Extending the Point of Care to Any patient, Any Place, Any Time, Any Device with Howard Rosen, CEO and Founder at LifeWIRE Group was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the latest audio-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors. Sonix is the best audio automated transcription service in 2020. Our automated transcription algorithms works with many of the popular audio file formats.
Saul Marquez:
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Saul Marquez:
Welcome back to the Outcomes Rocket, Saul Marquez is here and today I have the privilege of hosting Howard Rosen. He is the CEO and founder of LifeWIRE Corporation. Howard is the strategic and visionary leader at LifeWIRE, which he invented and developed as a patented population management communication platform that humanizes digital communication through personalized, responsive interactions between parties such as health care providers and patients. A Schulich MBA with over two decades of experience as a film and television producer, Howard had a unique perspective from which to approach the issue of adherence and patient engagement from which LifeWIRE evolved. Over the past 10 years, Howard has parlayed that experience as a health thought leader, having been named one of the top one hundred innovators in the next century, Rockefeller Foundation and one of the top 30 health innovators by M Health Alliance United Nations Foundation. Howard has authored a number of articles, written policy guidance for the sector on behalf of the province of Ontario, regularly speaks on health, innovation and national and international symposiums. An industry reviewer for the US Department of Health and Human Services. He has addressed Capitol Hill subcommittees on the subject that he is an expert on. And so today we’re going to be covering what he’s doing with his company and how he’s improving health outcomes and also business model innovation success. So, Howard, such a privilege to have you here with us today.
Howard Rosen:
Well, thank you so much Saul. I so much appreciate being here.
Saul Marquez:
Absolutely. And, you know, it’s so interesting that you spent two decades in film and television production and you decided to make the shift to health care. So let’s start there. What inspires your work in health care?
Howard Rosen:
Isn’t that the standard story for most people in health I.T.? Really whatit was …Ultimately, it’s we looked like to say we’re trying to I’m trying to do is provide access to care to anyone, anywhere, any help they want to be contacted. And really inspiration was work I did almost 50 years ago is still in the film business, but working actually putting together CMEs continued medical education. And one of our clients is GlaxoSmithKline deal with Type two diabetes. And it was looking at at the time as a producer saying, well, it’s so pervasive, what are people doing about it? And we had all kinds. There’s all kinds of solutions then. But about 20 percent of it was being used and being a card carrying American producer, I got to looked at it. Well, all you got to do is come up with something engaging, tied to people’s lifestyles. They’ll be more reason to use it and you’ll cure diabetes. I looked at my watch and it took about 10 minutes not to, but what else could I do today? And I kind of went on my way. And about a few months later, I was working with Universal McCann on promotional campaigns for Motorola, for the phone call, the Startech, which some of you remember, some of you won’t. And it was really looking at talking to engineers and they were talking about some time in the future, you can be able to put programs on cell phones and even further in the future will do things like tell the weather on your phone. And remember, this was 15 years ago. And it was literally that evening what I was sort of sitting down and working both projects. I went, well, you know, maybe the cell phone will be that lifestyle device I was thinking about that will help people manage their diseases. So that literally was where it started 15 years ago and its evolved considerably since then.
Saul Marquez:
That is interesting. So you were at this crossing point between these two worlds and, you know, so 15 years ago, you sort of saw that. And today, as we know, I mean, you know, it just fast tracked, right? I mean, the development. Yes. 15 years. It’s just been mind blowing. Tell us a little bit about that journey that you’ve had and what you believe helps LifeWIRE add value to the health care ecosystem.
Howard Rosen:
Well, really, and as you suggested, it was sort of those are very early days in trying to describe to people to explain to them and show them how the power of digital technology can be helpful. And humanizing at the same time. Was a very difficult concept, particularly when I was trying to explain to them, you know, one of the ways you could communicate was text messaging. And 15 years ago, they looked at me like I was crazy and it was really the evolution of the people I was talking to and become a bit of a generational thing. But to say I’m young at all, I’m kind of the older generation, but a generational issue. Well, who’s going to text message? And then I’ll send their kids started text messaging all the time. And then it went from oh who’s gonna do text messaging to of course, you got a text message and it kind of needed leaps, like generational leaps like that and pushes for people to start thinking on a much more digital approach. The key thing for me was not to limit people what they picked up and we talked earlier about. The work I did in film and television and engagement is the way you deal with engagement is you take away barriers to communication. And so key for me was developing technology that allowed that individuals can choose whatever device that they want and choose how to communicate however they want, yet have no downloads, no special equipment or anything else, which is what led to sort of being a very cloud based solution that actually can tie anybody’s device with garbs, whatever device.
Saul Marquez:
It was so interesting. And so right now you could basically use any device that you want as the core text. Is that what it is?
Howard Rosen:
The core is not text. The choice is text. Because we can say device wise, for example, you could use a cell phone, you could use a tablet, a mobile computer, you can even use a landline if you want and you choose how you could communicate. So it could be text, email, interactive voice, instant messaging, chat, whatever number of apps. But that said, the predominant choice, let’s say predominant mean literally ninety nine percent of the choice is text messaging. And that’s regardless of the age.
Saul Marquez:
Sure, sure. That’s interesting.
Howard Rosen:
So users choose the technology and the means of communication. So to your point, that’s how you improve your outcomes, is when they’re actually choosing how to communicate.
Saul Marquez:
Love it. OK, got it. Thank you for clarifying that. And so what would you say makes what you do different and maybe even more effective than what’s available today?
Howard Rosen:
I think obviously there’s a recurrent theme here. Even throughout our discussion. It’s my first part. It’s allowing the individuals to choose how they’re communicating is first and foremost. Second part is letting them be interactive. So they’re part of the process. So they’re responding to a question. Let’s say they get a response and a call to action associated with that. So it’s not only just a dumping of information, it’s valuable information that they’re being told what a follow up could be, what a recommendation could be. Here’s more information. And they’re part of the field, part of that process and empowered by the process. Where previously there’s been a data dump on patients. Use this information to use that information or put this in, go there. The whole idea is to be very responsive and editor of so very much like we’re having a discussion now. Your communication, whether it’s text or email or whatever the case may be, would be that same kind of relationship in that kind of ease of language. So there is that feedback mechanism which is empowering and giving them more information and more control. Ultimately, the objective is to give the individual more control of something that’s so feels out of control when you’re dealing with health.
Saul Marquez:
Yeah, and you know, and we all know that the typical call to the hospital or your doctor is not the smoothest.
Howard Rosen:
No, no. So the idea is to really simplify that process and many cases to help you avoid not even having to go to the doctor or the hospital. Because of that, you can choose how and where you communicate. And frankly, because it’s cloud based, a lot of the interactions can occur while the individuals at home, let’s say, or at the office or whatever the case may be, and therefore not even have to go to the hospital, go to the doctor, or have to interact with a doctor unless they need to, because part of our system does. Of course, it’s notification based as well. So depending how the individual responds, they can say, look, I want to speak with a call center at a passive call center or I want to speak with the doctor, or depending on how they respond, the system itself will notify the doctor for the patient. The same should follow up.
Saul Marquez:
Yeah, that’s really great. And so we’ve been looking at through our conversation here mainly like front end. So when you lift the hood of this thing and you look at the operations going to say the provider shoes right now as high, you know, and there’s a ton of people pulling on them. And the administration wants doctors to do more visits. You know, talk to us about how this system can relieve some of those pain points.
Howard Rosen:
We’re really in many cases, if you look at sort of the 80 20 rule as this case is sort of the eighty seven, 13 rule, where from our clients we could see this is just to get our client statistic is eighty seven percent of the time the patients really don’t need to interact with the provider or vice versa. It’s more routine, just information, whatever the case may be. But 13 percent of the time actually they need help today or more in the next couple of days. So because as I mentioned earlier, based on the responses, our system can help using the provider’s rules to discern who they want to see today or notify them of the patients to see tomorrow to book that for them tomorrow sort of helps them discern so they don’t have to be going on to see the record all the time. The system is designed to inform them when they want to be informed to how they want to be informed or what patients they may want to look at more deeply. So it’s really there’s a time management, it’s workflow, ties into workflows. And frankly, on the ROI side, it allows the physicians, the providers, the clinicians. Work at the top of their license and not dealing with the administrative work, which is can be so onerous when we design this and work with our clients, with our various products, we sort of use our use. A third we call a 30 second rule whereby the clinician has to spend more than 30 seconds of their day using LifeWIRE, We’ve done our job.
Saul Marquez:
Hmm. That’s interesting. And so the other area is the OR. And it’s interesting because with COVID, the level of surgeries, elective procedures is down significantly. But, you know, when things get back up and running, it’s going to be crazy. And in some areas, it already is. So this product also helps in the OR?
Howard Rosen:
Well, it helps obviously in hospital. There’s some nominal solutions that are out there. And so we work in conjunction with them really when they’re outside the hospital, both of the pre and the post. So we can be used in terms of prepping patients and making sure that they’re doing all the preparatory work in advance, that they have to reduce medications or do certain diets, whatever the case may be. But equally as importantly, once a completed surgery and they’ve been discharged, that to be able to follow regimes that follows them and works with them, dealing with all their posts to help reduce readmissions on that side to working with the patients, we term the medication in terms of various things they need to do, how they’re doing, that kind of thing, to work hand in hand on both sides of in terms of COVID of, you know, we have our own COVID products. But it’s also designed to do is help give comfort in terms of coping side by asking covid oriented questions as well. So the patients know if a hospital is using us to help manage the problems, that they’re going to have an environment that is at least they’re doing a number of things to help manage that side of it because of the fear of people getting killed.
Saul Marquez:
You guys are certainly moving with the time. And so this COVID product, I imagine you brought it out during the pandemic.
Howard Rosen:
Yeah, it’s essentially the self isolation management product. So where it’s not contact tracing was designed for once you’ve been diagnosed with other having been positive or I suspect you might have been in contact with somebody. So when somebody has been that, what we do is it helps individuals manage the isolation so that, you know, based on the CDC guidelines and let’s say the state regulatory group, it asks the individual no questions on a daily basis and through the algorithms, helps provide recommendations to seek to continue self isolating. Perhaps you go to quarantine. Perhaps you need to contact somebody for more information to sort of help them self manage the cells and get because it’s a feedback mechanism. It’s not just data dumping. They’re actually getting feedback on how they’re doing today or what they should do today, because it’s so very you feel you sort of feel okay.
Saul Marquez:
Yeah. Yeah. And that way you have something available at your fingertips instead of having to wait for responses or scaring yourself on Google.
Howard Rosen:
Exactly. Gosh yeah. Dr Google has the bedside manner has it has to say the least that .
Saul Marquez:
It really does. Now this is great. And so talk to us a little bit about a setback. You’ve experienced one of the biggest ones maybe, and what a key learning that came from that.
Howard Rosen:
That’s a very good question. Probably if you look at the biggest setback, it’s having a film producer getting into health care thinking, well, I’ve just come up these ideas and people will jump to it. Yeah. So the reality set is very different when you sort of get into the middle of it all. And it was really more the education, both of myself, of learning education had to do over prospective clients and understanding the time horizons and understanding, frankly, that especially in health care, it’s not just here’s a great idea. It’s something that’s got to have efficacy. It needs to be tested in case studies need to be published. Plus, the security and privacy side was something I did not fully appreciate at the time. But it’s got to be secure in private. But understanding the breadth of what it was, which is like to date, were validated. HEPA, compliant with high trust, certified all these various pieces as required for the nature of the claims that we had. We’ve worked with Veterans Administration, Health and Human Services, Department of Defence on the public side and on the private side. We saw a major payors and providers are.
Saul Marquez:
Despite those challenges, you’ve stuck with it, you know, and so it sounds like you figured it out.
Howard Rosen:
It’s either that or just being really stubborn. But but it is also something that I am extremely passionate about, something for myself and my family to make this very dramatic career change, to follow this. This is something I sort of felt was really important. I needed to do and thought because I could do, how could I not do it? It’s just a quick sidebar, if that’s OK. Really want really turn the tide on. This was my first paid client who was working with a group called the Pathway Home. Which is a veteran facility, an NGO outside in northern California, outside of Sacramento, and we are working in there because we do a lot of behavioral health work. This is work with post-traumatic stress and veterans. And about a month into the program, I got a call from the vet, the executive director, the midnight Eastern Time. He said, how are you? Could you help save a life today? He hung up. So I called back right away and actually said, Well, what is that? I started just swearing at about 15, 20 minutes because I finally got to work. You got to work. So I don’t understand. Why are you mad at me? Why are you so angry? Because you have no idea. I came up with this idea. I thought it was really interesting. I thought there was a business good. I thought there’s definitely a social good way, but that’s all I thought. But I never thought this would be something that could help with other solutions, help save a life. Because now that I’ve done that once, how could I how can I sleep? Let’s not try to do it again to help somebody who could do that. And that really changed me. Obviously, that’s what I stopped. All the production work went full bore into doing this and frankly become slightly evangelical about it all.
Saul Marquez:
So when was that? How long ago was that?
Howard Rosen:
I’d say that was 12 years ago.
Saul Marquez:
And I mean, I don’t even know how you could quantify it, but just to know that you’re saving lives with what you have. I mean, that’s that’s enough. That’s enough to keep, you know.
Howard Rosen:
Well, that’s quite honestly, that was to me, the objective was this. I was just so overwhelmed that it would help with the one individual. And we know over the years we’ve helped others, obviously, with this combination of those solutions. But to be able to contribute to that, to help improve those outcomes, I should say, is something I just couldn’t feel like not doing.
Saul Marquez:
That’s for sure. That’s for sure. That’s a great story. I love that. And so, you know, 12 years since that call. What are you most excited about today?
Howard Rosen:
I’m most excited about the breadth of where we’re able to be a part of it, because the breadth of the growth of the technology that we have and the platform and also the fact that we’re talking about COVID earlier we were actually working with the Office of Public Health is one of the one of the states on a Hep C program and then COVID hit and they said, look, we see this tsunami of issues. Can we switch to dealing with covid in the course of 10 weeks? We went from can you change to changing to designing, implementation in the public in less than 10 weeks in the state? And to me that maybe 15 years ago I couldn’t even begin to think of any issues, let alone having a solution and frankly, a team that had the capabilities of turning something around that quickly.
Saul Marquez:
Congrats on that. That’s huge.
Howard Rosen:
Thank you.
Saul Marquez:
It’s an accomplishment and a testament to the expertise you guys have developed and how well you guys work together as a team.
Howard Rosen:
It’s having no question it’s also having such an amazing team.
Saul Marquez:
Yeah, that’s exciting, man. Well, what’s ahead is even more exciting, folks, if you have any curiosity about the technology that Howard and his team have put together, it’s lifeWIREgroup.com Check them out for more information on what they’re doing. It’s an awesome platform, Howard. I’m going to hand it over to you to give us a closing thought here. And then the best place for the listeners could get in touch with you to continue the conversation.
Howard Rosen:
That’s. Well, thank you. So really, as have as you may have gathered, I have many thoughts, but as a closing thought, it’s really to not let technology overwhelm you as an individual. That there are ill health is digital, health is not about, but it’s just health. And to look to the solutions that there are ways that you can be helped and not be afraid to ask any questions just about anything, not just technology. Just because the more is better informed the patient, the better we can inform the patients. The better their health, the better for the health care system. And if you want any more questions, any at all my email is each hrosen@lifewiregroup.com. Saul thank you so very much for this opportunity to talk with you.
Saul Marquez:
Oh, yeah. It’s our pleasure, Howard. Appreciate your enthusiasm, your awesome stories. And then most of all, the work that you’re doing to make health care better. Appreciate you coming on.
Howard Rosen:
Thank you so very much.
Saul Marquez:
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