← Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Emily Jacobsen, VP Clinical Systems and Chief of Clinical Informatics at the University of Maryland Medical System
00:11:50
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- [00:01]
A
Philips is a health tech leader focused on innovation that improves the health and well being of people. Our healthcare technology and informatics solutions help care teams diagnose, treat and manage more patients with greater precision, speed and confidence. Across the care journey with Philips, clinicians are empowered with streamlined insights in the moments that matter for every patient. Better care for more people Philips.
- [00:29]
B
This is Gracelyn keller with the Becker's Healthcare podcast and we are recording live at the 10th annual Health IT, Digital Health and RCM meeting. I'm currently joined by Emily Jacobson, who is the VP of Clinical Systems and Chief of Clinical Informatics at the University of Maryland's medical system. Emily, thanks for being here today and let's have us get started with a little bit more background on yourself and your work in healthcare.
- [00:52]
C
Thank you, I appreciate it. I'm excited to be here. It's been a really great conference so far, so so I'd say my whole career has been about blending clinical care with technology, basically making sure our systems actually help the people that are using them. My background, I would say is a little bit different from your typical health care IT professional. I started off as a Certified Nursing Assistant in high school and college and I worked both in long term care facilities as well as hospital settings. But then I went to the University of Washington and majored in International Studies focusing on the Middle East. So very different than what I do today. I did some studying abroad and lived in Cairo, Egypt, in Kumasi, Ghana and really thought that I was going to end up working for a government agency or doing something that was in the international world. But then when I graduated it wasn't really a great time to be looking for those types of jobs and ended up finding epic. So I passed all of their interviews and tests and that's how my career in healthcare tech really got kicked off. I spent four years working for epic, working on ambulatory implementations, helping clients in both the United States and Canada. After that I moved over to the provider side and I worked at places like the University of Washington, Overlake hospital and Providence St. Joseph Health before moving over to the University of Maryland Medical System. I climbed the ladder in is&t, starting out as an Implementation supervisor and then moving up to a Program Manager, then a Program Director and eventually to a Senior Director of Applications and then to my position today as the VP of Clinical Systems and Chief of Clinical Informatics. Along the way I went back to school and I got my Master's of Jurisprudence from the University of Washington School of Law and was able to focus on Healthcare law. And now at ums, I lead work on optimizing epic Push for innovation and clinical informatics and try to make digital tools match up with what's actually happening in patient care. Our system includes everything from academic medical centers to community hospitals, specialty hospitals and 100 plus outpatient departments. And so my job is all about balancing big picture strategy with whatever clinicians need day to day, no matter where they're working.
- [03:14]
B
Wonderful. Well, thank you for taking the time to be here and I'm excited to speak with you. And let's start our conversation about AI since that's a hot topic everywhere but specifically in healthcare care. Nearly half of medical practices reported using AI in some capacity in the last year and it remains a key topic for health IT leaders. So from your perspective, what are the use cases that are making a difference right now and how are you leveraging them in your organization?
- [03:39]
C
Yeah, I'd say AI is a hot topic and something at a leadership level within IT and actually in operations that we talk about on a regular basis is very much has the potential to change the way that we handle healthcare at ums. So that's what we call the University of Washington or sorry, the University of Maryland Medical System. We're already seeing it make a real difference in things like clinical documentation, predictive analytics and how we handle our day to day operations. For example, we're planning to go all in on epic's AI tools to help with coding, summarize patient notes and in basket responses. And we're already using DAX ambient documentation during visits so clinicians don't have to stress about taking notes and keep finding new ways and places to use the technology. In the next few months, we're launching an evidently pilot that should be a game changer for our hospitals. We're focusing on our hospitalists, our ER physicians as well as our CDI team so that we can really look at how we pull all that data together and non structured and structured formats to be able to make the information available to providers really quick so that they don't spend hours doing chart prepping or long lots of time looking through the chart, but are able to really see what's important quickly and make decisions so that they can provide that patient care. On the operations side, we're also leveraging AI, so we're focusing on AI agents that help people search our training documentation and walk them through workflows in epic step by step. We're also exploring ways AI can help us route our IT tickets automatically and search big databases faster so our teams have the time to really focus on what matters. What's cool is that these tools aren't just ideas anymore and they're actually becoming part of our daily workflows and they're making a real impact on how we deliver and support care and going off of that.
- [05:41]
B
As virtual care expands from AI enabled tools and remote monitoring to broader digital health platforms, introducing new technology does bring challenges. So what advice do you have for leaders navigating everything from governance to patient engagement? And can you share an example of how your organization has balanced innovation with operational constraints?
- [05:59]
C
Yeah, I think my biggest tip would be to start with the people. The people have to stay at the center of all of this or we kind of lose what we're doing. And that means really focusing on the patients that are on the receiving end of this technology as well as our clinicians who are going to be using this technology. And I think the tech only works if people actually use it. And that comes in them trusting us to bring the right technology easy to use features and making sure it's really, truly helpful and meeting what we set out for it to accomplish. If your products make people change the way that they normally do the work, I think you're going to have a lot of hard, like you're going to have a hard time getting them on board. At ums, we've found that real innovation happens when you get everyone involved. That means clinicians, operations, the technical team, team, and you talk early and often. Another thing that we've really tried to focus on is not chasing every single new shiny gadget that's out there. We're brought technology every day and so we really want to make sure that what we're focusing on fits within our organization's big picture goals and not just what's trendy. So one of the ways that we've been able to do this is really focusing on the adoption of those tools. And we've been able to do that with a connected training, a connected technology training module. So instead of just teaching the new tool, the EHR that that shiny object, we're also mixing in policy, clinical practice and the tech together so that the people that are experiencing the use of the technology get the full story and understand the why behind what we're, what we're implementing. And it is breaking down those silos and gives everyone perspective. We're also fans of incremental changes. So really focusing on making small manageable tweaks and failing fast when something doesn't work. I think some of the biggest things is that we want to be bold with the technology that we're putting out there, but practical. We want it to align with our strategic goals and we need to do this while keeping patient safety and satisfaction front and center and, and how this impacts the daily life of our clinicians who are using the tool and shifting gears slightly.
- [08:23]
B
How are you seeing recent legislation, both at the state and federal level, affect healthcare organizations and healthcare IT specifically? And have you adjusted strategies in response?
- [08:34]
C
Yeah, that is a really great question. I think laws at both the state and federal level are really changing how we handle data sharing, privacy and are making a difference on how we share that information between our systems. So take information blocking compliance, for example. It's pushed us to open access to patients so that they can get their information, but while also making sure we keep it, keeping it private at the right time. We've noticed shifts in things like telehealth, reimbursement and licensure laws which affect how we grow our virtual care services. So we've had to tweak our game plan to keep our platforms flexible and up to date because legislation tends to change pretty quickly without a lot of notice. And so we have to remain flexible and able to meet those rules. You really have to stay on your toes. I think in healthcare is something that we usually don't have a lot of time. And with traditional practices of how we implement tools, we run into issues because we can't make the changes fast enough. So again, it's being innovative, failing fast, trying new things, but really trying to keep what's going on legally in mind. I think it's also really important to keep the lines of communication open with your legal and regulatory teams. New laws are really dragging it into areas that we traditionally have been able to pretty much stay out of. But breaking down those old service silos between compliance, legal IT operations is going to be really key to keep both our teams in compliance and to be able to keep our patients and their data safe.
- [10:17]
B
And then finally, as we wrap up our conversation, I'd love to know your top piece of advice for healthcare leaders as they prepare for further advice. Advancements in technology and rising demands for care.
- [10:27]
C
Yeah, I think it's really important to invest in both your staff and your technological platforms. You can't just put all of your eggs in the technology basket. You really have to make sure that you're investing in your staff's education, their knowledge, and bringing them along for the journey. Technology is going to continue to advance and it's only going to be effective when we're able to deliver that in a reliable way to our clinicians and our patients. So this really needs to be done in a way that's actively seeking feedback, collaborating in the design, and making those ongoing incremental improvements. Rapid adjustments should be made if a technology does not fit its intended purpose. I think. Additionally, effective governance and clear communication are essential for successful implementations. Well defined decision making processes and transparent messaging contribute significantly to the outcomes, so maintaining an openness to new developments can help organizations adapt to change and focusing on improving care delivery.
- [11:36]
B
Wonderful. Well Emily, thanks so much for taking the time to join me today on the Beckers Healthcare Podcast. Again, we are recording live at the 10th annual Health IT Digital Health and RCM meeting.
- [11:46]
C
Thank you for having me.