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 Welcome to this Week in Health It where we amplify great thinking to Propel Healthcare Forward. My name is Bill Russell Healthcare, CIO, coach and creator of this week in Health. It a set of podcast videos and collaboration events dedicated to developing the next generation of health leaders. This episode and every episode since we started the C Ovid 19 series has been sponsored by Sirius Healthcare.

Special thanks to Sirius for supporting the show's efforts during the crisis. Don't forget, we've gone to three shows a week now Tuesday, we cover the news on Tuesday Newsday, and we have interviews with industry influencers on Wednesday and Friday. I hope you enjoy Today's conversation is with Ed Gillespie and Kathy Meister with Lenovo.

Ed is the VP and general manager of public sector and healthcare, and Kathy is the leader of healthcare sales.

Hi, bill, great to reconnect with you. How are you today? Good, good. I'm, I'm really looking forward to this conversation. Ed. We've known each other for a long time. Kathy, not as long, but, uh, we're getting to know each other as, as we go, uh, through this, you know, I think the first question I need to ask you is, which college do you think was most hurt in terms of national championship?

Well, I have a feeling you might be baiting me bill with, uh, my alma mater, university of Texas. Yeah, well, I, I sort of am because I do want an opportunity some way to talk about the fact that Baylor did defeat Texas in football this year, which doesn't happen all that often. So you have to talk about Yeah, unfortunately that's true, and I think you've got, uh, several wins racked up there in the column that, uh, I'm not proud of, but, uh, I do respect.

Bay. It's a wonderful institution right down the road, uh, from me. In fact, as you see in my backdrop, this is, uh, Austin and Skyline. Uh, go to Waco often and, uh, respect that institution and hate it when you guys beat us. Yeah, well, I, I became a fan as I start to spend more and more money there as my daughter continues her education.

So, uh, I'll continue to, to support the, uh, Baylor colors as the show goes on, but I, I'm really excited to, to talk to you guys. You guys.

A lot of different, uh, ways that you're supporting them. And, you know, what I really wanted to do was, you know, take a look at what is, what's been going on, what you guys have been doing, and, and, and hopefully start to lean into where it's gonna go next. That's seems to be where the conversation's going.

So let's, let's start at the beginning. You know, give us an idea of, of some of the ways that you've supported your clients during the pandemic. Sure. Great. Thank you, bill. Appreciate it. Just by way of background, let me give you a little bit on the company. As Bill mentioned, I lead US public sector and healthcare business.

Lenovo, for those of you that may not be aware, is the number one PC provider worldwide, also, number one on the supercomputer list for the top 500 supercomputers. Our vision as the company is intelligent transformation. Simply put, what does that really mean? Uh, means that we're a portfolio of solutions.

People's lives, lives and transform computing environments more efficiently. We've got a strategy called three s, which is smart IoT, smart Infrastructure, and smart verticals. Today we'd like to talk about smart verticals specific to healthcare and really what we're doing, because it's right in the middle of this C Ovid 19 crisis that we're all facing, as I'm sure everybody is, is dealing with fighting the virus, Lenovos it both as a global company as well as serving all of our customers responded.

Lots of local leadership acting to take care of our local teams around the globe, making sure that that's priority number one. Also giving back to communities to date. In fact, bill, we've given over $12 million to hospitals and schools, community partners around the world. Uh, a couple specific philanthropic donations.

We've made about two equipment and. To hospitals, about a half a million dollars of, uh, donations for N 95 masks, part of the PPE solution, another two and a half million dollars of hardware donations for distance learning and education, both K through 12, as well as higher education, which are markets that we serve in a dedicated fashion.

We're also helping customers providing technology in this crisis, and we've been very busy over the past couple of months, as you might expect, with frontline workers. Especially in healthcare, helping them leverage the strength of our global supply chain and, and our purchasing, frankly.

That provides some advantages and benefits to customers, and we've been serving customers in healthcare provider space across the US from California to the Midwest, including New York, where we delivered and set up, helped set up some technology devices for some hospitals in New York City where it's been most hardest hit.

So Bill, those are some examples of kind of what we've been doing recently and kind of what our strategy is and focus in the company as well as, uh, specific to smart verticals in healthcare. Uh, that's fantastic. I, I, I love the philanthropic work. I also like the, you know, the smart IoT and smart infrastructure.

I'm sure we're gonna come back to that as we get going. Kathy, I, I wanted to, uh, bring you into the conversation because you went to Carnegie Mellon and we started on this football thing. I, I apologize. It's just something that Ed and I have, have done for years is, uh, he is always brandishing his Texas hats.

With this Covid fight. Well, bill and I, and I wanna start by saying, first of all, so while my alma mater maybe can't compete, um, from a football perspective, I will say from a professional football perspective, uh, my hometown of Pittsburgh is right up there at the top. So. Just wanna get that out there.

Okay. . Got it. But on a serious note, and I, and I happen to be based in New Jersey, so I, I feel very close to, uh, really, really the epicenter of this pandemic. And certainly there's been a lot of challenges that our health systems, um, have been dealing with. And we saw these challenges really from, from our perspective around two different fronts.

One was this forklift effort to work from home. For those employees who could be enabled to work from home. And then also there was just the, the preparedness within point of care sites for combating the virus for those non frontline workers who could work from home. Certainly many of them needed a device, right?

They needed a mobile device for at home. Uh, maybe they needed peripherals, maybe they needed a monitor and they needed to be able to collaborate. They needed some education, frankly, on, on using those tools. And as that described, there was this huge, as there was a huge surge to work from home, it certainly put pressure on supply chains across the IT industry, right?

And we worked very hard with many of our health systems to try to address those needs as best we could to support standing up those immediate needs. For, for work from home. We've also helped with some best practices around working from home because we are, we are largely a mobile company ourselves, right?

So work from home wasn't necessarily new to us and we've really tried to share those learnings back, um, with our clients. On the other side, was this more, this in within the walls, right? Of the health system and the challenges and, and, and these were many, right? For CIOs, um, and for IT teams. This is preparing for surgeon patients, right?

So expanding ice number of ICU beds, standing up field hospitals, creating commands, creating command centers. All very intensive projects that amazingly we've seen. That normally would've been months to stand up some of these operations happening in days, if not not weeks. And then the other challenge that really played in was simply this, the preparing for the shortage that occurred and is occurring in terms of physicians and nurses, and then the massive shortages from APPE perspective.

So how could technology, um, be used to help deal, deal with some of those issues and certainly. Ultimately help protect more patients and physicians. You know, it's, it's, it's interesting as you as, as I listen to you guys talk and we're, we're harkening back a little bit to talking about what was it like when the crisis first hit, but it sort of dawns on me as, as we're talking about this and, and I've talked to some people who've said, you know, bill, you might.

Now it's gonna start moving out. And so people are still gonna be in that phase that we just talked about, where they're, they're still, they still have to, you know, I dunno, acquire equipment and think of new solutions and those kind of things for rural locations. So it's gonna be interesting. So even as we move through this conversation of talking about, uh, the beginning of the crisis, it.

So we've, we've moved from really react. So we, we have this crisis. We reacted, we're stabilizing in the process. How has the work shifted from your perspective, from your vantage point as, as we anticipate a surge in some of these, some of these other communities? Yeah, sure. Yeah, great point Bill. I mean, many cases we're seeing, you know, a wide range of impact and, you know.

It's certainly caught, uh, I think this industry as well as most other industries, flatfooted with not having true business continuity as we've talked, uh, multiple times, and you being a former healthcare, CIO, you know how important it is for uptime and, and, uh, probably a lot of your, uh, listeners here on this podcast.

And really, I, I would say the pandemic has just accelerated the digital transformation that a lot of folks are on that journey, you know, driving adoption of, you know, what we'll call virtual healthcare telehealth. I mean, telehealth is not new, but it's certainly accelerated digital transformation. And, and I would say the healthcare delivery system is, has been, you know, grossly underserved.

Certainly the business model as we've all been trying to transform that and do our part, but the, you know, the moves to expand and maybe loosen, uh, some of the requirements. For example, CMS expanding reimbursement to telehealth services, the social acceptance, both physicians and patients. Allowing for that to be a viable delivery for healthcare systems.

And we know te Telehealth's not new. Certainly the groundwork for infrastructure and and healthcare workflows have been in place for many, many years. We just see over the past few months, thankfully, that this has just created an exponential increase for telehealth encounters. I'm sure all of you, uh, have experienced that either personally or professionally.

I know I have, and it's been a great thing. This acceleration of telehealth for health systems I think is gonna be a part of the new norm, at least. I certainly hope so. The, the recent leniency on HIPAA compliant platforms and devices I think has helped in the crisis. I think that will change back, but I think the ability for us to be able to deliver, you know, things like virtual rounding in acute care settings and remote patient monitoring, even home healthcare, are gonna be areas that we're gonna accelerate our advancement in healthcare delivery, which is exciting for me, having served the healthcare industry for many years, and as a technology provider, we feel very responsible.

A key role in doing that. So we're excited with some of the solutions that we have. We wanna talk about a few of them today specifically. Uh, Lenovo Virtual Rounding with our Microsoft Teams solution is allowing caregivers, uh, to visit with patients remotely, and it maintains the patient relationship.

Also decreases, you know, PPE requirements. Certainly decreases, uh, the risk of infection and transmission. So when we think about smart verticals and things that we can do to provide technology solutions, both hardware, software, services, and partnerships, that's what we mean by being a responsible technology provider for solutions.

I know vendors like us tend to throw the word solution around a lot, but this is a very pragmatic approach.

Being the number one PC provider and having, uh, a breadth and of solutions at our disposal to marketplace in need. And frankly, I think at epicenter of. Everything that we're doing right now, helping shape what the new norms will be. So those are some initial thoughts that I have Bill around, you know, kind of what we've been seeing and what we hope will continue to accelerate in the industry.

Yeah. You know, one, one of the things I'm hearing from, uh, CIOs as I have these conversations. You know, we have all these new Lego pieces to play with. You know, you talk about virtual rounding, and when we think about rounding, we think about going from one hospital room to another, right? In reality, virtual rounding, we could do it from one home to the next home, to the next home with, with an entire team of care providers, which really changes the game, so, so let's talk about home-based care, virtual, remote monitoring and tracking, and those kinds of things.

How does, how does Lenovo approach that and, and what do we, uh, anticipate to be the new, uh, focal point for healthcare? So, so I'd love, I'd love to jump in on that, on that question, bill. So, Lenovo has been focused on, um, re remote patient monitoring for a while. The, the, the rise in chronic conditions has something that's been going on for a while and recently, certainly these chronic conditions which.

Um, a certain population, even at greater risk with CVID 19. Um, perhaps to shed more of a spotlight on the need, um, to address, um, this challenge for, for really for our country, for the world. You know, these chronic diseases, um, and conditions that are contributing to nearly 90% of healthcare costs require focus and targeted care, consistent targeted care.

You know, if outcomes are going be improved. So with Lenovo Virtual Care, we are providing really a continuous connection between the, the physician and the patient. Essentially a, a bridge between how the, the physician can monitor the patient in, in his or her office, to being able to monitor them from their, from their own home.

And Lenovo Virtual Care is a little bit different from other solutions because of our virtual assistant or our virtual nurse, nurse Rosie, who encourages positive habit formation and care plan compliance. Lenovo Virtual Care really allows the provider to remotely monitor the patient's compliance, guide them through adherence to their care plan, and even educating, um, the patients or family members and caregivers around, around the condition.

And this solution really combines trusted Lenovo hardware. So it's a tablet as well as biometric and FDA approved biometric devices. So for example, a glucose monitor or a blood pressure cuff, right? And then AI powered software. And that's really where that habit formation and reinforcement of the care plan.

Um.

Right, the biometrics, ai, the software, you're bringing the hardware together, uh, and hopefully creating that solution. You know, one of the things I wanted to, you know, really I, as a former CIO, I have it in the back of my head. It's like, you know, we're heading into a time that's gonna be, uh, really tight financially for healthcare systems.

You know, with, with the loss of the, and the rise of really the loss of commercial payer. 30 some odd million people, uh, being unemployed. How, you know, how is, how I, I guess, ed, I'll go to you on this, you know, how is Lenovo gonna partner with health systems to help them to navigate this? Yeah. Well, great question.

You're absolutely right. Kathy and her dedicated healthcare team in the US have been dealing with this, you know, now for several weeks as elective surgeries are, are down or non-existent and. Not, not in their, their normal operations and obviously to have a, have a huge financial impact. So they're gonna be looking for creative ways to deliver technology solutions and ultimately provide patient outcomes and operational efficiencies.

Uh, and we hope leaning on folks like Lenovo, you know, one of the ways we, we are addressing that with this specific solutioned providing.

If not thousands of this technology in homes and be able to do that on a subscription basis so that there's not a big upfront, uh, cost and, and operationalizing that versus, uh, capitalizing that if, if the health system, you know, we're allowed to do that. And, uh, we, we think that's an advantage for us. We think it's, it's good for our customers and.

There's gonna be an awful lot of, of pool around digital and digital solutions like the one you're talking about, which actually is gonna improve care just across the board. Right? Right. We're gonna, we're gonna be able to help people with their care plans keep, keep them, uh, moving towards, you know, better outcomes, uh, because we've always talked about how do we increase the number of touch points between the.

Someone who's healthy, like, like three of us, might only see a doctor once or twice a year, maybe three times a year at, at most, and a lot of care happens between those settings. And Covid has really increased the need for some of these specific things. But as I was saying before, I think a lot of health systems now.

At these building blocks and go, Hey, we could do this for our chronic patients, but we can also do this for our, you know, walking well and our, you know, our active healthy patients. There's a lot of ways to increase the number of touch in a pretty cost effective way, and I think that's what I'm hearing from you guys.

It is for sure. Thank you Bill for, for teasing that out and, uh, being so intuitive. I mean, the, the, one of the things I loved working with you when you were a healthcare CIO, was how demanding you were of yourself, your vendor partners, and when we reached that status with you, how much you trusted us to be a true partner.

Because you were right in the middle of digital transformation many years ago when folks didn't know what that meant. We're now squarely in the middle of it years later. Now, this pandemic is accelerating that opportunity for all of us to take advantage of the acceleration of really scaling, uh, solutions that are very practical and.

Theoretical, it's very practical. Virtual rounding solution and the virtual care solution are just two examples of things that we are launching into the market and scaling, and we're very excited about it, continuing to serve the healthcare customers, uh, with these type of technology solutions. We're very committed to doing and we love working with customers.

Are innovative, that are wanting to challenge the status quo to be in the forefront, helping lead with technology. We think that this virtual care solution is right in the heart of our smart vertical strategy because it enables practically care providers to coach patients through individual care plans improving, you know.

Patient care experiences, patient satisfaction, even incorporating, you know, family engagement, which, mm-Hmm. , I dunno about you, but I've been engaged with my family more than ever with our three daughters at home from college and, and you know, whether you're together in the confines, in, in, during a, a covid pandemic or whether you are dispersed, you know, you need care team, especially

ifm. Deliver care management with, uh, the family and with your loved ones that may be critically ill or chronically ill. And it's certainly aimed at helping reduce hospital admissions. Mm-Hmm. , which we know is a huge issue, but we don't want to use hospitals as, uh, a regular care need. So this innovative approach that we're taking at Lenovo, specifically in the healthcare us.

For chronic care management is really important and a big passion of mine personally and of the companies. Uh, we plan to continue to invest in smart vertical solutions and provide more value to our healthcare provider customers. And we just appreciate Bill the opportunity, uh, to talk a bit about it today and share it with all of your listeners and hope we an opportunity to serve Uhcustomers.

Yeah. And, and thank the two of you for, uh, taking the time to meet with today. We'll have to stay connected and see, you know, see how things progress. I, I'd love to, you know, potentially pull, pull some of your clients in and, you know, in six months or so, three, six months or so, and, and, and, uh, hear about some of things that we've, we've really been able to do to push this.

All of these things push care forward really. We would love to do that. Bill, thank you for the time today. And hook 'em. Horns . Thanks Bill. Great being with you today. I, I, I'll give you, so, so Kathy, what is, what is the, uh, the, the phrase we have hook them? Horns. What's the phrase from, uh, from Carnegie Mellon?

You have no idea, do you? Oh goodness. You put me on the spot, bill. Sorry, . That's alright. I dunno what.

I.

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