Kaiser Permanente CDO on well being care digital transformation

Most leaders who discuss a digital transformation like to focus on corporations constructing innovation from the bottom up. Tesla is a standard instance.

Prat Vemana, the chief digital officer (CDO) for the built-in well being system and insurer Kaiser Permanente, prefers to speak in regards to the Mercedes-Benz EQS — the all-electric sedan from a world-famous car model.

“It’s about taking a standard enterprise mannequin and getting ready to steer in a digital world,” mentioned Vemana, beforehand the chief product and expertise officer at Residence Depot and a keynote speaker on the upcoming VentureBeat Buyer Expertise Summit. “Mercedes took the most effective of what that they had, the most effective of what electrical automobiles supply, and went to market with the very best expertise in electrical.

For Vemana, the important thing query for corporations within the midst of digital transformation — in well being care or different verticals — shouldn’t be methods to construct a Tesla. It needs to be methods to construct an EQS.

Getting into well being care’s third wave of digital transformation

As Vemana sees it, digital transformation has occurred in three waves in well being care. Digital well being data (EHRs) have been the primary wave, whereas the second was the digitization of bodily processes — resembling writing prescriptions and sending them to the pharmacist or serving to a affected person who contacts the decision heart to schedule the correct of appointment.

In each the primary and second waves, although, there are nonetheless analog processes. Many EHRs aren’t built-in, so well being methods fax data backwards and forwards. Not all prescriptions will be processed and never all appointments will be scheduled with no telephone name.

What’s extra, Vemana mentioned, the second wave of innovation is essentially targeted on workflow optimization inside well being care organizations. It helped medical workers search for info or helped payers handle claims and detect fraud. It didn’t give attention to the affected person.

The third wave is a digital-first expertise that additionally places the affected person first. “What we’re shifting is how we will take the info and intelligence and make it priceless for sufferers to handle their very own well being and wellness,” Vemana mentioned. “We’re beginning with the affected person and dealing backward — it’s about me, my household well being, and my medical situations. That’s what we’re clearing a path for.”

Shifting from knowledge to intelligence to assist affected person care

Not surprisingly, knowledge and analytics play an essential position on this third wave of digital transformation.

Three knowledge sources assist to know what’s occurring to a affected person and whether or not it’s severe, Vemana mentioned. There’s the private knowledge, which comes from EHRs, insurance coverage claims, and, more and more, from a bunch of patient-generated sources. There’s the operational knowledge, which permits medical workers to see how others with the identical medical situations on the similar facility have been handled. And there’s the medical knowledge that defines what medical situations are and the way they differ.

Having the info is one factor, however having the ability to use it’s one other. “The factor I discovered from retail is that utilized intelligence is crucial factor,” Vemana mentioned. “Are you able to apply the intelligence for real-time resolution assist? That requires connections between the info and the digital properties,” which incorporates the EHR in addition to different medical functions.

To assist medical groups derive intelligence from knowledge, Kaiser Permanente has created a knowledge lake in Microsoft Azure, centered its infrastructure on knowledge marts, and hosted its analytics instruments within the cloud. The important thing to getting this arrange in place was an emphasis on collaboration, Vemana mentioned.

“It’s not unusual to see well being care get buried within the waterfall methodology and anticipate accepted enterprise circumstances. So we began to carry physicians and technologists collectively to outline the important thing outcomes and metrics, prepare the groups, and align the usage of knowledge with our value-based care operational mannequin,” Vemana mentioned. “We got here collectively to resolve the issue. Now we will assess a affected person’s situation, navigate them to the correct intervention, and supply the correct degree of steering.”

Driving a greater expertise earlier than a go to even occurs

Again in 2016, former Kaiser Permanente CEO Bernard Tyson mentioned digital visits accounted for 52% of all visits to the well being system. On the peak of COVID-19, that quantity spiked to 80%. Kaiser Permanente stands out amongst its rivals — a latest survey discovered that just one in 4 well being methods have no less than 25% of sufferers utilizing telehealth in 2021.

Nonetheless, Vemana sees room for enchancment. “We’re very profitable at digitally-enabled well being, and it’s really a blessing,” he mentioned. “However in the event you have a look at the exercise, the vast majority of it’s the post-visit expertise.”

It’s essential for sufferers to have the ability to entry lab outcomes, view go to notes, or conduct a follow-up with out going to the workplace. However Vemana says he sees extra worth in offering steering earlier than the go to — just like the EQS, what’s already working nicely, and making use of it in a brand new approach.

“At the moment’s system is adherence and compliance. That’s transactional,” he mentioned. “How can we transfer that to an expertise? If I’ve bronchial asthma, I do know I must see a health care provider each six months. However what does my surroundings seem like? What meals ought to I keep away from? How can I stay higher realizing extra about my situation? That’s what we’re migrating to. While you’re rather more conscious of your general well being, we will flip that into a greater expertise.”