The Big Unlock

In this episode, Manu Tandon discusses how Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a Harvard Medical School-affiliated academic medical center, is working towards their mission to bring in innovations that are happening outside of healthcare.

Digital innovation is an applied science; it is about finding new ways to solve existing problems through emerging or sometimes through traditional technologies as well. At Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), a core part of the overall technology stack is their homegrown EHR system. BIDMC is the only health system in the country to run their own EHR system. In this podcast, Manu Tandon discusses the many benefits and challenges that arise from having a homegrown EHR system.

BIDMC is in the process of migrating their existing services substantially to the AWS cloud platform; this has opened the gateway to new and innovative technology solutions for BIDMC’s digital transformation journey. Tandon advises digital health startups to focus on workflow integration and points out that creating new, technically smart solutions is not the only way to achieve success with digital health solutions; people and process matter as much as technology in the journey of digital innovation.

In this episode, health IT veteran John Halamka discusses how the Health Technology Exploration Center, incubated within Beth Israel Lahey Health, is testing emerging technologies in the digital health innovation ecosystem.

In the world of digital health, we are seeing an explosion of apps, cloud services, wearables, etc. Knowing how to integrate them into the workflow where they are helpful to the patients, providers, and payers is the next big step.

With over 23 years of experience as a CIO, John Halamka now mentors young colleagues and faculty at the Harvard Medical School. He advises health systems executives coming into CIO roles to be agile, take risks, and keep experimenting with new technologies.

In this episode, Mike McSherry discusses how Xealth is helping hospital systems deploy digital health solutions at scale and making the solutions easily consumable for patients and caregivers.

Clinicians need a “digital formulary” that they can easily prescribe to patients. However, there are significant challenges in onboarding, integrating, and implementing digital health solutions at scale. Xealth attempts to address these challenges through a cloud-based “plug-in” that operates within EHR systems. Xealth, which was incubated within Providence St. Joseph and spun out recently, just completed a $14 million funding round with strategic investors such as Cleveland Clinic to help develop the platform and drive growth.

Digital health startups often struggle to gain traction, partly due to the lack of a reimbursement model. Mike, a successful serial entrepreneur, advises digital health startup founders to pay attention to who is paying for the solutions and work closely with providers to help build scalable solutions of the future.