Attending the CHIME 2022 30th Anniversary celebration was a real trip back through memory lane
CHIME 30th Anniversary
A reminder of what was going on 30 years ago included the maiden voyage of the Space Shuttle Endeavor (now in the California Science Center) and AT&T launching their first “VideoPhone 2500” (it sold for $1,500 per unit). Also notable It was the year the “The Terminator” movie was released. And a reminder of how far we (healthcare) and CHIME have come. Their first office was literally that, a single office.
The opening session includes a morning champagne toast to the last 30 years as captured by Dr Jayne
Champagne at 8am at #CHIME22Fall #chime22 pic.twitter.com/KqRFZ9Iv7V
— Jayne HIStalk MD (@JayneHIStalkMD) November 8, 2022
Congratulations to all the awardees recognized in the opening ceremonies and to the CIO of the year Theresa Meadows, SVP & CIO at Cooks Children’s Healthcare System
The main event was a presentation of “Sophia”
Sophia
One thing was clear from this – there is no Terminator future and Skynet becoming aware and taking over the world, certainly anytime soon. I have to be honest the experience was more let down than excitement for me. The interaction was disjointed and Sophia really just launched into a series of speeches that may or may not have been triggered by keywords.
In fairness, I have had the scars to show the challenge of doing real demonstrations with live speech recognition and understanding so I know how hard this is but given the forum and the audience this was not a good look IMO.
Having spent a lot of time in the speech recognition world this was especially disappointing because that aspect of the technology has advanced a lot further than was evident from this particular demo. Our early work at Nuance on Ambient Listening is showing real progress and use in the clinical setting relieving clinicians of the drudgery of documentation. Sophia had a lot of technology all going on at the same time and as such stretching capabilities. There is real potential for speech enablement today and I believe that there is so much opportunity to solve real problems in healthcare. Speech remains the easiest access point. Replicating a more human interaction that can automate administrative tasks like scheduling and engaging remote patients with chronic conditions shows real promise.
The sessions were wide and varied and there was plenty of good content. I especially enjoyed the “Culture Eats (Digital) Strategy for Breakfast”. This stood out, not least because it was standing room only which only affirms the relevance and interest in getting the digital; front door open and welcoming in healthcare.
There were plenty of useful insights that included this from Dr Michael Strong the CMIO
You can’t do “patient experience” on the back of Physician experience. That’s how you get (clinician or Physician) burnout. If your clinicians are miserable but your patients are happy you have not achieved what you need
This is such an important point and was further amplified when when
And from Donna Roach, CIO who talked about the need to focus on the long term, not the quick wins. Sometimes it is easy to find the quick win but almost always you find someone elsewhere in the ecosystem that was left out and now gets overloaded because of the change.
As Donna said; “Look at the total experience but if you don’t balance it out – you may get quick wins but someone will feel it made their life worse”
That theme persisted with a quote from Mohammed Ali
It isn’t the mountains ahead that wear you down. It’s the pebble in your shoe.
And as Michael Strong said “[We need to] Remove the pebble in the shoe”
Singing my song of incremental steps to finding solutions, for example, “What one thing can we fix in your EMR that would make your life better“. Once you’ve fixed that move on to the next “one” thing
It was refreshing to hear an important piece of introspection and admission that “[we] academic medical centers are very arrogant in a field of dreams kind of way“, with a recognition that the real world has shifted far beyond this way of thinking and is very different and what the panel agreed you needed is
“Exceptional patient experience”
Something that became quite real for their facility when they decided to publish all patient comments online with no filtering or editing. Certainly, a brave position and “scary” as they described it, but it did focus everyone’s intention and signaled the organization’s honest intent of solving the problems
Each of the panelists closed with their key learning point and I thought all were great:
“Perhaps the big learning point was being very inclusive (which is scary) in traditional organizations but is essential”. This is the way we get to a true working digital future that I believe we are all hoping to see for healthcare
“[You have to have] a deliberate thoughtful culture focused on patient satisfaction and this must be hard wire into the advancement metrics that employees are measured on”
But perhaps best of all my favorite quote from this session
The patient is the most under utilized resource of the care team
Word!
Perhaps I’ll close with another quote from Mohammed Ali that I think is apropos
Impossible is just a word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing
This is all our responsibility and opportunity. As I say at the end of every episode on Healthcare Upside Down where we find people who refuse to accept the impossible, sometimes even in the shadow of frightening odds (you can learn more here and listen here).
Do you have a story or an experience that demonstrates real impact and change – reach out and share the details and consider sharing it on the show as I am always looking for interesting and inspiring guests
While the difficult takes time, the impossible just takes a little longer
Fixing Healthcare is Everyone’s Job
