2024 Fall Forum Day 1 wrap-up: Innovation meets empathy

CHIME’s 2024 Fall Forum kicked off early this morning with the official launch of Nordic and Microsoft’s Rural Health IT Community, an initiative dedicated to fostering growth and advocacy within the rural health IT sector. 

Rural health IT leaders often have to face multiple obstacles with limited resources on a daily basis, sometimes just to meet basic needs. Patricia Allvin, CEO of MLH Healthcare Consulting  and rural health IT expert shared a story about how when her hospital lost internet access due to a community member accidentally digging up their fiber optic cable, she had to find a solution quickly. Drawing on her technical background and resourcefulness, she repurposed a microwave dish to create a temporary point-to-point connection with a nearby internet tower, restoring critical connectivity until the fiber line could be repaired.

Stories of creativity and mission-driven initiatives defined Day 1 at this year’s Fall Forum. Don’t get me wrong, Compassionomics, or the idea that leaning into the emotional demands of healthcare could be an antidote to burnout rather than a cause, practically defined last year’s Fall Forum. By reconnecting leaders with the very mission that likely drew them to healthcare in the first place, there was a renewed sense of purpose and optimism in the air.

But if last year’s Day 1 was the 101 class, then Day 1 of the 2024 Fall Forum was a survey course in practical application. 

Many of the sessions on day 1 gravitated toward the softer side of healthcare, or in other words, how empathy, creativity, and vulnerability can make better healthcare leaders and more successful organizations.

Focusing on the people part of healthcare

Keynote speaker Dr. Michelle Rozen shared steps to create new habits and follow through on personal commitments—not just for individual growth, but to uplift teams and organizations as a whole. By focusing on what truly drives us and the actions we’re willing to take, leaders can foster meaningful, sustainable change.

Creating digital doors for every generation

This focus on understanding needs extends to patients, too. For example, building genuine engagement requires healthcare organizations to create “digital doors” for every generation, meeting patients where they are—whether that’s through an app, a text, a call, or an in-person visit. By tailoring outreach to individual preferences, organizations can create an omnichannel experience that enhances both access and connection.

“I have a 19- and 21-year-old son. God forbid they have to talk to a real person. They prefer texts,” shared Jeffrey Sturman, SVP & Chief Digital Officer at Memorial Health. “But my 80-year-old dad, on the other hand, can’t even turn on a computer.” 

Successful digital transformation is rooted into a simple philosophy: allows patients to come to you in a way that feels natural and accessible. Sounds easy, right? Then why don’t we see more of it? 

Adopt technology to meet modern needs

Ryan Cameron, VP of Innovation and Technology at Children’s Nebraska asked listeners to reenvision patient engagement surveys by leveraging inspiration from social media. 

“If we’re inclined to hang up the phone as soon as we’re asked to complete a survey, why do we keep trying to get feedback that way?” he asked. 

Instead, providers at Children’s Nebraska will send patients (or their parents) a quick video akin to TikTok or YouTube that will ask patients for their feedback. Respondents, of course, were being invited to share their feedback in a way that might be more casual and more comfortable for them, but it also points to a shift toward the eager collection of qualitative data in healthcare. 

Feelings, feelings, feelings: How AI is letting us be more human

Healthcare has long had an uneasy relationship with qualitative data. By its very nature, it’s messy, subjective, and stubbornly resistant to being squeezed into neat statistical boxes. The traditional approach has been either to dismiss it entirely as too “unscientific” or, more commonly, to simply avoid it in favor of easily quantifiable metrics like 1-5 satisfaction ratings. But this preference for simplicity over substance means we’ve been missing the richest, most nuanced aspects of the patient experience—the very insights that could transform how we deliver care.

Using AI, scientists can readily make sense of qualitative data, opening new avenues to analyze and record human behavior. That’s exactly what Cameron and his team did. In partnership with Chris Ordal, CEO & Founder of Hollywood studio Jogg also gathered insights they had previously been unable to capture, such as body language. Using this newfound data, they developed an AI tool capable of making sense of both structured and unstructured information.

Perhaps the most intriguing lesson came from efforts to teach AI to understand regional communication styles. They discovered that Midwestern “compliment sandwiches” – negative feedback nestled between two positive comments – initially confused the AI systems. The system didn’t know how to interpret the gentle feedback often confused  and needed additional training to course correct. This experience is driving the development of new filters to account for geographic and cultural communication patterns.

Diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging

After all, how far can we get if we can’t speak each other’s languages? James Gaston, MBA and VP of Enterprise Data Services, Chief Data Officer at Parkland Health & Hospital Systems posed that question when discussing how to create equitable experiences in healthcare while on a panel with moderator Rebecca Woods, Founder & CEO of Bluebird Leaders.

“As a middle-aged white man, DEI is scary. How do I approach DEI that is effective and doesn’t just look like me pushing my agenda? I’ve learned that diversity helps us have the best team for whatever we face, equity means the ones that deserve those opportunities get those opportunities, and inclusion means that everyone feels safe,” Gaston shared. “My wife taught me well. She said for me to do this right, I have to be vulnerable.” 

“I use me being a bald, Indian man with an English accent to my advantage,” responded Cherodeep Goswami, Chief Information & Digital Officer at the University of Wisconsin Health System. “On my first day, an employee thought I was their uber driver. I said, ‘It’s okay, as long as you treat every uber driver so well,’ but I’m concerned for our security – you let an uber driver walk around the hospital for ten minutes!” 

Goswami gingerly addressed a subject that is so often treated as taboo in this country: Class. Without ever directly addressing socioeconomic differences, he shared how seemingly simple choices—like when you schedule your shifts or what you wear to work—can either build bridges or reinforce invisible barriers. 

He tries to work onsite four days a week at least, including moving his schedule around to work on some weekends. Weekend and night employees are often forgotten about, but they’re part of the team, too, he emphasized. 

Digital Health Most Wired celebration

Tonight, we celebrate the 26 healthcare organizations that earned Level 10 status in the Digital Health Most Wired survey, and tomorrow we begin again.