The Digital Patient Ep. 78: Sara Vaezy: How Providence Ideates, Incubates & Spins Out Health Tech Startups and Creating Personalized Omni-Channel Consumer Experiences

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On this episode of "The Digital Patient" podcast, hosts Alan Sardana & Dr. Joshua Liu speak with Sara Vaezy, Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy and Digital Officer at Providence, about "How Providence Ideates, Incubates & Spins Out Health Tech Startups, Creating Personalized Omni-Channel Consumer Experiences & Leveraging Digital Transformation to Evolve Policy". 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):

• Sara Vaezy, Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy and Digital Officer at Providence
• Dr. Joshua Liu (@joshuapliu), Co-founder & CEO at SeamlessMD

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‍Episode 78 - Show Notes:

[0:00] Introducing Sara Vaezy, Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy and Digital Officer at Providence;

[2:00] How Ms. Vaezy got into Digital Health serendipitously after meeting Aaron Martin, founder of Providence’s Digital Innovation Group;

[04:48] How Ms. Vaezy’s career was not a straight line; she grew up in a healthcare-focused household, began her career as a research scientist for a medical device company, which lead to her fascination with how systems work regarding innovation and transformation, got her MHA and MPH before delving into consulting and left consulting for Providence because she wanted to truly own the transformation efforts & results;

[07:30] Why Ms. Vaezy believes digital transformation and healthcare policy share the common element of change management, and why she believes digital is fundamentally different and can therefore influence policy;

[09:38] Why Ms. Vaezy and the team at Providence reject the notion of a single digital front door–explaining there are ever-expanding digital front doors for a health system–and why she advocates for health systems to be present in as many channels as possible to be where consumers are and to personalize the experience;

[12:25] Why Providence spins out health tech startups so they can solve market problems while freeing up the business to take advantage of funding opportunities and solve problems at scale;

[16:30] How Providence ideates and incubates an innovation by sourcing problems internally and externally, interviewing tons of people, and creating a thesis around the problem and solution; 

[22:45] Why Ms. Vaezy is grateful for Aaron Martin who first instilled the entrepreneurial spirit within the Digital Innovation Group, and how an openness to learning has paved the way for the group to continue evolving overtime;

[25:05] How the nature of Providence’s Digital Innovation Group has evolved overtime to include multidisciplinary teams responsible for the entire consumer-patient continuum;

[26:57] Why Ms. Vaezy believes communication is paramount to the success of the Digital Innovation Group–specifically being clear on goals, connecting goals to the health system’s mission, and engaging clinicians during product development on a regular cadence;

[29:22] Why Providence is hyper-focused on Identity-driven engagement, where consumer experiences are personalized using middleware software between the consumer and the EMR, which is removing friction and fragmentation;

[35:00] Why collaboration is necessary for healthcare innovation because massive disruption is needed in order to change policy;

[37:15] Why Ms. Vaezy and the team at Providence do not shy away from innovation despite facing regulatory challenges as she believes current business models are not working and healthcare will have to lean in to tackle it head first;

[41:42] Why Ms. Vaezy believes Digital Health Transformation is in its infancy and how Providence is currently addressing specific barriers to access including multi-lingual support and SMS text messaging to accommodate individuals in low-bandwidth environments;

[43:10] Why Ms. Vaezy is most excited about the innovative work being done in the Digital Identities space as it is the steak, not the sizzle–unlocking personalized experiences and identity-driven engagement;

[44:30] Why Sara started Yeah Boy Hot Sauce–a handcrafted, all-natural hot sauce company–after she and her husband discovered a particularly delicious hot sauce while traveling (and promptly reverse engineering the sauce at home);

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Fast 5 / Lightning Round:

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1. What is your favorite book or book you’ve gifted the most?
   “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy
   
   

2. Were you at one point planning to pursue a career in music? What instrument?
   “Piano until I realized my hands were too small to play professionally.”
   
   
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?
   “I believe we need to completely break down how we pay for care… I don’t think value-based care is the answer.”
   
   

5. COVID-19 lockdown related – what is 1 hobby or activity you’ve gotten into since the pandemic?
   “Experimenting with cooking new foods and taking care of plants!”