Episodes

  • Why Your Old Healthcare Marketing Strategy Isn’t Working| E. 111

    Why Your Old Healthcare Marketing Strategy Isn’t Working| E. 111
    May 15 2024
    Marketing effectiveness has fallen by nearly a quarter since 2020. Ian Baer, Founder & Chief Soothsayer at Sooth, offers his insights on how healthcare organizations can respond, with Jim Cagliostro. Episode Introduction Ian shares how 90% of today’s marketing decisions are emotional, and 80% are made on impulse, and the challenges of ‘’marketing by the pound.’’ He also explains why a regulatory environment means healthcare often stays in the shallow end of the marketing pool, how data unlocks empathy between brands and audiences, and advises everyone to ‘’bring your soul to work every day.’’ Show Topics Making emotional connections in marketing Sooth helps brands to understand the truth Healthcare has unique marketing challenges ‘’Marketing by the pound’’ The roadmap of healthcare marketing is the most complicated The power of patient stories Leadership tip: Bring your soul to work every day 08:13 Making emotional connections in marketing Ian said 90% of the decisions people make when spending money are emotional. ‘’AI, it's very buzzwordy, but what it does for us is it allows me to take what used to require one or two years of custom research that might cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, into a methodology that we can execute in a few weeks to give a brand a very clear understanding of the emotional journey of the individual that they're trying to reach. Now of course, the impact in healthcare is huge because look, 90% of all the decisions people make when it comes to spending their money are emotional. It's a big mistake marketers made for decades upon decades in thinking there's a balance between the rational and their emotional. No, there isn't. People make emotional decisions, and then they seek rationale to back up where their heart has already gone. And Harvard did some brilliant work that they published in 2016, an article I recommend to anybody and everybody get their hands on, called The New Science of Customer Emotion. .. And what they found was, of the thousands of different emotions we all experience, it's been estimated that people experience 34,000 different emotions. … But what they found is there are actually only 10 things that we feel as humans that have a positive correlation to the way we spend our money.’’ 14:54 Sooth helps brands to understand the truth Ian explained the background to his company name, and its purpose. ‘’So, I went looking through my LinkedIn profile, just going through all my experience and, "How can I describe what I do?" And I found a LinkedIn recommendation from a former client in which he referred to me as, "Soothsayer." And it reminded me that very often, when we were at a time of crisis for his brand, he would pick up the phone and call me and say, "Oh, soothsayer." And that would very often start our conversations. I thought, "Well, that's a really interesting word." I always thought a soothsayer was somebody who predicts the future. It's not. Soothsayer is somebody who tells the truth. The word sooth literally means truth. It just went obsolete in the English language about 400 years ago when Shakespeare got done with it, which is what enabled me to actually trademark it as the name of a business. It's pretty hard to get a vernacular word as the name of your company. So, when we decided to name the business Sooth, because in reality that is exactly what we're doing is helping brands understand the truth, then it just followed suit that I should be the soothsayer, that we actually have two practices at the company. We have the soothsaying practice, which is determining what the truths are, and then our client partnership practice, we call those people ‘’soothsolvers’’ because what they do is actually take the truth and put it to work in really smart marketing recommendations, and work in partnership with senior leaders on the client side.’’ 17:23 Healthcare has unique marketing challenges Ian said the regulatory environment means that healthcare is averse to taking marketing risks. ‘’Because of the regulatory environment, healthcare marketers have learned to play it extremely safe, and it's understandable. The last thing you want is a slap on the wrist, or much worse, from the FDA when you've spent countless millions of dollars, let's say, bringing a drug to market. But the result is most healthcare marketers have become conditioned to stay in the very shallow end of the swimming pool. And where that becomes unfortunate, we spoke earlier about no industry really needing empathy in their marketing more than healthcare. Well, we now have the ability through use of data, through use of technology, through one-to-one connection and interaction, through experience design, to create a really special personal experience. And yet, data privacy is a scary thing. Engaging with someone, one-on-one, whether it's through social media or other, that's a scary thing ...
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    38 mins
  • The Growth of Patient-Centered Care | E. 110

    The Growth of Patient-Centered Care | E. 110
    May 8 2024
    US health systems are slowly adopting a patient-focused approach. Shanil Ebrahim, Partner in National Life Sciences & Healthcare Consulting Leader at Deloitte Canada, explains its benefits to Jim Cagliostro. Episode Introduction Shanil explains why healthcare needs to move away from the ‘’one-size fits all’’ approach to patient care, why patients should be treated as partners, rather than recipients, and the impact of a healthcare model designed around systems. He also outlines why patient-centered care is an investment in quality and efficiency and highlights the benefits of adaptability in leadership. Show Topics Patient care goes beyond managing health conditions Healthcare is designed around the needs of the system ‘’Patient feedback should shape everything we do’’ Funding the cost of change A champion for patient care Improving the patient experience leads to better outcomes Leadership tip: embracing adaptability 05:12 Patient care goes beyond managing health conditions Shanil said patient-centered care is designed around patient preferences. ‘’Ultimately, when you think about that term, at its core, patient-centered care is about ensuring that healthcare systems and all of their processes are fundamentally designed around the patient's needs or their experiences or their preferences I should say. And this approach goes beyond just treating diseases or managing health conditions. It's about considering patients as active participants in their own healthcare, which means that any sort of treatments or healthcare plans we develop, it's not about just focusing on clinical guidelines alone, but how do we deeply integrate that with the individual's lifestyle or their cultural background or their personal preferences into how those treatments are actually planned and executed?’’ 10:45 Healthcare is designed around the needs of the system Shanil explained how the historical context of healthcare models affects patient care today. ‘’…your question really gets at the heart of many challenges that we face in healthcare today, irrespective of where you are, whether you're in North America or globally, and you have to consider that historically, our healthcare models were designed more around the needs of the healthcare system than the needs of the patient. All you have to do is look at things like financial models of all of these health systems, which is focused on volume and paying for services that a doctor provides over value of the services or take healthcare organizations like hospitals where they prioritize operational efficiency, where you have a ton of metrics around that over personalized care. And even though we may make patient-centered care sound easy and obvious, transitioning to that type of care is a big paradigm shift when you consider that historical context. And it requires both a shift in mindset and operations.’’ 11:48 ‘’Patient feedback should shape everything we do’’ Shanil explained why the starting point is to consider the patient perspective. ‘’And to me, first and foremost, it starts with leadership commitments, whether your ministers or C-suite execs at hospitals to re-envision what healthcare should look like from a patient's perspective. And this means aligning the organizational culture with patient-centric values and training your workforce to adopt this approach in every interaction in every decision. And when you think about what are practical first steps that you can actually take, it often involves gathering extensive patient feedback to understand their experiences and needs better. Something that we talked about obviously just at a length. And this feedback that we get from these patients should shape everything we do from policy to bedside manner. And technology plays a pretty crucial role here because it can be leveraged to improve communication with patients. It can be leveraged to offer more personalized health management tools or provide healthcare professionals with real-time data that is much more patient-specific, so that they can continue iterating in terms of what they need to do on a daily basis.’’ 16:19 Funding the cost of change Shanil said the initial cost of transitioning to patient-centered care should be viewed as an investment in quality and efficiency. ‘’Now in the US, where the healthcare system is more privatized, funding might come through insurance reimbursements or through investments by private health systems where they're looking to improve patient satisfaction and reduce long-term cost. You can't think about this as a short-term game, and you have to be able to measure what the value of the investment is now on something that hits long-term as well. And this is where whether your insurer or providers like hospitals, they could also tap into incentives offered by government programs or payers for meeting certain patient care standards ...
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    30 mins
  • Healthcare Strategy with Cole Lyons | E. 109

    Healthcare Strategy with Cole Lyons | E. 109
    Apr 24 2024
    Strategic planning is vital to successful healthcare management. President & Co-Founder of The American Healthcare Journal, Cole Lyons, explains his goal of fostering a community of education to Jim Cagliostro. Episode Introduction Cole explains why transfer of knowledge is a key goal of the Journal, why healthcare strategy can be described as moving from checkers to chess and emphasizes the importance of thinking before you speak. He also explains the importance of competition in healthcare and identifies humility as an essential leadership trait. Show Topics Redefining healthcare strategy A strategic alternative for nonprofits Breaking down silos in healthcare Join Cole’s community on LinkedIn Applying economic theories to healthcare strategy Leadership tip: why humility matters 05:36 Redefining healthcare strategy Cole explained why thinking about the impact of your actions matters. ‘’For me, it's kind of thinking before I speak. I think that's the best way that I've come up with how to explain it. In operations, day-to-day, things are quite hectic, especially at high volume clinics. And you have to make very quickly, fairly educated decisions based on standard operating procedures. But sometimes that doesn't always lead us down the best path. So part of that is creating standard operating procedures that allow you time to think about how it impacts things long-term. So, thinking before you speak for me means instead of just saying what I need to say in the moment, I think about what I say, how it will impact the person hearing it, how it'll impact my image. And if you apply that kind of thinking before acting approach to your actions in the operations space, it means taking a step back and looking at the competitive landscape in your industry, looking at the competitive landscape in your institution, different departments competing for funding, different departments competing for exposure, and looking at how even small actions in the operations world will impact that.’’ 08:12 A strategic alternative for nonprofits Cole said the Journal aims to foster improvement and education in strategic thinking for nonprofit institutions. ‘’… the problem right now is VC-backed healthcare firms, those that are backed by venture capital. They have a high concentration of MBAs who have really good strategic insights. So don't get me wrong, and we can always go into this anytime, but there's a problem with a lot of the strategy theories out there in general that are taught to MBA graduates because it's based on economic theories that don't always play out in the real world. But still when they make decisions, it is much more strategic than in nonprofit healthcare. And so, one of the issues is that I'm not a fan of government-run healthcare, which is a little contrarian. I'm just not particularly a fan of it. I think that free market healthcare is good, nonprofit institutions are my favorite. I love nonprofit institutions. I think that that's the best form of delivering healthcare. But they don't act very strategically, especially compared to VC-backed or for-profit healthcare, which employ all these MBAs, they recruit MBAs from the top schools, they can pay them. …I'm not saying that they're any less educated, they're just educated differently. They have MHAs, they have MPAs, a lot of them have MDs, and they are educated in a very different way. So the journal's purpose is how can we foster this community of improvement and education in strategic thinking for these people who are educated in a much more practical way? An MHA isn’t sitting in their office thinking and going into philosophy a lot of times. A lot of times they're figuring out, how can we solve this problem? How can we deal with this emergency situation?’’ 13:36 Breaking down silos in healthcare Cole said administrative fellowships can help to develop a well-rounded approach. ‘’One of the ways that this is going to work out really well, and a lot of programs are doing this, is through administrative fellowships. I actually have a lot of different things that we're involved with with that, trying to get fellowship certified, trying to get fellowships publicized a lot because administrative fellowships have to rotate through every department in the organization usually. They know all the leaders. And so when they go and work in operations, they are very well-rounded. They have a much better strategic vision of the organization. They know clinicians, they know the house staff, they know the janitors, they know everybody. A lot of times they know the people who are on construction teams building the building. And so that gives them a huge, well-rounded approach that's also going to massively improve strategy. So yeah, the majority of organizations are still struggling. They're siloed or they don't even have really a strategy team, but there is a good trend for improvement I think on the way...
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    26 mins
  • Ideas Worth Pursuing | E. 108

    Ideas Worth Pursuing | E. 108
    Apr 17 2024
    Tech startups are predicted to disrupt US healthcare in 2024. Scott Nelson, co-founder, and CEO of venture backed FastWave Medical, offers his strategies for success in innovation with Jim Cagliostro. Episode Introduction Scott reveals the two signs that an idea has potential, why market trumps everything in innovation, and why leaders should focus on eliminating pain points for their end users. He also advises innovators to connect with potential strategic acquirers at an early stage and explains why leaders of startups shouldn’t put all their eggs in the venture capital basket. Show Topics Two signs of a good idea Market ultimately trumps everything in innovation Engage with potential strategic acquirers at an early stage Finding investment in your community Flipping the script: eliminating pain points Effective ways to raise capital Leaders of startups don’t have to be the CEO 05:49 Two signs of a good idea Scott said there are two things for leaders to consider in innovation. ‘’I guess to answer your question in a little bit more long-winded way, I would say if you've got an idea that you can't seem to shake a little bit… It's sticky and you find yourself maybe waking up at night thinking about it or you thought about it and then two weeks ago you're still thinking about it, maybe a month goes on, you're still thinking about it, that's usually a good signal. Maybe there's something there, but the most important point from my perspective is before you go too far, before you get too latched onto this idea, you really need to think about two things primarily. One, does it solve a real glaring problem? Is it a painkiller? I remember interviewing Dan Hawkins way back in the day. He was actually the founder of Shockwave, the company I mentioned previously, was very early at Intuitive Surgical, was the founder of Avail Medsystems, et cetera, serial entrepreneur. And he phrased, this was back in, I think 2016 or 17, but he mentioned finding a painkiller, not aspirin, not Tylenol, but a real painkiller, something that really causes a lot of pain, whether that's from a cost perspective, whether that's from a workflow perspective, but something that's like, there's a lot of friction there. That's what your idea hopefully solves for, a real painkiller. And then secondarily, if you think you're onto something that solves that real pain point, secondarily, you need to think about this as early in the process as possible. Who's going to pay for it?’’ 09:03 Market ultimately trumps everything in innovation Scott explained why market is the #1 factor for potential entrepreneurs. ‘’I sort of fundamentally believe that market ultimately trumps everything else, right? Now, don't get me wrong, you could have a great product and a great team, but if it doesn't serve a huge market, you're going to have to think about other ways to fund that, right? Maybe it's a product that you can invest your own money in. Maybe it's a product that you can get to market quite quickly and use revenue and profits to support the company's growth, etc. But the reality is you need a big market to serve in order to give you optionality to capitalize and fund your idea or fund the company moving forward. So I do kind of think market trumps everything, because again, you could be working on a great product, have an awesome team, but if the market just doesn't support it, it's likely not going to have a lot of substance there. On the flip side, you could have an awesome market and maybe a decent product and a decent team, but it's probably going to do fairly well because the market supports that need. So, long story short, there's a couple of different ways to think about it. They're all important. ‘’ 12:38 Engage with potential strategic acquirers at an early stage ‘’Obviously you need to be careful and cognizant about not disclosing too much, but the imperative is really to start engaging early on with those, what you perceive as potential strategic acquirers, really under the guise of just an introduction. You're not trying to sell them anything. It's a dating process. You're trying to get to know them, inform them of what you're building, what you're working on, so at least have a high-level idea. And as you continue to make progress against your idea and against your milestones, keep them informed. Not just them, but hopefully potential investors, people that... stakeholders within your community. You want to be communicating the progress that you're making against the idea or the product that you're building. So I can come full circle on your question. I just think it's really sometimes underappreciated, and it's actually a tip that I picked up on from Duke Rohlen, he's the founder of Ajax Health, serial entrepreneurs, had multiple exits under his belt, but he mentioned this, in an interview maybe close to 10 years ago now that I had with him. That was one of the things ...
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    28 mins
  • Managing Purchased Services Contracts | E. 107

    Managing Purchased Services Contracts | E. 107
    Apr 10 2024
    Purchased services is often the most overlooked expense in healthcare yet offers opportunities for cost savings. Brian Bartel shares his best practices for effective contract management, with Jim Cagliostro. Episode Introduction Brian explains the unique challenges of purchased services, why a centralized contract repository is the first step to successful purchased services management, and why hospitals should never allow contracts to auto-renew. He also explains why ‘’red flags’’ aren’t always necessarily malicious and why it’s vital to question the line-item details of your purchased services invoices. Show Topics Purchased services present a unique challenge in healthcare #1 tip: Create a centralized contract repository Review your contracts on a minimum annual basis Don’t assume all red flags are malicious The hidden cost savings in your line-item details Be inquisitive, be patient, be strategic – and build relationships 06:35 Purchased services present a unique challenge in healthcare Brian explained the difference between supplies and purchased services. ‘’…When you're talking about supplies, it's pretty easy. You've got a specific item number, you've got your power set, your requisitions, everything is very orderly. So things are coming in, you can track it, you've got the data behind it, there's a contract with that line item pricing. And then when you get confirmations back, usually people are using some form of EDI, which makes it relatively easy, and you can track that. Item A is item A, item B is item B. Purchased services is different because it typically is not on a PO. Again, I've worked places where it is, but that comes with its own challenges. It's very department specific, so you've got usually a department manager or leader that's kind of running that point with it. We don't have as much interaction on the supply chain side of this either. Communication is usually kind of sparse between supply chain and a purchased service provider as compared to a typical supply vendor. And again, the data is just, it's more difficult. When you start looking at how things are being invoiced because there's no PO line, it gets very challenging to try to figure out, "Okay, what's actually happening with this spend?" Typically, an invoice will come in, the department manager signs off on it, it gets paid, and that's it. So a lot of opportunity there.’’ 08:30 #1 tip: Create a centralized contract repository Brian said a centralized contract repository was the essential first step to successful purchased services management. ‘’I think that at square one, I think the biggest thing you can do is if your organization or your hospital, your ASC, your clinic, whatever it is, if you don't have a centralized contract repository, that's step one. Again, stepping into certain roles in my past, you've got contracts that might be down in admin. You've got department managers that have signature execution authority and they've got them in their files, and then you realize three years later that there's been this contract that nobody's really paying attention to because it's just a paper copy. Really I think that that's the biggest thing for me is getting your hands around it. Number one, you've just got to have that centralized repository. Again, that doesn't mean that you need to use software. Software obviously makes things easier. I'm a big proponent of that. But again, even just saying, "All right, nobody can sign contracts except for," whether it be your CEO, your CFO. "Send all these down and we're going to put them in a file cabinet." At least then you can go and try to find where those contractual documents are.’’ 10:07 Review your contracts on a minimum annual basis Brian said it’s important not to let contracts auto-renew. ‘’It’s always good to have that check-in annually, even if it’s just pulling the contract, making sure when does this contract terminate? That’s the other thing about automated systems through contract software is that you can set those flags. “Hey, something’s coming up 180 days later.” Again, with things that are just auto-renewing, that’s an issue too. If you miss that window to terminate something that you do want to go out to bid for, or maybe it’s a contract that you don’t need anymore. And I’ve seen, you’ve probably seen it too, 180 day out clause, some of these things. So if you miss that, that’s going to be a problem. As far as reviewing, it depends too on the type of service. Some of them are much more important, and so having a quarterly business review or a semiannual business review is important, and that gives the vendor time to come and showcase what it is that they’re doing too, because at the end of the day, sometimes these people are coming in, they’re doing great work, but nobody really knows except for that department or specific area that they’re there too. ...
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    21 mins
  • Supplier Relationship Management | E. 106

    Supplier Relationship Management | E. 106
    Mar 27 2024
    Flourishing supplier relationships can transform healthcare organizations. Samer Haddad, shares his experience of building and navigating successful partnerships with Jim Cagliostro. Episode Introduction Samer explains why trust is the foundation of all successful supplier relationships, the importance of human-to-human connection and why a partnership sometimes means giving your partner the benefit of the doubt. He also outlines the key to a successful exit strategy (plan, plan, and plan) and why solid leadership means treating others as you want to be treated, and leaving your ego at the door. Show Topics Supplier relationship management isn’t just a keyword Trust is the foundation of successful relationships Managing multiple suppliers is about more than spend ‘’Partnership is a partnership’’ Managing a successful exit strategy Leadership tip: keeping your ego out of the way 04:33 Supplier relationship management isn’t just a keyword Samer explained how the impact of Covid revealed the importance of strong supplier relationships. ‘’When the world went into COVID and all the crises that came after that, in terms of shortages and everything, I can make a pretty easy judgment that there was a big differentiator between companies who made it and who maybe struggled mainly was supplier relationship management. Because when the real challenge came to the world, companies that invested in relations, companies that had deepened their relationships, especially with the significant suppliers to their production or to their delivery, whatever that is, made a difference. Those were the ones who were able to actually leverage that challenge to their benefit in the market. So they gained market share. The ones who had superficial relations, maybe more towards purely commercial kind of dealings, I think they struggled because, at such a moment, that kind of... I can't call it a human-to-human relation, or personal relation is where things are tested, and when companies need to make decisions, that's always an element. The trust between those organizations is essentially trust between humans that are doing business for years together. So if you just... we learn from the past two to three years it is I think many of my peers in procurement supply chain will vouch to the importance of supplier relationship management in general and not just like a keyword that you use and throw around…’’ 07:09 Trust is the foundation of successful relationships Samer said KPIs can help to measure progress and build trust. ‘’It takes time to build up that trust. So it is very important when we start a relationship that we create the proper agreement because this is why contracts are there. Contracts manage the relationship between parties. And you're establishing basically a baby kind of relation that has no trust yet, and you need to monitor it and start putting in the building blocks of that relation. Usually, in my opinion, that is established by having mutual mechanisms to judging how companies are engaging with each other. That could be the KPIs that you set. And it's not fair only to set a KPI for the supplier that you're establishing a relationship with, especially if you're looking long-term. Some KPIs should be set, maybe not in the contract, not necessarily, but self-imposed as you manage that important relationship that you know about. So you can even monitor internally how you're engaging with that supplier. Now, if you do that kind of fundamental layer of developing that relationship and you start building upon it, with time, trust starts getting improved and starts growing. It's like a baby, and it grows. It becomes an entity.’’ 10:24 Managing multiple suppliers is about more than spend Samer said organizations need to understand how suppliers can impact their business. ‘’…... But let's say what are the top 10 suppliers that basically can make or break your business? Because each business needs to know these kinds of suppliers. What are the suppliers that, if they don't deliver, you're going to have challenges actually delivering to your customer, or it'll affect your quality, or it might basically put you in a different pricing position in the market, which could basically hurt your business? So you need to understand those really well. And what I see as a common mistake is people treat category management as just a function, just an area. Like supplier relationship management. "Oh, you're a procurement person, so you do the procurement, invoicing, all of that. And by the way, you need to just take care of categories. Also, take care of the supplier relationship." It doesn't work. So especially when it's big business, when there's lots of money being moved around, you need people to focus on those suppliers and those categories. So I would recommend that you really understand the suppliers that drive the goals of your business and, at the ...
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    24 mins
  • Waste in the Hospital Supply Chain | E. 105

    Waste in the Hospital Supply Chain | E. 105
    Mar 13 2024
    An estimated 40% of expenditure in the supply chain goes to waste. CEO Luká Yancopoulos explains to Jim Cagliostro how Grapevine Technology aims to put the power back into the hands of hospitals. Episode Introduction Luká explains how Grapevine can help hospitals save up to 80% on a single line item, how even small healthcare businesses spend six figure sums on the supply chain each year, and how to frame the reality of years of overspending to his clients. He also reveals three key ways that hospitals can lower the expense of their vendor management. Show Topics The power of building networks Supplies are a huge expense in healthcare Up to 80% of spend may be waste Connecting the source of supply to the end user Framing harsh truths on expenditure Seeing value every step of the way Leadership tip: deliver solutions to real problems 03:12 The power of building networks Luká said Grapevine can help its clients to save 70-80% on a single line item. ‘’So Grapevine is working to make it very easy to basically manage your existing network. We've got healthcare businesses. They usually come to us, and they've worked with a handful of suppliers over the years. They think of each of these suppliers as their supplier for blank, fill in the blank, and Grapevine rewrites that. We think they're all your suppliers, they're all your network. Every time you add an item to cart from one of them, let's make sure it's the best price and that your other suppliers that you already trust and know don't have the same exact product at a cheaper price. Oftentimes, they do. We've basically redirected spend from one major distributor to another major distributor, saving the customer or the healthcare business 70%-80% on a single line item. The thing like a Becton Dickinson or a BD catheter or infusion pump or something they buy, and they have a bad habit of buying it from the wrong guy. So we basically let them link all their suppliers with the click of a button to a single screen, read in their current offerings, and tell them where to redirect their spend, acting as a traffic cop if needed.’’ 05:14 Supplies are a huge expense in healthcare Luká explained that even small healthcare businesses are spending six figure sums on supplies every year. ‘’Certain medical specialties get hit harder than others. If you're performing surgery, obviously, you're burning through a lot of supplies, you're using anesthesia, you're using all sorts of things that maybe your average urgent care clinic won't need. So we focus on specific specialties that have a high consumption rate of important and expensive technologies, things like oncology, dermatology, surgery, these sorts of things. Even a small healthcare business is spending six, seven figures on medical supplies and pharmaceuticals, like, a customer that comes to mind, a family-owned dermatology practice in upstate New York, and Rochester, New York is spending $200,000 a year pre-Grapevine on medical supplies. So like the instruments and whatnot, they're using sutures and implants and this and that, and then they're spending another million a year on injectables. Things like lidocaine, fillers, and different sorts of things of that realm.’’ 08:38 Up to 80% of spend may be waste Luká explained why a single supplier can’t offer hospitals the lowest price for every item. ‘’I think that, in some cases, it's as much as 80% of the spend on supply is fruitless and extraneous. As far as what makes up those inefficiencies, there's a number of things. There's a classic idea that I am a strong believer of, that no one person or entity can be the best at everything. So even if you're comparing suppliers of the same business model, these large distributors, we could talk like McKesson, Henry Schein, Medline, the list goes on and on. Every one of those has built supply chains like warehouse fulfillment, shipping teams, customer service, et cetera, tailored around a specific core competency or level of products. So not one of those suppliers is going to be able to offer you the 5,000 SKUs or different item numbers that you need, all of the lowest price. That's naive. The way this world works is helping specialists, people that have specific skill sets, work together to serve a singular end goal.’’ 10:24 Connecting the source of supply to the end user Luká said simplifying the supply chain is key to reducing costs. ‘’I understand that when I'm buying it from a reseller, it needed to get in the hands of the reseller. That means it needed to get shipped there. That is a cost. Costs get built on the customer service, the labor. It all gets built into the price that hospitals are paying. By working with these downstream distribution companies that are, in some cases, 200 years old, you're just taking on additional costs. So if we can disintermediate supply chains when possible, connect source to end user as much as possible. You...
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    27 mins
  • Using AI to Enhance the Hospital Supply Chain | E. 104

    Using AI to Enhance the Hospital Supply Chain | E. 104
    Mar 6 2024
    The US healthcare sector has struggled to put innovations like AI into practice. Mara Cairo explains the advantages of applying machine learning and AI for hospitals to Jim Cagliostro. Episode Introduction Mara explains why the first step towards successfully embracing AI is literacy, the challenges hospitals face in system integration and why AI isn’t intended to replace humanity in patient care. She also illustrates the benefits of AI for healthcare, including predicting patient no-shows, effectively managing inventory, and reducing costs, and explains why successful leadership means getting out of the way. Show Topics Taking the first step towards AI literacy The challenges of AI in healthcare Applying AI across industry sectors Anticipating patient no-shows The impact of AI on cost reduction initiatives Leadership tip: Hire the right people and get out of their way 03:48 Taking the first step towards AI literacy Mara said AI literacy helps to overcome resistance to AI. ‘’Really the most important thing is AI literacy. It's just like learning what AI is, what it isn't, the types of problems it's really great at, the types of problems you shouldn't use it for. On the earlier side of the spectrum, we have lots of training and education really meant to get industry partners, but also the general public. We're working even with K-12 teachers and students now ... to make sure that everyone has that literacy because it's just becoming more and more important to kind of arm yourself with the information because we're being inundated with information and news articles and scary stories. So it starts with literacy, that's the first part, and then kind of evolves from there hopefully.’’ 05:46 The challenges of AI in healthcare Mara said the complex needs of healthcare mean hospitals struggle with system integration. ‘’There are different disciplines. Each maybe has their own labor agreements, regulation and whatnot. So when we think of human resources as a piece of inventory, that gets quite complicated quickly. Another thing, supply level. Inventory levels are complex. We kind of all saw it in COVID. The demand can spike really, really quickly. And you don't necessarily know when that's going to happen, right? So these surges can catch everyone off guard. And maybe traditionally it's been harder to anticipate when these surges might appear. Luckily, maybe machine learning is a tool that can help us with that. Also, just I think the shelf life of different supplies is unique to healthcare. You have to be really, really careful about storage and transportation requirements. And all of that is compounded by distance and transportation costs. Especially in Canada, in the far north, those care locations, they're really dependent on certain supplies, but if there's a road closure or a snowstorm or something, it's further complicated. The inventory supplies and healthcare are potentially life changing, right? So it's just so much more important that that is managed properly. And that complicates things. I think overall, in general, we've just seen that healthcare systems can struggle with system integration.’’ 08:30 Applying AI across industry sectors Mara gave examples of how AI helps with demand forecasting and warehouse management. ‘’Some of the really cool projects we've worked on with our industry partners in the supply chain space, but more in the kind of consumer goods area are things like demand forecasting. So helping them better predict what items they're going to need and when. What's really great again about working with our supply chain partners is they have a ton of data, historical data. And that's really, really important. When we start looking to build machine learning solutions, we often rely heavily on that historical data to be able to make those predictions about the future. So the demand forecasting problem is really ripe for innovation and for machine learning because usually there is a large amount of data and we can start making predictions based off of what's happened in the past about what supplies will be needed and when. Another cool thing we worked on with one of our warehousing companies was pick route optimization. So when you're picking items from an order, what's the most efficient way to pick the items to start fulfilling orders? And then to that even more so is how do you build your warehouse up from nothing? How do you make sure that the space is optimized the best way that it can be so that you're optimizing your pick route, but also so that maybe commonly used supplies aren't blocked in. So we're able to, again, use some really cool machine learning techniques and historical data to help just those ground level initial planning things to make sure that we're setting up these warehouses to be really, really efficient.’’ 10:41 Anticipating patient ‘’no-shows’’ Mara said machine learning can help hospitals...
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    25 mins