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Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Cautious Optimism and Innovation Shaping Healthcare’s Future with Laura Dyrda
00:09:07
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- [00:00]
A
This is Scott Becker with the Becker's Healthcare podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by Laura Deirda. Laura is the leader of the editorial team at Becker's healthcare editor in chief, and she joins us regularly to talk to us about issues and topics, stories that she's watching in health care. Laura, let me ask you to take it away. What are a couple of the biggest stories that you're watching currently in health care?
- [00:27]
B
Well, thank you so much, Scott. And you know, there's so much happening in the healthcare space. It's really fascinating to see how leaders are moving through. And one of the things we did recently, we've got 900 speakers that are coming to our annual meeting in April. And so we asked all of them whether they think the future of healthcare is bright or dark. And, you know, almost universally the health system executives said that they think the future is bright, but it wasn't always without a catch. For a lot of those major health systems, the CEOs, CFOs, clinical leaders, and community hospital leaders as well talked about more having a dominant theme of cautious optimism. So nobody really called the future dark outright, despite several challenges, looking at reimbursement, looking at staffing, thinking through what supply costs are going to be and how they can continue to reinvent what they're doing at the health system level and incorporate technology in a smart way. So a lot of them use words like opportunity or malleable when they were talking about the future and really feel like there are opportunities to do some great things. But, but did, you know, very much hedge their bets on they have to make the right decisions today in order for the future to be bright. And they're very much so is a future where it could be a lot darker if they don't make the right decisions today. So I think the first thing that we heard a lot about from these leaders was about AI and technology. It was the single most cited source of hope, which is a fascinating turn of events from a couple of years ago. But the numbers are also backing that up from some of the data that we have from organizations like the AMA, who reported that physician use of AI tools jumped about 38 from 38% in 2023 to 66% in 2024, which is about a 78% increase in a single year and has continued to increase since. I know most hospitals and systems now are either incorporating ambient AI and technology into note taking or have plans to do so. And it really, truly is something that's making a big difference across health systems. The Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association Also, ambient AI documentation was the only use case where every health system that they surveyed in their particular report had already adopted it and really felt like it was giving time back to the clinicians and showing a return on investment rather than, you know, just being a huge financial investment. So that was the first big shift that we're seeing. And I know now organizations and systems are trying to go past that and figure out what their next journey is going to be with AI, trying to figure out how they can use agents more effectively in operations and be more predictive in clinical support. So it's fascinating to see that and I think technology will be a big part of, kind of like the second big theme that emerged was really a redesign of how healthcare is delivered. So a lot of those executives and leaders said they feel like the future could be bright as long as they are actually transforming and using the technology, using that information and using the tools they have available to actually change their workflows and change how their organization thinks about care delivery. Go from hospital centric and to treat it when it's broken model into more of a proactive community based in hub and spoke or outpatient and virtual care model where they're providing a lot of different entry points to health care but really being more convenient for their patient population and working with them more on wellness and keeping control of their symptoms versus being more reactive health system. So some health systems are already reporting dramatic results, including Maine Health which said it had a 90% reduction in 60 day readmissions after contacting patients with community, connecting patients with community health workers and really using technology to more smartly manage that care. So again, that's been really fascinating to see and something that we'll continue to keep an eye on.
- [04:17]
A
No, and that's fantastic. So it's nice to hear some cautious optimism from our health system leaders. That's really fantastic. Tell us Laura, what other stories are you watching closely? And I love to hear the uptake of technology so critical to sort of triaging the health system so we get the more complicated things to the place where they have to go to so that we could triage so much through technology and other methods. So fantastic. What else are you watching closely?
- [04:51]
B
Yeah, definitely. So we're continuing to watch kind of the financial situation for a lot of hospitals and systems. Obviously we're seeing some of the larger systems pull away and be able to increase their margins. I know some regional systems as well have been able to have some important margin increases. But for rural healthcare we're looking out and seeing continued strain and challenges. I think overall, the start to the first quarter of 2026 has been a little bit more stable and not overall seeing a huge growth. And so, especially for rural health systems and safety net hospitals and providers, we're looking out and trying to find the place where innovation is happening. A lot of partnerships and truly more of a space where they're trying to figure out how to keep services, what services they need to continue to double down on, and how they can use some of the Rural Health Transformation Program funding to bring in more specialists, more talent, as well as think through the future. So I know we've launched our Rural Healthcare Leadership Summit, which will be in June, and we're excited to bring a lot of those leaders together to talk about how they are transforming rural health care, what they're doing to, you know, keep the doors open today, but then also plan for the future and some of the skill sets and, you know, ways that the leaders are evolving to actually add services instead of contract them. So that's been really interesting to have a lot of those conversations and think through how, you know, organizations are using their funding appropriately in where the best opportunities are going to be for rural healthcare in the future.
- [06:34]
A
Thank you very, very much, Laura. Anything else that you're watching currently closely?
- [06:40]
B
Yes. So a couple other quick items I wanted to note, I think, like, you know, right after the pandemic, there was a big explosion, especially of health systems, kind of trying to figure out where they're going to invest in virtual technologies and what the innovation platform is going to look like in those things. And then over the last year, that's quieted a bit, but we're seeing some of those investments come back. And I'll say, in the last we've seen Mayo Clinic join the investor group in a $525 million Series G funding for Whoop, which is a wearables technology company. The firm is valued at $10.1 billion and has over 2.5 million members globally and continues to hire for new roles, et cetera. And so they're seeing a lot of growth. And Mayo Clinic, it seems like, has invested there, I'm sure, in part to bringing the technology into what they're doing. A huge Mayo Clinic platform, bunch of data, information technology, how they really move through that space with other health systems that they work with, and then being able to have that clinical data, too, I know, is so helpful and critical for patients who are going through a variety of their healthcare journey, whether it's wellness journey or whether they're managing chronic diseases and illness and those kinds of things. And so to see that kind of investment is fascinating. And then the digital venture arm of Bon Secours Mercy Health, which is called Accrete Health Partners, also reported leading a $7 million Series A funding or investment in workforce startup Dfinity. The company offers vendor neutral staffing platform for hospitals and health systems. And Bon Secours Mercy Health, which is a 48 hospital system, signed on to become a strategic partner to better manage the temporary workforce and develop a data driven labor strategy for the system. So in that case, that partnership is really built upon how both sides can benefit each other and I'm sure we'll continue to see some in those types of ventures as well.
- [08:43]
A
Literally. Fantastic. Thank you, Laura. Laura, it's always great to visit with you. I know we'll see you shortly at the annual meeting. I know that meeting is oversold. 900 speakers, thousands and thousands of attendees. Can't wait to get to visit with you there and take the pulse of the healthcare industry. Thank you so much for joining us.
- [09:04]
B
Absolutely. Thank you, Scott.