A rapid-fire segment highlighting positive developments in digital health. Janae and Megan share insights on recent innovations, successful implementations, and emerging trends that are driving progress in healthcare technology.
Janae Sharp, Founder, The Sharp Index
Megan Antonelli, Chief Executive Officer, HealthIMPACT Live
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00:00:00 Intro: Welcome to Digital Health talks. Each week we meet with healthcare leaders making an immeasurable difference in equity, access and quality. Hear about what tech is worth investing in and what isn't as we focus on the innovations that deliver. Join Megan Antonelli, Jenny Sharp and Shahid Shah for a weekly no BS deep dive on what's really making an impact in healthcare.
00:00:29 Megan Antonelli: Hi everybody. This is Megan Antonelli and we are here for the Digital Health Talks five Good Things segment. It is June. Happy summer. Happy summer today.
00:00:39 Janae Sharp: Thank you. Happy summer to you. I am ready for school to start again.
00:00:43 Megan Antonelli: Oh me too, me too. Uh. This month's five good things is for healthcare leaders who are tired of being sold the magic. Because, yes, a lot of digital health news still sounds like AI is coming to save everybody by next Tuesday. But underneath, yes. But underneath the noise there was some actually encouraging June stories. Took us a while to find them, as it always does, but here we have it.
00:01:06 Janae Sharp: Yes, and as always, we would love to hear your stories. We're always happy to share people's stories, and we'd love to hear good news. All right, let's start. Five good things with something for women.
00:01:20 Megan Antonelli: Good idea. So early this month, it actually feels like it was like, six weeks ago, if you ask me. Melinda French Gates donated two hundred and fifteen million dollars from her group Pivotal to Women's Health on. And sort of that is an unbelievable amount. And it's very exciting to see. And, uh, there's a lot to where the money is is going to go, I think. Um, I think there's some partners like Wellcome Leap and the Menopause Society, um, that are getting support from it, but, um, you know, and she's been a long time supporter of, of women's health, but, uh, exciting to see two hundred and fifteen million dollars.
00:02:06 Janae Sharp: Uh, yes. And I think it's important to note that this isn't the first time, like, I think she's invested over maybe six hundred million so far and has committed to invest at least a billion in supporting women's rights and women's health. And frankly, women need it. Yes.
00:02:26 Megan Antonelli: So in addition to menopause, the money is focused on also protecting care during reproductive years, uh, expanding the focus on midlife as well as menopause. Uh, and, um, lots of money also international, like for, uh, co impact, which has a focus on Africa.
00:02:46 Janae Sharp: Yes. So I think too, that's, that's really timely when we look at the news that women live in poor health for twenty five percent more of their lives than men. And I like what she said here. With greater focus and funding, we can stop asking women to simply live with poor health and start delivering the solutions they need. Like stop asking women to just put up and shut up and start telling women they can expect to have a great life. And that should be the expectation. Not that, oh, during this period child, whether that be when you have a child, when you try to go back to work with your child, when you're going through menopause. So much of women's lives, including women from healthcare providers, is someone telling them that that's just how it is. You know, when you're pregnant and puking, that's just how it is. You know, when you're having hot flashes, that's just how it is. Like, stop. Just stop. You know, let's just try to make it better. Instead of telling people that's just how it is. So I like. Also, when people say things can be better and put their money where their mouth is.
00:03:59 Megan Antonelli: Definitely. Congratulations to her and thank you for the support. And now to our next good thing.
00:04:09 Janae Sharp: Yes. And also, Melinda can come speak at our conference. That's my official invite.
00:04:15 Megan Antonelli: Okay. Well, this one from our friends over in England, the NHS. They announced the results of a study where they were able to recover quite a few hours and therefore are moving forward, and they are putting AI in the hands of five hundred zero zero zero staff members because they really saw an impact, which we like to hear about. I think it was, um, Microsoft Copilot. Uh, and they reduced administrative burden and freed up an average of two days per month of admin duties for their clinicians, giving more time for patient facing work. So good to hear about that happening. Working. We hear a lot about these ambient tools and, you know, reduction of pajama time. But we're glad to hear, uh, that they were able to really measure it on that scale. And, you know, ultimately it's something that is moving from pilot to practice, if you will. And so, uh, good stuff happening overseas.
00:05:16 Janae Sharp: That is great news. We love, we love the NHS and we love reducing burden. Let's talk about the number two thing, because the centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Office of Health Technology and Products has been established. That was established on June six. June ninth, sorry, twenty twenty six under HHS. And I do want to say that some of the most innovative things in healthcare have come through CMS, through their. They have had innovation just historically. And so I'm really looking forward.
00:05:54 Megan Antonelli: To over.
00:05:55 Janae Sharp: There. Yeah.
00:05:57 Megan Antonelli: Busy, busy, busy. Lots of announcements coming out of there.
00:06:00 Janae Sharp: So they'll be talking about governance, cybersecurity, enterprise architecture, capital planning and investment control responsibilities, as well as CIO led digital service delivery, customer experience and public digital experience responsibilities under applicable law. And I think that's going to really help people be able to access and understand benefits better and decrease some burden. So I thought that was great news.
00:06:31 Megan Antonelli: Yeah. It's interesting. I mean, it's sort of surprising that they haven't had it. But I guess it's, you know, where do these things sit and where do we add? Um, and you know, who kind of takes responsibility for evaluating some of these tools that are being used. So yeah, good, good stuff. You know, there's been a lot of conversation. Peterson Health Institute has released a number of studies around, um, you know, what the payers are doing. And, and obviously CMS being the biggest, uh, it's good to see them, you know, kind of putting structure around this because kind of, I have always felt that the commercial markets tend to follow CMS. So when they.
00:07:08 Janae Sharp: Yes, they pay.
00:07:08 Megan Antonelli: Attention, everybody else does.
00:07:10 Janae Sharp: Yes. And I think it's also good that they're treating digital health and some of these infrastructure issues as more of a core public health infrastructure and less like something special.
00:07:23 Janae Sharp: Mhm. Mhm. And it's also a signal to health system CIOs and to everyone that federal health technology is going to lead in this in this area where before, I don't think they really did lead in modernization.
00:07:42 Megan Antonelli: Right? No, for sure. We're starting to move much faster now. The next one also from England. I guess, you know, with Health Europe happening this past week, I guess our.
00:07:52 Janae Sharp: I think you just got these because of soccer. You've been watching soccer and this is what came up in your feed.
00:07:58 Megan Antonelli: Now it is all about the algorithm, isn't it?
00:08:01 Janae Sharp: We also talk about the good news of people sharing their stories of the US online, because that's been my good news minute. In all reality, watching people come visit is thrilling. They love Taco Bell, don't love health care.
00:08:17 Megan Antonelli: They love ranch. They love best for health care.
00:08:21 Janae Sharp: Yeah. Yes.
00:08:23 Megan Antonelli: Uh, but NHL, NHL leaders say the future of care may be digital first. So we've been saying that a long time. Um, they talked about kind of integration. I think this was, uh, doctor Penny dash also NIH England, uh, talking about kind of the future of where more care is delivered through smartphones, uh, obviously improving access AI supported pathways, Robotics. And, you know, I think what's good is that they're not saying. You know, doctors aren't going to be needed. They're just saying that this digital first pathway allows for better access, better equity, uh, easier, um, you know, kind of workflows and training modules and, um, you know, kind of getting the friction, uh, from the healthcare experience. So more people, more people doing it and taking better care of themselves. So, um, interesting story out of there and, and good stuff.
00:09:19 Janae Sharp: I love that too, because it also accounts for the fact that people are going to be using their smartphones to access healthcare information. You know, doctor, Google is a phrase for a reason. People are looking for care on their phones. So I like that they are acknowledging the reality that that smartphones are here to stay and that we need to give people care there. We might as well bring great robotics, insights and other things to phones in addition to just strange Reddit threads.
00:09:55 Megan Antonelli: Yeah, it's really about meeting them where they are, right?
00:09:57 Janae Sharp: Right. All right. Let's talk about another thing that we love, which is caution and security. UCLA announced on June eleventh that they're launching a research driven center of excellence focused on evaluating AI safety and implementation in healthcare. So the innovative center will focus on.
00:10:22 Megan Antonelli: Spell it for everybody.
00:10:23 Janae Sharp: I n o v a I. But what they did do is they tried to protect patients from bad implementations. And it stands for.
00:10:34 Megan Antonelli: Wait. Hold on. It stands for Innovations and Outcomes validation of AI. Wow. It's like a valid AI group in of AI center. Fantastic. And it's Jenna who is in the press release, at least quoted speaking about it, talking, talking about how it will address one of the most important gaps in healthcare AI, knowing whether these tools are safe.
00:10:59 Janae Sharp: So yes, I think that's that's so. Important because if people just go thinking every tool is equal, that's when we get issues. That's when you see hallucinations happening. That's when real dangerous outcomes can happen. They'll be looking at evaluation across the lifecycle of it usability feasibility workflow assessment, clinical trials and implementation.
00:11:24 Megan Antonelli: Yeah. And heads of it are. Doctor Paul Lukac uh, he's UCLA head health chief of AI officer and doctor John Mafi, who is a professor of medicine. And they are co-directors. So, you know, they're doing a lot of work. They're looking at AI scribes. They found that there was a significant reduction in physician spent time spent writing clinical notes and also revealing this. This I haven't heard much before, but improvements in physicians, cognitive load and work exhaustion and overall well-being. And, you know, the exhaustion thing can't be overstated because I'm feeling pretty exhausted by all of this conversation around AI myself, even though I love it and I use it. It is. It is exhausting.
00:12:12 Break: You're listening to digital health Talks. When we return, we'll continue our discussion on how technology is revolutionizing healthcare delivery. Stay with us to hear more insights on creating sustainable, patient centered digital health solutions.
00:12:31 Janae Sharp: I think they also had a report that said that the number of messages and inbox messages that physicians receive is so much higher since twenty twenty. and I'll look that up to see what the rate is, but it's like more than twice as much.
00:12:48 Megan Antonelli: I can't I mean, of course it is. I mean, you know, I think just the the whole system is built towards that. And, you know, how they're how they're able to kind of manage that. And, you know, besides, as, as a non-physician email has become, um, you know, so, you know, to some degree burdensome and, and as many sort of filters and help and assistance that we have to kind of navigate it, you know, you also know, um, you know, the, the meaning and the impact of what's in there is becoming less and less.
00:13:18 Megan Antonelli: Yes. I mean, I actually have started using the phone again, just picking it up and calling people because, you know, I'm just pretty drastic. I know it's, it's like, you know, Defcon here around here.
00:13:30 Janae Sharp: Yeah. So according to NYU Langone study, over the past five years, messages have increased over by one hundred and fifty three percent in epic and that's uncompensated time. So they haven't actually accounted for that. That's huge.
00:13:47 Janae Sharp: Right. And I'm glad that they are developing tools and really thinking about what to do about that, because some messages and some care doesn't need to be in office care, but there's always that painful period where you're like answering eight billion emails and you have no life because it's your inbox. So yeah.
00:14:16 Megan Antonelli: Uh, the other story came up, uh, which I thought was really great news and interesting because, um, it was Tampa General. So, you know, we got lots of friends down there. Um, but they showed how AI was saving lives, uh, built into their operating systems around sepsis detection. And sepsis has been one of those things where we've seen, you know, very early on seeing impact as we switched over to electronic health records, there was a lot of ways to kind of get in there, but it's still a huge problem in terms of, uh, you know, deaths and mortality within the health care system and this tool, which is powered by Palantir. So, um, I think it's the foundry tool implemented there, uh, helped reduce early sepsis mortality by sixty eight percent. So huge numbers, huge impact, um, you know, and then shortened sepsis days by thirty percent, uh, you know, real significant, uh, numbers that they're seeing. And I think in terms of the projected savings was something around forty million dollars over four years. So, you know, really exciting stuff also from a company we haven't heard too much about, ironically, I've heard quite a bit in this last couple of weeks, had a conversation with um, Scott Raymond, who is down at Nebraska Medicine, also implemented Palantir in that. So I suspect with this story coming out, um, we'll see a little bit more of what they can do in the health care setting. But, you know, big impact for sure.
00:15:42 Janae Sharp: Yeah, that's huge saving almost nine hundred patients lives. And they're tracking lots of different data streams, bringing in lab results, clinician notes, bedside monitors, health records, and bringing those together. And I think that's something that we are going to see more of going forward. That's some of the potential of AI to be able to predict outcomes, but also to be able to, um, help us provide care before things are terrible. So that's great news.
00:16:13 Megan Antonelli: Yeah. Uh, and then we had one more.
00:16:16 Janae Sharp: All right. Let's talk about more great things. OSF healthcare. We love OSF. They move intelligent hospital rooms enterprise wide. You know sometimes they just do a pilot for something but they are really going for it. So they announced on June third that they're expanding their partnership with Healthcare dot ai to deploy AI assisted, intelligent hospital rooms across their enterprise. So the platform integrates virtual nursing, virtual sitting, AI assisted patient safety, digital whiteboards, digital room signs, and patient engagement into one inpatient care ecosystem. And nursing capacity is at its limit, and it would be great if the technology tools helped with the problems that they're facing, you know, patient communication and patient patient safety and care coordination. So that's not just a point solution. It's something that's meeting their needs at the point of care.
00:17:19 Megan Antonelli: Yeah. I know that that's a great one. I mean, we put these together. I didn't even think about it. But we really covered all the gamut in terms of the tools. We've got a virtual nursing tool. We've got a couple ambience in there. And then obviously the analytics piece of that. So, you know, really representative of all the technologies our folks are talking about all the time. Um, actually starting to give, uh, some really good, uh, good data, good results. Um, and then of course, the UCLA story around actually looking at the, at these tools and, you know, assessing the validity of, of what's happening. And I imagine CMS will be doing some of some of that same work. So, um, you know, I think things are moving fast. I just heard my friend, a friend of mine interviewed, uh, Mel Robbins, uh, and Mel Robbins said to the marketers in the room, you know, get, you know, you might think things are going fast, but it's moving as slowly as it ever will moving forward. And it just sort of blew my mind. And I feel like that's where that's where we are in terms of, of this implementation. And while we may feel exhausted, um, it is an exciting time to be a part of it, that's for sure.
00:18:33 Janae Sharp: Yes. And even though we didn't talk about menopause or, um, g o p ones, I do want to shout out to a female author, Rana Awdish, for once again being on the bestseller list with her second book, aftershock.
00:18:53 Janae Sharp: We're moving faster than ever.
00:18:56 Megan Antonelli: We are. Uh, one more good thing. Is that a sort health announced today? Uh, that they're that they got one hundred and twenty million dollars series C uh, I think it was led by Menlo Ventures. They are now their valuation is now one point two billion dollars. Um, kind of amazing. I didn't know them that well. I've seen them, uh, a little bit. Uh, recently, I think what they are, uh, they're all about kind of the patient experience and, uh, the, the sort of, uh, patient journey in terms of that they and they break it into kind of those four pieces in terms of inbound calls, concierge, they do referral loops. They're kind of working with the, the workflow behind the EHR, like referrals, patient intake. Um, and then, uh, staff in terms of AI, uh, kind of managing complex patient access needs in real time.
00:19:55 Janae Sharp: So I think they listened to my complaints when I say what I really want from AI is for me to be able to call something in my health plan and get care without it being a total and absolute nightmare. That's all I'm asking for. And turns out it's also a concern for health plan. Like health care providers, physicians, nurses, and and within health systems, if you need care from like a specialist, that gap like between where you get diagnosed or where you get, you know, referred and getting the care. That's a huge pain point for for health care delivery. So I love that something would be looking out for you because yeah. Have you. We've all been referred to a specialist and then just not gone.
00:20:49 Megan Antonelli: Did you watch their commercial? Because it definitely, uh.
00:20:53 Janae Sharp: I.
00:20:53 Megan Antonelli: Spoke to the experience. Yes. I think I saw it on LinkedIn. Um, but, uh, props to the team over there in terms of marketing or whoever did it. But, uh, Jeffrey Liu is the founder co-CEO. Um, but really they, they kind of nailed the frustration points from the, uh, patient experience side for sure. So excited to see what comes of, of the investment. They have some notable investors, including, uh, Joe Montana and Quiet Capital and Tao Ventures. Uh, so lots, lots and lots of folks involved, Lots of familiar names and excited to see what comes of it.
00:21:33 Janae Sharp: Yes, and they can reach out to us so we can partner for our event in October, which is the sixth and seventh.
00:21:40 Megan Antonelli: Well, folks, that is this month's five good Things. Uh, the thread is pretty clear. The good news is not more AI. The good news is that digital health is starting to sound more operational and making more of an impact. So less magic, more admin relief, more infrastructure, more workflow improvements, and more attention to capacity, safety, sustainability, and measurable outcomes. The version that matters for CIOs is much more practical. Does it save time? Does it reduce risk? Does it support the workforce and does it integrate into care? Thanks for listening. This is Megan Antonelli signing off.
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