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Welcome to this Weekend in Health IT News, where we look at as many stories as we can in 20 minutes or less. That's gonna impact health. It Tuesday Newsday and, uh, we're reporting again from the out outside the wonderful outdoors, uh, taking my own advice and getting out and, uh, enjoying the sun while it's out here.

So, . Tuesday News Day. And here's what we have on tap. Common Spirit names a new Chief Information and Digital Officer, which is important for a couple of reasons, and we'll go into that U P M C, Carnegie Mellon to use, uh, Amazon AI tools. We'll talk about that interesting dynamic, which is going on across healthcare.

Uh, let's see, report most health systems still lack a long-term digital strategy. I think that's an interesting story, and we'll talk about why that's happening and why that's important. And, uh, best jobs in America pay more than that. Pay more than a hundred thousand dollars. Uh, as Baron's article. And, uh, the cool thing is a bunch of those are in health it, so that's why it's relevant.

That's why we're gonna talk about it. My name is Bill Russell. We're covering healthcare, c i o, and creator of this week in health. It have set up podcasts and videos dedicated to developing the next generation of health leaders. This podcast is sponsored by health lyrics. Professional athletes have coaches for every aspect of their life to improve performance, which makes sense, yet many CIOs and health executives choose to go it alone.

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Send me feedback. Bill it this week in health it.com, uh, which has been phenomenal. You guys have been telling me what's working and what's not working in this news show, and I appreciate it. So we keep adjusting and, uh, subscribe to our newsletter and other services on the website. So, uh, speaking of other services, um, we launched two services over the last three weeks.

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Uh, common Spirit, if you don't know, is the, uh, combined entity of Catholic Health Initiatives and Dignity Health. They, uh, combine their $29 billion non-profit Catholic health system operating in 21 states, and they have named, uh, SJA . Chandra sec. Oh gosh. Sja Chandra Serin, formerly with Kimberly Clark as their first senior Vice President, chief Information and Digital Officer.

I think it's important for a couple reasons. One is, uh, SJA is a woman and that is phenomenal to, uh, continue to have women, uh, move forward in, uh, health IT careers. Uh, which is exciting. I think the other thing that is really exciting is the combination of these two roles. I, I'm a firm believer that these two roles either need to be so closely linked that the, uh, two people would have to share a brain and really be on the same page.

Uh, or the second thing is it could just be the same person. And so I think it's, uh, exciting that you're seeing this happen. I think it's happening for two reasons. One is, um, Chief Information officers want to have the ability to impact the, uh, consumer experience with digital tools. And so, uh, the chief Digital Officer has been making inroads into healthcare and, uh, CIOs see that as, uh, an area where they can really have an impact.

Uh, I think the other thing is you're seeing chief digital officers say, you know what? I need to have a little bit more control of the platforms and the data and how things move around the system in order to be effective in the role of Chief Digital Officer. And I think either having them all in the same organization, uh, or having them be the same person is, uh, is a really cool, uh, way to do that.

So you're seeing that happen more and more. Um, you're also seeing healthcare go outside and we've, we covered that. Uh, I, I think we even covered it last week. We covered it because we talked about the Kaiser. Uh, so they, they cite in this story, uh, Kaiser hired, uh, Pratt FNA from the Home Depot as their new Chief Digital Officer, and we talked about that person.

We talked about Aaron Martin, who came from Amazon, who's at Providence. Uh, they, they note in this article, Eduardo, uh, uh, Conrado. . Uh, chief Digital Officer for Ascension who came from Motorola, and there are several others that are out there. And, uh, that trend continues and I think it's a good trend. I mean, there are a whole bunch of things that we can learn from other industries around, um, uh, using digital tools to create experience, to reduce friction, to I improve the, uh, convenience factor, uh, for, uh, healthcare.

So, um, one of SU's big tasks will be to create interoperability between the technology capabilities of the formerly independent health systems. The health systems said, uh, she would redesign business processes with technology and operating models that connect the 150,000 employees and 25,000 physicians across the different geographies and communities of Common Spirit Health, in addition to designing digital capabilities to transform the patient experience.

She will seek to lead the integration and modernization of technology systems to connect the health systems 142 hospitals and more than 700 care sites. So, um, uh, wish soja the, the best of luck just reading that off. You can imagine that this role, uh, is a pretty high level role that, uh, you're gonna see Common spirit, uh, hiring key people.

Uh, just underneath sja to handle certain things like cloud infrastructure, data analytics, um, uh, the development of platforms and APIs. Uh, all those things have to be put in place. And, uh, quite frankly, uh, knowing what I know of these, uh, two health systems, there's an awful lot of EMRs in play. There's an awful lot of technologies in play.

There's probably thousands of individual apps in play and data silos. Uh, so there's an awful lot of work. I'd love to see them go greenfield on a lot of this stuff and just rethink and redesign the whole platform. Uh, I've talked about this too much, uh, but it's exciting story. Uh, glad they're doing this.

Uh, next story. Uh, U P M C, Carnegie Mellon to use Amazon AI tools. So U P M C and other. Uh, prominent Pittsburgh research organizations announced Wednesday that they plan to leverage Amazon division's machine learning capabilities to accelerate breakthroughs in patient care and product commercialization.

Uh, I mentioned this because it's almost become like signing day, you know, in like college football, when the high school students announce what college they're going to. Uh, that's almost what's going on here. If you watch this . Uh, closely as, as I am, you're seeing Amazon sign up different entity entities.

You're seeing Google sign up different entities, you're seeing Microsoft sign up different entities. Uh, and a lot of it is because people have got to decide where they're gonna start and what platform they're gonna start on. I think some of these entities try to do it themselves and have realized that the, uh, capabilities that these cloud providers are bringing are far superior and far advanced, uh, as to what they were able to build out themselves.

And, uh, now it's signing day. I, and it's kind of funny, I, I, I'm almost thinking of doing a segment called Signing Day and, and talking about who signed with whom. Uh, as you start to see this thing roll forward, they saw Providence signed with Microsoft. Um, uh, you saw Halamka and Beth Israel Deaconess do some stuff.

I think it was with, uh, Amazon as well. So you're seeing Amazon make, uh, some inroads. You're seeing some people sign with, uh, apple and with Google and, and other things. So it's . It's, uh, it's interesting signing day. So there you go. U P M C is signed with Amazon. I don't think that locks 'em in. I think it's a starting point.

I think there's gonna be things that, uh, Amazon's capabilities are gonna be good at, and there's gonna be things that, Google's capabilities and so forth and so on. So you might see some of these, uh, entities signed with multiple players. We'll see what happens. All right, let's move on to our next story.

Our, our next story is a report. Most health systems still lack a long-term digital strategy. This comes to us from, uh, Rajiv Leventhal, who we've tapped on a couple of stories actually. Healthcare, uh, it comes from Healthcare Innovation group. Lemme read a couple things from this. The survey of CIOs and other executives examine digital health maturation and how patient care organizations are strategizing for the future.

Healthcare's digital transformation is still in the early stages of, uh, maturity relative to other sectors, but CIOs do understand the imperative to drive digitization. Uh, Comes from a new report from the advisory firm, DMO Consulting, which is Patty's company. We'll get to that in a minute. Uh, let's see.

According to researchers, there's four models. So lemme give you the four models real quick. Um, they are a reliance on the, uh, E H R systems to drive digital engagement. That's model number one. Model number two is digital strategy singularly focused on virtual virtualization of care. The third model is a standalone digital initiative.

Driven by internal demand. And the, uh, fourth model is strategic investments in long-term digital health platforms. And, uh, he goes on to say most health systems, especially smaller and mid-tier ones, operate in models one and two. And only the nation's largest health systems are operating in model four.

The majority of CIOs in the focus group power are acknowledged that all enterprises need to shift to model four. Uh, the findings revealed. And, uh, Patty, uh, in my discussions with health System CIOs, what emerged was not only, uh, is that not only are most health systems in the early stages of adoption, but there is no clear consensus on what digital transformation looks like and how to achieve it said Patty Padman Bond, c e o of d o consulting.

Most health systems consider their e H R systems as their digital strategy and are developing standalone solutions on an as needed basis without long-term digital strategy in mind. Alright, so before I go on here, there's just a wealth of stuff right there. These four models, I've found it to be true the more health systems I talk to.

Um, you know, you, you do have a fair number of people who rely very heavily on their E H R and are focused on their, uh, care model. So what, what you see there is, uh, health systems that are saying, uh, you know, let's reduce clicks. Let's, uh, focus in on the patient, or on not the patient experience, on the physician experience, the clinician experience.

Let's automate processes internally. They may be looking at new technologies, but typically those come through either the e h R provider or uh, close partners with the E H R provider. They might even be doing ai, machine learning, internet of things, and some really interesting things. There are a lot of things you can do in a model one and two.

I think the point of this article is that it's, uh, sort of like, Hey, what's the next thing coming from my E M R? There's no . Long-term vision and strategy for it. I think what you're seeing in the model three and four, uh, care providers, especially the model four, uh, care providers who are strategic, making strategic investments in health platforms, is first of all the word platforms.

Uh, they are looking at it as, how am I gonna be able to deliver a, uh, an experience? How am I gonna be able to deliver, uh, to extend my care? And, and the services that I offer across digital platforms to the communities. I think that's one aspect. I think the other aspect is they've taken the time to think through, uh, their

The, the people who live in their, their catchment area, the people who live in their communities, they've taken the time to, uh, talk to them to understand, uh, what they're looking for from a health system, what they're, what their goals and, and what they're trying to achieve. And then they start to organize their investments around that.

If you spend any time at all, uh, in those, uh, kind of innovation models, incubators and , Um, uh, even VCs and private equity that floats around healthcare, uh, within, within health systems. So there's, I'm, we're still talking about health systems that have those models. Um, they have spent an awful lot of time saying, what is the next thing?

How are we going to extend this? What is the new model for care? They're looking at what healthcare. We'll probably be in three to five years, not what it is today, and trying to fine tune it. Um, they do that as well, but they, they really do try to, um, come up with new models, new models for care and new models for reaching those people.

So you're seeing them. I think one of the key differences is, uh, an internal focus in, uh, models one and two, and really an external focus in models, uh, three and four. That's not always the case. A lot of times you'll see model three players. When I talk to model three players, . A lot of times what I get is, Hey, we're starting to do telehealth.

And telehealth is strategic and it is a way of, uh, it, it is probably the, uh, the first way of moving your, uh, ability to deliver care outside of your health system. Uh, effectively is through telehealth, but there's an awful lot of other digital tools for engagement to keep people healthy, to uh, to reduce friction to, uh, to, uh, provide convenience.

Alright, so let's go on the, uh, the article goes on to say, health system. CIOs in the focus group who are developing patient engagement applications expressed that they're actively looking at monetizing the capabilities by offering them to peer systems that are yet to make the investments the only . The thing I will say to people who are, who are making that statement is, uh, validate your market before you make that assumption.

I, I, I've talked to too many CIOs who are like, Hey, we're creating this really cool thing, and I'm sitting there going, I know, I know 15 other companies that are doing that today. So you might wanna validate that or have a market already in mind because, uh, . You know, sometimes, oh, I'm, we're developing a new portal and we're gonna take it out there, there could be a ton of people already doing that.

So you still have to, even if you're doing it within a health system, you still have to do that initial work to validate your market and to validate your, your, uh, your assumptions to make sure that there's something after you've, uh, spent all the money to, uh, develop it. Uh, according to Banon, uh, it also comes

Oh, he is talking about, uh, c d O roles and he says it comes down to whether a health system can afford to have another, uh, executive. And what they found is that the larger our, the smaller health systems tend to not have a chief digital officer. And that, uh, work resides within the, uh, chief Information Officer title.

I don't think that's the worst thing, as we've talked about earlier. I don't think that's the worst thing in the world. I think that's fine. Um, what I would encourage the smaller health systems to do is to rely on organizations like avia. Who has an awful lot of, uh, digital strategy work that's going on that they can provide to you?

Uh, I, the advisory board used to do that, but I think Avi is a much better organization today, uh, for that. Don't, don't shoot the messenger at this point. Um, but, uh, you know, so they do a lot of stuff there. Um, I would say, uh, hit, hit your, uh, existing vendors today. And, uh, look to those, look to partner with those innovation groups.

You know, you have 'em, uh, you have 'em at Dignity, you have it at, uh, Providence, you have it at, uh, Cedars. You have it at U P M C. You have it at, I mean, fill in the blank. There's, uh, Vanderbilt, and they're, they're all over. Um, and, you know, find the ones that are closest to you. Um, I think you'll see Atrium start to do the same thing.

Find the ones that are closest to you that are investing in innovation and see if you can't partner with them. And, uh, Um, and, and leverage off what they're doing. If you're, if you don't have the capital to invest, uh, just, just partner, it's a great way to go. Let's talk about the best jobs in America that pay more than a hundred thousand dollars, uh, which have a high number of openings.

But Glassdoor also says that there are signs that the salary growth has been leveling off. Uh, they were followed by nursing managers at number two and marketing managers at number three, and occupational therapists at number four, and product managers at number five. So the Glassdoor, uh, Glassdoor job score is determined by weighing three factors equally, uh, earning potential median annual salary, uh, based salary overall, job satisfaction rating, and number of job openings for a job title to be considered, it must have received at least a hundred salary reports and at least a hundred job satisfaction ratings.

Uh, let's read one more thing and then I'll comment on it. There were six, uh, there were other six-figure jobs among Glassdoor's top 20 list with relatively high number of job openings. And that criteria at number six. It was DevOps engineer, uh, who worked with developers and IT staff to oversee code releases, data engineers at number eight, software engineers at number 10, physician assistant at number 12, uh, strategy manager at number 16, and security engineers at number 17.

I'm surprised that one's only number 17. I have a feeling. Uh, with the number of openings and, um, the, uh, scarcity of resources of really, uh, really good security engineers, I would think that that number's gonna go up, uh, in the coming years. So, uh, you know, here's my comment on this. There's a lot of great jobs within health it and, uh, a lot of, uh, opportunity for growth.

I think a lot of 'em are gonna come in data analytics, um, development. And, uh, design product managers I think is an interesting title. I think, uh, we're gonna see a move towards more of a, uh, an IT shop that has a lot more product managers as opposed to analysts. I think people are going to, uh, insert those product managers who own a product for the duration and the life.

Of the, uh, of, think of it as an application, I would've a product manager for, uh, epic. I would've a product manager for fill in the blank. Um, this is really common within Silicon Valley, and those people are constantly working with the end user community to understand what the requirements are, what the demands are, uh, and what they can do with the product.

And then, uh, working on the, uh, development side to, uh, to make those things into a reality. So these are some, uh, interesting titles. A lot of, uh, uh, a lot of really good opportunities. I know that, uh, with mergers and acquisitions, people are worried about, uh, you know, am I gonna be able to keep my role? And, uh, the answer is, who knows?

I mean, there's so much, uh, merger and acquisition activity going on. Uh, but I don't think that means there's gonna be fewer jobs in the, in health. It, I think there's gonna be more jobs in health. It, I just think they're gonna change. Uh, they're gonna change, uh, a little bit every year, and, uh, eventually you're gonna have an awful lot of people.

On the, uh, on the data side and on the application side, once we get through this automation stuff we're doing today, I think you're gonna see the infrastructure get automated. I think you're gonna see the acquisition of data get automated, and I think it's going to be a matter of, uh, creating new applications around, uh, the capabilities that we've created.

So, uh, let's see. Well, you know, that's all for this week. I had some, uh, some other interesting stories to talk about. As always, I have about 10 stories lined up here. . We'll, uh, we'll save some of 'em for next week and we'll get to 'em. So, uh, that's all. Uh, every Friday, check out our interviews and, uh, with industry influencers.

Uh, keep the comments coming. Love it. Bill it this week in health it.com. Good, bad or indifferent, it all helps. Uh, this shows a production of this week in Health. It. For more great content, you can check out our website this week, health.com or the YouTube channel this week, health.com/uh, video. We'll get you there.

Thanks for listening. That's all for now.