← Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Kunjan Divatia, Vice President of Digital Technology Solutions at Yale New Haven Health
00:10:56
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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 Beckers Healthcare Podcast and we are recording live at the 10th annual Health IT Digital Health and RCM meeting. I'm currently joined by Kunjan Devadia who is the Vice President of Digital Technology Solutions at Yale New Haven Health. Kunjan, thanks for being here. Let's have you start off by sharing a little bit more about yourself and your work in healthcare.
- [00:50]
C
Well, thank you for having me. It's been a wonderful conference so far and looking forward to the rest of the day today and tomorrow. My healthcare journey actually started back in college when I was an emt. That early experience really gave me a sense of how critical hospital operations are and what it takes to actually provide care in a healthcare setting. Over the last 20 plus years I've been with one health system out of which the last 12 were in a leadership role. I've held a variety of roles across the industry and supporting a range of work from large EMR implementations, an EMR transformation, ERP transformations and driving improvements in both pharmacy technology and revenue cycle. The last five years my focus has shifted more towards employee experience and enterprise applications, things like ServiceNow, workforce management, ERP, Microsoft desktop technology. Really looking at how these technologies can help create a better experience for the caregivers on the floor.
- [02:00]
B
And let's start our conversation speaking about AI as nearly half of medical practices reported using AI in some capacity in the past year and it remains a key topic for health IT leaders. So from your perspective, what are the use cases that are making the most difference right now and how are you leveraging them in your organization?
- [02:18]
C
AI has really moved from being a buzzword to having measurable impact in healthcare. One of the biggest game changers was ambient listening has been around for a little while now, but with AI, the creativity of how quickly it can take a good note for providers in the EMR is just fascinating and providers are expecting it. Health systems are double downing on IT to create efficiency in a space that's been a pain point for a very long time. Another area where AI is IC being leveraged significantly is drafting in basket messages. Depending on your emr, you know artificial intelligence is doing a really good job creating that first draft response for the patient messages, which saves time for our clinicians and for direct patient care. Of course, Diagnostic Imaging has been using AI well ahead of the rest of the areas within healthcare screening images and expediting how quickly the impressions are completed. And last but not least, the last about four to five years, I'm seeing a significant improvement in how AI is helping revenue cycle, specifically coding to make sure the coders are accurately billing and being compliant. I would say the last but not least, the introduction of large language models like OpenAI are really opening the door for some really creative opportunities. A couple of things that we're focusing on is building our own large language model to have users really be provide insights into everything that's happening with that patient. We're also using AI to spot anomalies in an EKG that otherwise would be missed and to create more personalized chemotherapy regimen for a patient rather than defaulting a standard protocol. It's an exciting time. In my opinion, we're just scratching the surface of how these tools can improve both the provider experience and the patient outcome.
- [04:36]
B
And as virtual care expands from AI enabled tools and remote monitoring to broader digital health platforms, introducing these new technologies 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 constraint?
- [04:56]
C
Absolutely. It's amazing that we're still talking about the impact of COVID five years later, but the reality is that it's reshaped healthcare in ways that will be long lasting. VirtualCare is a great example. It's here to stay, not just because of reimbursement, but because of the convenience. The ability for a provider to quickly see a patient triage what's needed or even replace an in person appointment is incredibly powerful. On the governance side, most health systems have a alternative. Today already have a virtual care strategy. First, my advice to the leaders would be make sure you have a patient engagement forum so you understand the patient's needs and requirements. Second, virtual visits shouldn't be an afterthought. They should be baked into the provider's templates with a spread of in person visits and virtual visits into the same day. This enables this, the entire virtual adoption to be a lot more seamless and not an afterthought. In our own organization, we've been using virtual care for a very long time, particularly with specialty consults. For example, at some of our smaller community hospitals that, you know, patients don't need to drive 40 minutes to see a specialist. Instead, while they're admitted locally, they can connect with a specialist virtually. That not only improves the patient experience but also helps them move the care plan a lot more quickly. So for us, the focus has been balancing innovation with operational needs and embedding virtual care into sort of everyday practice in a way that improves patient access and care.
- [06:47]
B
And how are you seeing recent legislation, both state and federal, affect healthcare organizations and healthcare it sports specifically. And have you adjusted strategies in response to that?
- [06:57]
C
I'm going to go off the cuff a little bit here. And it's a very interesting time for this question to be asked at Becker's conference. At a time. We're going through a government shutdown at a time. The headlines are saying virtual care reimbursements are paused. So just want to take a moment that this is a very interesting time to answer this question. But government shutdowns have happened in the past. We will get past it. And I strongly believe virtual care is here to stay. Legislation at both the state and federal levels have always influenced health care, but I would say its impact has never been as significant as it is today. Financial pressures are already tight across the industry for health systems. With a high percentage of Medicare and Medicaid, the challenge is even greater. We're also beginning to see AI related legislation out of Washington D.C. and we're watching that very closely. Our priorities, making sure governance, monitoring and audit processes are aligned so that these regulations become requirements. We're ready. In terms of strategy, our fundamentals haven't changed. We're still focusing on delivering care in the most efficient way possible. This means keeping patients engaged with their primary care, having them use our urgent care facilities where possible, and reducing the need for ED utilization where possible, and discharging patients safely as early as we can. Looking ahead, I think legislation around AI data privacy and reimbursement models will start to directly shape how health systems invest in digital platforms, which is why we're all here. Over the next few, I would say three to five years. Leaders who can balance compliance with innovation, embedding virtual care, automation and AI into their everyday operations will be the ones that will get and sustain the financial pressures that we're all dealing with and still maintain good patient outcomes.
- [09:05]
B
And final question as we wrap our conversation, what is your top piece of advice for healthcare leaders as they prepare for further advancements, technology and rising demands for care?
- [09:15]
C
My advice would be to start with data. Across the country, we're seeing relentless financial pressures and rising costs in healthcare. New legislation will only add to the more strain, especially for rural health systems who may have to decide which services they can continue to provide. It's very real and we're starting to hear about those situations. At the same time, we can't ignore the workforce challenge. The AMA is projecting a shortage of hundreds of thousands of providers in the coming years. And when you combine that shortage with reality of decision fatigue, providers making thousands of decisions in a day, and that fatigue that kicks in after a long shift, the risk to both clinicians and patients becomes very real. That's where technology has to step in. My message to leaders is embrace AI and advanced digital tools, but do it safely, securely and with purpose. We need to use these solutions to take routine, repetitive tasks off of clinicians plates, to surface critical insights from charts and notes, to put the right information in front of providers at the right time. That's how we reduce burnout, improve care, make sure technology is serving people and not the other way around.
- [10:41]
B
Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to join me today on the Becker's Healthcare Podcast. Again, we are recording live at the 10th annual Health IT Digital Health and RCM meeting.
- [10:50]
C
Thank you for having me. It's been wonderful having this chat.