The reality of working in the IT department of a health system — which is often located in a different building or even a different section of town than the hospital — is that it’s easy to become “detached.” when you don’t see patients on a daily basis, it’s nearly impossible to understand how technology impacts their experience, and what can be done to improve it.Application of cognitive learning theory

It’s precisely why one of dr. Zafar chaudry’s first priorities as CIO at seattle children’s was to invite caregivers to join the IT advisory committee.Application of cognitive learning theory but he didn’t stop there; dr. Chaudry’s team began holding quarterly educational sessions during which parents of patients share their stories to help convey the critical role all staff members play in providing quality care.Application of cognitive learning theory each time, it has left the team feeling “energized,” he says.

It’s just one example of how dr. Chaudry is leveraging the diverse experience he has gained during his career to create a better environment.Application of cognitive learning theory recently, he spoke with healthsystemcio about his team’s top priorities (including an epic migration), why it’s so important to get the messaging right, and what it was like to go from england to the pacific northwest.Application of cognitive learning theory

Chaudry: in terms of healthcare being healthcare, we treat patients the same way. There are more wait lists in the european model than there is in the US model, depending on specialty, of course.Application of cognitive learning theory but in terms of quality of care, if you look at the rankings the world health organization does rankings every year, publicly-funded health systems still have very good quality and patient outcome scores compared with any other systems.Application of cognitive learning theory and we’re using similar solutions. At cambridge, we did a big epic implementation, and were using oracle as the ERP system. At seattle children’s we use lawson versus oracle, but we’re still using the set class of vendors to provide those back-office and front-office functions.Application of cognitive learning theory

Chaudry: previously in my career — about 15 years ago — I had been CIO at a pediatric facility in the UK. I’ve always been drawn to working in pediatric hospitals.Application of cognitive learning theory every day when you come to work, you know why you’re here. And so when I was asked to interview here and they flew me out to seattle, it rejuvenated, in my mind, why people work at pediatric hospitals.Application of cognitive learning theory

Our organization is led by a pediatrician — he understands; he’s completely focused on patient care. The whole senior team is very energized around what we do for children in the pacific northwest, and that excited me.Application of cognitive learning theory I’d like to be part of that journey if I can make a difference; if I can come and have an impact in the areas in which I’m specialized. That’s what brought me to children’s.Application of cognitive learning theory

Chaudry: no, I spent 15 years in the U.S. In the early ‘80s. I did a lot of my clinical training at university of illinois and did startup work and hospital work in the chicagoland area.Application of cognitive learning theory but because I grew up in the UK, I went back there in 2002 to take on a CIO role, and ended up staying. I’ve also worked at gartner; I traveled the world and did global healthcare for them before I landed back in a CIO role.Application of cognitive learning theory and so I’ve tried to balance my career between different health systems so that I can learn. I’ve also been on the vendor side and the provider side, and learned a lot of lessons along the way.Application of cognitive learning theory it’s quite interesting to watch how healthcare is delivered in different parts of the world.

There is no secret sauce to this. When you look at culture and you look at people, everywhere you go it’s slightly different.Application of cognitive learning theory if you’re working in the middle east, there’s a lot of money being pumped into healthcare, but do they deliver projects better than anyone else?Application of cognitive learning theory not necessarily, because in IT, for example, they’ll have people from 70 different nations working in the same team, and that diversity causes issues sometimes.Application of cognitive learning theory you have to learn about different people before you can work and gel as a team.

On the other hand, if you’re in the UK, the predominant mix of people isn’t from 70 different countries.Application of cognitive learning theory it’s probably from just a handful of countries, and so they’re able to work together well. When you come to the pacific northwest and see how their culture is, it’s slightly different than what you would find in the european model.Application of cognitive learning theory you have to flex your leadership style to try and understand that, and that brings both challenges and benefits.

Chaudry: I think it’s being driving by value-based care.Application of cognitive learning theory the publicly-funded health systems in europe or canada have been doing value-based care a lot longer than they’ve been doing it in the united states, because money has always been scarce, and the volume of patients continues to go up.Application of cognitive learning theory you really want to keep the patient out of an acute care facility if you can, so there’s a huge focus on primary care services, which seems to lack here in the united states.Application of cognitive learning theory keeping people out of hospital keeps your costs down and keeps them healthier in general.

And so, as you see US-based organizations trying to shift to value-based care and learn from that global model, you’re also seeing us shifting that care out of our hospitals.Application of cognitive learning theory people are moving care outside of their walls. We don’t want children to come to our emergency room as the first port of call. We’d rather treat them in the community at primary care or urgent care facilities and keep those volumes low, because the cost of treating someone in an ED is so much higher than it is in other setting.Application of cognitive learning theory that’s why we have these clinics in different states — we’re trying to take care of those chronically-ill children before they actually end up in hospital.Application of cognitive learning theory

I think that’s what brings the cost of healthcare down, and the UK is a good example. They’ve had the national health service for 60-plus years and the focus has always been community-based care first, and then hospital-based care, if needed.Application of cognitive learning theory now with technology parachuting into all of this, you’ve got wearables, you’ve got remote patient monitoring, and you’ve got telehealth and telemedicine — those are all avenues that people are using now in the united states to keep those patients out of hospital and keep those costs low.Application of cognitive learning theory it’s always cheaper to deliver care via virtual visit than it is physical.

It’s quite interesting because when you survey patients and ask, ‘how do you feel about coming to a hospital?’ the number one complaint patients have is parking.Application of cognitive learning theory and it’s really hard to provide parking if you’re in the middle of a busy neighborhood like we are in seattle. We always lack parking. If I can keep those patients happier and out of the situation of trying to find parking and feeling stressed, my patient and family engagement scores will go up.Application of cognitive learning theory

In fact, we recently ran a pilot here with alexa voice around flu immunization. We worked with amazon, which make sense because we’re in seattle.Application of cognitive learning theory we programmed alexa to our outpatient clinics to answer questions people had about flu immunizations. It was quite interesting to watch children engage with alexa and to watch parents ask questions about the flu shots.Application of cognitive learning theory we want everybody to get the flu shot, even our staff — we want to be at 100 percent.

Chaudry: I think it makes sense with voice technologies to explore how they can be beneficial to patients as well as the limitations they have.Application of cognitive learning theory if you look ahead to 2019 and 2020, the whole concept of taking voice application, artificial intelligence for decision-making, and robotic process automation practices and trying to standardize them is something we need to focus on.Application of cognitive learning theory it will help us drive down costs.

Chaudry: it’s very picturesque here in seattle. What I find really interesting — and what’s good news for me — is the weather is the same as it is in the UK.Application of cognitive learning theory it rains. It’s cloudy. So for me, it wasn’t a shellshock to arrive and see that it’s raining and misty a lot of the time. We get a similar effect in the UK.Application of cognitive learning theory the bigger difference is that the summer here is much better. It’s less humid than in the UK.

In terms of the city itself, I came from cambridge, which is small and crowded.Application of cognitive learning theory seattle is also a small city that’s quite crowded. So I was used to the traffic. But it was very interesting to see the culture. There’s a lot of more of a cultural mix here than in the UK.Application of cognitive learning theory there are folks from the hawaiian islands and from indian tribes. So far it’s been a very good experience. The teams here have been very welcoming of my strategy and my focus on patients and patient engagement, which has been great.Application of cognitive learning theory