Inside Angle

What is your opinion of U.S. health care? That's the question Dr. Paul Gordon asked of average Americans he met while biking coast to coast on a three-month sabbatical from his family medicine practice. His goal? Amplify the voices of those in rural areas and small towns to help clinicians be better practitioners---and listeners---when it comes to their patients.

In 2016, BayCare Health System took on its high readmission rates by launching seven different programs to lower readmissions. The problem? The programs were in silos, so overall results didn't meet objectives. In this episode, Teri Sholder, BayCare Health Senior Vice President and Chief Quality Officer, describes how the BayCare team used data analytics to break down silos and consolidate initiatives into "power combos" that help BayCare Health better achieve its goal of reducing readmissions.

In part one of his podcast episode, Dr. John Wasson, Professor Emeritus at Dartmouth Medical School, suggests U.S. health care could learn a few lessons on quality improvement from the world of organized crime. This time around, Dr. Wasson dives into the issue of clinician burnout caused by "quantophrenia"---a condition he describes as measurement for its own sake without real benefit to patients or providers. The solution to quantophrenia? Just seven simple measures.

Providers are increasingly overwhelmed by administrative work that takes them away from patient care. How can clinicians leverage AI solutions to optimize and modernize care without adding to already taxing levels of burnout? AI Evangelist V. Juggy Jagannathan, PhD, shares his expertise on artificial intelligence, deep learning and more in this episode.

In this episode, Dr. Eugene Christian of Bon Secours Mercy Health System describes a new approach to solving the opioid addiction crisis. By reforming opioid prescription practices, creating new, non-narcotic regimens that tackle pain, and tracking metrics across its health system, Bon Secours is guiding physicians through a workflow that promotes patient safety.

When Dr. John Wasson was in medical school, he worked at an east coast resort that hosted well-known members of organized crime families. Reflecting back on this experience after a full career as a primary care physician and geriatrician, and as a member of the faculty at Dartmouth Medical School, Dr. Wasson sees lessons from organized crime that can be applied to a disorganized U.S. healthcare system: Don't damage the host, protect the brand and adapt aggressively. How can these lessons position the patient as the most important part of care delivery?

What challenges do high-needs patients face when seeking care? This was the question Dr. Melissa Clarke encountered as she and her colleagues worked towards a "whole person" model of care at a Washington DC addiction clinic. Working to achieve health equity, the clinic introduced new and innovative programs that helped transform not only the patient, but also the caregiving process.

Imagine going to your primary care clinic and along with a blood test, they also took a "sample" of your language. The brain is too complicated for typical lab tests, but in the future a test like this may help diagnose mental health disorders more accurately. In this episode, Dr. Rebecca Resnik discusses how we can break down silos across areas of specialization and use technology to foster collaboration between mental health professionals and primary care physicians.

In attempting to improve healthcare delivery, policy makers have tried a top-down approach to effect change. In this episode, Harold D. Miller, President and CEO of the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform advocates for a bottom-up style of reform, focusing on reinvigorating primary care and fostering healthcare transformation at the local level.

Dr. John "Rick" LeMoine's job is unique among chief medical information officers (CMIOs). He has no direct reports at CMIO for Sharp HealthCare, the largest healthcare provider in San Diego County. Instead, he is tasked with seeking out new ideas and breakthrough improvements that may fit into the complex environment in which he works. In this episode, Dr. LeMoine discusses what it takes to spark innovation within healthcare organizations and how a sense of curiosity can enhance the role of the CMIO.