The Digital Patient Ep. 69: Dr. Denise Basow: From Editor-in-Chief of UpToDate to Ochsner Health's Chief Digital Officer, Re-building Consumer Trust Following COVID-19 & Generating Meaningful Patient Insights from Data to Disrupt Inefficient Workflows

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On this episode of "The Digital Patient" podcast, hosts Alan Sardana & Dr. Joshua Liu speak with Dr. Denise Basow, Chief Digital Officer at Ochsner Health, about her journey "From Editor-in-Chief of UpToDate to Ochsner Health's Chief Digital Officer, Re-building Consumer Trust Following COVID-19 & Generating Meaningful Patient Insights from Data to Disrupt Inefficient Workflows." Click the play button to listen or read the show notes below.
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Audio:

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Video:

Guest(s):

• Dr. Denise Basow, Chief Digital Officer at Ochsner Health
• Dr. Joshua Liu (@joshuapliu), Co-founder & CEO at SeamlessMD

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‍Episode 69 - Show Notes:

[0:00] Introducing Dr. Denise Basow, Chief Digital Officer at Ochsner Health;

[2:18] Why Dr. Basow left Wolters Kluwer to join Ochsner Health recognizing the “wet lab” nature of a health system where one can combine technology with care teams to directly impact patients and care models;

[3:30] How Dr. Basow learned three key principles for building healthcare products while developing UpToDate:

1. Product has to serve a specific need
2. Product has to be easy to use
3. Product has to be high quality to earn physician trust

[4:50] Why UpToDate hired expert clinicians to maintain its reputation as a product built by clinicians for clinicians and because they truly understood the problems clinicians face;

 [5:50] Why Dr. Basow decided to keep UpToDate as one product instead of individual specialties despite the pressure to chop it up because she understood that patients do not always fit nicely into one box;

[8:40] Why Dr. Basow believes healthcare has encountered a “productivity paradox” — term coined by Nobel prize-winning economist, Robert Solow— wherein we’ve invested heavily into technology such as the EHR and productivity has initially gone down, and how Dr. Bob Wachter, Chair of UCSF Department of Medicine, outlined a 2-part solution to unlock the paradox:

1. Tech gets better; and
2. We reimagine the workflow

 [11:15] Why Dr. Basow prefers to focus on the broader Virtual Care as opposed to the popular subset Telemedicine as she sees a larger opportunity in reimagining the workflow with technology that includes asynchronous processes and data;

[13:09] How Dr. Basow builds urgency within Ochsner Health by communicating the inevitability of care process disruption and the benefits of disrupting themselves;

[15:55] Why Dr. Basow is laser-focused on finding niches within the health system to dog-food digital disruption in smaller teams before bringing the successes back to the system as it allows her to be more agile while recognizing the significant change management required to disrupt the entire system;

[17:10] Why Dr. Basow believes health systems and technology companies are more similar than we’d expect as they are both providing “products” and why she hopes imparting a “product culture” can help Ochsner innovate more rapidly;

[21:00] Why Dr. Basow believes public mistrust of their health system is a lasting impact from COVID and how there will be a journey of transparency to rebuild this trust;

[27:45] Why Dr. Basow is excited about data and how it can and will be used to transform every aspect of the healthcare industry;

[30:10] Why Dr. Basow believes value-based care will be the tipping point to drive technology adoption as bending the cost curve can only happen within a value-based model;

[33:33] Why Dr. Basow believes developing meaningful insights from data is the next step for health systems on their digital transformation journeys; 

[35:23] Why Dr. Basow recommends digital leaders in healthcare to broaden their aperture on what “telehealth” encompasses and to focus on reimagining workflows and care models;

[38:28] How Dr. Basow uses fear-setting to her advantage, taking calculated risks in her career, thoughtfully acknowledging the potential failure;

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‍Fast 5 / Lightning Round:

1. What is your favorite book or book you’ve gifted the most?
   The audio version of "Born a Crime" by Trevor Noah
2. How has an apparent failure set you up for greater success?
   Not listening to my gut when I was a resident — turning down a patient from the ICU because she was pressured to not fill the last bed.
3. Would you rather have Super strength, super speed, or the ability to read people’s minds?
   “Super speed.”
4. What is something in healthcare you believe that others might find insane?
   “I am optimistic that we are going to bring the joy back to healthcare.”
5. COVID-19 lockdown related – what is 1 hobby or activity you’ve gotten into since the pandemic?
   “BIRDS!”