its early stages of development;

[20:17] Why Ms. Chandra advocates for the rule of 70/20/10 – where 70% of focus should be on operational excellence, 20% on transformation and 10% on moonshots – that it is contextually-driven by the current situation in the US;

[21:22] How Ms. Chandra built a four-clover strategy at CommonSpirit Health for embracing digital health, including: digital patient engagement, virtual health offerings, digital therapeutics, and integrations;

[22:42] How Ms. Chandra focuses on four variables for value in a value-based care context (better outcome at lower cost): quality and safety, access, cost and transparency of price, and engagement on both the patient and provider side;

[25:00] Why Ms. Chandra believes a mindset shift is the first step in a digital transformation, then building with the cloud and investing in identity management, the Internet of things, AI/ML, and focusing on the human aspect of the organization;

[26:33] Why Ms. Chandra believes the entire healthcare ecosystem has to come together and play – not a single category of people – and work through their differences, focusing on patient and putting the patient at the center;

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Fast 5 / Lightning Round:

1. What is your favorite book or book you’ve gifted the most?
   “Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back If You Lose It” by Marshall Goldsmith

2. Who is a person–dead or alive–you’d love to meet?
   “Ruth Bader Ginsburg"
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3. Would you rather have Super strength, super speed, or the ability to read people’s minds?
   “Mind reading”
   

4. What is something in healthcare you believe that others might find insane?
   “That it took a global pandemic to get everyone in healthcare to collaborate.”
   

5. COVID-19 lockdown related – what is 1 hobby or activity you’ve gotten into since the pandemic?
   “My mindset totally changed… More appreciation for life, realized the importance of resilience and supporting people, and have become more open and vulnerable to their emotions, acknowledging the importance of mental and emotional health for themselves, their family, their communities, and for humanity in general.”