← Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Simon Nazarian, Executive Vice President and Chief Digital and Technology Officer at City of Hope
00:09:30
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Transcript21 lines
- [00:02]
A
This is where healthcare leadership comes together. Becker's 16th annual meeting brings more than 3,500 hospital and health system executives and nearly 800 speakers to Chicago, April 13th through the 16th. This year's event includes keynote conversations with Dallas Cowboys legend Troy Aikman and former President George W. Bush. For the agenda and event details, visit Beckershospitalreview.com and click on the Events tab in the upper right. We're looking forward to hosting you in Chicago.
- [00:33]
B
Hello everyone and welcome to the Becker's Healthcare Podcast. I'm Scott King, thrilled today to be joined by a very special guest, Simon Nazarian, Executive Vice President and Chief Digital and Technology Officer with City of Hope. Simon, how are you doing? Thanks so much for joining us.
- [00:47]
C
I'm doing great. Thanks, appreciate you inviting me and happy holidays, of course.
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B
Happy holidays to you. We're just talking. We both got to do a little bit of shopping we noted before the show, so hopefully we'll do that later. But for now, we got a lot of kind of big trending topics in healthcare to dive into. But even before we do that, Simon, do you mind sharing just a little bit about your, your background and your work in healthcare?
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C
Oh, I would love to. Let's see. I've been in healthcare since 2008 where I joined Kaiser Permanente as a chief architect for one of the regions and then grew into a regional Technology Officer for our care delivery. From there I joined McKinsey & Co. Focusing on core technology enablement for healthcare practice. So payer provider, pharma, biotech, etc. And really helped develop that team for execution. And then I had an opportunity to join Optum as the Chief Information Officer for Optum Health and was really able to focus on taking Optum as a holding company into more of an operating company by bringing all the technology organization on the one arm, focusing on value based care and all the things that goes along with it. And then I had the good fortune and opportunity to join City of Hope as Chief Digital and Technology Officer focusing specifically on technology transformation, healthcare transformation, to really drive our mission here at City of Hope. Throughout my career, I've also focused across multiple industries, which really helps me in my role within healthcare as well. And I'm excited to pull on those experience and expertise in order to really help our patients and providers during this.
- [02:51]
B
Journey. Well, thanks so much for sharing all the details about your journey in healthcare, Simon. Sounds like it's been a great one. You know, there's, there's so much going on always in healthcare. It's Certainly not going to die down for the holidays. But I'm just curious, what opportunities and headwinds do you have your eye on right.
- [03:07]
C
Now? Well, I mean, you know, healthcare is really at an inflection point as we speak. So for the first time, you know, we have the data, the computing power, and the tools like AI to really meaningfully accelerate, you know, how discovery is turning to better care for our patients. You know, at the same time, we're dealing with financial pressure, workforce challenges, and, you know, growing cyber risks. So the question really is, and whether we innovate, it's how do we responsibly, how we do it responsibly and at scale.
- [03:45]
B
Right? Yeah, absolutely. You know, I've actually just Talked to some COOs of some systems about cybersecurity yesterday. My question for you is, do you think with all the use cases we're hearing about AI, are systems maybe in terms of technology, a little maybe too concerned with AI and kind of forgetting to invest in cyber security? Is that something you're seeing or.
- [04:08]
C
Think? You know, most of my colleagues and everywhere, you know, we talk to, we always take security at heart and security first when we want to, you know, approach anything. We want to build and develop and deploy. Right. PHI and PII are very important to us, and we want to make sure that it's built into. So most of the organizations I speak to and my colleagues, you know, we really have it at the center and on top of our.
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B
Mind. I think it's a great idea. Something else I want to ask you, Simon, is how are you thinking about growth and adding value to your.
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C
Organization? You know, I don't think about. When I think about growth, I don't think about technology for technology's sake. You know, I think about impact. You know, if a digital investment, you know, doesn't improve patient outcomes, expand access, or make life better for the clinicians, you know, we have to make sure we take a close look at it, you know, and possibly take a look at the, you know, return on opportunity. But our focus is really on removing friction and connecting systems, you know, automating the mundane and letting our clinicians and researchers spend more time on patients and.
- [05:24]
B
Science. Simon, what are some of the things you maybe ask yourself about before you invest in and implement a new technology to kind of evaluate.
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C
It? Well, you know, there are a number of things that we have to take a look at. We talked about the return on investment or return on opportunity. Right. You look at, you know, what does it take to deploy, you know, and jump Start it. You know, it's really, really important how to be supported on an ongoing basis. You know, how does it integrate within our workflows and really support our technicians and, you know, accuracy and efficiency and how we monitor it. And if it's AI based, how do we govern it and everything that goes along with our governance? And, you know, frankly, we just want to make sure that we're delivering impact with whatever it is that we're.
- [06:21]
B
Building. What do you think is one risk or investment worth making this.
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C
Year? One risk that absolutely worth taking is scaling AI in a thoughtful and governed way. The bigger risk right now is standing still. Healthcare is really moving quickly, and organizations that don't learn how to operationalize AI responsibly, you know, will fall behind in care quality, research, speed, and efficiency. The key is, you know, starting with real problems and building trust as you.
- [06:58]
B
Go. Where do you see the best opportunities for growth in the.
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C
Future? Great question. The biggest opportunities, to me that's ahead sit at the intersection of data, AI and precision medicine. As we connect with all this clinical data, with research insights, we can deliver more personalized care and move discoveries to patients much faster. I also see huge potential in digital and virtual care models that really extend care beyond the hospital and in partnerships that help us scale the innovation.
- [07:42]
B
Nationally. And Simon, the last thing I want to ask you is, obviously it takes great leadership to help invest in and implement AI usage and emerging tech across systems. Now, with everything we're seeing, my question for you is just how have you evolved as a leader? How have you grown as a.
- [08:02]
C
Leader? I, you know, being in healthcare, you always put the patient at the center and you look at how do you support the care teams as well as the support teams outside of our four walls, right? And you look at the patient holistically overall, also, with my teams, I have learned that they can achieve amazing things. When you approach them with a problem to solve, bring them in and say, this is what the problem we need to solve, let's solve it together. It has done great for me in that manner rather than just saying, go do this or go do that by just really maintaining that focus on bringing my teams closer in the problem solving has really helped me evolve as a leader and I've become more of a people person as.
- [08:59]
B
Well. Well, I think that's a great mindset as we see emerging tech continue to evolve across health systems. And Simon, thanks so much for your time. Thanks for joining us on the podcast. I thought it was a great conversation. Look forward to working with you.
- [09:10]
C
Again. Soon. Thank you so much.