Enhancing traditional care models through digital means
– Angela Yochem, EVP, Chief Digital and Technology Officer, Novant Health
Listen to the full conversation
Our guest on the 37th episode of The Big Unlock podcast was Angela Yochem, EVP, Chief Digital and Technology Officer of Novant Health, a $5.5 billion nonprofit integrated healthcare provider network.
Angela discussed how Novant Health aims at improving quality of care for consumers through advanced technologies and ensure increased access to care through digital means. She also discussed how they are harnessing data at Novant Health to drive improved experiences for patients.
“We’re focused on meeting our consumers’ needs by shaping new services and experiences that resonate with our consumers and the communities that we serve. Technology advances drive a lot of those expectations that our consumers have and certainly change the way we think about engaging with our patients.” –says Angela, Episode #37
Appetite for adoption drives digital transformation in healthcare
At Novant Health, everything starts with the patients. It is the existence of the appetite for adoption of digital health technologies in the patient community that helps the company develop solutions for better care delivery.
“A tremendous appetite for adoption of the latest and greatest capabilities allow us to provide higher quality care, greater access to care, get better outcomes for our patients and communities. So, it’s that appetite and that ambition for improvement across the board and a passion that I think our team members bring, our clinicians bring at Novant Health that struck me that is so different than what I’ve seen in other industries.” – says Angela
Digital health is much more than digital front doors
Novant Health focuses heavily on advanced technology capabilities that increase the quality of care. Angela believes that it’s not just about adopting solutions that are truly life changing for patients. It’s also about preparing the environment so that you can adopt rapidly these sorts of solutions without the traditional sort of year-long analysis phase that might go on otherwise.
“We define digital care in both the ways in which we use digital channels to offer care, which is what you’ve just described, but also in the ways in which we enhance our traditional models of care delivery through digital means. You see a lot of investment across the investor community in point solutions that are allowing us to provide as we adopt them. Unprecedented access to care using devices such as our on-demand TytoCare visits or, the ICU capability, tele-behavioral health, kiosks, and remote locations, and community centers.” –Angela
Data is the asset solving complex problems in healthcare
Novant Health uses digital assets that provide care and other access related capabilities to patients and communities. Angela believes that it is best to focus on creating an architecture that can allow for interoperability between solution sets and various third parties in a highly secure fashion. That’s how you get the most out of the unprecedented access to data that can lead to extreme personalization in all patient engagements thereby improving the quality of care through advanced technologies.
“Data is one of those assets that we bring to the solutions that we define for the toughest problems that we’re facing in healthcare. We have patient clinical data. We have consumer data. We have behavioral and trend data. We have our business’ master data. We have a variety of data from many, many sources. We have to have a place where the data can reside, and we can apply functional capability to it.” –Angela
For those who want to listen to the whole conversation with Angela Yochem and Paddy Padmanabhan, it is available here.
