HIMSS Accelerate Health Podcast

In the first episode of 2022, the Accelerate Health team again turns the microphone over to a guest host for the second installment of our three-part series on Nursing Informatics. In this episode, Regina Wysocki, Senior Clinical Informatics Specialist at Texas Children's Hospital and member of the HIMSS Nursing Informatics Committee interviews her colleague Kaitlin Perera, a Clinical Informatics Specialist at Texas Children's.Kaitlin tells us about her journey from nursing into the informatics specialty, and tells a tale relatable to many IT professionals: an interest and knack for using technology helped her become a super-user of a new system, and that first step opened up a whole new career path.Kaitlin talks about her first-hand experience with some of the core issues facing clinicians, including moving between hospitals that use different EHRs and losing accumulated super-user experience and the efficiency that it brings. Later in the interview, Regina and Kaitlin discuss continuing education and how there comes a level in one's career where some advanced training or an advanced degree in informatics becomes a requirement.Finally, the interview explores a bit about how individuals can help drive change within an organization and how technology is becoming pervasive in healthcare and is increasingly at the center of the care experience.

In this episode, we begin a three-part exploration of Nursing Informatics as a career and a profession. The series begins with Dr. Angela Ross interviewing Dr. Nelita Iuppa about her career path and trajectory in nursing informatics. Health and medical informatics is the science of how to use data, information, and knowledge to improve human health and the delivery of health care services. Both Dr. Ross and Dr. Iuppa are members of the HIMSS Nursing Informatics Community Steering Committee.This series is intended to highlight the roles of informaticists in clinical care and highlight the critical need for informaticists as healthcare continues its digital transformation. Nurse informaticists play a critical role in healthcare's digital transformation, continuing their traditional role as the primary human interface between patients and the rest of the healthcare system. No other career offers an opportunity to so directly apply technology in a compassionate and patient-centered way.Dr. Iuppa begins by reminding us that, while technology can be learned, nurse informaticists bring their clinical skills and compassion to their roles in ways that other informaticists can't. Dr. Iuppa describes her education and the path she took to her current role, including early formal education that laid a foundation for building her career. She discusses the role of mentors and mentoring, and how important it is to care for the colleagues around you.The episode concludes with a discussion of some of the challenges that nurses can face in an informatics career and also the joys of having a dual role in the exciting frontier of technology alongside the traditional caring role that nurses everywhere fill.

In this episode, host Rob Havasy speaks with Israel Krush, the co-founder and CEO of Hyro.ai, a company producing AI-based conversation agent technology. Hyro was a featured company in the HIMSS 21 startup showcase, but came to Rob's attention when he saw a large sign at the Hyro booth that said, "Chatbots Suck!" Intrigued, he struck up a conversation and this interview is the ultimate result.The interview begins with a founder's lesson in managing complexity as Israel discusses standardizing their model around one single EHR system with the right integration points, rather than struggling to manage complex integrations while also trying to perfect conversation AI technology.The conversation then turns to the evolution of conversation agent tech - from its early research in the first part of the 2000s to its growing deployment in call centers today. Part of this is understanding the role of emotions in guiding the outcome of human-to-human conversations versus human-to-machine conversations, including the understanding that chatbots, by and large, are focused on a task and aren't distracted or swayed by emotional connections to the callers they interact with.The conversation winds up by taking a look at how COVID not only changed the demand for tools like conversation agents among hospitals but whether or not changing workforce pressures have made permanent changes to the market dynamics. Then about how hospitals can use effective and efficient agents to demonstrate to patients that they have competent IT systems. And it ends with an anecdote about what voice styles might prove to be more effective in real lif use.

In this episode, Jonathan Kumar, the CEO of Samaritan joins host Kerry Amato and gives us a view of Samaritan's work to help homeless individuals access services.Jonathan begins with a description of the platform that Samaritan has created to match individuals in need with services and the support of giving individual samaritans who pledge their direct help, including a description of the organizations they partner with to reach the most vulnerable individuals. He continues with a success story from the first user of the Samaritan platform and what the definition of success really is when working with populations living on society's margins.The conversation then turns to Samaritan as a company and discusses a bit about their recent deal with United Healthcare and a bit about the economics that make Samaritan's business model possible. It then turns to leadership and some challenges and lessons from navigating Samaritan through the pandemic.The interview closes with a bit of advice from Jonathan about how to pursue an idea and the unique blending of not-for-profit and for-profit interests that make the Samaritan platform unique.

On this week's episode of the Accelerate Health podcast, Kerry Amato speaks with Paul Riser Jr., the Managing Director of Technology-Based Entrepreneurship at TechTown Detroit. TechTown Detroit  Detroit’s entrepreneurship hub that is a non-profit business service organization that provides programs, education and resources for early- to -growth-stage small businesses and tech entrepreneurs. Paul discusses the reasons why healthcare innovation is a huge economic producer and  the importance of reinvesting back into your community resources to grow a more connected and inclusive world. 

On this week's episode of the Accelerate Health podcast, Rob Havasy invites Alex Gao, Founder and Head of the Digital Health Lab for Samsung Research America to talk with him about how consumer device companies are forging a path of true and effective innovation in the healthcare space. Alex discussed the advances Samsung has made branching into the healthcare industry and focusing on technology that champions for consumer empowered health. 

On this week's episode, Mary Sheridan, Senior Manager of Accelerate Health fills in for our own Kerry Amato. She speaks with Dr. Nikhil Wagle, Medical Oncologist at Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and the Director of Count Me In, a nonprofit organization aimed at making it possible for cancer patients anywhere in the United States and Canada to be partners, rather than just statistics,  in cancer research. Dr. Wagle explains how this novel approach of going straight to the patients has broken down traditional barriers within cancer research and allowed for faster analysis of patient data and therapies. When patients stand together with researchers, they can unlock new discoveries and treatments. To learn more about the Count Me In Project or sign up yourself if you are a patient, click here.

On a special edition of the Accelerate Health podcast,  we continue our series of spotlights on unique digital health startups that are changing the face of healthcare.This week, we speak to Anshu Sharma, Co-Founder and CEO of Skyflow. Inspired by the data vaults built internally by companies like Apple, Google and Netflix that spend tens of millions of dollars on privacy, Skyflow has built a zero trust data vault that any health IT company can put into production in a few hours or days. The new vault is delivered as a cloud API, allowing healthcare software teams to innovate more rapidly without worrying about patient privacy, data security, or HIPAA and other regulatory concerns. In the wake of COVID-19, Anshu shares with us how this type of security is needed now more than ever as we develop more virtual care technologies and patients' information is being shared on digital platforms in exchange for services and goods.  Learn more about Skyflow, click here.

On this week's episode, Indu Subaiya speaks with caregiver champion Alexandra Drane, CEO and Co-Founder of ARCHAngels, ARCHANGELS is a national movement and a platform that is reframing how caregivers are seen, honored, and supported using a combination of data and stories. They discuss the need for more vulnerable conversations around unpaid caregivers and the support that they need, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Alex delves into the positive effects on the bottom line if companies start to "operationalize  kindness" and hire more caregivers for there resiliency and strength.  She also speaks to a national study released recently in partnership with the CDC to examine the major influx of caregivers in the world due to COVID-19 and how mental health symptoms and suicidal thoughts among unpaid caregivers have skyrocketed.  ARCHANGELS utilizes their ARCHANGELS Caregiver Intensity IndexTM as a revolutionary tool to evaluate the drivers of mental health symptoms in caregivers.To learn more about ARCHAngels and their incredible work, click here

On a special edition of the Accelerate Health podcast,  we continue our series of spotlights on unique digital health startups that are changing the face of healthcare.This week, we speak to Eli Harris, Co-Founder and President of R-Zero.  R-Zero  is the first biosafety technology company dedicated to making the indoor spaces we share safer, healthier and more productive. Their technologies help reduce the spread of all infectious diseases while simplifying the processes and reporting that goes with it. Eli shares how their technology grew out of a need to modernize the sanitizing practices of businesses when COVID-19 first emerged and how the need for easy and efficient sanitizing has become the norm now for all industries moving forward.   Learn more about R-Zero, click here.

On a special edition of the Accelerate Health podcast,  we continue our series of spotlights on unique digital health startups that are changing the face of healthcare. This week, we speak to Aaron Bours, Vice President of Marketing for Hyro.AI.  Founded by former Google employees, Hyro is a Conversational AI company that uses natural language and computational linguistics to turn complex content into simple dialogue. Developed as a plug & play solution, Hyro automatically stands up voice assistants, chatbots and virtual agents that help can help providers streamline their conversations with patients. Aaron walks us through how the platform uses AI to evolve its dialogue over time with its users, their timely and effective approach to addressing their clients needs during the pandemic, and how adaptive communications are the future of replacing  intent-based chatbots and IVRs in healthcare. To learn more about Hyro.AI, click here

On this week's episode, Executive Director for Healthcare Innovation, Kerry Amato interviews Dr. Keri Althoff, Associate Professor of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and featured contributor on CNN and Bloomberg. Dr. Althoff and Kerry discuss the impact COVID-19 has had on the healthcare industry and the current measures taken to collect data to fight the variants.  They talk about how the integration of vaccine and testing data needs to be streamlined to foster research advancements and how essential  and fast-acting the use of contact-tracing is to truly end the pandemic and to stop further outbreaks. The development of tech to help support these efforts extends beyond COVID but to future infectious diseases that have yet been revealed.They close out their conversation by discussing Dr. Althoff's appreciation for AI applications within healthcare such as reducing the burden on provider and healthcare system resources and monitoring the long-term effects on COVID patients.

On a special edition of the Accelerate Health podcast,  we continue our series of spotlights on unique digital health startups that are changing the face of healthcare.This week, we speak to Dr. Sandeep Jain, Founder and CEO of ListenMD.  ListenMD is a  Distraction-Free communications platform that  gives doctors the power to control their time, reduce interruptions to put patient care first. ListenMD breaks down the walls between doctors across practices, hospitals and specialty clinics while maintaining full HIPAA compliance. Dr. Jain explains as a practicing physician himself, how this platform truly breaks down barriers between providers to advance the quality of patient care. He discusses how his platform pivoted to help the exchange of information travel quicker and reach doctors globally during the onset of COVID and how he hopes the integration of EHRs and distraction-free messaging is on the horizon to get one step closer to achieve interoperability for all. To learn more about ListenMD, click here

On a special edition of the Accelerate Health podcast,  we continue our series of spotlights on unique digital health startups that are changing the face of healthcare. This week, we speak to Dr. Marc Gruner, Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer for Limber Health.  Developed by doctors in sports medicine & physical therapy, Limber is a digital health solution designed for employers, health plans, and providers. The platform provides at-home exercise therapy programs for musculoskeletal health (e.g. low back, shoulder, hip, neck, knee joints) & clinically validated outcomes tracking. Marc discusses how Limber Health was created to fill a gap in between surgery and post-surgery care to empower patients with their rehab activities without sacrificing the quality. He also announces the groundbreaking news of CPT codes finally being cleared to use with this technology so providers can get reimbursed. To learn more about Limber Health, click here

On a special edition of the Accelerate Health podcast,  we continue our series of spotlights on unique digital health startups that are changing the face of healthcare. This week, we speak to Katie Delgado, CEO for OnCallX.  OnCallX is a secure, automated, and HIPAA-compliant on-call messaging solution for patients and providers. Patients and referring providers can send messages through a webform or automated voice system by cutting out the use of a third party messaging service.  Katie discusses the uptick in physician burnout and the need to streamline provider/patient interactions to benefit both parties. Also, in the changing healthcare landscape post-COVID, she highlights the importance of virtual care options that focus on convenience for patients without sacrificing security and quality of care. To learn more about OnCallX, click here

On this week's episode, Rob Havasy speaks with Brian Kalis, Managing Director of Accenture Health Strategy and Alicia Graham, Managing Director of Accenture Interactive. They delve into the importance of valuing the Patient Experience and the design challenges facing those developing solutions in Healthcare IT today. They expand upon Accenture Interactive's human-centric approach to strategy that  blends both human and health industry insights into new services for their clients. And they discuss how healthcare design should focus on building complex adaptive ecosystems and finding your shared purpose with your audience  and how to be relevant to them, both in the moment and throughout the entire user journey. 

On a special edition of the Accelerate Health podcast,  we continue our series of spotlights on unique digital health startups that are changing the face of healthcare. Each of these companies will also be featured at the hybrid event for HIMSS Global Conference and Exhibition in Las Vegas this August.This week, we speak to Jayanthi Narasimhan, Founder & CEO for WatchRx.  WatchRx provides a simple smartwatch with a dedicated reminder solution, GPS, emergency alert, fall detection and predictive analytics. Jayanthi founded the company to fill a gap in the market after caring for her senior mother and realizing there was no comprehensive, yet simple wearable focused on remote-patient monitoring. She wanted to help older adults with chronic health conditions manage their medications while giving caregivers and healthcare providers the ability to monitor remotely. To learn more about WatchRx, click here

On a special edition of the Accelerate Health podcast,  we continue our series of spotlights on unique digital health startups that are changing the face of healthcare. Each of these companies will also be featured at the hybrid event for HIMSS Global Conference and Exhibition in Las Vegas this August.This week, we speak to Adam Younger, Chief Strategy Officer for Payground.  Payground is a web-based platform that's revolutionizing the way patients pay their medical bills. It lets users have one login to access multiple profiles and providers for their entire family to make easy payments.  No more juggling numerous accounts with various providers, making payments by mail or paying by phone.  Adam talks about the deeply personal and passionate story of how this idea originated and how their founder decided to affect change in the midst of his own personal health struggles and how their patient-centric approach reduces burden on both the patients and providers.To learn more about Payground, click here

On a special edition of the Accelerate Health podcast,  we continue our series of spotlights on unique digital health startups that are changing the face of healthcare. Each of these companies will also be featured at the hybrid event for HIMSS Global Conference and Exhibition in Las Vegas this August.This week, we speak to Siva Nagalingam, CEO of Mediguru. MediGuru is a telehealth software platform that enables a healthcare system, provider network or payer network to setup a customized & branded telemedicine solution as part of their virtual care practice. Siva  talks about how a focus on patient empathy sets it apart from other platforms and how they are addressing the entire continuum of care to address physician burnout and sustainability in telehealth. To learn more about Mediguru, click here

On this week's episode, Kerry Amato speaks with Emma Cartmell, Founding Partner of Cartmell Ventures on the current landscape of digital health investing. They discuss how COVID has impacted not only digital health but investing in it as well. Emma talks about what she looks for in a startup when she is ready to invest and the value in investing in underrepresented geographies, specifically non-coastal companies. She also gives her unique perspecive on  women in leadership roles within the investment space.