{"id":57,"date":"2018-02-23T15:29:23","date_gmt":"2018-02-23T15:29:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whcbc.org\/pulse\/2018\/02\/23\/2018-2-23-engaging-patients-with-new-technologies-a-conversation-with-chris-young\/"},"modified":"2020-10-16T10:59:13","modified_gmt":"2020-10-16T10:59:13","slug":"engaging-patients-with-new-technologies-a-conversation-with-chris-young","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.whcbc.org\/pulse\/engaging-patients-with-new-technologies-a-conversation-with-chris-young\/","title":{"rendered":"Engaging Patients with New Technologies: A Conversation with Chris Young"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Pulse spoke with Chris Young, Vice President of New Market Development and Incubations for Ascension Health. Chris covered a range of topics related to new technologies in healthcare: how Ascension is leveraging them to engage patients today, their longer-term impacts on the healthcare system, and policy topics relevant to their adoption. Chris will sitting on our panel \u201cAre We There Yet? Tech\u2019s Role in Consumer Health\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

Pulse: Can you tell us a little about your background and current role?<\/strong><\/p>\n

After graduating from the University of Chicago, I went to work in healthcare consulting after having worked for a bank. I first came to Ascension in 2001 for a brief consulting job with in our Nashville market to help with the formation of St. Thomas Health System. Eventually, I went on to serve as the Chief Information Officer there, and was later promoted to be the regional CIO and VP for Ascension Information Services.<\/p>\n

In my current role, I lead innovation for Ascension. In that role I am responsible for our virtual care platform, which includes business-to-business, direct-to-consumer and at-home health monitoring. Additionally, I source and lead a variety of pilots focused on next generation technologies and processes for healthcare.<\/p>\n

Pulse: How is Ascension leveraging digital health technology today to deliver high-value care and engage patients?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our digital consumer engagement breaks down into four main categories:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Personalized marketing and communication<\/li>\n
  2. Getting people in the door \u2013 the \u201cdigital red carpet.\u201d This is where we connect consumers to online scheduling and empower individuals to self-triage their care.<\/li>\n
  3. Event-triggered navigation. When something happens, we provide information most relevant to your context. We\u2019re building this out over the next several years and it\u2019s a quickly moving effort that requires a lot of collaboration.<\/li>\n
  4. Our \u201cCMO of the home\u201d program, which is about enabling an archetype we call \u201calpha daughters,\u201d the women who influence the family\u2019s care-giving. Think of a 37-year old mother of two, and all the things she has to plan for or deal with. We\u2019re building a comprehensive platform she could access seamlessly.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Pulse: What are the major challenges in maximizing the impact from these new technologies?<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Meeting customers where they are and meeting the demands relevant to the occurrence of the events. For example, if we provide technology to schedule an office visit, we need to also make sure we deliver on the time and efficiency promised for the visit. They need to be able to see a doctor promptly and have a delightful experience sitting in the waiting room.<\/p>\n

    This is a promise that extends across all populations. Ascension is a Catholic system and is very much committed to serving the needs of the poor and vulnerable in our society. To best meet their needs, we shouldn\u2019t have to compromise on access, efficiency or affordability. One example is through the use of virtual care.<\/p>\n

    Another challenge is removing barriers and working with consumers holistically. This is how we help people manage their health and wellness. On this front, we\u2019re interested in working with non-traditional players aligned with our Mission. As a national health system, we\u2019re well-poised for others to leverage our resources.<\/p>\n

    Pulse: What are the key problems you\u2019re looking to solve both 1-3 years out, and 3-5 years out?<\/strong><\/p>\n

    We want to profoundly engage in communities in a meaningful way. We want to address problems sooner rather than later and engage patients in in their own health with personalized solutions. Longer-term, new technologies will make that easier and easier as they evolve.<\/p>\n

    Pulse: We hear a lot of predictions about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Blockchain\u2019s role in the future of healthcare. How do you see them playing out?<\/strong><\/p>\n

    For blockchain, I see four main opportunities:<\/p>\n

      \n
    • First, on identity management. Long-term, it will help on identifying management and help prevent fraud and abuse.<\/li>\n
    • Second, pre-authorizations between payers and providers, where smart contracts will help us reduce friction.<\/li>\n
    • Third is adjudicating claims through blockchain. That\u2019s something that won\u2019t happen right away, but when it does, it will take a major barrier out of the system.<\/li>\n
    • Finally, Blockchain will play a part in bringing together data. Healthcare data isn\u2019t connected. People could be empowered to give rights to all different types of data, such as when they went to a pharmacy or last saw a doctor, in a normalized and standardized framework.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      With artificial intelligence, we\u2019ll see a lot of action. There are a number of tools that will enable consumers in a robust way and organizations in handling consumers. Over time, we\u2019ll see an increased number of clinical applications. We\u2019ll also see more use in population health management, through combining people\u2019s health record with other types of data.<\/p>\n

      I like to quote Bill Gates \u201cpeople overestimate what will happen in two years and underestimate what will happen in 10.\u201d<\/p>\n

      Pulse: What will large health systems\u2019, such as Ascension\u2019s, strategy will be as these new technologies mature, what will they build vs. buy and own vs. partner?<\/strong><\/p>\n

      There are many of schools of thought. For us it\u2019s on a case-by-case basis. We\u2019ve found ourselves to be very good at finding what works and either scaling it out or owning it outright.<\/p>\n

      It will be difficult for a health system to attract and retain the talent needed to build some of these new technologies. Organizations should do what they\u2019re really good at, and for us that\u2019s caring for those we serve. We\u2019ll use these tools in a thoughtful way when appropriate.<\/p>\n

      Pulse: Can you talk about some of the main policy issues to consider for new technologies, such as telemedicine, as they emerge and mature?<\/strong><\/p>\n

      When discussing virtual care, the biggest issues will be cross-credentialing and licensing and how to make that easier. It will have to happen over time and the key question is: how do we make things a little easier and at the same time protect the public from things we don\u2019t have to have happening? Our solutions must be thoughtful and evolutionary.<\/p>\n

      There are policy issues across industries that will eventually impact healthcare. I am thinking of the automobile industry and the policies that will eventually govern robotic innovation.<\/p>\n

      Pulse: To wrap up, what\u2019s one area or topic related to new healthcare technologies that people aren\u2019t focusing on today?<\/strong><\/p>\n

      People know the concept of IoT. They aren\u2019t paying attention to the generational issue and that the 65+ age population will double in the next thirty years. It will impact how we use caregivers, how we deliver care and how we interact. We are close to the world of sensors and bots, but we have to think about how we start pulling everything together to deliver better care.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":null,"protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conference-2018"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whcbc.org\/pulse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whcbc.org\/pulse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whcbc.org\/pulse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whcbc.org\/pulse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whcbc.org\/pulse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.whcbc.org\/pulse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whcbc.org\/pulse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whcbc.org\/pulse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whcbc.org\/pulse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}