Carla E. Small

What a valuable tool to address this important topic. Thanks for your contributions to the field, Adrienne Mims, and to RRF Foundation for Aging.

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If we want to see long-term investment in improving #HealthEquity, it can't only be done through short-term #grant programs from foundations. It has to be done through long-term payment policy that seeks to create lasting and durable financial flows toward specific equity-focused strategic objectives.   With this in mind, it’s great to see Boston Children's Hospital join Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts’ pay-for-equity financial payment model! https://bit.ly/3wqqDaM    Many aspects of BCBSMA’s pay-for-equity model are crucial to building sustainable improvements in equity, but one of the most notable is that it is driven by data. BCBSMA has helped set its health system partners up for success by investing in data that helps identify where equity gaps exist in key performance areas. New data collection systems gather better information from patient populations on race, ethnicity, language, sexual orientation, and gender identity.    BCBSMA team members use this information to create public health equity report cards for some of the largest health systems in Massachusetts, as well as report cards for individual health systems. Individual report cards help organizations understand how they compare on specific measures relative to their peers. With better and more refined data, providers and payers can see and tackle opportunities for improvement with greater clarity.    It’s been an honor for IHI to help BCBSMA advance its health equity journey. Congrats to them, Boston Children’s, and everyone out there that’s committing their time, talent, and resources to achieving more equitable outcomes.

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Will advanced AI technologies help or hinder the movement toward health equity? It's a thorny question and one I'm excited to discuss with healthcare leaders at the 2024 Weitzman Institute Virtual Symposium on May 15. Join Irene Dankwa-Mullan MD MPH of Marti Health, Binoy Bhansali of Diverge Health, Sahee Abdelmomin of Tulsa Innovation Labs, André B. of True Search, and I by registering here: https://lnkd.in/g6yaQy9P This year, the symposium will focus on how and why representation matters in healthcare, touching on its role in innovation and technology. On one hand, we can't let AI inflict any more pain and suffering. Biased data and algorithms have worsened inequities and harmed underserved communities. On the other hand, we can't ignore the technology's transformative potential. AI opens the door to powerful new methods of personalized engagement — tools the industry desperately needs to better connect with underserved communities. So where does that leave us? Here's my take. Healthcare should use AI to support underserved communities, but solutions must be intentionally designed from the outset to ensure they break down inequities. Too often, destructive AI is born from organizations that ignore the experiences of diverse people. Teams that lack broad representation are vulnerable to intentional and unintentional biases, which creep into the code and hurt communities. Other routes exist. At SameSky Health, we built AI on a foundation of diversity, training our solution on a data set of conversations with low-income, multicultural communities collected over a decade. Our data set isn't the only way to build equitable AI, but a commitment to including outside perspectives throughout development is. I'm excited to hear the panel's thoughts on achieving these goals, which is all the more important in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to end race-based affirmative action — another topic we'll discuss on the panel. See you there. #WeitzmanSymposium #AI #HealthTechnology #HealthEquity

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Another really great article about the benefits of using AI in #healthcomms. Two of the specific call-outs in this article that resonated with me are... 1. Customization of messaging. As the article points out, the tone of voice, the examples you give, etc... will ideally vary based on factors like gender, age, education level etc... AI can do that for you quickly and easily. 2. Getting immediate answers at crucial times. We've all done it. Sat awake at 2 am researching a health condition that we're concerned about. Your doctor may not be awake (at least I hope not!) to answer your simpler questions then, but AI sure can. https://lnkd.in/eFdAxbgQ

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Want the inside story on what AI tools are being piloted at ScionHealth? This week I chatted with VP of Strategic Operations & Initiatives, Sarah Hughes, MSHA, MBA about how they’re using Eon, LUMINARE, and Operait Health to build out their AI toolkit. — 🟩 Q: What are your biggest tech-related priorities for 2024? 1) Workforce support—How can we deploy technology solutions that make our staff’s lives and daily work easier and more efficient? For example, we are currently deploying a technology platform, M7 Health, which has built a dynamic nursing workforce management system to help us understand and optimize each nurse’s work-life preferences with regard to scheduling and career goals. 2) Patient activation and engagement—How can we better engage and activate patients on both the front end (i.e., scheduling appointments and interacting with our organization) and the back end (i.e., continuing to engage with us to manage their health)? 🟩 Q: Where are you currently exploring AI-driven solutions? We’re running pilots to address a few different administrative and operational efficiency use cases: Incidental findings on radiology reads—We’re working with Eon to automatically scan radiology reads to identify and manage patients with incidental findings, and proactively reach out to them to schedule follow-up care. Sepsis early detection—We’re currently testing LUMINARE's platform, which implements the hospital’s sepsis protocols by automating intervention, streamlining communication, and simplifying reporting and analytics. Operating room scheduling—We’re also looking at a vendor called Operait Health which has built an AI-first solution to optimize surgical demand and right-size OR staffing by forecasting gaps in the OR schedule and placing cases unrestrained by blocks. 🟩 Q: Which areas are you most excited about the potential for new solutions? We’re excited about the potential for virtual remote care in the home on the long-term acute care (LTAC) side. We’ve already seen success with these models in our community hospitals, and we believe there’s potential to similarly deliver a better patient experience at lower cost by bringing care into the home for a subset of our LTAC patients. 🟩 Q: Any general advice for healthcare IT leaders out there? It can be easy to underestimate the legacy IT “tax” of bringing in any new vendor, given that any new solution must work with our existing tech stack. Vendors need to factor this in when discussing implementation timelines, and health systems need to ensure they include all the right internal stakeholders, including operational leaders, early in the conversation to appropriately plan for integrating and deploying solutions into day-to-day operations. — p.s. I loved this conversation because of all the practical wisdom Sarah shared. We're on the lookout for similarly insightful health IT leaders to feature. Who should talk to?

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Childhood Friends Launch Legacy Venture Capital to Disrupt Healthcare Two childhood friends, Tiffany Pham and Diane Shao, MD, PhD, have launched Legacy Venture Capital, a firm poised to disrupt healthcare by investing in early-stage life science companies. Combining Pham's business acumen and Shao's scientific expertise, they aim to bridge the gap between groundbreaking research and commercial success. Legacy VC focuses on supporting innovators in building inclusive, world-changing companies that address widespread human health needs. The fund targets the intersection of rigorous science and compelling business opportunities, focusing on immunologic, metabolic, mental, genetic, and reproductive health. The duo's unique blend of skills and experience positions them to make a significant impact on the life sciences landscape. Their journey is a testament to the power of collaboration and the importance of leveraging diverse perspectives to drive innovation. https://lnkd.in/em2mYxjM William Hahn, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, James Benedict, BeDoWin360 Capital Left Tackle Capital #healthcare #venturecapital #lifesciences #innovation #collaboration

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As some of you may already know, I have recently co-founded my dream company, Superconscious, along with my brilliant partners Cheng Ruan, MD, Ravi Hariprasad, MD, MPH, and Tom McCarthy. We are on a mission to raise global consciousness and unlock the limitless potential within every individual. Over the past several years, I have developed a deep passion for exploring consciousness, the power of the mind, and the ways in which it influences the reality we experience. From the scriptures of ancient spiritual teachers to findings in modern quantum physics, one thing is abundantly clear: The reality we experience is a direct reflection of the energy we emit, and that energy is heavily influenced by the conditioned program within our subconscious mind. We are energetic beings. At the core of every cell in your body is a vibration. In order to see change in your life, you must rewire your subconscious program and align your core vibration with the outcomes you desire. As Einstein put it, "Everything is energy and that's all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you can not help but get that reality. It can be no other way." In attempting to implement these practices in my own life, I quickly realized that it was much easier said than done, and all of the products available in the market were one-to-all modalities, courses, or books that failed to create real change both individually and at scale. At Superconscious, we’re developing the world's first app that uses AI to deeply understand your subconscious mind and deliver hyper-personalized daily programs to rewire your limiting beliefs and align your core vibration with your desired reality. The pre-cursor for this innovative technology, pioneered by my co-founder and CTO Ravi Hariprasad, MD, MPH, has already been deployed to psychiatric patients at Intuitive Mental Health, setting the foundation for mental health care by continuously learning from user interactions and adapting in real-time. Now, we are bringing this technology direct-to-consumer to help any human reprogram their mind and achieve their desired outcomes, while adhering to the highest standards of privacy and confidentiality. As we work to deliver this technology to the masses, we are looking for value added partners to bring capital and expertise to the organization. That said, we have officially opened up our pre-seed round and are actively meeting with investors. If you or someone within your network might be a good fit, please message me here or email me at tommy@superconscious.io and let's meet! www.superconscious.io

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This month's post is personal as I continue my blog series on health equity and disparities. I celebrate AAPI Heritage Month as a proud mom of my daughter, Jade. She is kind, compassionate, creative, and everything a parent could wish for. #healthequity, #healthdisparities, #socialdeterminantsofhealth, #SDOH, #inclusion, #culturalcompetency, #Medicaid, #AAPI, #PPLFirst

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What is it like to witness a health tech startup grow from seed stage to a $72M Series C? I joined Two Chairs as a founding team member in 2017. We had no clinic, no clinicians, and no clients. Just 4 people in a co-working space dreaming big. Not all mental health tech companies are made equal. This one was made different. Two Chairs was made with a keen eye towards both the client AND the therapist experience. Across the years, I feel most proud of the therapists who have brought the company to where it is today. - I think of Nathan Greene, Psy.D. who wrote Two Chairs’ first ever clinic manual because he wanted all clinicians to have a seamless transition into their role at the company - I think of Anna Sapozhnikova, Ph.D. and Hannah Klempner, PsyD who designed and scaled the matching model to ensure clinicians and clients had excellent experiences in care - I think of Nassim Bickham, LMFT who successfully secured APA accreditation for clinicians’ continuing education. - I think of Namrata Doshi who challenged me to reconsider how we think about clinician utilization - I think of every one of our clinical directors who built the clinical care foundation while we scaled - I think of Nick Forand, PhD, ABPP who is leading a team focused on enhancing clinical innovation - I think of Colleen Marshall who is working day in and day out to create the best clinician culture across a nationwide team Two Chairs is different because it was designed by therapists. The clinician experience was always a part of Alex Katz’s vision and I feel honored to have helped bring this vision to life. If you are a therapist, I encourage you to get in touch with the Two Chairs team and learn more about how clinicians experience Two Chairs. Alicia Eggen, LMFT Allyson Holmes-Knight, Ph.D. Justin Davella, Psy.D. Christy Lusareta, MA, LMFT Baaba Hawthorne, M.A., LMFT Will Alexander, LMFT Zlatena Theodore,Psy.D. Sona Trivedi, LMFT Victoria Bangieva, PhD https://lnkd.in/gT3UVfpP

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Question for my network: how do you evaluate your digital health and health tech initiatives? Do you use any frameworks or services, etc? I am not one of those "tech can solve everything" people, but I do think it is a primary enabler for the future of health, equity, and "doing more with less" since we can't seem to magically triple our workforce or funding for it. Digital Health initiatives have been a little willy nilly and certainly aren't a silver bullet. But—for that reason, more and more attention is now being given to both evaluating digital health/health tech initiatives (finally!), AND bringing the health equity lens into their development/implementation (heck yes!) For the latter, I was interested to read the development of this Digital Health Equity-Focused Implementation Research (DH-EquIR) model! This framework outlines how you might start to integrate considerations of health equity into the implementation of your digital health technologies. Key takeaways: 👏 Inclusive Design: Technologies must be accessible and culturally sensitive, designed with input from diverse communities. 👏 Equity-Focused Planning: Integrate health equity considerations at every stage to reduce disparities. 👏 Continuous Evaluation: Monitor and adapt interventions to meet the needs of underserved populations. 👏 Sustainability: Ensure financial sustainability and interoperability for long-term success. 👏 Collaboration: Engage stakeholders from all sectors to drive impactful health solutions. It is promising to see health equity being promoted through thoughtful and inclusive digital health solutions designed to meet people where their real challenge is at, and I recognize that tech, people, and workflows go ✋in ✋ Frameworks like this are helpful as directional guidance to start with. I am also seeing a lot of "Digital Determinants of Health" crop up, though still meaning different things by different groups. Source: Construction of the Digital Health Equity Focused Implementation Research Conceptual Model - Bridging the Divide Between Equity-focused Digital Health and Implementation Research (https://buff.ly/3RbWmDQ) ----------------------------- (AI was used to generate this strange and misshapen/spelled image, but I actually kind of liked it!!)

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Indeed a turning point for women's health. I am not a political person, but this is something I can proudly support. Very proud of my friends Liz Powell, Jodi Neuhauser, and Candace McDonald for launching this Women's Health PAC who have the support of thousands of women in the healthcare industry. With more money, research, information, innovation, funding, and focus on women's health... everyone wins. Including men. This is not exclusive, this ensures inclusion of all people, especially women who have been excluded from most of the above including in healthcare. Equity ensures equality, and without a focus on women's health there will be not achievement of equity. #healthequity #healthequityforwomen #womenshealth #women #equality #womeninhealth #womenleaders #womeninleadership #womeninmedtech #PAC #womenshealthPAC

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Great piece out in STAT, penned by Ravi Thadhani MD, MPH of Emory Healthcare and Anne Klibanski of Mass General Brigham, on the major challenges facing academic medical centers, including investment in great research programs. It’s time to change the way research is structured within these academic centers. They need efficiencies and solutions for the wide-ranging financial and operational challenges (including staffing) that hold research back: “Academic medical centers must strive for a more efficient and integrated system to carry out research. These centers have similar needs for research operations and managing research facilities. Each center currently manages these items separately, and their respective supporting infrastructures have grown disproportionately. Cost efficiencies can be achieved by pursuing system-wide agreements, for example, and working cooperatively when opportunities arise.” This is exactly why Topo and others in our space exist – to offer providers and systems critical management, infrastructure, staff and services to scale research – which in turn impacts patient access to transformative care. https://lnkd.in/eaRi7pQQ

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Excited to announce the launch of my new website and blog! 🖥️📝 After reconnecting with previous colleagues, I've finally found the time to embark on this new venture. As I navigate this new chapter, I welcome your input on topics that would be beneficial to you. Feel free to share your suggestions! #NewBeginnings #WebsiteLaunch #FirstBlogPost

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Dominick Bizzarro Bizzaro, Chief Strategy Officer at MVP Health Care, offers visionary insights at HIMSS Global Health Conference. Advocating Agile Development principles, Bizzaro navigates healthcare's regulatory landscape with finesse. His five key considerations for innovation through regulation redefine compliance as a strategic advantage. Embracing interoperability mandates, Bizzaro champions partnerships and transformative strategies, turning regulatory challenges into opportunities. #HealthcareInnovation #Interoperability #StrategicLeadership Read about the 5 key considerations here: https://lnkd.in/g9Wbtj7p

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This past week I interviewed Dale Gold, MD of NerdMDs and ACMIO for CommonSpirit Health’s Mountain Region. I wanted to share a quick excerpt that I found interesting given Epic's role in the healthcare AI landscape (note: you can get the full Q&A in Elion's weekly newsletter) ​​🟩 Epic has been very public about the many AI-first products they’re building. How do you think about when to go with an Epic-native product vs. looking at other solutions (either internally built or externally purchased)? 𝗗𝗮𝗹𝗲: The best strategic approach for health systems historically is to have an Epic-first mentality — meaning to understand their roadmap, where it's going, and try your best to align with that direction. This is important both in terms of your operational workflows — doing things the way that Epic is built so that you function within those frameworks — and in terms of reducing customization and personalization, which requires long-term maintenance and takes bandwidth away from your IT teams to innovate. At the same time, I believe it’s really important to build some of your own expertise and capabilities in this new area. Having it fully outsourced limits what you can learn and how you can innovate. So I think that there's a balance of doing some yourself — maybe not designing your own custom AI models, but having some expertise with editing them, prompting them, integrating them — so you're not fully reliant on external solutions. ​​🟩 Is there any whitespace you see today when it comes to building AI solutions? 𝗗𝗮𝗹𝗲: I think it's in-basket. I know people are working in that space, but it's such a hard problem to solve. An ideal solution would understand my preferences as a provider, the patient’s context, and how they like to be cared for, and then surface a set of decisions for me to make and help communicate next steps in a way that is clear, translated to a patient, and empathetic. ​​🟩 I agree with you. I’m curious if you think it’s because Epic has been vocal about the in-basket solution they’re building, or if there’s another reason we haven't seen more solutions. 𝗗𝗮𝗹𝗲: I think it’s just a hard problem to solve. Honestly, I don't know that Epic being involved scared people away, though I think Epic has an advantage in this space because they have access to the full chart. But I think that their true advantage is that they really put a lot of time and money into physician wellness and understanding what provider’s pain points are. They know more than anyone what a burden the in-basket is for providers. I suspect part of the challenge is finding the ROI in fixing the inbox. Where does the money come from? Solving the inbox impacts the patient experience, the provider experience, the wellness piece, and the quality piece. But finding the dollar signs takes a little bit more effort and takes organizations that are really motivated to do what's right by their providers and patients.

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I'm excited to post my latest thought leadership! Read it at Fast Company Executive Board. While, for the right type of care, digital health and point solutions have provided a great vehicle for care delivery, the industry has, at times, over-engineered the solution for situations that may warrant in-person interventions. For point solutions to be effective, it is critical to use them as part of an orchestrated solution to prevent additional friction and barriers to patient care. Otherwise, as the industry has experienced, utilization is incredibly low, outcomes are poor, and investments are made in unnecessary and ineffective solutions.

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I am superfan of Damon Davis & his podcasts, not only because he asks great questions (with that velvety voice!) but also because he brings his own insights and experience to the conversation. For example, he connected our work at HHS on #OpenData to the current public debate about AI and health care. Here's a quick clip about why patients, survivors, and caregivers should be on AI design teams #RebelHealth #PatientsUseAI https://lnkd.in/e6NJECav

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Thanks to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia for inviting me to talk about #leadership and career paths with some of the senior residents this morning. Most important…don’t let others box you in, and if the box for what you want to do doesn’t exist, then create it. Vertex Health #healthtech #digitalhealth #techenabledcare #healthstartups #healthcareinnovation #healthcaretechnology #advising #consulting #vertexhealth #vertexhealthconsulting

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