The Digital Patient - Episode 63 - Aaron Hajart: Digital Ecosystems for Patients, Health Literacy & Chatbots

Subscribe on: RSS | SPOTIFY | APPLE PODCAST | GOOGLE | BREAKER | ANCHOR

‍

Audio:

‍

Video:

‍

‍

In this episode of the SeamlessMD Podcast, Dr. Joshua Liu, Co-founder & CEO at SeamlessMD, and marketing colleague, Alan Sardana, chat with Aaron Hajart, Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President for Strategy & innovation at Bergen New Bridge Medical Center, about "Digital Ecosystems for Patients, Health Literacy & Chatbots".

See the full show notes below for details.

‍

Guest(s):

Aaron Hajart, Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President for Strategy & innovation at Bergen New Bridge Medical Center

Dr. Joshua Liu (@joshuapliu), Co-founder & CEO at SeamlessMD

‍

‍Episode 63 – Show notes:

[0:00] Introducing Aaron Hajart, Chief Operating Officer & Senior Vice President for Strategy & Innovation at Bergen New Bridge Medical Center;

[1:42] How Mr. Hajart transitioned from working with professional sports teams as an athletic trainer to leading operations, strategy & innovation for healthcare by a recommendation from a previous mentor at the age of 26;

[4:32] Why Mr. Hajart believes achieving strategic success comes from creative thinking as opposed to critical thinking as it’s focus is not on implementation or improvement, but on achieving alignment between disparate sources; 

[6:25] Why Mr. Hajart advocates for strategic leaders to lead by example, be willing to do what you ask of others, and to have meaningful interactions with your team acknowledging the pressure on their time, and how he was personally running lab tests during COVID-19 to fill in the necessary gaps;

[10:10] Why Mr. Hajart appreciates big data and predictive analytics for its potential impact on the community and how he leveraged reflective analytics examining trends in behavioural access, mental health, and COVID rates to adequately plan services and vaccines for the community;

[13:52] How Mr. Hajart worked on a study led by Dr. Jean Anderson Eloy that identified a gap in patient health literacy for educational materials online and why he believes this gap comes from the providers and staff generally having a higher education than those they are serving and the fact that there’s no way to bill for health literacy changes;

[18:42] Why Mr. Hajart loves chatbots & asynchronous patient care because they are solutions that are patient-centered, low-cost, easily reproducible and documentable, and how the technology would embed within a broader digital health ecosystem that stays with the patient over the continuum of their care;

[25:10] Why Mr. Hajart is excited for a “star trek” future where digital health technology leveraging A.I. can emote to provide empathetic care for patients while providing asynchronous care that unburdens the healthcare provider and allows patients more equitable care;

[26:26] How COVID-19 made Mr. Hajart realize how impactful stress is for those caring for patients as Bergen county was one of the hardest hit counties at the beginning of the pandemic and how it was his responsibility to continue leading and motivating the team one day at a time;

[32:22] Why Mr. Hajart believes mentorship is so important for growth and why it’s important to truly care about the people you are mentoring to foster that growth – even if it’s only for an hour per month;

[35:10] Why Mr. Hajart believes the skills you acquire are more important than your degree and how focusing on creative thinking instead of critical thinking has yielded greater results for his career, explaining “Just because you can think yourself out of a box doesn’t mean it’s a good solution”;

[38:58] Why Mr. Hajart advocates prioritizing your non-work life and creating meaningful relationships outside of work as it impacts your work-life as well;

Fast 5 / Lightning Round:

1. What is your favorite book or book you’ve gifted the most?
   “Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital” by Sheri Fink
   
   
2. If you could only watch/play one sport for the rest of your life, which would it be?
   “Watch: Baseball; Play: Underwater BB stacking – a game he and his brother made when they were young”
   
   
3. Would you rather have Super strength, super speed, or the ability to read people’s minds?
   “Mind reading… Even though it would scare me.”
   ‍
4. What is something in healthcare you believe that others might find insane?
   “I don’t think we have a provider shortage, we just misuse the providers we have and make them ineffective.”
   ‍
5. COVID-19 lockdown related – what is 1 hobby or activity you’ve gotten into since the pandemic?
   “Spending more time with family.”