CareDelivery_Tony Ambrozie: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.
Manav Sevak:
Welcome to the Memora Health Care Delivery podcast. Through conversations with industry leaders and innovators, we uncover ways to simplify how patients and care teams navigate complex care delivery.
Manav Sevak:
Hey everybody! This is Manav from Memora Health, one of the founders and the CEO, really excited to be chatting with Tony from Baptist Health South Florida today. Tony, thanks so much for coming on.
Tony Ambrozie:
Thank you for inviting me.
Manav Sevak:
Absolutely, so you have a very, very interesting background in the sense that you are actually a relatively newcomer to healthcare as a whole. But would love if you can maybe just start by sharing a little bit about your role and a little bit about your background.
Tony Ambrozie:
Sure, so relative is, the last two years, I joined Baptist two years ago. Coming from Walt Disney World, the parks, I should say Walt Disney Parks, and before that at American Express, doing technology and digital for quite some time. I do get the question of, this is unusual coming from, they’re into, what, these consumer companies into healthcare, especially in the middle of a pandemic, what were you thinking? And then my answer is that was the best time, and I think healthcare was probably at a time, and it still is, probably the right place for folks who like to drive transformation, as I have in my past career, of one nature or another of doing digital transformation and data. There is a tremendous opportunity in the space, and I think that it’s very exciting, frankly.
Manav Sevak:
Yeah, and you know what got you interested in healthcare in the first place? So you’re at American Express, which is very, very different, and then from there, transition to Walt Disney, which of course, as I suspect, very different from American Express as well, and then have now come to healthcare. So what’s maybe been the driver of just like wanting to shift across all of those different industries and maybe like, what are the common themes that you’ve seen across them?
Tony Ambrozie:
Well, clearly, one thing that despite the, you know, the business focus or the focus of their business is the same between American Express and Disney, and Disney is a gigantic company with, I was in parks, but obviously studios and the movies and the networks. But it was that absolute maniacal focus on consumers and consumer experiences, you know, every time you interact with these companies and their services and their products, they’re impeccable. I think especially on the digital side in the last, whatever, 10, 20 years, one thing that did attract me to healthcare is digital and digital experiences, and the consumer experiences are obviously not as evolved, nowhere near as evolved as they are in those spaces, and I think we, all of us are experiencing that when we interact with our providers. Of course, those providers are intensely focused on the actual act of providing care, but the overall experience, how you get in, how you get out, so to speak, it’s still not on par with the other experiences. And so it was only natural for me to say, okay, I’ve done this and I’ve done that and I’ve done a number of other things, what else is there that I could provide value and add through my experience and through my enthusiasm for technology and digital experiences? What else? And obviously, the answer was healthcare. And so it was really, that was my next thing at some point. And then … called and I said, yep, that’s probably the right thing. So, and then here when I was brought on board, the manifest mission was to drive digital and digital experiences and digital transformation and at the same time build and rebuild the technology capabilities that are needed. And again, healthcare is a place that, with a lot, of technology and if you’re going to a hospital, uses so much technology, but traditionally the focus has not been necessarily on building robust technology systems.
Manav Sevak:
Yeah, 100%, and maybe one thing that you and I have spent time talking about previously and that I’d love to hear your perspective on here as well is, you just mentioned that there’s tons of technology that healthcare organizations use and they have to use in order to properly function and deliver care, but it’s not necessarily robust technology or it’s not necessarily technology that is in line with the expectations of the status quo and the expectations that consumers have. If you think a little bit about what is like the large transition or the necessary steps that have to happen to make it so that a consumer experience that somebody has interacting with American Express or a consumer experience that somebody has going to one of the Walt Disney Parks is very, very similar to the type of experience that they end up having going through an entire healthcare episode. Obviously, it’s dramatically different, but there are lots of things that it feels you can standardize similar to those other ones. What are the big things that you think have to happen for us to get there?
Tony Ambrozie:
I think so, you made a great point, which is in any industry today, your consumers don’t only compare you as a provider or as a company organization to your competitors, they compare you with all the other companies that provide digital experiences. So indeed, there is that expectation that you and I share and probably the listeners that simple interactions elsewhere will be replicated here in terms of digital and how you can interact with interface with it with a company, that’s definitely the expectation. So clearly it’s providing care, the medical action is a lot more complicated and it’s more serious than buying something on, let’s say on Amazon. You know, is, take out the app and find what you want. Probably it’s a repeat and you get it and it’s super simple, but there is that expectation that at least that part of accessing, getting access to care, and getting access to information, it has to be as simple, and in truth, it does not need to be more difficult. And again, the act of providing care is just tremendous, tremendously different than anything else, but is simply, the simple interactions still can be there. Yes, there are complexities in healthcare, and that’s where the, that trio of the consumer/patient, the providers, and the payers come into play. That’s, a little bit of complexity can be managed if there is that maniacal focus again, I use that word again, on providing that fluid experience, useful experience, usable experience all the time, and staying with it and making it better all the time. And there’s no reason for not being able to do it if you keep the focus and it’s important.
Manav Sevak:
Absolutely, so what are some big kind of investments that you’ve made in your time at Baptist that are helping you move in that direction, whether it’s certain technology, certain big initiatives that you all have launched?
Tony Ambrozie:
There are a number of areas of focus, obviously, and as I said, I have a dual role of the chief digital officer, so, I’m responsible for the digital experiences, but also the CIO and, which is, you know, all the things, all the systems that technical systems that are involved. And so it’s a multi-layer approach, starting with the basics is rebuilding the technology function and building and rebuilding the technology systems, because you can’t build sophisticated experiences on very old products. So that’s layer number one. And then number two, kind of interfacing into digital is building a product management organization that didn’t exist here, obviously, and a lot of places don’t have it, and I think a lot of people don’t understand the value of product management. So managing things, not the projects or pieces of technology, but the products that are designed for that user, for that consumer. And finally, the focus on the actual consumer experiences, which is manifested through web presence and an app presence, and with both being focused, as I said, at least in the first generation, on providing care or access to care and access to information. So that’s where I think we’ve been doing tremendous progress, making tremendous progress over these two years in getting there. And the way we start really is mapping the consumer and the user journeys and their interactions with us and then making sure that that end-to-end is built to work well for consumers and being useful. Of course, when you build from scratch and you build in iterations, you know, I always have preferred to build in iterations versus designing and building in vacuum for two years and then launching the greatest product because it turns out not to be … Small and fast iterations provide a lot of feedback to adjust the course, and so it’s a lot of, has been a lot of work in progress if you want, from a consumer experience perspective. But I think we’re getting in a very good, very good place for that. Multi, multi-layer, of course, we can talk about the things that enable this transformation, so yes, cloud, of course, I don’t think you can do, especially data, not in the cloud in a good way, but definitely the digital and things like AI and ML.
Manav Sevak:
100%, and if you have to maybe think a little bit about just consumer engagement in particular, what are maybe the big lessons that you’ve learned from the past few years? So you mentioned that there’s an app-based strategy, a web-based strategy. I feel like generally right now we’re stuck in such like an interesting kind of point in time where there’s all of this inbound message volume that systems are starting to receive. So, you know, over the last two years, people across the board were able to drive tons of portal adoption as telehealth became bigger and things like that. And sure, even if telehealth volume has dropped off a little bit, portal adoption has continued to increase and there’s the message, volume has continued to increase. It’s been kind of like this interesting dynamic of that in the context of provider burnout and workforce challenges where there’s all of this new information that patients are willing to share. There’s all this morning longitudinal engagement that may be happening with patients, but at the same time, providers and sites don’t necessarily have bandwidth to actually service and manage them in the right way, right? So if you think a little bit about that trend of patients being much more actively engaged in using their portals, how do you think about that? Is that a is that a good thing or is it a bad thing? Is it something that needs to be solved?
Tony Ambrozie:
It absolutely is a good thing, you know, increased adoption, the access, as I said, access to information, one of, being in one of those two dimensions of access. There is a element of that where I’m thinking for the next generation of digital for us, which is how do we provide those technologies and experiences that help patients and consumers manage their health, not just obtain healthcare? And I think there are definitely things that, you know, especially for, let’s say, for wearables, that we can do there. Now, you would say, yeah, but that only increases the information, the amount of information that goes inside the hospitals, and that’s where the data part comes in, where AI and ML can help with making that data stream more intelligible and picking up the message from the noise, you know, because there could be all sorts of things. You don’t want to call your doctor and say, hey, I have a pulse blip this morning, what should I do? Because clearly, that’s not bad. With enough intelligence in the data and into a data platform, you can make that information and put it in the context of the medical records and the medical history that we can, we have for that patient, make it intelligent, and drive provider involvement for the right things at the right time. Again, it’s obviously, it’s a very technology and digital view of the world. Clearly, there are things that we need to do in terms of organization and structure and the payer structure for this activity, but you’re right, there’s a lot of information and that applies to, even the medical information, even the HR information, that the information is in there, let alone the need to add into on top of that information, other things like social determinants and genomics and all that stuff. That’s where that data element comes, and sometimes when I talk about digital, I mean digital and data, because, without some intelligence in the data, these experiences for digital become overwhelming on both sides.
Manav Sevak:
I mean, it’s interesting perspective. So if you think a little bit about the transition that’s happening, particularly around all of this new data that care teams and health systems and providers have access to, everything from very deep clinical data like genomic data, all the way to more information about patient-reported, outcomes information to more data generally on how patients interact with the healthcare system, what are maybe kind of coming from outside of healthcare, other industries that you look to, as good examples or kind of areas for inspiration on how healthcare as an industry should manage that transition?
Tony Ambrozie:
Yeah, and clearly the, we do have a conundrum, I think, and it’s probably outside of healthcare as well. We are getting so much more data and we’re increasingly getting more data all the time, so the pace of accumulating data is increasing, and the only way to make any use of it and sense of it is through data insights and machine learning. There’s just no, that’s, sure, that’s, the big buzz buzzword is AI and ML, but there is no other way, and clearly, so that’s where we need to invest. I think there are other industries, some maybe that have used the technology, probably not in the best of interest of the consumers, but that technology exists and that is mining data for personalized support versus something that happens elsewhere. We, in healthcare, have the opportunity to do, use the same type of technologies that by now they’re really relatively mature to exactly provide care, provide health management, provide personalized support to people, and you know, you think about all the stuff that exists with social media and in retail, the technology is in there. Clearly, we have an opportunity to use them for better, better outcomes.
Manav Sevak:
The last question for you is, two years in, you’ve seen, obviously the healthcare industry, but the entirety of the world kind of turn upside down, going through a pandemic, now we’re starting to come out of it a little bit. Reflecting on all the time that you’ve spent at Baptist, what’s most exciting about where healthcare is right now, or generally just most excited about the opportunity to make care more digitally enabled?
Tony Ambrozie:
The digital and digital experiences, that they’re means to an end, which is people are in a better place for whatever they want to do, and clearly, in healthcare, it’s about maintaining their health and recovering their health if something, something happens. I think, you know, the good thing is that I’ve seen, and I’m not talking about just us, but across the board is, there is a realization of how important these things are, and I’m talking about digital and data as the only way to process and to support the consumers and the patients. So I think that’s a big thing because for a very long time, healthcare, in general, has not been focused on that, and obviously focus was more internal on clinical-administrative operations, which is important, but not in those areas. So I think that’s a, all the way to the board level there is that understanding that, yes, this is important. Baptist one was one of those systems where they said, hey, this digital is important. Yeah, pandemic is very impactful and terrible and terrible to patients and terrible to staff and all that, but digital is going to be long-term. So I think a lot of other folks do. Clearly, we need to maintain the momentum, and we had a pandemic, you know, Baptist started the transformation, you know, when I, when they hired me inside, in the middle of the pandemic, and then now we have other issues with inflation, cost increases, and burnout and, but we need to be able to maintain that focus and momentum because there is no way around it and there’s no way back. Outside, you know, would you, if you were to do, think about retail, do you want to do the Sears catalog or the Amazon mobile app? It’s just, there’s no way around it, … scale, at scale, definitely at scale. So I think that’s important. I think as we progress with these technologies, I think we will find that done well can provide for some of our scaling issues. At least in the Western world, the populations are getting older, therefore needing more care. So providers and the physicians are getting older, by the way, and so we’re not renewing that fast enough, therefore, we need to look at other things like sensors, like machine learning, like digital capabilities to bridge and help with that health management to keep people healthier and away from necessarily, very invasive hospital space.
Manav Sevak:
Yeah, 100%, cool. Well, very, very helpful perspective, and obviously, things that you and I have had a chance to personally chat about, but it’ll be helpful, I think, for the audience here as well. And generally, I think I’m just excited for the fact that you’ve decided to come over to the healthcare industry. It’s always so fascinating to see people come from other industries and just like have a chance to have a meaningful impact on what care looks like. Just because healthcare, especially technology-wise, is far behind where other industries are, so.
Tony Ambrozie:
Yeah, and I think I would say is that for adrenaline rush change addict, healthcare is probably the place to be. There are others, though, don’t get me wrong, but it’s a marathon, it’s not a sprint. And sometimes the expectations are, oh, I thought we were done with this digital transformation because we plugged in the system and we’re done, and that’s not quite that. So but clearly, for all our sakes, I encourage others like myself to come into healthcare and help teach, but also learn at the same time, because there are problems that maybe none of us have solved in the past or have been solved in the past, and so we need to be open to figuring out new solutions and therefore for learning. So it’s a process, but it’s interesting, and we’re all patients at one point or another.
Manav Sevak:
Yeah, 100%, 100%, cool. Well, Tony is great to chat with you, as always. Wonderful to be with you, and I appreciate you coming on, and hopefully, we’ll do this again soon.
Tony Ambrozie:
Absolutely, thank you for inviting me. This has been very good.
Manav Sevak:
Thanks for listening to the Memora Health Care Delivery podcast. For more ideas on simplifying complex care for care teams and patients, visit MemoraHealth.com.
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