Dr. Williams joins the podcast today to discus the current state of the US healthcare system and the issues that currently affect it. He is a registered public health nurse and published scientist who has dedicated his career to the enhancement and integration of cost-effective healthcare solutions that help provide care to vulnerable patient populations. Having worked as both a nurse and a data scientist, Dr. Williams’ experiences provide him with a unique understanding of populations and their varying health needs.

Dr. Williams compares the US healthcare system to other, similar countries, and explains that although some one-payer systems may function quite smoothly, specific differences in populations and cultures likely play a significant role in that success. He then looks to the future, citing the rising popularity of IDNs and potentially more all-encompassing care delivery organizations as solutions to some of the US's major healthcare challenges.

Approximately 10,000 people have been retiring and becoming Medicare utilizers, daily, since January 1, 2011. In this population, about 80% have chronic conditions like congestive heart failure and diabetes. This massive influx of people is gradually becoming an overwhelming economic pressure on the healthcare system, but new solutions have slowly been rolling out to create better, more economically viable care.

Jerry Kolosky, Strategic Advisor at Nex Cubed and an established expert in digital health innovation since the mid-90s, joins us this week to talk about the evolution of incentive structures. He starts the podcast by discussing the impact that the retiring baby boomer generation is currently having on healthcare costs and optimistically leads us into the possibilities that the future generations may bring. His extensive career as both a consultant and an executive, at companies of every size, from startups to global organizations like 3M and Panasonic, gives him the perfect perspective to comment on the future of healthcare and on the rapid innovations occurring at the policy, advocacy, and business levels.

What do business processes have to do with medicine? Dr. George T. Mathew, currently on VirtualHealth's advisory board, is a practicing internal medicine physician and business processes expert who has had years of experience navigating the Medicaid space. He explains that in our largely fee-for-service world, health organizations must be profit-focused, even when the providers themselves may only be concerned with their patient's outcomes. As patients begin organizing together for better care and government spending on healthcare balloons to unmanageable levels, value-based care increasingly becomes vital, both for improved outcomes and for cost reductions. Dr. Mathew breaks down the multiple different trends affecting fee-for-service and how approaching medicine with a lens for business processes can help providers balance the shift from business-minded to population-centered practices.

How can we reduce hospital readmission rates through care coordination at home? Doctor Eric Rackow, currently on VirtualHealth's Board of Directors, joins us today to discuss the benefits of treating chronic illnesses outside of the hospital. Dr. Rackow's past experience as president of Humana at Home, CEO of Seniorbridge, and President and CMO of NYU Hospital Center gives him a unique perspective. He explains that the healthcare industry is setting its focus on chronic care, which empowers organizations to provide better care for medical conditions at home. This shift is leading to decreased readmission rates up to 50%, lowered costs, and improved resource utilization. Dr. Rackow then walks us through the 3 most important aspects of living a healthy life in order to prevent chronic illness.

How can health systems protect themselves from the increasing threat of data breaches?

Dominic Kalvelis, Director of Information Security at VirtualHealth, joins us today to discuss the ongoing importance of cyber security for health care organizations. He explains why modern health systems are so vulnerable to information security threats, especially as they transition from paper-based systems to digital patient records, and how the security risks entail more than just revenue and reputation loss for the organization. Dominic also walks us through the steps of how to keep patient information safe, from ensuring secure software development, to developing and maintaining best practices in staff training and information security.

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How often does the past repeat itself? How can we use data of past events to predict those of the future? That’s what this week’s guest, Dmitry Gorenshteyn, Lead Data Scientist of the Strategy and Innovation Department at Memorial Sloan Kettering specializes in. Memorial Sloan Kettering is a world-renowned, specialty hospital in NYC that addresses the complex needs of cancer patients, and Gorenshteyn focuses on leveraging data in order to solve clinically relevant challenges. His current project uses Machine Learning alongside clinicians’ input to predict the likelihood that cancer patients will visit the Emergency Room. 

How do public health, epidemiology, and population health intersect at the local level to impact the health outcomes of patients? Remle Newton-Dame of New York City Health + Hospitals joins us this week to discuss her work at "The Data Core" in the Office of Population Health, a team responsible for providing innovative analytics to transform care delivery. The Data Core touches risk targeting, access to care, depression, care management, outreach to the uninsured, and support of incarcerated populations. Their mission is to use data and technology to create actionable knowledge at the program, site, and system levels. Technologies like data visualization packages and electronic medical records enable healthcare professionals, as well as individual patients, to understand large amounts of information about their exact health questions. Remle expands on these ideas, and more, as she discusses technology's role in collecting, interpreting, and acting on health data.

For our inaugural episode of A Healthcare Podcast, we have Ivelyse Andino, CEO and Founder of Radical Health, a community health organization located in the Bronx in New York City. This organization provides community support and customer technology to empower marginalized individuals to "engage partners in healthcare and to become change agents in addressing disparities in their neighborhoods." In this episode, we'll learn more about Ivelyse's background and her mission at Radical Health.