Vital Insights

In the myriad discussions around healthcare and technology use, one of the most often overlooked voices in the conversation is that of the patient. And yet, as this episode explores, they have plenty to say.

Jennifer Kent, the vice president of research for Parks Associates, joins Vital Insights again to talk about how healthcare is changing – and how patients (as consumers of healthcare) are driving that change.

At this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2022), the digital health sector was abuzz with new virtual care solutions, translated through the vantage point of a healthcare industry that has spent almost two years grappling with a global pandemic.

And so perhaps ironically, we recorded this episode from a series of remote locations, due to COVID precautions. This podcast is also unusual in that we were able to include three guests from the healthcare vertical at AT&T: Joe Drygas, Clara Hustad and Clint Cetti.

Together we discussed how the future of healthcare delivery will need to leverage the benefits of new information highways. 

EarlySense recently announced a major new research venture with market research firm Parks Associates, which led to the development of a comprehensive new whitepaper titled, Health at Home: New Era of Healthcare. The whitepaper examines the state of the virtual care market, with particular emphasis on the factors driving the shift from facility-centric care to healthcare at home.

As author of the whitepaper, Jennifer Kent joined Vital Insights to talk about the confluence of factors driving the expansion of healthcare into the home.

According to a new report from Presidents Lane Consulting, in partnership with three think tanks Reason Foundation, Pioneer Institute, and Cicero Institute, millions of Americans tried telehealth for the first time during the COVID-19 pandemic. To support that use during the public health crisis, federal officials made changes to Medicare and governors advanced health access with flexible waivers. But… what happens when the public health crisis is over?

The new report and accompanying toolkit, titled Rating the States on Telehealth Best Practices: A Toolkit for a Pro-Patient and Provider Landscape, aim to help state policymakers implement best practices for ensuring that providers and patients can fully realize the benefits of using telehealth services in perpetuity. 

Josh Archambault, Founder of Presidents Lane Consulting, joined Vital Insights to talk about the new report.

With the passing of the Affordable Care Act years ago, one of biggest changes was the shift from fee-for-service care to value-based care. And underpinning that shift was a concept called the Quadruple Aim, or the drive to 1) improve the patient care experience, 2) improve the health of a population, 3) reduce per capita health care costs and 4) improve the clinical experience.

Mike Braham joins this episode of Vital Insights to delve into the often-discussed Quadruple Aim and how technology is helping to turn "sick care" into "healthy care" for patients. 

Join us for our second conversation with Bob Holly, editor of Home Health Care News, as we revisit the legislative progress of the Choose Home Care Act of 2021 – and what the path forward looks like.

The essential idea behind remote patient monitoring seems easy: the patient takes their vital signs at home and in some cases answers a health questionnaire, the data is provided to their doctor, possibly with special alerts when vitals are out of range, and the doctor can then assess their health on a daily basis and provide better care. But deriving value out of such patient generated data is not always straightforward, especially when you have hundreds, or even thousands of patients. How do you address issues of different care protocols between different providers or health systems to ensure a solution can seamlessly merge with existing workflows? Our next guest focused on those issues to bring their solution to market.

David Yavin joins Vital Insights to walk us through how Datos Health has worked with healthcare providers to ensure its full-stack software platform seamlessly merges with existing workflows to equip care teams with the tools they need to remotely manage complex clinical protocols and automate personalized remote care.

As the founder of EarlySense, our guest for this episode of Vital Insights, Avner Halperin, has a deep history in the pursuit of technology use in the healthcare space to address gaps in care. He is the current CEO of EyeControl, a company established by individuals who share personal connections to loved ones with locked-in conditions. The communication barriers they experience initialized product development, and are also used with ventilated patients, including those in COVID-19 isolation. Join us as we explore how technology, AI and remote patient monitoring can revolutionize the way we connect in care for one another.

The American Telemedicine Association (ATA) has been at the forefront of the advancement of telemedicine, telehealth and other virtual care technologies since its inception nearly three decades ago. Our guest for this podcast had the unique opportunity to step into the lead role of the organization just before the pandemic hit – and has expertly balanced the joint tasks of ensuring its members were supported through the uncertainty of 2020 and 2021, while advocating for the enhanced utilization of telehealth to address healthcare challenges. Ann Mond Johnson, CEO of the ATA, joined us to talk about the issues that remain – and three core initiatives the Association plans to focus on to address them.

With a long history of experience working across the healthcare spectrum with providers, payers and innovative technology firms, Ann Mond Johnson joined ATA in early 2018. Johnson has been a pioneer in healthcare for more than two decades, spending most of her career raising Chicago’s profile as a major hub for healthcare technology firms. With extensive experience as both an entrepreneur and executive leader, she has launched and built innovative companies that leverage data to make the healthcare experience better for Americans nationwide.

Before joining ATA, Johnson was CEO of Zest Health. Prior to that, she served as Board Chair and advisor to Chicago start-up ConnectedHealth (now part of Connecture). Johnson sold her first start-up company Subimo to WebMD in 2006. She began her career in healthcare data and information with The Sachs Group (now part of Truven/IBM Watson).

Now at the helm of ATA, the leading, global member-based group focused on telemedicine, Johnson will lead efforts to build ATA’s strategic partnerships to ensure that consumers – patients, employees, members and others – can reap the full benefits of advanced healthcare technology to gain access to top-quality care, delivered cost-effectively.

In a previous episode of Vital InSights, we had the pleasure of speaking with AT&T’s Joe Drygas, focusing on how AT&T is enabling the care of the future. Our guest for this episode – Clint Cetti – is also one of AT&T’s healthcare technology warriors, and we were able to take an even deeper dive into how that future is going to be enabled through 5G, edge processing and the internet of medical things, or IoMT.

As the Global Director of Strategy & Innovation, Clint is currently dedicated to AT&T’s Healthcare vertical for national and global accounts. Clint provides industry insights, futures advisory, strategic development and innovation facilitation for AT&T’s top clients in pharmaceutical, provider, payer and medical life science manufacturing areas.  Clint founded and manages the AT&T Innovation Partnership (IP) Program that formalizes how AT&T and clients innovate together. Clint works closely with both AT&T and client leadership to sponsor DesignThink Workshops, Experience Mapping Events and IoT hack-a-thons to identify areas of the business that would most benefit from AT&T’s innovation solution development resources. Clint has developed strategies and key innovations with Coca-Cola, Home Depot, Delta Airline, Humana and more of AT&T’s largest clients for end-to-end platform approaches of wired, wireless, cloud and mixed reality environments expressing the true value of AT&T in the marketplace.

Clint has over 29 years of global professional technical experience as well as a Masters in Business Administration.  Clint currently participates in technical advisory roles for the the Medical Device Innovation Consortium group and members such as the FDA and USDA.  Clients have repeatedly recognized Clint for his transformative business innovation, futures vision, and strategic leadership insights. Clint is now a publicly recognized industry leader in the areas of business strategy, global network design innovation and the emerging fields of IoMT, 5G and edge compute. Clint continues to provide his thought leadership in industry trade media and conferences such as HIMMS, HLTH, CES, Samsung/EMC’s Mobile Cloud Conference, CHIME and other Corporate and Public Venues.