Today in.
Speaker:Health it interviews from the health conference in Boston
Speaker:My name is bill Russell.
Speaker:I'm a former CIO for a 16 hospital system and creator of this week and
Speaker:health it a channel dedicated to keeping health it staff current and engaged.
Speaker:Just a quick reminder, I'm going to be dropping interviews
Speaker:over the next couple of days.
Speaker:And into next week from the floor of the health conference.
Bill Russell:All right.
Bill Russell:We're here from the health 2021 conference in Boston.
Bill Russell:We're here with Cynthia Barraza with.
Bill Russell:Uh, welcome to the show.
Bill Russell:I appreciate you coming
Cynthia Perazzo:on.
Cynthia Perazzo:Thanks, Belle.
Cynthia Perazzo:Excited to be here.
Bill Russell:So what's your
Cynthia Perazzo:title?
Cynthia Perazzo:What's your role with Avia?
Cynthia Perazzo:I'm the executive vice president for insights and advisory.
Cynthia Perazzo:So I work with our health systems driving the core research around digital
Cynthia Perazzo:transformation and lead our advisory project projects to help actually
Cynthia Perazzo:drive digital transformation at scale.
Bill Russell:Yeah.
Bill Russell:So what's, what's the focus right now for health systems?
Bill Russell:What are they
Cynthia Perazzo:looking at?
Cynthia Perazzo:Well, the good news is that most health systems have finally gotten
Cynthia Perazzo:the joke that digital is going to be.
Cynthia Perazzo:And the C-suite is now looking around, asking the question
Cynthia Perazzo:on how, how are we going to do
Bill Russell:yes.
Bill Russell:You know, it's, it's when I was see, I was interesting.
Bill Russell:Cause we would look at these projects and we would, uh, the technology wasn't easy.
Bill Russell:I mean, we still needed companies like yours, who would help us to
Bill Russell:identify cause there's so many players.
Bill Russell:I mean, we're at the health conference, you just walked through there and it's
Bill Russell:amazing how many players are and you guys would help us sift through those things.
Bill Russell:But these really ended up becoming a heavy lift from an operational side.
Bill Russell:And I assume that's areas
Cynthia Perazzo:where.
Cynthia Perazzo:Right.
Cynthia Perazzo:And that's really the challenge of 2021 is how do we create the operating
Cynthia Perazzo:models that are supported by digital?
Cynthia Perazzo:How do we make that transformation?
Cynthia Perazzo:You know, picking the technology.
Cynthia Perazzo:It turns out is the easy part.
Cynthia Perazzo:The hard part is really rewiring your operations to support new processes.
Bill Russell:Well, I don't want to minimize how easy it is because when
Bill Russell:we looked at an Avia, when I was at St Joe's, we partnered with Avia.
Bill Russell:And one of the things you guys did is you went through that landscape of.
Bill Russell:Solutions and helped us to say, all right, we're going to do something
Bill Russell:around, uh, you know, filling, filling, uh, unfilled or, uh, spots for
Bill Russell:physicians and those kinds of things.
Bill Russell:And you guys would narrow down the whole field and help
Bill Russell:us to evaluate those things.
Bill Russell:That's, uh, that's still a big part of what you
Cynthia Perazzo:guys do.
Cynthia Perazzo:And what we do is understand who the players are in any capability, landscape.
Cynthia Perazzo:And part of our value proposition is to help health systems move
Cynthia Perazzo:faster through the decision-making.
Cynthia Perazzo:And line up the specifications that they have for technical requirements
Cynthia Perazzo:with what the, the solution provider.
Bill Russell:But I assume what's happening is we get the technology.
Bill Russell:A lot of these projects, we get the technology and we put it
Bill Russell:in and then we just fall down on the, on the operation side.
Bill Russell:And I have enough of those projects under my belt to know that if you don't
Bill Russell:get the entire organization bought in, uh, with, with the vision, with.
Bill Russell:Uh, with the approach and whatnot, you'll get a lot of silent vetoes along
Bill Russell:the way, and it really does slow these
Cynthia Perazzo:projects, the silent vetoes, the vein of our health
Bill Russell:system.
Bill Russell:Well, we all agreed.
Bill Russell:It's like, no, no, you agreed with yourself.
Bill Russell:And we didn't
Cynthia Perazzo:really agree with you.
Cynthia Perazzo:We do spend a lot of our time upstream on creating that value proposition,
Cynthia Perazzo:really doing the, uh, accounting work on the return on investing.
Cynthia Perazzo:Stakeholder management change management.
Cynthia Perazzo:It has a different flavor.
Cynthia Perazzo:Went in digital.
Cynthia Perazzo:Now, when it digital is a team sport, we like to say, so it's not just the
Cynthia Perazzo:CIO or the chief innovation officer.
Cynthia Perazzo:Even the chief digital officer, you need CFO, human resources, nursing, you know,
Cynthia Perazzo:everyone has to play their role to be a
Bill Russell:success.
Bill Russell:So health systems that work with Avia, it used to be, we, we became members of.
Bill Russell:Is that
Cynthia Perazzo:the right word members still the same.
Cynthia Perazzo:We are a membership organization and part of our value proposition is being better
Cynthia Perazzo:together so we can learn from each other.
Cynthia Perazzo:We can collaborate.
Cynthia Perazzo:It's a very open model, uh, that enables us to have, you know, more
Cynthia Perazzo:experience collectively than any one system could have singularly.
Bill Russell:So you had the great researchers in the background, but
Bill Russell:now you have advisors that are.
Cynthia Perazzo:Yeah, we have several levels of advisors now,
Cynthia Perazzo:like research is at its core.
Cynthia Perazzo:And that part of that research is, you know, understanding what's
Cynthia Perazzo:happening in the collective.
Cynthia Perazzo:We have a digital transformation guide, which is your client success type person
Cynthia Perazzo:who really embeds in the organization to understand how things get done,
Cynthia Perazzo:uh, what your critical problems are.
Cynthia Perazzo:We have an advisory group that actually helps service the membership,
Cynthia Perazzo:identifying those critical projects that you need to get done in support.
Cynthia Perazzo:Um, the implementation of those projects.
Cynthia Perazzo:And then finally we have a consulting group that's really grown over
Cynthia Perazzo:the past four years, um, because of this need to really start at
Cynthia Perazzo:the top with a digital strategy.
Bill Russell:The, you know, as I, as I'm thinking about this during, during the
Bill Russell:pandemic, I would assume your business actually grew during the pandemic.
Bill Russell:There was so much movement around chatbots and digital front doors and
Bill Russell:engaging people from a distance safely, remote patient monitoring and whatnot.
Bill Russell:Your phone rang
Cynthia Perazzo:off the hook.
Cynthia Perazzo:We were incredibly busy starting right in the February timeframe, uh, because
Cynthia Perazzo:virtual visits, helping health systems get, um, video visits, standing up, um,
Cynthia Perazzo:contactless testing, contactless visits.
Cynthia Perazzo:Um, so it was, it was the activity levels were fever pitch with Avia as with, with
Cynthia Perazzo:all of our health systems who were really going through, you know, Uh, levels of
Cynthia Perazzo:change and that pace is really maintained.
Cynthia Perazzo:Um, we've had some spectacular growth in our business.
Cynthia Perazzo:Um, you know, one of the things we're most proud of is when new members join us.
Cynthia Perazzo:Um, and we've had really incredible, um, staying power with the existing members.
Cynthia Perazzo:So it's really gratifying to build a network that's really committed
Cynthia Perazzo:to this level of transformation.
Bill Russell:Wow.
Bill Russell:So what's top of mind from a, from a technologist.
Bill Russell:So this week in health, it, we have a lot of practitioners listening to this.
Bill Russell:You know, what, what, what are the, the, and we talked earlier about some
Bill Russell:of the primary projects that people are looking at, but is it digital front door?
Bill Russell:Is that one of the things or is it bots?
Bill Russell:Is it robotic process automation?
Bill Russell:I mean, what's
Cynthia Perazzo:the focus.
Cynthia Perazzo:Yes, yes.
Cynthia Perazzo:Yes.
Cynthia Perazzo:So digital front door, you know, has become table stakes.
Cynthia Perazzo:So there's a lot of folks still trying to put the pieces together there, but what's,
Cynthia Perazzo:you know, what's top of mind for people, you know, because of the workforce.
Cynthia Perazzo:Burnout.
Cynthia Perazzo:And this shortages is how do we change our operating models to create more
Cynthia Perazzo:capacity for the workforce that we have.
Cynthia Perazzo:So a lot of automation, business process redesign, um, we've been talking to just
Cynthia Perazzo:really cool companies who are doing, um, new orchestration technologies to
Cynthia Perazzo:enable, um, technology, to help move a patient through a care journey in a much
Cynthia Perazzo:more automated and personalized way.
Cynthia Perazzo:That's what I'm really excited about.
Cynthia Perazzo:Automation, orchestration and personalized.
Cynthia Perazzo:I think if we could get our act together around personalization,
Cynthia Perazzo:a lot of really positive changes could happen in our school.
Bill Russell:Well, that's been the holy grail of personalization.
Bill Russell:We have all this data and we're getting better at even collecting
Bill Russell:personal data from, uh, from consumers and from patients.
Bill Russell:And it's bringing all that stuff together to do personal insights.
Bill Russell:Like I need to be told different things than you do with regard to health.
Bill Russell:And that's still feels a little ways
Cynthia Perazzo:off to me.
Cynthia Perazzo:Yeah.
Cynthia Perazzo:It is.
Cynthia Perazzo:I think we're starting to get our data house in order.
Cynthia Perazzo:Folks are starting to understand what types of data that they need.
Cynthia Perazzo:We had a really fantastic discussion in the service of health equity and what type
Cynthia Perazzo:of information you need to personalize an experience, um, to help close gaps
Cynthia Perazzo:in health equity, like culturally relevant information that can help us
Cynthia Perazzo:guide a person through their journey in a way that's more relevant to them.
Bill Russell:Well, tell me about the health conference.
Bill Russell:It's fun to be in front
Cynthia Perazzo:of people.
Cynthia Perazzo:Again, it is fun to be in front of people.
Cynthia Perazzo:And I think the venue has been fantastic, you know, and the amount of
Cynthia Perazzo:companies that are here is astounding.
Cynthia Perazzo:Um, I do wish more of my health system friends were here, uh, to see this,
Cynthia Perazzo:but, um, bill and I will be ambassadors and bring back the information that
Bill Russell:we're learning.
Bill Russell:That's what I said yesterday on my, uh, today's show.
Bill Russell:I do a daily.
Bill Russell:I was just saying, you know, the thing of note here is that none
Bill Russell:of you, my listeners are here.
Bill Russell:I mean, there's a handful I saw, uh, I saw a couple of CEO's yesterday, but, but not,
Bill Russell:not a lot, uh, some from the Boston area.
Bill Russell:And I know that some have a challenge.
Bill Russell:I mean, there's the, the chime conferences next week.
Bill Russell:So they had a choice and others are still under travel restriction at this
Cynthia Perazzo:time.
Cynthia Perazzo:So that's what we're hearing to the travel restrictions.
Cynthia Perazzo:Uh, but I do think the health group has done a really great job of
Cynthia Perazzo:making things available virtually.
Cynthia Perazzo:And I think this is a new world.
Cynthia Perazzo:We're going to be doing hybrid conferences.
Bill Russell:This is I, we joked earlier, this probably could be the
Bill Russell:safest place on earth right now.
Bill Russell:I mean, it's, they created a little bubble everybody's tested,
Bill Russell:everybody's, uh, double vaccinated.
Bill Russell:Um, and so, you know, I just, I feel like this is probably safer than
Cynthia Perazzo:where I live.
Cynthia Perazzo:Yeah.
Cynthia Perazzo:It's been a pretty amazing, um, response by the health industry to
Cynthia Perazzo:keep work workers and, and our staff.
Bill Russell:So have you, have you gone to any of the general sessions
Cynthia Perazzo:or I've mostly been on the exhibit hall and doing the hosted
Cynthia Perazzo:buyer program, which has been really fun.
Bill Russell:Tell us about
Cynthia Perazzo:the hosted buyer program is really a great way.
Cynthia Perazzo:If you want to come to the conference without paying the price of entry, if
Cynthia Perazzo:you're a buyer, a health system or an influencer like Avia, you can meet with
Cynthia Perazzo:a variety of, of solution providers.
Cynthia Perazzo:Um, have a 20 minute speed.
Cynthia Perazzo:So I spent two hours back to back talking to eight companies yesterday, learning
Cynthia Perazzo:about kind of what they've been up to.
Cynthia Perazzo:What's new with them taking lots of great notes, telling them about what our health
Cynthia Perazzo:what's important to our health systems.
Cynthia Perazzo:I mean, part of what we want to do at obvious amplify what's
Cynthia Perazzo:important to health systems.
Cynthia Perazzo:So that solution providers actually get out there and solve those
Bill Russell:problems.
Bill Russell:So we're in the same business.
Bill Russell:I amplify great thinking to propel healthcare forward and your.
Bill Russell:The thinking as well to your, to your members.
Bill Russell:Absolutely fantastic.
Bill Russell:Cynthia, thanks for sitting down with us.
Bill Russell:Really
Cynthia Perazzo:appreciate it.
Bill Russell:Great to see a bill.
Bill Russell:Check back for Morris.
Bill Russell:The, we continues.
Bill Russell:A lot of great interviews, a lot of great conversations.
Bill Russell:I'm looking forward to sharing them with you.
Bill Russell:That's all for today.
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