InteropNow! Podcast: Recent Episodes

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In this episode, host Sandy Vance sits down with Kristen Valdes founder and CEO of b.well, and Ryan Howells from Leavitt Partners for a lively and insightful conversation about the future of digital healthcare. This discussion dives into not only the policies and programs making headlines but also the practical, on-the-ground changes needed to make healthcare more connected, accessible, and patient-centered.

Together, they unpack some of the biggest shifts happening in the industry right now, including:

• The latest updates from CMS on modernizing digital healthcare
• b.well’s transition to becoming a CMS-aligned network
• CARIN Alliance’s accomplishments and bold vision for what’s ahead
• National initiatives shaping the healthcare landscape—and what they mean for patients, providers, and innovators
• How organizations can work alongside TEFCA
• The three key steps needed to finally “kill the clipboard”
• The critical role of the private sector in advancing progress

A Little About Kristen:

Kristen Valdes is the founder and CEO of b.well Connected Health. She is a transformative force in today’s healthcare marketplace, spearheading the conversation on how empowering consumers can transform healthcare delivery. Kristen is a seasoned healthcare executive with over 20 years in the industry and has dedicated her life to pioneering inventive solutions. This quest has been largely driven by her powerful personal story as the mother of a child suffering from a significant autoimmune disorder.

A Little About Ryan:

Ryan Howells is a nationally recognized expert in digital health policy and interoperability. Based in Leavitt Partners’ Washington, D.C. office, he collaborates with the private sector, the White House, Congress, HHS, and the VHA to improve health care nationwide.

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Ever wonder why your healthcare providers can't just send each other your medical records with a simple click? Or why coordinating care between your primary doctor and a specialist feels like watching a game of telephone played in slow motion?

In today's episode, host Sandy Vance sits down with Kathryn Ayers Wickenhauser, Chief Strategy Officer for DirectTrust, to unpack the complex world of healthcare communication security. DirectTrust are the architects working behind the scenes to build the digital bridges that could revolutionize how your medical information travels safely between providers. Identity-verified communication is absolutely critical for patient safety

In this episode, they talk about:

• Why identity-verified communication is critical in healthcare
• Push-based interoperability vs. query-based exchange: What’s the difference and why it matters
• How DirectTrust enhances healthcare interoperability and secure communication
• Understanding Direct Secure Messaging and its role in protected health information (PHI) exchange
• The challenges of creating a national directory of healthcare providers
• How the Elizabeth Dole Veterans Act improves care coordination between the VA and community providers

A Little About Kathryn:

Kathryn Ayers Wickenhauser, MBA, CHPC, CHTS, is the Chief Strategy Officer at DirectTrust, where she leads strategic partnerships, community engagement, and national efforts to advance trusted health information exchange. With over 15 years in health IT, she’s helped shape standards, policies, and technology around privacy, interoperability, and provider communication. A former HIPAA compliance officer, Kathryn’s insights have been featured across top health IT publications and podcasts. She’s been recognized as one of Healthjump’s “10 Healthcare IT Leaders You Should Know” and the 2022 HITMC Marketing Professional of the Year. She also founded the Interoperability Hero and Team Interop initiatives, celebrating innovation and collaboration in healthcare tech.

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When you hear T-Mobile, you probably think about smartphones and streaming—but there’s a whole lot more happening behind the scenes. In this episode of the InteropNow Podcast, host Sandy Vance sits down with Jay Noschese from T-Mobile to explore how their cutting-edge 5G Standalone (5GSA) network is revolutionizing the healthcare industry.

In this episode, they talk about:

• How 5G is reshaping healthcare communication and workflow
• The hidden impact of next-gen networks on healthcare infrastructure
• Why many organizations are rethinking their connectivity strategies
• The real limits of Wi-Fi—and why 5G is the perfect companion
• Built-in security: How T-Mobile keeps sensitive data safe
• Making the numbers work: How to track ROI on your network investments
• A deep dive into T-Mobile’s collaboration with SAVA Systems—and how their latest innovations are accelerating remote diagnostics

A Little About Jay:

Jay is a T-Mobile senior sales manager, 5G ANS/Enterprise Connectivity Sales - T-Mobile for Business. As a Senior Sales Manager within T-Mobile for Business Solution Sales Organization, Jay leads a dedicated team of sales specialists who are knocking down walls and barriers to drive the adoption of T-Mobile’s 5G Standalone (5GSA) Advanced Network Solutions in the healthcare sector. Their mission is to empower healthcare providers with cutting-edge secure connectivity, including Hybrid and Private Networks, to enhance patient care, streamline clinical operations, and support digital health innovations.

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In this episode, host Sandy Vance sits down with Charlie Harp, the CEO of Clinical Architecture to talk about the importance of data quality. They discuss the Patient Information Quality Improvement (PIQI) Alliance, an open-source framework for measuring healthcare data quality. The framework is designed to provide a standardized way to assess the usability and trustworthiness of clinical data across different formats like FHIR, CCDA, and HL7. Charlie emphasizes the importance of data quality for healthcare analytics, decision support, and AI, and explains how PIQI scores data quality with detailed metrics.

In this episode, they talk about:

• PIQI Alliance provides a standardized framework to measure healthcare data quality.
• The framework is vendor-agnostic and works across multiple data formats (FHIR, CCDA, HL7).
• PIQI scores data at holistic and data-class levels (labs, medications, and immunizations).
• PIQI is open source to make it available for everyone.
• Clinical Architecture offers a commercial implementation called PIQXL Gateway for practical use.
• The framework is being balloted through HL7 for validation, but is not rooted solely in HL7 standards.
• Data quality is critical for effective AI use in healthcare.
• The alliance encourages industry participation to improve the framework.
• PIQI can help organizations meet regulatory requirements and improve data governance.
• The PIQI website offers resources, documentation, and ways to get involved.

A Little About Charlie:

Charlie Harp is the founder and CEO of Clinical Architecture, a pioneer in healthcare data innovation. With over 35 years in the industry, he led the creation of the first deterministic engine for semantic interoperability. Today, he drives Clinical Architecture’s mission to transform healthcare through cutting-edge software and expert-led services. A frequent speaker and thought leader, Charlie also hosts the Informonster podcast, where he dives into data quality, interoperability, and the future of health IT.

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Host Sandy Vance chats with Chris Sault from Ping Identity. They discuss the importance of digital identity management in healthcare.

Ping Identity aims to eliminate trust challenges in authentication and identity management, acting as a digital front door for organizations. The conversation highlights the importance of user experience and security, particularly in regulated environments like healthcare, where adherence to standards such as HIPAA is essential.

Sault emphasizes the need for proactive measures in identity verification and the role of APIs in improving data interoperability. They also cover the evolving landscape of healthcare technology, the balance between security and user experience, and the importance of patient empowerment in selecting providers.

In this episode, they talk about:

• The critical role of identity management in ensuring secure and efficient healthcare delivery
• Ping monitors API traffic, detects threats, and preemptively eliminates threats
• Specific challenges organizations face in healthcare identity management
• Give up privacy for convenience
• How Ping Identity differentiates itself from competitors in the identity management space
• Future trends in healthcare tech regarding interoperability and how healthcare security systems will look

A Little About Chris:

Chris Sault is a passionate and results-oriented sales leader with over 24 years of experience in the software industry, focusing primarily on analytics and identity management. Throughout his career, he has spearheaded go-to-market development for the healthcare verticalization at Qlik, ForgeRock, and Ping Identity, driving massive business growth and revolutionizing user experiences. Chris resides in the Boston, MA area with his wife and two daughters. In his free time, he enjoys traveling with his family, golfing, practicing yoga, and engaging in various outdoor activities.

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In this episode of the podcast, Sandy sitsdown with Sheetal Jain, Chief Technology Officer at HorizontalDigital, to explore how connected digital experiences aretransforming healthcare. From building patient trust to streamlining data access for stakeholders, this conversation dives deep into the technology,strategy, and heart behind healthcare’s digital evolution.

Sheetal shares insights on how Horizontal Digital is bridging gaps between patients, providers, and systems—makinghealthcare more accessible, efficient, and secure. Got questions or feedback? Reach out to the Horizontal Digital team at contact@horizontal.com.

In this episode, they talk about: 🚀 The journey of Horizontal Digital and its mission to humanize digital experiences in healthcare 🔗 How interoperability is key to connecting patients, providers, and platforms⚙️ Frictionless integration enabled by cutting-edge healthcaretechnology💡 Top challenges facing healthcare CIOs today—and what’s being done to solve them📊 Why FHIR implementation is still lagging and what that means for the industry

🌐 Addressing the digital divide and healthcare accessibility
🛠️ How Horizontal Digital supports organizations by implementing custom tech solutions 🤖 AI’s growing role in healthcare and how to build a thoughtful, strategic AI roadmap

💬 Why AI should enhance—not replace—human interaction📈 How data + AI can drive actionable insights for better health outcomes

A Little About Sheetal:

With over a decade in technology consulting, Sheetal has grown from guiding enterprise digital transformation programs for global enterprises to leading a worldwide team of nearly 300 architects, engineers, developers, and analysts. His team is tasked with planning and implementing programs that align people, processes, technology, and data to deliver meaningful business ROI. He is a Salesforce Data Cloud Partner Advisory Board member, and his technology expertise spans multiple clouds, including Experience, Engagement, Content, Commerce, and Data.

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In today’s episode of the InteropNow! podcast, host Sandy Vance sits down with Elad Benjamin from Philips to explore the company's efforts in achieving medical device interoperability. They dive into how Philips is ensuring seamless data exchange to improve patient care, and discuss the readiness of health systems' data strategies for this transition. Elad highlights the importance of thoughtful decision-making when managing healthcare data and the value of adopting a vendor-neutral infrastructure. Tune in for insights on the future of healthcare data integration and its impact on both providers and patients.

In this episode, they talk about:

• How Phillips is achieving interoperability for patients
• Are health systems' data strategies ready for this transition?
• Sit down with your team and make thoughtful decisions about how to manage data
• The importance of putting in a vendor-neutral infrastructure
• How the acquisition of Capsule has impacted advancement in Philips
• Ensuring patients’ privacy and help them be more comfortable around devices

A Little About Elad Benjamin:

Elad Benjamin is the newly appointed Head of AI Innovation at Philips, bringing over 20 years of experience in Healthcare IT. With expertise in enterprise informatics and imaging, Elad has held senior roles including GM of Radiology and AI Informatics at Philips. Before joining Philips, he co-founded Zebra Medical Vision, a leader in AI and Deep Learning for radiology. Elad also played a key role in Lumenis' NASDAQ IPO and led Carestream’s Healthcare Information Solutions group. He holds an MBA from Stanford and a BSc from Tel Aviv University.

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In this episode, host Sandy Vance sits with two leading voices in healthcare cybersecurity: Jason Sherwin, the Sr Director, Healthcare Business Development at CLEAR and Anil Sethi the Founder & CEO of Selfii. Together, they explore how innovation in identity verification and data access is reshaping the healthcare landscape—making it more secure, seamless, and patient-centered.

In this episode, they talk about

• How CLEAR and Selfii are helping patients and healthcare organizations reduce friction and enhance data security
• Selfii’s mission to empower individuals and enterprises to unlock the full value of their health records
• The surprising ways HIPAA has been weaponized—and what it means for patients and providers
• The difference between interoperability and portability, and why both matter

• How cybersecurity underpins the missions of both CLEAR and Selfii

• • How Selfii supports B2B partners without requiring licensed medical professionalsA Little About Jason and Anil: Jason Sherwin is a healthcare innovator with 15 years in health tech, specializing in business development and product strategy. Known for leading technology-driven change, he thrives in cross-functional collaboration across the C-suite, IT, operations, and marketing. While earning his MBA at NYU Stern, he applied his studies in real time—sharpening his focus on leadership, change management, and metrics-driven transformation.

Anil Sethi is the CEO of Selfii, a healthcare data company driven by personal loss and professional vision. A serial entrepreneur, Anil has built and sold several companies, including Gliimpse (acquired by Apple) and Ciitizen (acquired by Invitae). His mission is deeply personal—after caring for his sister Tania through her battle with cancer, Anil witnessed firsthand the failure of structured data to capture a patient’s true story. Today, he’s redefining how healthcare data is accessed and understood—putting people, not paperwork, at the center of care.

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In this episode of InteropNow, host Sandy Vance sits down with BJ Schaknowski, CEO of symplr, to explore how platform-driven strategies are revolutionizing healthcare operations. As health systems navigate increasing internal and external pressures, BJ shares valuable insights on how CIOs are leading the charge in this transformation. The discussion delves into key topics like consolidating tech stacks, application rationalization, and improving interoperability—critical steps to boosting operational efficiency, saving time, and ultimately enhancing patient-centered care. Tune in to learn how these strategies are shaping the future of healthcare.

In this episode, they talk about:

• How symplr is transforming healthcare operations and patient care.
• Key steps for integrating symplr’s platform into healthcare systems.
• How market trends are shaping exciting new interoperability solutions.
• The current wave of positive change in the healthcare industry.
• Collaborating with Redox and LK to enhance healthcare connectivity.
• Working with competitors to benefit the overall healthcare system.
• How AI will drive the next wave of innovation for symplr and healthcare.

A Little About BJ:

BJ Schaknowski is a seasoned software executive with over 25 years of leadership experience. Prior to becoming CEO of symplr, he served as Chief Sales & Marketing Officer at Vertafore, a leading insurance technology provider, and held senior roles at LexisNexis, CA Technologies, Intuit, and Sage Software. BJ is committed to creating value for employees, customers, and shareholders. He holds a BA in Communications from the State University of New York at Geneseo and an MBA from the University of Georgia. BJ also served 8 years in the U.S. Marine Corps infantry. He lives in Denver with his wife, Heather, and two children.

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In this episode, Sandy Vance chats with Jason Barr, the VP of Healthcare for ID.me, about the crucial role of patient identity in achieving true interoperability among various healthcare systems. In a previous episode, Jason and Sandy discussed how ID.me is innovating the healthcare industry. Today, they continue that conversation and explore where healthcare stands on its journey toward full interoperability. If you have any questions or comments about what you’ve heard today, feel free to reach out to Jason at jason.bar@id.me.

In this episode, they talk about:

• Understanding Healthcare Interoperability: Breaking down the definition of interoperability and its impact on patients and healthcare professionals.
• ID.me’s Role in Advancing Interoperability: How ID.me is helping reduce administrative burdens and allowing patients to access healthcare applications online using a single login.

• Fraud Prevention in Healthcare: How experts in identity, like ID.me, are staying ahead of fraud tactics used by cybercriminals.

• • Simplifying Identity Verification: How ID.me is reducing friction in identity verification processes for healthcare providers and patients.A Little About Jason Barr: Jason Barr is the VP of Healthcare for ID.me, the leading digital identity wallet in the United States. His team is focused on improving healthcare interoperability with trusted and portable identity verification and SSO to remove friction and fraud from healthcare for both patients and providers. The ID.me wallet works across EHRs, Hospitals, Pharma, Payers, and other healthcare applications.

Jason has more than 20 years of leadership experience, primarily focused on delivering technology solutions that have helped many healthcare organizations enhance the delivery of care. He started his career as an Army Officer with combat tours in Iraq, followed by leading growth organizations to solve complex technology problems. He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point, followed by an MBA from The Ohio State University.

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In this episode, host Sandy Vance is joined by Frank Harvey, Chief Executive Officer for Surescripts to explore the company's innovative technological approaches to tackling inefficiencies in prior authorization. They also discuss interoperability’s vital role in improving healthcare and highlight Surescripts’ upcoming innovations for the year.

In this episode, they talk about:

• The story behind Surescripts and its impact on the healthcare industry
• The challenges of prior authorization for prescriptions and its effects on clinicians, pharmacists, payer organizations, and patients
• How healthcare interoperability enhances patient care and improves efficiency
• The implementation and impact of the Surescripts system
• Surescripts’ partnership with TEFCA (Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement)

A Little About Frank:

Frank Harvey joined Surescripts as CEO in 2022, bringing over 35 years of experience in leadership and investment roles within the healthcare technology, pharmacy, and pharmaceutical industries. With a deep understanding of healthcare’s challenges, Frank is dedicated to advancing health information sharing and empowering clinicians to deliver safer, more informed, and cost-effective care.

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In this episode of the InteropNow! Podcast, Sandy Vance sits down with Claire Reilly, RN MSc from Imprivata. Together, they recap the key takeaways from Imprivata's participation at the ViVE 2025 conference, focusing on mobile device access and security innovations, passwordless authentication, and predictive analytics in the context of healthcare organizations' digital transformation strategies.

In this episode, Claire and Sandy discuss:

• Their experiences at ViVE 2025
• The primary use cases for ambient listening AI, like Abridge
• Imprivata's showcase at ViVE: authenticating and digitally cleansing devices for medical staff, and securing medical device access
• How Imprivata’s approach to authentication differs from others: passkeys and facial recognition
• Concerns and pushback regarding facial recognition and other passwordless authentication methods
• The role of clinicians in healthcare digital transformation as technologies and AI continue to evolve
• Imprivata’s efforts to address cybersecurity challenges in digital transformation

Claire Reilly, RN MSc, is the Chief Nursing Informatics Officer and VP of Clinical Operations at Imprivata, where she leads the integration of healthcare IT security with clinical practice. With over 25 years of experience, she has worked globally as an Emergency Room RN in locations like Qatar, the UK, Massachusetts, Bermuda, and Saudi Arabia. She holds a Master’s in Health Informatics from the University of Central Lancashire and is passionate about enhancing end-user efficiency and security to drive higher adoption of healthcare technologies.

A Little About Claire:

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In this episode, host Sandy Vance chats with Mike Stover, the Director of Product Management at Concord Technologies, about Concord’s straight-through processing system for healthcare. Research shows that manual processing creates billions of dollars of waste. Straight-through processing, which started in the financial industry, is a touchless approach to data management. It reduces admin burden by simplifying document processing and allowing customers to rapidly clear data from a document or inbox.

In this episode, they talk about:

• The story behind straight-through processing and what it looks like for healthcare
• Straight-through processing can help the healthcare industry using:
• Secure document exchange
• Classify documents
• Pull and transform information

• Validating data and information

• What is the ROI of implementing this system?

• How Concord allows customers the opportunity to customize their experience
• Collaborative STP and how Concord will use it to partner with other tech companies

A Little About Mike:

Mike has spent 20 years working in the digital fax and intelligent document processing space. He joined Concord in March of 2023 and is the Director of Product Management for Concord Technologies. Mike brings his expansive knowledge of a myriad of distinct enterprise scale fax environments and customer interoperability needs and requirements to set the course for the Concord Connect platform of the future. He holds a B.S. in Management Information Systems from the University of Arizona.

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Episode Summary

In this episode, Sandy Vance speaks to Rich Foster, Head of Enterprise Communications at Tata Communications. Tata Communications, a part of the Tata Group, is a global company that works across verticals., In healthcare, it integrates seamlessly with existing systems to enable dynamic and interactive patient communications.The Customer Interaction Suite helps healthcare providers meet patients where they are, both through their communications platform as well as their call center service. Sandy and Rich discuss the types of solutions Tata Communications provides, how healthcare organizations can catch up with rapidly changing technology, and the future of AI in healthcare.

Episode Notes

Sandy and Rich begin by discussing Tata Communications’ acquisition of Kaleyra, Inc., and how the acquisition helped them reach new heights in improving patient experiences. They move into the specific services theyprovide within the Customer InteractionSuite (CIS) and how these services help healthcare organizations communicate with their patients efficiently. Rich also offers advice for how healthcare practices can keep up with technological changes and discusses the future of AI in healthcare and for CISspecifically.

In this episode, they discuss:

• The primary use-cases for the the Customer Interaction Suite (CIS)
• Its two key services, which are Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) and Call Center as a Service (CCaaS)
• How it enables healthcare organizations to communicate with patients where they would prefer to be reached
• How healthcare organizations can keep up with changing technology
• Why healthcare has lagged behind major technological shifts on the patient communications side
• Simple changes that healthcare organizations can make with high ROI on invoice payment times, staff satisfaction, and more
• Future opportunities for Tata to innovate, particularly around AI

A little about Rich:

Rich Foster is the Head of Enterprise Business at Tata Communications. He has led technology sales for over 20 years, driving multi- million-dollar growth and orchestrating successful turnarounds in diverse settings. He saw Kaleyra through its acquisition by Tata Communications and has been with the organization for a year.

Renowned for strategically revitalizing customer experience, Rich has made impressive progress at Tata by swiftly achieving profitability across multiple sales channels. A masterful relationship builder and sales strategist, Rich has earned a reputation as a trusted business development leader in the CPaaS space.

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In this episode, Sandy Vance interviews Dominique Gross, the CEO of Hart, Inc. Hart was started in Irvine, California with the mission of building a healthcare API for other healthcare community members to develop on. Dominique explains Hart’s niche as a healthcare API with an open standards approach, and how this approach fills in the gaps that other APIs cannot. She also explains Hart’s role in helping healthcare systems through mergers and acquisitions and the future of Hart as it moves into helping clients beyond data access.

Episode Notes

Sandy and Dominique begin by discussing Hart’s open standards approach, which allows it to provide information on non-standardized areas of data like notes. This approach makes Hart uniquely equipped to help healthcare systems through mergers and acquisitions; aggregating data and driving access on the physician side. Sandy and Domonique also explore hart’s work in quality metric reporting and discuss Hart’s future in helping its clients make sense of the data.

In this episode, they discuss:

• How Hart’s open standards approach works, and how it allowed Hart to carve out a niche in healthcare API
• The unique challenges that healthcare organizations face during mergers, and how Hart helps them with data accessibility through those challenges
• Data management and access during mergers from the physician side
• The system interactions and lack of standardization that Hart addresses
• Trends like consolidation in private equity
• The evolution of quality metric reporting, and Hart’s role in helping clients with reporting
• How Hart provides healthcare systems with a complete picture by fully representing the complexities and grey spaces of the data

A little about Dominique:

Dominique Gross is a seasoned executive and leader with extensive experience in the healthcare industry, known for scaling businesses and driving growth through strategic, customer-centric marketing. With a background in mechanical engineering and an MBA in Technology, she combines technical expertise with business acumen to launch innovative products and lead cross-functional teams.

As the CEO of Hart Inc., Dominique Gross leads a company known for being a trusted healthcare IT partner, leveraging a tech-first approach to deliver cost-effective and time-efficient data solutions. Hart's offerings include data migration, continuous data feeds, cloud migrations, and archival services, all designed to ensure data is secure, compliant, current, and easily accessible.

Under Dominique's leadership, Hart focuses on maximizing resources through streamlined data transformation technologies that reduce costs and minimize the time required from healthcare teams, enabling clients to close care gaps, deliver precise analytics, and efficiently manage data, all while enhancing patient care.

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Summary :

In this conversation, Sandy Vance discusses the pivotal role of mobility in boosting clinical efficiency and ensuring patient safety, while discussing best practices for optimizing and adopting shared mobile devices for workforces, and utilizing identity and access management solutions to navigate complex workflow and security challenges with Dr. Sean Kelly, Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President of Customer Strategy, Healthcare at Imprivata. Dr. Kelly is also an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine, part-time at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Laney Health. The discussion highlights Imprivata's latest advancements in mobility, interoperability, password-less authentication technologies, and data analytics, underscoring how healthcare organizations can harness the power of innovation to accelerate and optimize their digital transformation strategy.

Episode Notes

Sandy Vance and Dr. Sean Kelly speak about Imprivata’s role in enabling and securing digital healthcare access; both in letting the right people in and keeping bad actors out. The cybersecurity environment in healthcare is increasingly high-stakes as bad actors ramp up attacks on healthcare providers. Imprivata is helping providers mitigate risks and enhance efficiency with adaptive security, leveraging innovative tools for user identification, such as password-less authentication. Dr. Kelly emphasizes the importance of using a variety of user identifiers in different situations, allowing for a frictionless experience for healthcare providers while keeping patient records and healthcare data safe.

In this episode, they discuss:

• The role that Imprivata plays in ensuring seamless workflows while maintaining security in the EHR and digital systems
• The changing cybersecurity environment in healthcare and the sector’s growing push for mobility
• The key measures required to enable efficient and secure mobile device access
• How Imprivata’s technology helps organizations enforce security protocols like two-factor authentication without hindering workflows or care processes
• Adaptive security measures based on user behavior, including remote access protections and two-factor authentication
• Password-less authentication mechanisms, like biometrics and passkeys
• How Imprivata utilizes different identity verification tools to keep bad actors out while reducing or eliminating security friction

A little about Dr. Kelly:

Dr. Sean Kelly, MD, is the Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President of Customer Strategy for Healthcare at Imprivata. He leads the company’s clinical workflow team and advises on the clinical practice of healthcare IT security. He has worked with Imprivata for over a decade, seeing its growth from a startup into a key player in the healthcare software industry.

In addition, Dr. Kelly practices emergency medicine at Beth Israel Lahey, an academic training hospital and trauma center. He is an assistant professor of emergency medicine at Harvard Medical School, where he has won several awards for his work.

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In this episode, Host Sandy Vance is speaking with Duncan Weatherston, the Co-Founder and CEO of Smile Digital Health. Smile Digital Health is an enterprise-level data platform that uses AI and automation to parse its vast collection of data. Duncan explains how AI acts as an accelerator in healthcare delivery, how increased data access allows AI to produce more accurate results, and the challenges that AI adopters still face. Weatherston also discusses Smile’s focus on data quality, and how this focus has expanded alongside AI adoption.

Sandy Vance and Duncan Weatherston discuss AI and automation at Smile Digital Health, specifically as it applies to structured data. As Weatherston explains, artificial intelligence acts as an accelerating force in healthcare, and allows Smile to deliver care faster than ever. Sandy and Duncan also take an in-depth look at data quality at Smile Digital Health; and Duncan explains the AI and automation innovations that he is watching moving into 2025.

In this episode, they discuss:

• The challenges healthcare data platforms face when scaling
• How Smile Digital Health helps practitioners deliver care by providing them with access to data
• How AI works as an accelerator in healthcare
• How the amount of data behind Smile Digital Health allows it to produce verifiable answers with AI
• The value of structured data in transforming care
• Smile Digital Health’s strategies to maximize data quality
• Why data quality is higher and more reliable than it’s ever been

A little about Duncan:

Duncan is the Co-Founder and the CEO of Smile Digital Health.

Duncan has a long history of technical solutions leadership, delivery and implementation stretching back to the late 1980s. With a career spanning more than 30 years and a multidisciplinary background in business and product development, systems integration and support, Duncan has been recognized as one of the key thought leaders and innovators in the healthcare IT industry today.

His impact in the healthcare sector includes lead roles in designing and delivering integrated health records, Electronic Health Record (EHR) services, and identity and security infrastructure. He also served as the Lead Architect for the Ontario Digital Health Drug Repository (ODHDR), managing a database with billions of records containing critical medication history for Ontarians in Canada.

While working as the chief architect for the Connecting GTA project in 2011, Duncan and his co-founders realized that the industry needed a high-performance, efficient, interoperable, and secure solution for shared health data; and that the HL7® (Health Level 7) FHIR® (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) open standard was the perfect fit for their goals. Together they began Smile Digital Health, which kicked off its first commercial release of Smile CDR in December of 2016. Today, Smile Digital Health is a company of over 300 staff with over 200 global implementations of the Smile Health Data Fabric.

Duncan holds the vision of #BetterGlobalHealth where the future of healthcare is grounded in a seamless integration of electronic health and healthcare delivery, eliminating artificial distinctions. Duncan's management style is characterized by team-building with a practical and results-oriented approach and inspirational real-life vision of what healthcare should look like for every person. His focus is driving digital health transformation at the organizational, regional and global levels so that appropriate and timely healthcare can be accessed by every person, when they need it, wherever they are.

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Today Sandy is joined by two key figures from Santech—President and CEO Neeraj K. Sharma and Chief Growth Officer David Van Houtte. Together, they’ll explore how Santech is driving forward interoperability in healthcare through cutting-edge solutions and automation. Tune in to discover how Santech is reshaping data management by enhancing better provider-payer interactions, and building a more connected healthcare ecosystem. If you have any questions for Santech, you can reach them via their website or product websites for iNetwork and MyEnroll.

In this episode, they talk about:

• Santech’s automation solutions streamline data management for healthcare providers.
• Santech’s integration with FHIR APIs allows providers to directly access and update their listings in payer directories.
• Santech Provider Management System lower administrative time while increasing Provider and Patient interaction during medical visits.
• How Santech leverages FHIR standards to enhance interoperability across payer networks and infrastructure.
• The process and benefits of transitioning from existing systems to Santech’s innovative solutions
• How Santech is transforming the healthcare industry through improved data management and interoperability
• How Santech contributes to creating a more cohesive and efficient ecosystem in the healthcare sector

A Little About Neeraj:

Santech President & CEO Neeraj K. Sharma is a distinguished leader in healthcare technology with over 25 years of experience, dedicated to simplifying Healthcare IT for healthcare organizations. As the President & CEO of Santéch, Neeraj has been instrumental in driving innovation and transformation within the healthcare industry.

Santéch, under Neeraj’s leadership, has carved a niche in developing simple, scalable solutions that empower hospitals, practices health plans and networks to enhance efficiency, improve patient outcomes, and reduce costs. The company focuses on transforming network and provider management through advanced technology and strategic insights. His leadership at Santéch is characterized by a relentless focus on innovation, customer-centricity, and operational excellence.

A Little About David:

Chief Growth Officer David Van Houtte brings more than 25 years of extensive experience in healthcare to Santech. Previously, he served as Vice President of Network at CVS Health Aetna, where he led provider network and value-based strategies.

As the Chief Growth Officer at Santéch, David is passionate about improving provider data accuracy and creating operational efficiencies through improved provider onboarding workflows. He is responsible for implementing Santéch's go-to-market strategy with both payor and provider organizations, promoting the company's innovative Provider Data Management solutions, I-Network and I-Enroll. Outside of work, David loves sailing and Spartan Racing.

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Check out today’s podcast as Sandy chats with Corrine Micklos (dbMotion at Altera) and Al Kinel (Strategic Interests LLC) about the evolution of HIEs over the past decade, the current challenges they face, and the future direction. They'll discuss how Altera addresses these challenges, meeting unmet needs by aggregating and harmonizing discrete data from hospitals and communities across regions, states, and the nation while presenting complete patient records at the point of care. If you would like to learn more or connect with us, visit here.

In this episode, they talk about:

• How data sharing has progressed and evolved in the healthcare industry
• Current challenges in the healthcare data sharing process
• How dbMotion facilitates healthcare data sharing
• How dbMotion has transformed systems and leveraged FHIR
• Future projections for dbMotion and healthcare data interoperability
• Advancing healthcare interoperability on a global scale

A Little About Corrine:

Corrine Micklos has had a distinguished career in the healthcare technology industry, delivering excellence in award-winning sales, account management, and the building of strategic client relationships. Her role encompasses the alignment of Altera solutions with hospitals’ and health systems’ business and clinical goals, ensuring long-term client satisfaction with the technologies and success in their delivery of high-quality care to their patients and communities.

Corrine’s extensive experience and proven track record in the healthcare technology sector highlight her ability to drive business growth with her comprehensive understanding and execution of client-specific strategies through the delivery of the innovative solutions we are here to talk about today, all of which help her prospects and clients meet the evolving needs of the healthcare industry and their specific healthcare organizations.

A Little About Al:

Al Kinel is the founder and President of Strategic Interests, LLC, (SI) a consulting firm transforming healthcare through innovation. SI works with providers, payers, collaboratives, and vendors to create a long-lasting, positive impact on outcomes and financial performance with advisory and implementation services on HIT, interoperability, population health, and value-based payment programs. Before starting SI, Al worked for top-tier professional services firms and served as a leader in technology management for Xerox and Kodak Health Group. In these roles, he helped transform several industries. Al is a strategist, activist, and catalyst who helps leaders address their “strategic interests” while simultaneously addressing the challenges of communities. Al has enjoyed playing this role introducing and supporting major initiatives in his community and beyond. Al has frequently helped a myriad of stakeholders to collaborate and advance the effective use of HIT, and interoperability has been a key aspect of strategies and initiatives.

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The last time Sandy talked with Bevey Miner (in episode 38, “Clarity in the Cloud”), they chatted about how Consensus Cloud Solutions is solving the problem of creating structured documentation from unstructured documents.

Today, they delve into the impact of these advancements on health equity across the nation. They also explore the role of the EVP of Healthcare Strategy & Policy at Consensus Cloud Solutions in enhancing interoperability within healthcare systems. For more information or if you have any questions for Bevey, reach out to her at bevey.cminer@consensus.com or check out the Consensus website.

In this episode, they talk about:

• Consensus focuses on the mission to bring healthcare to structured data
• Unstructured data is particularly concerning in underserved markets
• The funding needed to change from paper to electronic health records
• Incentivizing investments in this technology
• Health Equity by Design
• Companies are hindered from interoperability due to lack of funding

A Little About Bevey:

Bevey Miner has over 25 years of experience in healthcare technology. Serving in senior and executive positions, she has been instrumental in leading strategy, product management, business development and go-to-market programs. She is an expert in established and emerging healthcare IT markets.

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Introduction:

In this episode, host Sandy Vance chats with Jason Sherwin, Senior Director of Healthcare Business Development at CLEAR , and Alex MacLeod, Director of Healthcare Solution Innovation at InterSystems. With the partnership between CLEAR and InterSystems, the future of interoperability looks much more tangible and streamlined. Today, Sandy, Jason, and Alex discuss the implications of this partnership for healthcare, their integration with AI technologies, and the future prospects for CLEAR, InterSystems, and the interoperability industry.

In this episode, they talk about:

• How CLEAR and InterSystems work toward interoperability
• The newest projects and objectives of both companies
• How CLEAR and InterSystems plan to work together toward their common goals
• The consumerization of healthcare and building customer trust
• The role of AI in their products and services
• The types of people who will benefit from this partnership
• Deployment plans for this partnership

Product demo of the CLEAR and InterSystems offering, presented at the 2024 InterSystems Global Summit

Press release announcing the CLEAR and InterSystems partnership

To learn more about CLEAR, visit clearme.com/healthcare

To learn more about InterSystems, visit intersystems.com

A Little About Jason:

Jason is a strategic thinker with a passion for disrupting the status quo in healthcare. He has 15 years of experience in health tech, specializing in business development and product strategy. Jason is also an expert in the technological landscape and effectively managing technology-driven change. He prides himself on his ability to collaborate cross-functionally with leadership including C-suite and colleagues in IT, operations, and marketing.

He completed his MBA at the Stern School of Business part-time which allowed him to apply his classroom learning in his real-world work. His specialization in Leadership & Change Management has enhanced his skills in building new technology and developing effective strategies for managing organizational change and measuring success.

A Little About Alex:

Alex works toward advancing healthcare’s journey toward interoperability. She also loves helping organizations make better decisions with seamless systems integration and healthy data as the director of Healthcare Solution Innovation at InterSystems.

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For over a decade, DirectTrust has been committed to establishing trust in a connected world. Learn more about how they've grown, and what's next. Today Sandy is chatting with Kathryn Ayers Wickenhauser, the chief strategy officer for DirectTrust. Their conversation centers around how DirectTrust has grown and what the future holds for the company and the world of app accreditation and security compliance.

To learn more about DirectTrust’s Annual Conference, check out their LinkedIn page, official website, or follow them on Twitter/X.

In this episode, they talk about:

• What DirectTrust offers in terms of accreditation, trust services, and creating regulatory standards
• How healthcare providers can integrate trust services into the technology they use
• The merger between EH NAC and DirectTrust and its implications for accreditation and compliance
• DirectTrust partnerships with other healthcare partners
• The value of health app accreditation in the uncertain world of app security
• The erosion and rebuilding of trust in the cybersecurity landscape
• DirectTrust’s Annual Conference (September 22nd through 25th)

A Little About Katheryn:

Kathryn Ayers Wickenhauser, MBA, CHPC, CHTS, is DirectTrust’s Chief Strategy Officer, supporting both the short- and long-term organization vision through leading community engagement, communications initiatives, and strategic partnerships, while influencing nationwide standards, technology, and policies for health information sharing and trust among diverse healthcare providers.

With over 15 years in health IT, Kathryn has played key roles in modernizing healthcare technology, including serving as a HIPAA privacy and security compliance officer and promoting health data interoperability. Her insights have been featured in numerous health IT blogs, podcasts, and journals. She was honored as one of Healthjump’s 2023 10 Healthcare IT Leaders You Should Know and the 2022 Healthcare and IT Marketing Community Marketing Professional of the Year. Kathryn is particularly proud of creating the Interoperability Hero and Team Interop initiatives, which highlight her commitment to advancing health technology.

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In this episode, host Sandy Vance and guests Dr. Peter Schoch and Therasa Bell from Kno2 dive into the evolving landscape post-TEFCA/QHIN and explore the critical importance of achieving end-user adoption, particularly at the edge of healthcare systems.

Their discussion centers on the critical challenge of achieving widespread user adoption in healthcare, emphasizing the complexities of fostering connectivity for effective treatment delivery and workflows. They also explore how interoperability significantly impacts treatment quality. The conversation underscores the financial implications of time management within the healthcare system and provides insights into the current national landscape of interoperability.

In this episode, they talk about:

• The critical importance of achieving user adoption
• Challenges in fostering adoption and connectivity for effective treatment delivery
• Maintaining EHR connectivity during user downtime
• Impact of interoperability on enhancing treatment outcomes
• The financial implications of not achieving interoperability in healthcare
• National-scale status of interoperability
• Obstacles hindering healthcare organizations

A Little About Peter: Dr. Peter Schoch is the Chief Health Officer at Kno2. Dr. Schoch is a board-certified internist and accomplished physician executive whose passion and life’s work is to drive value to those who consume, provide, and purchase healthcare. Through 20 years in clinical practice in Internal Medicine and two decades serving as a physician executive leading 2 major health systems through transformational change in care delivery, population health, practice transformation, network development, and home-based services, he has gained an intimate and broad knowledge of healthcare. He is leveraging this experience in healthcare to transform Kno2 from an excellent technology company into a meaningful technology company.

A Little About Therasa: Therasa Bell is the cofounder, president, and CTO at Kno2, an organization recognized by Health and Human Services as a Qualified Health Information Network (QHIN) under the Trusted Exchange and Common Agreement (TEFCA). For over a decade, Ms. Bell has been a thought leader and health IT disrupter focused on driving healthcare connectivity and interoperability. Her commitment to serving combined with her ability to simplify the complexities of patient information exchange and clinical workflows infuse her interactions with everyone around her and powers the company's purpose to democratize healthcare communication for all through Kno2's patented technology and go-to-market strategy.

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In this episode, host Sandy Vance is joined by Jason Barr the VP of Healthcare at ID.me & Kyle Neuman the former DirectTrust Identity Lead to share insights about federated identity and its importance within the digital healthcare workflow.

As more and more health data becomes available digitally, it is important to provide an efficient and secure means of identifying individuals in order to verify their access to the clinical information. The episode will provide explanation to federated identity. How federated identity can reduce friction and cost when verifying individuals. What are some of the value of federated identity for the future, like the escalation of fraud is rapidly changing the healthcare landscape, emphasizing the critical importance of identity and security. We will discuss strategies to secure access points for patients, providers, and staff. Kyle and Jason break down what federated identity is, the significance of combining authentication and verification, and how digital identity can achieve security and ease of use simultaneously."

In this episode, they talk about:

• Federated identity minimizes friction for providers and customers in the verification process
• Digital identity aims to reduce fraud, streamline identity resolution, and enhance authorization processes
• Assurance levels and why is it important and use in healthcare
• The problems that digital identity solves
• Verification is not synonymous with identity
• Internal network access does not guarantee trustworthiness
• Federated identity facilitates portable authentication and verification
• Exploring the significant ROI benefits of federated identity

A Little About Kyle: Kyle Neuman has served as Managing Director of SAFE Identity/SAFE-BioPharma Assoc, Director of Trust Framework Development at DirectTrust, and CISO | VP of Strategy at Zeva Inc. He currently runs a boutique management consulting firm supporting the digital identity space called NeuCastle Inc. He has either worked with, worked for, or ran nearly all of the major Trust Frameworks supporting digital identity in the US. He has held executive leadership roles in multiple organizations with a focus on digital identity, cryptography, and Trust Frameworks. As a subject matter expert in bridging the gap between business needs and applied cryptography, Kyle develops strategy, policy, and architectures for a variety of commercial, government, and non-profit organizations to enable support for digital identity in a way that is scalable across the nation, trustworthy, and cost-effective.

A Little About Jason: Jason Barr is the VP of Healthcare for ID.me, the leading digital identity wallet in the United States. His team is focused on improving healthcare interoperability with trusted and portable identity verification and SSO to remove friction and fraud from healthcare for both patients and providers. The ID.me wallet works easily across EHRs, Hospitals, Pharma, Payers and other healthcare applications.

Jason has more than 20 years of leadership experience, largely focused on delivering technology solutions that have helped many healthcare organizations enhance the delivery of care. He started his career as an Army Officer with combat tours in Iraq, followed by leading growth organizations to solve complex technology problems. He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point, followed by an MBA from The Ohio State University.

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The road to compliance with HTI-1 and other ONC mandates is a bumpy one. Darena is trying to help patch the potholes and create a smoother ride for health IT companies, healthcare organizations, and providers.

Previously, Sandy spent some time behind the mic with the President and Chief Information Security Officer of Darena, Patrick Scheiss about efficient FHIR enablement. Today Sandy chats with another member of the Darena Solutions team: Wayne Singer, the Senior VP of Regulatory Affairs. Wayne has an extensive background in healthcare and is a wealth of information regarding the latest mandates. He offers some tips on how companies can stay up-to-date in this quickly evolving stage of the compliance process as it advances toward interoperability.

Contact Darena through MeldRX, or learn more about the company and the latest healthcare tech industry news by checking out their YouTube page.

In this episode, they talk about:

• Overview and objective of new ONC mandates specifically the HTI-1 rule
• The difference between A9 Clinical Decision Support to B11 Clinical Decision Intervention, utilizing Knowledge Base Guidelines to drive the appropriate behaviour
• Examples of barriers and challenges faced by organizations in meeting the HTI-1 mandate and potential strategies
• Overlaps between HTI-1 compliance rules and previous iterations on information blocking

A Little About Wayne: Wayne Singer is the Senior Vice President of Regulatory Affairs at Darena Solutions. He is an accomplished executive with over 30 years of experience in the healthcare field. He is an HTI-1 and QPP/MACRA/MIPS Subject Matter Expert and is well-positioned to assist the healthcare industry as it transitions to Value-based Care. Wayne has successfully assisted hundreds of EHRs in developing and achieving certification strategies. He is a lifelong University of Michigan sports fan. When he is not immersed in healthcare standards, he loves spending time with his grandchildren.

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In this exclusive interview, Sandy discusses cutting-edge advancements in healthcare interoperability with Joe Warbington, the Healthcare Industry Principal at Snowflake. Following a previous conversation with Todd Crosslin, another industry expert from Snowflake, Sandy delves deeper into how Snowflake's innovative platform is revolutionizing data sharing in healthcare. By eliminating the need for data replication, Snowflake accelerates the process of sharing medical records and patient information, leading to quicker results and more accurate diagnoses.

Joe shares his insights on Snowflake's pivotal role in propelling healthcare forward, emphasizing the promising future awaiting the industry through continued innovation and collaboration.

Learn more here : https://www.snowflake.com/en/solutions/industries/healthcare-and-life-sciences/

In this episode, they talk about:

• The latest updates about Snowflake and how they help their customers and clients
• How other industries use and share data, and how that compares to the healthcare industry
• Use case examples involving clinicians sharing medical records
• What’s next for health interoperability innovation
• Advice for organizations just getting started in making sure they have the right interoperability infrastructure

A Little About Joe:

Joe Warbington, is a Healthcare Industry Principal at Snowflake, where he spearheads strategy and solutions for the Healthcare vertical, facilitating secure and efficient data access, analysis, and sharing across the AI Data Cloud for Healthcare & Life Sciences. Before his role at Snowflake, he served as VP of Industry Solutions at Astrato Analytics and Vizlib, Industry Solutions Principal at Qlik Healthcare, and worked as a team lead for the Cogito analytics suite at Epic for several years. Joe is deeply committed to leveraging technology and solutions to combat clinician burnout. In his spare time, he volunteers with Sharp Index, a nonprofit focused on reducing physician burnout and suicide rates while enhancing the mental well-being of physicians, nurses, and clinicians.

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In this episode, host Sandy Vance chats with Kelly Sager, the VP & GM, CDS Solutions Business Unit, at Beckman Coulter Diagnostics, a Danaher OpCo. Kelly is building and leading a team to deliver artificial intelligence, machine-learning solutions, and clinical decision support to emergency department clinicians.

There has been a pivot in recent years, to an at-market environment and the symbiotic relationship that it creates between health systems and the industry by providing best-of-breed solutions. They talk about how Kelly and her team have made digital AI tools that seamlessly integrate into clinician workflows. These tools will have been and will continue to revolutionize patient care.

In this episode, they talk about:

• How Beckman Coulter Diagnostics' digital AI tools integrate into clinician workflows.
• How SMART on FHIR enables an integration with major electronic health records by using HL7 FHIR to pull information
• Why data sharing enabled through the 21st Century Cures Act has allowed clinical processes like Emergency Department triage to evolve
• Beckman Coulter’s current and upcoming offerings for provider organizations
• The potential of generative AI in revolutionizing the healthcare industry, and the importance of thorough vetting despite the absence of standardized "guardrails"

A Little About Kelly:

Kelly Sager is a technology business leader with over 20 years' experience developing and commercializing healthcare IT solutions, including a decade as an intrapreneur establishing and leading high-tech startups at GE, Becton Dickinson, and Danaher. Kelly specializes in launching and scaling innovative new technologies, with expertise in AI/ML, software as a medical device, EHR-integration, software engineering, new product development, and commercial strategy.

Kelly currently serves as Vice President and General Manager of the Clinical Decision Support Solutions business unit at Beckman Coulter Diagnostics, a Danaher operating company. At Danaher, Kelly spearheaded the acquisition of research-backed predictive AI solutions and led Beckman Coulter’s expansion into AI-enabled diagnostic and prognostic solutions. She is leading a team dedicated to helping healthcare providers leverage AI to improve productivity, care quality, and healthcare equity.

Kelly holds a BS in Computer Science from the University of Michigan and an MBA in Marketing Management from Northwestern University.

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In this episode, host Sandy Vance welcomes Alexa Cushman, MuleSoft‘s Global Product Industry Marketing Director for Healthcare and Life Sciences. Alexa brings with her Jay Jenkins, Barry Box, and Dr. Adam Resnick from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) to talk about how CHOP has implemented MuleSoft and Salesforce into their dynamic.

They also discuss the importance of the progress in health tech, AI, and how these advances will change the interoperability landscape. CHOP’s team is enthusiastic about the innovation happening in the industry.

In this episode, they talk about:

• How the team at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia has been utilizing MuleSoft and Salesforce to break down silos of data
• What MuleSoft is doing with APIs and how that is leading to seamless organization
• The many use cases that make CHOP’s health system more efficient and effective.
• How they have been able to deliver APIs more effectively with MuleSoft
• CHOP aims to create multimodal, multi-omic data on behalf of decision support which helps professionals visualize precise personalized care and enable data sharing across medical organizations at a global scale
• How the MuleSoft product has enabled CHOP to do the external data sharing needed to provide accurate information to the professionals who need it
• How enabling technology also allows for human interoperability
• The road map for Salesforce and Mulesoft

A Little About Today’s Guests:

Alexa Cushmanis the Global Product Industry Marketing Director for Healthcare and Life Sciences at MuleSoft. She has made a career of helping organizations improve outcomes through technology and received her Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. She has developed innovative hardware and software solutions, and led high-profile, enterprise-wide, and complex projects, turning business needs into technical solutions.

Jay Jenkins has over 35 years of technical experience, including over 30 years in technology management. His technical and management experience spans data integration, systems integration, software development, and networking systems.

Barry Box, an enterprise architect specializing in healthcare data integration, has a rich educational background with degrees from Baylor University, Texas A&M University, and the United States Military Academy at West Point. His experience spans two decades, during which he has designed secure data-sharing systems for major organizations including the Department of Veterans Affairs and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Before his current role as a Data Integration Architect at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), Barry facilitated successful Salesforce and MuleSoft implementations at Texas Health Resources. At CHOP, he aims to drastically reduce data compilation time for Child Brain Cancer Precision Medicine research.

Dr. Adam Resnick is the Center for Data-Driven Discovery Director in Biomedicine. He is driving many efforts around data sharing to enhance healthcare and outcomes.

If listeners would like to get a hold of them, they can reach Alexa at acushman@salesforce.com, Jay Jenkins at jenkinsj2@chop.edu, and they can find more information and resources at d3b.center.

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Introduction:

In this episode, host Sandy Vance has two special guests: Paul Wilder from the CommonWell Alliance and Maylee Wu from ELLKAY. Paul has joined us before in an episode titled “CommonWell Health Alliance Powered by ELLKAY”.

After the big announcement that CommonWell would now be powered by ELLKAY, there have been many positive changes and movements in the right direction for smooth interoperability. Paul and Maylee are here to update us on some of what’s going on behind the scenes. They also discuss individual access and why there seems to be so many differing opinions about it.

In this episode, they talk about:

• An update on the CommonWell / ELLKAY TEFCA journey
• How they were able to achieve QHIN designation in only six months
• What it’s like to work with CommonWell’s established services
• Why Paul says Individual access to health records should be as easy as getting your credit report.

A Little About Paul and Maylee:

With over two decades in health IT, Paul has held various roles focusing on imaging, clinical informatics, and interoperability. As Executive Director of CommonWell Health Alliance, he runs the not-for-profit trade association that promotes interoperability nationwide. Before joining CommonWell, Paul was Vice President of Strategy & Business Development for Philips Interoperability Solutions. He also spent 10 years with one of the largest regional HIE networks in the world, the New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC)—serving as its Chief Information Officer, Vice President of Product Management, and Program Director for NYeC’s Regional Extension Center. Prior to joining NYeC, Paul worked in health care with a focus on information technologies at McKesson, Fujifilm Medical Systems, and GE Healthcare. Paul received his MBA from New York University and holds two bachelor’s degrees from the University of Pennsylvania—in Economics and Biomedical Science.

Maylee has over 10 years of experience in healthcare IT and currently leads the product team of ELLKAY's interoperability platform solution, LKOpera. Before ELLKAY, she worked at Epic as well as startups in the precision medicine, patient management, and interoperability space. She's passionate about improving and advancing healthcare interoperability and making data accessible and usable for the right people at the right time.”

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Everyone in the health care industry wants the patient experience to get better without the friction we have today. Will technology in the future be able to power frictionless patient, provider and payer experiences?

If EY Nexus for Health and their Head of Growth, Dan Galdenzi, have any say in it, it will. They are making strides in health care interoperability and tech platforms that are available to help change the business of health care forever through effective and fast data sharing.

If you want to reach out to Dan, feel free to email him or find him on LinkedIn.

In this episode, Dan talks with host Sandy Vance about:

• The space that EY Nexus fills in health care as a data-ingestion platform
• The long history of tension and mistrust between payers and providers
• Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) as part of the compliance puzzle
• Removing frustrations for the payer and provider community
• Market demand and impact of having end-to-end interoperability in the health care industry
• Use case success story: EY US as a third-party intermediary between a regional health system and a regional payer

A little about Dan:

Dan Galdenzi is the Head of Growth – EY Nexus for Health, and he is responsible for evangelizing EY Nexus for Health in the payer and provider industries to grow organically, through alliances and new business, in the Americas and globally. He previously was a global executive vice president for an InsurTech software company and the chief information officer for a major health care insurer.

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Host Sandy Vance welcomes Kasey McCreery, the Director of Clinical Documentation at Phreesia, to talk about race and ethnicity data and how unintentional bias placed into our questions at the bedside can impact data that is important for provider decision making.

Interoperability is one of the key components of efficient and high-quality patient care. Kasey is a nurse and NP who is on a mission to help healthcare organizations collect accurate data without bias by standardizing the process used to collect it.

If you have any questions about Phreesia and/or want to help improve race and ethnicity data collection, you can email Kasey.

In this episode, they talk about:

• Why interoperability is important to Kasey and nurses everywhere
• How systems and processes which use the same questions and definitions can be the path to non-biased care for patients everywhere
• How Phreesia helps healthcare organizations collect better patient data
• Why Phreesia’s studies place importance on approachable UI, appropriate translations, and standards for all patients.

A Little About Kasey: Kasey McCreery, NP-C, MSHI, is the Director of Clinical Documentation at Phreesia. She is a nurse practitioner and has a master's in nursing with a specialty in healthcare informatics. Kasey worked as a nurse for nine years at a health system in Indianapolis, where her experiences caring for patients helped her develop a passion to improve healthcare IT for all users. She was a founding member and leader of the Nursing Informatics Council and has experience leading innovative informatics teams to place patients at the center of health IT. Kasey expanded her informatics knowledge at Clinical Architecture for five years and enjoys working with standard terminology to solve complex problems.

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In today’s episode, host Sandy Vance gets the privilege of chatting with MRO’s brilliant Chief Interoperability Officer Anthony Murray. Anthony knows all about the significance of speeding up clinical data exchange. He talks about the necessity, importance, and various strategies needed to achieve MRO’s goal of helping providers and payer networks share information in a quick, effective way.

Sandy and Anthony also talk about how the business of health information exchange is changing across the industry. Sometimes it feels like this evolution is happening quickly, but too often it feels as though it’s moving at a snail’s pace in the hurried and chaotic world of healthcare. Even though this road toward internal and external interoperability might be a bumpy one, things are looking bright. Sandy and Anthony’s excitement and passion are palpable as they talk about the strides that MRO is making and the future of data exchange.

In February, Sandy got to chat with MRO Corporation’s Chief Product Officer Mo Weitnauer in an episode titled, “MRO’s Dedication to Interoperability Meets CareFirst for Healthcare Interoperability.” It is a wonderfully insightful episode and we suggest you check it out (wink wink, nudge nudge).

In this episode, they talk about:

• How MRO uses its clinical data exchange platform to create a productive information exchange ecosystem
• The demand on healthcare providers and fighting against legacy systems that stall information
• How the standards help organizations share digital information meaningfully, and what those standards need to be constructive
• Using AI thoughtfully to avoid sensitivity concerns and to achieve better quality measures, reporting, and assurance
• The status of TEFCA and how it affects the work that MRO is doing

A Little About Anthony:

As Chief Interoperability Officer, Anthony Murray oversees MRO’s strategic initiatives related to accelerating clinical data exchange. In addition to overseeing the clinical data exchange team, Anthony also is responsible for the interoperability, systems integrations, and security teams, to utilize advanced technologies to deliver secure, meaningful information exchange. Anthony, as a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), partners closely with MRO’s privacy, compliance, and innovation thought leaders to assess all areas of the clinical data exchange and to provide value through modern, secure technologies. Anthony has over 20 years of experience in technology and security supporting the healthcare industry vertical, including the release of information, clinical manufacturing, and pharmaceuticals.

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In this episode, host Sandy Vance chats with guest Matthew Cunningham, the EVP of Product at Availity. Matthew runs the end-to-end authorization product and strategy for Availity. He has a wealth of information about the industry and happily shares that info with Sandy and InteropNow’s loyal listeners.

Together, they discuss what Availity has been up to and what they’re doing for the healthcare IT industry. They also talk about how specific use cases can help solve the challenges around interoperability.

For a while, it’s been a major issue that electronic prior authorizations haven’t been streamlined for payer organizations. That’s exactly why now is the time to leverage the new technology available to solve this problem. Matthew talks about how Availity is working to ease that tension in this space. He also emphasizes why it is collaboration between companies that will lead us on the path to success.

In this episode, they talk about:

• Why it is such a big deal in healthcare, to make sure that electronic prior authorizations work for payer organizations
• The various challenges that payers and providers have had to deal with

• How standards will help automate the process, which–in turn–will reduce friction when it comes to reaching clinical records and asking specific questions

• How AI is solving the dialogue problem

• AI can read a clinical document much quicker than a human can
• To work, AI needs to be able to read structured and unstructured information and be able to extrapolate clinical concepts. But how long will it take before AI can understand clinical concepts?

• Applying AI where the use case makes sense to be transparent

• Your ROI when using Availity to put all the necessary components under one umbrella

• Measuring success based on automation vs adoption

A Little About Matthew:

Matthew Cunningham brings a unique background with nine years of military service, including command roles during the Iraq invasion and subsequent counterinsurgency operations. Transitioning to healthcare, he has spent over 15 years addressing the challenges in prior authorizations and utilization management. With a diverse career, Matthew played pivotal roles in scaling a services company from $20M to the largest healthcare benefit services firm, serving in capacities such as Head of Call Center Operations, Director of Product Operations, CIO, and leading integration for mergers and acquisitions. In his latest role, he drives innovation efforts automating prior authorization workflows for payers, providers, and patients.

If you want to know more about Availity, check out their website.

To hear more about what Availity has been up to and what they’re all about, check out these episodes of InteropNow!

“Availity’s Innovation Guru, Sam Schifman, on AI and Human Behavior Change for Better Health”

“Upcycling Data for a More Wellness Focused Health System with Dr. Paulo Pinho, M.D, Vice President and Medical Director of Innovation for Availity Clinical Solutions”

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Today host Sandy Vance and Will Tesch explore how curating wine and health information data exchange has a lot of similarities. He emphasizes the care needed in both the making of wine and the curating of data.

As the founder and CEO of HealthLX, Will has some valuable information to share about the partnership between HealthLX and SMILE, and what that will mean for healthcare payers and providers. Listen in as Will soothes your spirit with his soulful voice and shares his passion and knowledge about the health IT industry. Not only does he share valuable information on how data is stored today, but he also shares a few of the barriers that keep data from getting to where it needs.

If you have some questions or need a little guidance in navigating the changes in regulations, reach out to Will and the HealthLX team by emailing them at info@healthlx.com.

In this episode, they talk about:

• How wine and the health IT industry can be both simple, different, and compelling
• Wine making and interoperability being similar in that we need to handle the variables involved in these complex processes
• HealthLX’s vital role in helping FHIR implementation move forward
• Encapsulating business logic to be reused is important to be able to scale and solve the data-exchange problems in health care.
• The challenges that provider organizations run into when getting data into the FHIR format, and exposing data
• The exciting partnership between HealthLX and SMILE
• How Will and his team will help healthcare payers and providers as regulations change

A Little About Will:

Will Tesch is an accomplished leader whose career in information technology innovation spans more than 30 years across healthcare, supply chain, manufacturing, and more. He is currently the founder and CEO of HealthLX, bringing composable automation solutions that solve data exchange and healthcare interoperability for payers, providers, and HIT vendors.

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Today Sandy Vance chats with Erin Prymas from Smile Digital Health, a company that specializes in delivering compliant data infrastructure as a service to create interconnectivity in healthcare. As the CRO of Smile, Erin shares what makes them stand out in the world of healthcare data technology. They are paving the way for connectivity between systems, patients, payers and healthcare providers.

Erin talks about Smile’s vision to help providers better care for their patients with less friction because the gaps in data impact the health outcomes of people across the globe. Minutes matter when it comes to making sure everyone gets the information they need to make important healthcare decisions.

In this episode, they talk about:

• Smile’s mission: Better Global Health
• Smile’s use of their platform to help people manage their data so they (and the healthcare providers they work with) can improve their care
• Why prior authorization requirements are so important and how Smile is advancing the standard and practical use of new implementation guides
• Automated versus manual prior authorization: cost, burden, and the mandatory adoption in 2026
• How and why the Smile platform works alongside and supports QHINs to support TEFCA

A Little About Erin: Erin Prymas is CRO and Senior VP for Smile Digital Health. Erin has over 20 years of experience in sales leadership, go-to-market strategy, healthcare technology operations and novel healthcare delivery systems. She has built, scaled and led multiple teams that solve customer requirements and accelerate revenue growth. As Smile's CRO, Erin is the master of operations, balancing rigor and experimentation to drive excellence. Her wealth of experience and leadership acumen make her an instrumental force in steering Smile towards operational excellence and continued success in the dynamic landscape of healthcare and technology. Erin spends her summers outdoors and winters with a book by the fire.

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In this episode, host Sandy Vance chats with Timothy Bennett about what Drummond Group has been up to since she talked with John Valutkevich about their certification program. Tim is a technical visionary and the director of strategic healthcare initiatives at Drummond Group LLC. Today he shares his passion and enthusiasm with the podcast.

Sandy and Tim do a deep dive into the importance of testing in compliance and who would benefit from real world testing. Drummond has been working hard to develop programs that will make interoperability easier for the health industry. After years of development, they are excited to move on to the next stage (launching a pilot program in April) in order to achieve true interoperability.

The Drummond Group focuses on promoting and adopting standards in the health and commerce fields to improve the outcomes for everybody involved. They want to help the consumers of healthcare receive better care by enabling healthcare providers and payers to meet federal guidelines in the delivery of care. Drummond and their team know that honesty, integrity, and trust are important for interoperability. Because of that, they are dedicated to being transparent, forward-thinking, and conscientious.

In this episode, they talk about:

• Why interoperability testing and the ability to prove compliance is important
• What is full matrix interoperability?
• Who will benefit the most from these types of interoperability tests and what does it mean to take the payer-to-payer test exchange to the next level
• Who Drummond believes the first organizations for testing should be
• What’s next for Drummond?

A Little About Tim:

Timothy Bennett has had nearly 20 years working for Drummond Group, going from a program manager to the Director of Strategic Healthcare Initiatives where he is responsible for developing IT certification and testing programs for the healthcare industry. He is known for having a history of designing and building software that is both effective and efficient for a wide range of different businesses.

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Today Sandy Vance and Jason Barr, the vice president of healthcare for ID.me, talk about how ID.me is facilitating interoperability by creating digital identities for their consumers. Jason and ID.me are working to make the identity verification process much more streamlined to remove friction between patients and their health records.

Jason talks about the various types of verification, from legacy to digital. He defines what digital identity is and explains how ID.me is helping to solve the problems that come with authentication through different platforms and programs. It is important that patients keep their identities safe and ID.me is showing that it does not have to come at the expense of their time.

In this episode, they talk about:

• What is digital identity?
• The differences between physical and digital identity
• The problems with digital identity and verification
• How ID.me is solving the problem with single sign-on when many different platforms, programs, and systems are being used
• Examples of use cases for authentication in healthcare

A Little About Jason:

Jason is the VP of Healthcare at ID.me, the market-leading digital identity and credentials network. Jason leads the Healthcare team at ID.me, focused on working with Health Systems, EHRs, Pharma, Payers and others looking to make interoperability a reality for patients and providers. He graduated from The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business with an MBA in strategy and finance.

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Everybody is talking about AI in Healthcare – but what can Interoperability do to make AI in Healthcare a reality? Do we have to throw out billions of dollars in legacy software to leverage the potential benefits of AI?

In this episode, host Sandy Vance chats with Joerg Schwarz, the Senior Director for Healthcare Interoperability Solutions and Strategy for Infor. They talk about FHIR Bridge; how it works, what it can do for you, and what problems it solves. They also go over more innovations that Infor has to offer. Interoperability in healthcare is particularly important in order to make workflow more efficient and for quicker and more accurate care for patients. AI could help with streamlining the interoperability process.

In this episode, they talk about:

• The value of transitioning legacy infrastructure into more structured data
• How doctors can utilize these new systems
• FHIR Bridge and other innovations
• The AI is only as good as its data
• Funding and enabling this innovation
• The next step for Infor

A Little About Joerg:

Joerg Schwarz is currently Senior Director for Healthcare Interoperability Solutions and Strategy at Infor with over 25 years of experience in the Healthcare Industry and in the interoperability space specifically. Prior to Infor, Joerg worked as a Director at GE Healthcare and Agfa Healthcare, designing, and implementing solutions for medical image- and document- exchange as well as integrated care. He also worked at boutique Healthcare firms such as NextGate (EMPI) and Audacious Inquiry (ADT Data Intermediary), and he built and directed a $500M Healthcare & Life Sciences Line of Business at the Fortune 500 company Sun Microsystems until it was acquired by Oracle.

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In this episode, host Sandy Vance chats with Therasa Bell and Dr. Peter Schoch, MD. When they created Kno2, they went in with the vision of solving the mess that was connectivity and they wanted to solve that problem with a single API infrastructure. Because of that, they chose to look toward the “overlooked markets.” Since they started, Kno2 has made a lot of great strides toward those goals.

Today, Sandy, Therasa, and Peter talk about how Kno2 helps with communication connectivity and how they are trying to meaningfully change the industry. What does that mean? What will happen to the field and technology involving interoperability in the next five years? How will AI help in these efforts? All of these questions and more are answered in this episode.

In this episode, they talk about:

• How interoperability solves healthcare’s biggest problems
• How Kno2 is meaningfully changing the industry
• A forgotten element: meaningful communication
• The primary problem that they are solving
• Why connectivity is important in the healthcare system
• The advancement of capabilities in the next five years
• The greatest challenges for the QUINs
• TEFCA implementation and becoming a QUIN
• The strategic advantage and value that Kno2 can offer by having started with the edge systems
• How AI will help optimize the exchange of information

A Little About Therasa:

As Co-Founder, President, and Chief Technology Officer, Therasa defines the business vision for Kno2 and paves a clear path of execution for the staff. She is responsible for Kno2’s innovation, vision and engineering, and holds two patents for unstructured clinical content under the company. She believes that the combination of people and the company’s clear purpose makes Kno2 unstoppable.

For close to a decade, Therasa has been a thought leader in the healthcare information technology field, serving as a co-chair or member of healthcare IT standards committees that influence national and international standards for sharing clinical information. In 2009, she defined and pushed through a healthcare IT protocol for unstructured clinical content, which passed as part of legislation for the Meaningful Use Stage 2 section of the HITECH Act.

A Little About Peter:

Dr. Peter Schoch, is a board-certified internist and accomplished physician executive whose passion and life’s work is to drive value to those who consume, provide and purchase healthcare. Through his service of 20 years in clinical practice as an Internal Medicine physician and the better part of the last two decades serving as a physician executive leading 2 major health systems through transformational change in care delivery, practice transformation, network development, and home-based services, he has driven impact through improved clinical, financial and consumer outcomes.

As the Chief Health Officer at Kno2 he is leveraging his experience in healthcare as both a provider and executive to transform Kno2 from an excellent technology company into a meaningful technology company focused on the application of their patented communications API to drive impact in healthcare.

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In this episode, host Sandy Vance chats with Jason Sherwin, the Director of Healthcare Business Development at CLEAR, and James Lindgren, Executive Director for Revenue Cycle Optimization at the University of Miami about identity and healthcare. One problem with identity verification in healthcare is its inefficiency. The friction lies in the number of times consumers and patients have to verify their identity in the intake process or merely attaining their own patient records. The University of Miami Health System is using CLEAR to break down those barriers by way of technological advances and improvements in identity verification.

CLEAR is a secure identity platform that has been in the identity business for over a decade. Formerly operating mainly in airports, they work on tying their customers' verified identities to their credentials using technology such as facial recognition and scanning software. Their vision is to make healthcare more streamlined for their customers by using their single identity platform for healthcare employers, providers, and consumers.

The University of Miami Health System Optimization Department has been innovating new ways to deliver care on both the research and administrative side of healthcare. They are focused on how they can provide an engaging environment for patients while also creating a workflow for healthcare workers that reduces the amount of friction behind the charts

See CLEAR at the Vive Conference (booth 2324). Go to the Vive website to get more information about the upcoming Vive event which takes place in LA on February 25 - 28, 2024.

In this episode you will learn:

• What CLEAR is doing to make identity verification easier for the public
• How the University of Miami is working to simplify the process of identity verification
• What is the problem with identity for consumers, patients, and healthcare workers
• How identity and consent work in the world of verification
• The adoption of current identity verification practices in healthcare
• Why CLEAR participates in the CARIN Alliance work on digital identity
• What reducing the friction in the healthcare intake system looks like

A Little About Jason:

Jason Sherwin currently leads healthcare business development at CLEAR where he focuses on how CLEAR’s single, interoperable identity platform can deliver value to health systems and payers, digital health and more. Prior to CLEAR, Jason spent 10+ years at NYU Langone Health, where he built their Virtual Health program, including during the organization’s response to the COVID-19 surge. He also led product management for NYU Langone’s Department of Radiology and deployed Epic across the enterprise. Jason earned his MBA at NYU Stern School of Business and his undergraduate degree from Skidmore College.

A Little About James:

James Lindgren has served as the Executive Director for Health System Optimization at the University of Miami Health System (UHealth) since October 2021. In this role, James leads a team of solution architects that serve to liaise between the UHealth IT department and UHealth Ambulatory, Hospital, Revenue Cycle, and Finance operational teams. His teams work to help identify and implement solutions that leverage industry best practices and smart technology that solve chronic and acute operational challenges.

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Today Sandy talks with Mo Weitnauer, the chief product officer for MRO Corporation. MRO’s partnership with CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield unlocks the potential of payer-provider data exchange for organizations to improve financial performance and healthcare delivery. Cutting-edge automation techniques and standardized APIs are being used to enhance accuracy and optimize performance for both payers and providers.

MRO uses their proprietary CDXP to serve as a conduit for structured and unstructured data, so providers and payer networks can share information in a meaningful, automated, and authorized way. The CDXP injects value across multiple workstreams to support interoperability and clinical data sharing. They are focused on what they can do to help efficiently get clinical information where it needs to be in a healthcare system that is focused mostly on outcomes.

In this episode, they talk about:

• MRO’s history, mission, and products
• Clinical data exchange platform, which powers all of MRO’s products
• “Pure fraud, waste, and abuse,” and clinical and administrative complexity
• Taking out admin waste
• CareFirst case study
• Quality measure improvements since 2021
• CMS interoperability rules and regulation changes
• Working with pair organizations and health plans

A Little About Mo Weitnauer:

As Chief Product Officer, Mo Weitnauer drives the product strategy and roadmap for MRO. Before coming to MRO, Mo was the SVP of Corporate and Product Strategy at Cotiviti, a healthcare company helping healthcare payers manage medical costs and advance care quality. Prior to Cotiviti, Mo was at FinThrive (f.k.a. MedAssets), a provider-focused company, where she led product management for its portfolio of billing and denials management technology solutions. Mo spent the earlier part of her career as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company and The Bridgespan Group. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry and Economics from Smith College and got her master’s degree in Health Policy and Management from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

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One of the most significant challenges in healthcare delivery is the sharing of clinical datasets across multiple services and disparate systems. In this episode, Sandy talks with executive vice president of the dbMotion business unit of Altera Digital Health, Richard Strong and Kristen Short, the Director of Partnerships and Innovation for the South Western Sydney Primary Health Network, about how they are addressing interoperability and how they are working on addressing the issue of scattered patient health information.

In this episode, they talk about:

• What is new with the dbMotion Solution
• What South Western Sydney PHN does for its members
• The importance of interoperability (specifically in Australia)
• Connecting iRAD to hospital data
• What SWSPHN is doing to enable interoperability
• The vision for Altera to continue to support dbMotion’s global clients
• How Altera is handling the differences in workflow and streamlining for everyone

Go to the ViVE website to get more information about the upcoming ViVE event which takes place in Los Angeles on February 25 - 28, 2024.

About our Guests:

Kristen Short

With nearly 25 years of experience in leadership roles—ranging across industries including health, financial services and technology—Kristen was appointed Director of Innovation and Partnerships at SWSPHN in early 2018. Leading the Service Support, Communications and Stakeholder Engagement and Digital and Data teams, Kristen specializes in strategic planning, which leads to data-driven outcomes. She steers general practice transformation and quality improvement through innovation, process improvement and the adoption of technology. With a Master of Business and Technology, Kristen is also a proud member of the Institute of Company Directors.

Richard Strong

The Executive Vice President for the dbMotion™ business unit at Altera Digital Health, Richard Strong has been with the company since 2016 and has supported various roles in international business in Europe, Middle East and Africa. He has more than 40 years of experience working in healthcare and healthcare IT, as well as a strong track record of successfully managing Healthcare and Life Sciences businesses. Richard has lived and worked in multiple countries, specializing in the implementation of comprehensive clinical solutions—regionally and nationally—as well as the delivery of consulting and strategy projects. Richard holds an MSc in Intelligent Systems and is a Fellow of the Institute of Biomedical Sciences.

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It’s time to get connected! CommonWell Health Alliance has selected ELLKAY as its Technical Service Provider: CommonWell Health Alliance — powered by ELLKAY. ELLKAY will support health data exchange nationwide to 200 million+ patients across its network of over 34,000 provider organizations. In today’s episode, host Sandy Vance chats with Josh Evenson the VP of Software Engineering at ELLKAY, and Liz Buckle, the director of product at CommonWell Health Alliance about the changes that will be happening and what that means for the members at CommonWell. Learn more about CommonWell on their website.

Go to the Vive website to get more information about the upcoming Vive event which takes place in LA on February 25 - 28, 2024.

In this episode, they talk about:

• How ELLKAY will enable CommonWell Health Alliance’s interoperability framework
• What the QHIN model will do for CommonWell
• New product features in the ELLKAY platform
• Powering manual patient matching
• The benefits of this partnership and what ELLKAY brings to the table
• The impact on members and the onboarding process
• A timeline of the changes and testing

About our Guests:

Josh Evensen is a software engineer & architect with over a decade of experience in healthcare interoperability. Josh has played an integral part in leading the ELLKAY team through the evaluation, development and implementation of the CommonWell 2.0 platform, working closely along the CommonWell Health Alliance.

Liz Buckle, MBA, is the Director of Product at CommonWell Health Alliance, responsible for overseeing the execution of the Alliance’s roadmap. Liz was initially involved with CommonWell while at Greenway, which is one of the founding members of the Alliance. Through her work at Greenway, Liz was the P&L owner for all interoperability solutions including overseeing the development and integration of CommonWell services into the Intergy platform. Liz has been in health IT and interoperability for 10 years.

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Join host Sandy Vance and guest Sean Kennedy from Salesforce for a conversation on the importance of interoperability in healthcare. They explore Salesforce's vision and strategy to enable an integrated and personalized care experience for patients and care teams. Sean talks about what they are doing to transform the industry and give it new capabilities. What is the future of interoperability? Sean also goes into how Salesforce will be supporting extensions, innovating around the standard, and what it means to be analytic-ready.

Go to the Vive website to get more information about the upcoming Vive event which takes place in LA on February 25 - 28, 2024.

In this episode, they talk about:

• What is Salesforce
• CRM’s role in the healthcare space
• The importance of interoperability
• Salesforce’s history with interoperability
• Salesforce success stories with these capabilities
• Putting interoperability standards to work to deliver more value
• The future of Salesforce and interoperability in the industry
• Getting in touch with Salesforce

A Little About Sean Kennedy:

Sean Kennedy, MS, MPH is the Vice President and General Manager for Global Health Strategy and Solutions at Salesforce. In this role, Sean matches industry needs to our capabilities and designs market-leading healthcare and public health solutions. He also leads our Interoperability planning where he promotes internal alignment to prevailing standards and emerging approaches to sharing data. Sean is a 25-year veteran of the health IT space, which includes having served in the United States Army specializing in Health Information Systems, at Mass General Hospital and with the Mass eHealth Institute leading the State HIE Program.

Reach out to Salesforce on their website for more information about what they do and how to work with them.

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In this episode host Sandy Vance talks with Kristen Valdes, Founder and CEO of b.well Connected Health, who has dedicated her career to empowering consumers with the tools and data necessary to take control of their healthcare journey. With a focus on leveraging technology to drive interoperability and improve patient outcomes, Kristen's expertise in healthcare data and consumer empowerment has positioned her as a leading industry voice.

As a passionate advocate for healthcare innovation, she has played a pivotal role in addressing key challenges such as identity verification and patient data access. Kristen's deep understanding of the intersection between technology and healthcare has made her a prominent figure in advancing interoperability solutions, making her insights invaluable for healthcare providers seeking sustainable and effective strategies to enhance patient care through interoperability.

In this episode, you will be able to:

• Understand the significance of interoperability in healthcare to enhance patient care and data exchange.
• Discover the transformative potential of digital tools in healthcare for optimizing patient outcomes and operational efficiency.
• Learn about the crucial role of identity management in healthcare for ensuring data security and privacy.
• Explore the far-reaching implications of interoperability in healthcare on care coordination and population health management.
• Uncover the impact of government rules on healthcare interoperability for compliance and seamless data sharing.

Interoperability in Healthcare
Interoperability in healthcare is an essential aspect of improving patient care. Rightly, Kristen Valdes highlights its significance. It facilitates seamless communication and exchange of data between various healthcare systems, creating a fluid, more efficient patient care delivery system. The Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA) initiative is a crucial element enhancing interoperability, replacing multiple logins with a national network of responsive Qualified Health Information Networks. This streamlining unlocks the potential of generative AI, making data access more manageable, and ultimately promoting better patient outcomes.

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In this episode, host Sandy Vance talks with Patrick Schiess, President and Chief Information Security Officer of Darena Solutions, about how they are helping technology providers streamline the complexity of interoperability in healthcare. Electronic Health Records (EHR) integration poses complex challenges that can often slow the pace of app development in the healthcare sector. Technical variances in how EHRs implement FHIR can create obstacles in standardizing data and processes. However, using MeldRx can lead to efficient app deployment and deployment. Darena Solutions provides developers with a single point of contact for simplified connectivity and data normalization.

In this episode, you will hear about:

• The double-edged sword of the HL7 FHIR standard: Power + Complexity
• How EHR data procurement can accelerate your growth instead of slowing it down
• Why it is better to stick with your strengths and let MeldRx use theirs to keep you current with the standards

About our guest:

Patrick Schiess is the President and Chief Information Security Officer of Darena Solutions. He is incredibly passionate about technology, learning new skills, and finding ways to improve the lives of those around him. He started coding at eleven and has been solving problems through code his entire adult life. He brings over a decade of experience as a software engineer and architect from various sectors and a fresh perspective on healthcare IT. He focuses on cloud identity, authentication, and security to facilitate smooth integration between healthcare applications.

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In this episode, host Sandy Vance chats with Bevey Miner from Consensus Cloud Solutions about the problems in the paperwork side of the healthcare industry. For so long, the healthcare field has fallen behind in technology, which has forced hardship on the staff. Not only do the nurses, doctors, and administrators suffer, but–most of all–patients are the ones getting the short end of the stick. They discuss what Consensus Cloud Solutions offers to help alleviate these problems and share optimistic views about the timeline for advanced technical implementation over the next few years.

Go to the Vive website to get more information about the upcoming Vive event which takes place in LA on February 25 - 28, 2024.

In this episode, they talk about:

• The clarity solution that Consensus Cloud Solutions offers
• How their clarity solutions help enhance workflows
• The use of NLP and machine learning processes as tools
• Workforce shortages
• Healthcare transitions to “modern” technology
• The timeline for implementation of advanced technology

A Little About Bevey Miner:

Bevey Miner has over 20 years of experience in healthcare technology, with a background that includes startups and large publicly traded companies. She possesses a deep understanding of the healthcare ecosystem including payer relationships,hospitals and providers, consumer health and wellness, patient engagement tools, and has worked with cloud-based solutions, artificial intelligence, population health, predictive analytics, interoperability, and clinical workflow.

Connect with Bevey on LinkedIn

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In this episode of the InteropNow podcast, Sandy Vance interviews Bo Dagnall, the Chief Product Officer of Smile Digital Health. They discuss Bo's background and history with Smile, his involvement in the FHIR® standards community, and the power of FHIR in healthcare. They also explore the concept of interoperability as a continuum and the role of Smile's product in advancing healthcare. Bo shares success stories and highlights the value of Smile's product in improving patient care. They also discuss data cleanup and the use of AI in healthcare, addressing the risks and responsible use of AI.

“FHIR is a powerful standard that combines the ease and simplicity of HL7 v2 with the semantic integrity of HL7 v3, making it easy to use for implementers and highly adoptable.” Bo Dagnall

• Interoperability is not a binary problem but a continuum that includes different degrees of interoperability, from common syntax to semantic interoperability and process level interoperability.
• Smile's clinical data repository plays a crucial role in advancing healthcare by providing a platform for managing and storing data in the FHIR format, standardizing data contents, and enabling clinical reasoning and knowledge interoperability.
• Smile has partnered with clinical quality experts and is working on BPM+ for Health, which uses BPMN, DMN, and CMMN to describe clinical workflows and enable evidence-based care pathways.
• Smile is focused on data cleanup and plans to develop tools for automating data ingestion, semantic uplift, and data validation using AI. They aim to achieve explainable AI and ensure human oversight in AI-based recommendations.
• The future of interoperability is exciting, with the potential to drive knowledge and insights from data, and to bring learning health systems and evidence-based systems to the forefront of healthcare.

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In this episode, host Sandy Vance talks with Andre Sublett and Mike Stover from Concord Technologies about the idea of “practical interoperability” - technology solutions that you can implement today to help future-proof document and data exchange as we drive health data sharing. The word “interoperability” is thrown around quite a bit - but sometimes it seems out of reach for the average healthcare organization.

In this episode they talk about

• How Concord solves one of the top challenges people have (fax is not data, it's a picture of data).
• Secure and compliant data delivery solutions for healthcare providers, payers and other highly regulated businesses.
• How HL7 FHIR prescribes a data format so that systems of record can be queried to provide more complete patient data but is very flexible.
• Why so many healthcare systems still have closed APIs and how Concord solves for that.
• How Artificial Intelligence in this health data environment is giving healthcare providers the super powers needed to provide more efficient care.

Andre Sublett serves an important role at Concord Technologies, overseeing existing infrastructure and leading new solutions designed to optimize hospital operations and improve patient outcomes by integrating, acquiring, and de-identifying data in a scalable and secure way. Prior to his position at Concord Technologies, Andre served as Vice President of Software Engineering for GE Healthcare’s Digital organization. There, he managed almost a petabyte of protected healthcare data, de-identified it, enhanced it, and drove the launch of several new products and services that leveraged the data.

Mike Stover has spent the last 18 years working in the digital fax industry. Before joining Concord as Senior Product Manager over Concord’s comprehensive suite of solutions in 2023, he worked for OpenText as the Manager of Product Management for all their fax solutions. Mike brings his expansive knowledge of a myriad of distinct enterprise scale fax environments and custom

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In this episode host Sandy Vance talks with Sam Schifman, Principal Architect for Innovation at Availity about how healthcare organizations should be approaching the use of artificial intelligence in their organizations as health data becomes plentiful due to evolving standards and the implementation of national networks.

Sam says that healthcare providers are going to have to think differently about partnerships between providers, payers and patients in order to obtain better outcomes. Machine learning has been used for years to improve the flow of information, and that will continue to get better as new AI functionality is unlocked. In this conversation, Sam and Sandy explore how artificial intelligence capabilities should be considered as a means to improve existing workflows and allow us to do more as a population. Listen in to hear how combatting the four horsemen of chronic disease by learning and changing human behavior could improve health and extend longevity for patients.

Learn more about:

• Challenges facing healthcare that can be solved through the better use of administrative and clinical health data
• Risks and benefits of applying AI in healthcare
• the real power of artificial intelligence : revolutionizing common workflows to analyze and modify human behavior
• How compressing data into formats like FHIR and CCDA help us address the issue of bandwidth
• Why good upcycled clinical data can make a really big difference in the administrative workflows

Sam Schifman has over 25 years of experience delivering software in finance, HR, education, no-code development platforms, and healthcare. For three years he was the Chief Architect at Diameter Health, until he joined Availity where he is now a Principal Architect for Innovation. In this role he focuses on the intersection of clinical and administrative data in healthcare. He has been at the forefront of delivering Upcycled data in FHIR, and other standards, to further interoperability. As part of that, he works with several HL7 Working Groups and Accelerators, including FAST and EHR/ Burden Reduction Working Group. He has experience with AI/NLP, having spoken at several NLP Summits and at HIMSS on the subject. Mr. Schifman continues to do research into how interoperability and AI can help reinvent healthcare and drive better outcomes for all.

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There is a constant struggle to maintain data accuracy for patient safety, and national data exchange is going to require a much higher level of rigor for most healthcare organizations. Many healthcare providers are finding that their current data management efforts are not yielding the results they need, leading to potential errors. Instead of seeing improved data quality, they may be experiencing wasted time and resources, and ongoing concerns about the accuracy of their patient records. It's time to explore a more effective solution to data cleanup and management, and Clinical Architecture helps organizations do exactly that. Charlie Harp dishes on why data quality is so important to national efforts to improve data exchange.

In this episode, you will:

• Understand the crucial importance of maintaining high-quality healthcare data for improved patient care and safety.
• Hear why data normalization efforts are critical to the success of the national health information exchange networks as TEFCA QHINs go live.
• Discover how Clinical Architecture has facilitated cleaning up and organizing healthcare data to enhance usability and accuracy for clients, and helped build terminology standards for the industry..
• Learn about the profound impact of data quality on the delivery of high-quality patient care and outcomes.

Charlie Harp, the former healthcare software engineer whonow serves as the CEO of Clinical Architecture, boasts an extensive career inthe healthcare industry spanning over three decades. Since founding ClinicalArchitecture in 2007, Harp has been a driving force in addressing the oftenoverlooked but crucial aspect of data quality and integrity in healthcare. Hishands-on experience in software development, clinical trials, and decisionsupport has equipped him with a comprehensive understanding of the industry'sintricate workings. Notably, Harp has been actively involved in shapingindustry standards through his organization’s contributions to initiatives suchas the HL7 FHIR standard. His unwavering commitment to advancing data qualitymanagement practices in healthcare underscores his influential role inpromoting data accuracy and patient safety. He also hosts a very informativepodcast called Informonster. Check it out at https://clinicalarchitecture.com/podcast. Check out the DataQuality Survey HERE.

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In today’s episode of the InteropNow! Podcast, host Sandy Vance talks to GP Singh and Lauren Cooke from ELLKAY and Paul Wilder from the CommonWell Health Alliance as they discuss CommonWell’s infrastructure transition to the ELLKAY platform in preparation to become a Qualified Health Information Network in early 2024.

CommonWell serves over 34,000 healthcare service providers and aims to create new value added services around the payer provider network. Listen in to hear about the problems they will solve for members, how they have ensured a seamless transition, and when CommonWell members can expect to be migrated onto the CommonWell 2.0 platform powered by ELLKAY.

The resources mentioned in this episode are:

• Visit the CommonWell Health Alliance website to learn more about their mission and services.
• Explore ELLKAY’s interoperability platform to see how it can improve data exchange in the healthcare industry.
• Get updated on the progress of CommonWell transition to the ELLKAY platform and the implementation of TEFCA.
• Consider becoming a member of CommonWell to access their vendor-neutral platform for effective healthcare data exchange.

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In this episode, host Sandy Vance explores the critical role of certification in the Health IT industry with John Valutkevich from the Drummond Group. The process of certification not only serves to ensure the correct and efficient functioning of healthcare systems but also helps build trust in the products offered. The Drummond Group aims to facilitate this process by introducing a new certification program for FHIR apps, making it easier for new entrants into the health app marketplace to showcase their capabilities and separate themselves from the competition.

Who will benefit from this episode?

• Healthcare app developers trying to make sense of regulatory guidance
• Technology Start-Ups looking for tooling and subject matter expertise to streamline and accelerate their product development
• Healthcare Payers and Providers who want to ensure their apps work for all healthcare payers and providers?

In this episode, you will be able to:

• Discover the Role of certification in healthcare and how it helps improve app quality and patient safety.
• Learn about the growing number of startups and new technologies in healthcare and the challenges they face in regulatory compliance.
• Explore the importance of standardizing data sharing among healthcare apps for seamless interoperability.
• Find out how you can simplify the vetting process for health IT applications by leveraging the “Drummond Certified” listings
• Explore the EHR certification services provided by Drummond Group to ensure compliance with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT requirements.
• Check out Drummond's interoperability certification services, including their work with FHIR APIs, to enhance data-sharing capabilities and enable better clinical decision support.
• Learn about the challenges and opportunities of app adoption in healthcare, and how Drummond is working to standardize data sharing and improve workflows for clinicians and healthcare providers.
• Find out how to contact Drummond Group directly for more information or to discuss how their services can support your healthcare technology needs.

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In this episode, host Sandy Vance talks with Viet Nguyen, MD, Health Level Seven International’s Chief Implementation Officer about how HL7 FHIR is enabling better healthcare by convening the industry around technology standards. As the marketplace of healthcare applications explodes, Dr. Nguyen talks about how healthcare benefits from technology standards and why all healthcare stakeholders should get involved.

In this episode, you will learn how HL7

• Facilitates technology implementations by building implementation guides
• Improves health equity by helping technology companies get interoperability right
• Builds better data exchange practices for technology providers by convening industry stakeholders to create implementation guides that accelerate the use of best practices
• Leads the health tech industry by partnering with other standards development organizations
• Membership provides access to exclusive resources, networking opportunities, and contributes to professional development of individuals who participate.

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In this episode, Kristen Valdes, Founder & CEO of b.well Connected Health, Hon Pak, MD, MBA, Global Head of Digital Health at Samsung and Ryan Howells, Program Manager for the CARIN Alliance share how their partnership will completely transform the way consumers access and utilize their healthcare data. Samsung users will soon have the power to make informed decisions and provide the highest level of care for themselves and their loved ones. Unlocking a world of possibilities in healthcare coordination, these companies expect to go live in 2024.

In this episode, you will:

• Discover how the partnership between Samsung Health and b.well Connected Health is revolutionizing patient care with seamless connectivity and comprehensive health data.
• Learn why b.well’s data insights are crucial for patients and how it empowers them to make informed decisions about their care.
• Explore how Samsung is setting out to improve the patient experience and ensure continuity of care.
• Hear how the CARIN Alliance work has provided underpinning support to ensure the success of this and other patient access projects

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In this episode Sandy Vance talks to Civitas Networks for Health CEO Lisa Bari and Jolie Ritzo, VP of Strategy and Network Engagement about the importance of building alliances across the country to help health information exchange and health improvement networks share resources.

Listen in to hear more about:

• Join the Civitas’ approach to convening members through work groups and councils to collaborate with members on specific topics of interest, such as social determinants of health, interoperability, and public health.
• Attend the Collaboratives in Action quarterly public showcase to learn about the work being done by Civitas members and share your own insights.
• Explore the Health Data Utility framework created by Civitas and learn how it can be implemented in your state, region, and community.
• Become a member of Civitas Networks for Health to access resources, connect with other health innovators, and contribute to the national interoperability and health improvement landscape.
• How partnership with the HL7 FHIR Accelerator Gravity Project will advance work on social determinants of health.
• How you can engage with the Civitas Networks for Health work groups and their upcoming conference. through their events. Noteworthy, their 2023 Annual Conference kicks off on August 20 in National Harbor, MD.

“We think it's really important to empower uplift, connect, provide resources to these local health innovators who are doing this work at the community, regional, and statewide level.” - Lisa Bari

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In a world where healthcare data privacy is a constant concern, Kristen Valdes has emerged as a champion of compliance and trust. On this episode of the InteropNow! Podcast Kristen talks about a hidden threat to health data sharing that has been lurking beneath the surface. Kristen will share how b.well and other Health IT providers must navigate uncharted waters to protect healthcare consumers.

In this episode, you will be able to:

• Ascertain the paramount significance of data security and its role in advancing healthcare facilities
• Grasp the challenge of data fragmentation and the urgency for integrated healthcare solutions
• Learn the power of engaging consumers in their own data privacy matters
• Explore the profound implications of efficient data tagging and consent management on healthcare strategies
• Become familiar with the complex landscape of constantly changing data privacy norms in healthcare.

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In this episode of the podcast, Cory Wiegert, Chief Operating Officer at Integra Connect shares his ambition to bring precision oncology and value based care to the forefront. Corey will share how Integra Connect is navigating the complexities of data aggregation, privacy, and commercialization in order to make better oncology care a reality.

“We are about putting the data back to work.”

Cory Wiegert is a healthcare industry professional with a passion for advancing oncology care through value-based models. As the Chief Operating Officer of Integra Connect, Cory focuses on operationalizing their interoperability product to help practices succeed in a world of alternative payment model care contracts. Cory has worked with both commercial and non-profit organizations, including IBM on the Watson Health Project. With a keen understanding of the challenges faced by oncology care providers, Cory is committed to driving change and improving patient outcomes.

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With years of experience in healthcare technology, Carm has been instrumental in developing solutions that allow providers to concentrate on patient care rather than getting bogged down in data. In this episode, Carm discusses Credo's approach to using machine learning models for diagnosis identification, exploring the potential advantages and challenges that come with this technology. Carm's vast knowledge and expertise in the healthcare sector make him an indispensable source of information for those looking to enhance their understanding of health data interoperability.

Taking inspiration from the recent advancements in large language models by companies like OpenAI and Google, Credo began using machine learning to enhance the experience of their risk adjustment coding team. The goal was to create a structured longitudinal record for patients, transforming unstructured data into accurate diagnoses and coding. Battling challenges presented by hallucinations, gaps in knowledge, and ensuring precision, Credo continues to refine its models with human input. Carm Huntress envisions a future where healthcare is much more efficient, and with Credo's relentless pursuit, that future is just around the corner.

In this episode, you will be able to:

• Gain insights into Credo's utilization of machine learning models for more accurate diagnosis determination.
• Contemplate the potential drawbacks and hazards arising from machine learning incorporation in healthcare.
• Examine the progress in healthcare interoperability driven by TEFCA regulatory measures.
• Discern the obstacles patients may face when obtaining access to their own medical information.
• Comprehend the significance of streamlined healthcare data management and the usefulness of machine learning technologies.

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In this episode host Sandy Vance interviews Bo Holland, an accomplished entrepreneur and the driving force behind AllClear ID, a software company that aims to revolutionize the way application builders handle customer identity and data security. With prior successes in the banking sector, Bo ventured into the healthcare industry to address the challenges of outdated technology and security concerns. His vision for AllClear ID is to create a mobile-first approach that streamlines the authentication process while offering maximum security for sensitive healthcare data.

Bo Holland, Founder and CEO of AllClear ID, is an innovator on a mission to revolutionize healthcare with a mobile-first identity platform, and AllClear ID will help your organization overcome the challenges of security, privacy, and adoption to achieve this goal.

“Our technology is banking grade, pounded on, scoured by regulators, and proven to provide high security and convenience for users.”

In this episode, you will be able to:

• Discover how Mobile ID technology is transforming the way healthcare data security operates.
• Learn about AllClear ID's significant role in fostering a connected healthcare ecosystem.
• Understand the importance of consolidating patient records for smarter medical decision-making.
• Dive into the world of data interchange standards such as OAuth and OIDC.
• Stay ahead with groundbreaking approaches to tackling medical identity theft.

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In this episode, Todd Crosslin, Industry Principal, Healthcare & Life Sciences shares Snowflake’s unique approach to interoperability. Snowflake uses a unified platform for healthcare data to improve patient outcomes and streamline decision-making processes. By offering a comprehensive solution that addresses all types of data, Snowflake remains an excellent choice for organizations wanting to enhance their ability to efficiently access, store, and analyze patient information. Being a cloud-based platform, Snowflake has made strides in supporting interoperability goals within the healthcare industry, enabling organizations to connect their databases for secure and easy data sharing. In the podcast, Todd Crosslin describes how Snowflake can support healthcare interoperability with its live data sharing feature. This approach eliminates the need for data copying or API interfacing as clients can directly share and access information if they are both Snowflake customers. By making this process seamless, healthcare organizations can effectively collaborate to drive better patient outcomes while maintaining data integrity and security.

In this episode, you will:

• Uncover the transformative potential of Snowflake's live data sharing in enhancing healthcare interoperability.
• Grasp the significant impact of Odyssey OMOP common data model on healthcare data management processes.
• Explore how Snowflake ensures a secure space for healthcare data curation and analysis.
• Delve into the innovative machine learning and artificial intelligence components of Snowflake's platform.
• Access Snowflake’s hands-on experience to learn more

Todd Crosslin is an industry leader in healthcare data solutions, with a passion for making a difference in the lives of patients and healthcare providers. As the industry principal for healthcare and life sciences at Snowflake, Todd works tirelessly to develop innovative live data sharing solutions that allow seamless interoperability between different healthcare systems. With over 30 years of experience in various roles within the healthcare industry, Todd's background as a pharmacy technician, systems trainer, and CIO has given him a unique perspective on the challenges faced by healthcare organizations. His hands-on experience and expertise make him an invaluable resource for anyone looking to improve interoperability and optimize data usage in the healthcare sector.

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In this episode host Sandy Vance is joined by Viet Nguyen, MD, Chief Standards Implementation officer for Health Level Seven International (HL7). They talk about the FHIR Accelerator community, a collaborative initiative focused on finding innovative ways to apply core FHIR standards across various domains. This model centers around creating a robust networking environment, with a founding group of organizations dedicated to working together to address specific interoperability needs in their respective fields. The goal is to expand and refine the adoption of FHIR standards for improved healthcare data exchange. During our conversation, Viet Nguyen shared his enthusiasm for the Fire Accelerator model as a means to foster collaborative innovation. He asserted that the benefits of this community-driven approach contribute to advancing the adoption and leveraging of FHIR standards across the healthcare industry.

Viet Nguyen, MD is a clinical informaticist and pediatrician who serves as the Chief Standards Implementation Officer for Health Level Seven International (HL7). With his deep understanding of clinical practice and healthcare technology, Viet is well-equipped to lead the development and implementation of HL7 standards, which aim to revolutionize healthcare data exchange. As an expert in clinical informatics, he works closely with policy-makers and industry implementers to improve interoperability for healthcare professionals, ensuring that HL7 standards are both efficient and effective in meeting their needs.

“Having accurate, timely information allows me to work with my patient in shared decision-making.”

In this episode, you will be able to:

• Discover the significance of healthcare data standards and interoperability in shaping the industry.
• Learn the benefits of adopting the FHIR standard for smooth and efficient healthcare data exchange.
• Realize the necessity of cultivating a proficient workforce in line with FHIR implementation and guidelines.
• Uncover the impact of the FHIR Accelerator community in fulfilling unique interoperability requirements.
• Recognize the power of HL7 collaborations with policy-makers and industry players for enhanced standards.
• Find out how to get involved with HL7 and participate in their events, regardless of your background or perspective in the healthcare industry.

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Sumitro Sarkar, EY Americas Health Care Data & Analytics Practice Leader and Kirk Anderson – VP and Chief Technology Officer for Cambia Health Solutions join host Sandy Vance for a robust discussion on the key drivers for healthcare organizations to embark on an interoperability journe. They discuss business ROI, technical implications, compliance and adoption of interoperability solutions. “We need to start redirecting the investments that historically just went into the basic moving data from point A to point B and start to take advantage of higher level technologies and automation and with the machine learning. And pu our focus into looking at the American healthcare system as a whole.” Kirk Anderson

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Carm Huntress, Founder and CEO talks about what it will take for healthcare providers to meet enormous challenges around data quality, retrieval, and readability and how AI and machine learning will be key to the solution.

In this episode we talk about

How healthcare is finally getting rid of paper and at the point of full record digitization

Why providers should be enabled to focus on their highest skills in patient care instead of sorting through data sets

The future of the national networks and the opportunity to create value based care systems

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Srinivas (Sri) Velamoor, Chief Growth & Strategy Officer and Executive Vice President for NextGen Healthcare joins host Sandy Vance to talk about how interoperability takes the friction out of practicing medicine for for providers and delivers better outcomes for patients. Mr. Velamoor talks about NextGen’s focus on interoperability in the areas of advocacy, acceleration, and delivery and discusses NextGen’s approach which includes ,evaluation of proposed standards and adoption programs, testing new standards as an early adopter & providing the infrastructure to deliver interoperability at scale.

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As the healthcare environment becomes more complex and diverse, many global healthcare organizations are challenged to achieve seamless interoperability. Join Altera Digital Health’s Richard Strong as he discusses some of the most pressing interoperability issues in the industry while highlighting how Altera is tackling these challenges by putting healthcare technology in down-to-earth terms, and designs digital solutions that are simpler to understand and use at every step.

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Dr. Paulo Pinho, M.D, Vice President and Medical Director of Innovation for Availity Clinical Solutions talks about completing the value chain with data insights by bringing the Diameter Fusion product to the product suite. Dr. Pinho shares how data upcycling takes patient care to the next level by making sure the time a doctor spends with their patient can be proactive and wellness focused vs reactive and illness focused.

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In this episode Kristen Valdes sits down with host Sandy Vance to talk about what consumers want from the healthcare system, why a patient’s right of access could be a show stopper for the success of TEFCA, and how provider organizations will realize a return on their investments in interoperability. Kristen Valdes, Founder & CEO of b.well Connected Health is on a mission to empower consumers with the data and tools to take control of their health care journey.

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Wondering why electronic prior authorization is so important? Check out this podcast with MCG’s Raj Godavarthi!

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On this episode host Sandy Vance talks t Jason Warrelmann, Global Director of Healthcare and Life Sciences at UiPath about user interface automation. Jason leads the Healthcare and Life Sciences Practice at UiPath, which focuses on transforming the Healthcare landscape and developing capabilities, integrations, and reusable components that make UiPath a healthcare automation platform and not just a tool that works in healthcare.     

UiPath is the only end-to-end, enterprise-ready automation platform that can grow with customers on their digital transformation journey. From supply chain to HR and compliance to patient care – Jason shares how partnering with UiPath can remove a lot of the administrative burden to free up the healthcare workforce to do what they do best.

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Host Sandy Vance talks with InterSystems' Don Woodlock about how the industry transition to FHIR is enabling technology providers to do more faster because on demand data is now readily available when you invest in the right infrastructure. He also shares his thoughts on the role of regulations across the globe in pushing these initiatives forward, and why proprietary data structures aren't good for anyone.  

Don Woodlock is the Head of Healthcare Solutions at InterSystems, and leads global healthcare teams who help customers make the most of their data, enabling stronger analytics, research, care coordination, and workflows. He has made a career out of building customer-focused healthcare software that matters for payers, health systems, public health, and life sciences. Beginning at IDX, then GE Healthcare, he is currently Head of Global Healthcare Solutions at InterSystems and a rock-star drummer!

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CEO and founder of Particle Health Troy Bannister talks to host Sandy Vance about the evolution of healthcare data sharing. From fax to integration engine to patient portal - the industry has worked to get better at sharing patient data. Today there is a new way which is fueled by FHIR-based APIs and regulation that gives technology providers access to the data, the Particle Health platform is transforming the way technology providers enable healthcare to get their work done.

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HL7 has been working to advance FHIR - Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources Platform standard since 2012. In 2014 healthcare industry players started to band together in the Argonaut project which was the first implementation community comprising leading technology vendors and provider organizations stakeholders. Since that time, several consortiums of health industry leaders have rallied around various health IT initiatives such as health payer initiatives, puplic health and health equity, infrastructure, and research initiatives. There are now eight FHIR accelerators who have published implementation guides that provide important documentation on how technology builders should use the FHIR resources within their systems to advance data sharing. These implementation guides have become the foundation for use of the standard as prescribed in Interoperability rules set forth by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT.

Now that so many implementation guides are near complete, the HL7 organization has added three new executive positions to support standards implementation in the new HL7 Implementation Division. So today we will talk to the spearheads of the Implementation Division to better understand how this expanded focus will impact the business of healthcare.

Dr. Charles Jaffe is the CEO of HL7. He completed his medical training at Johns Hopkins and Duke Universities and post-doctoral training at NIH and the Lombardi Cancer Center. He served in various academic positions in the Departments of Medicine and in the School of Engineering and has worked in healthcare technology for more than 30 years.. Dr. Jaffe has led the charge at HL7 since 2007.

Viet Nguyen, MD, will head the standards implementation division as chief standards implementation officer alongside Diego Kaminker who will fill the role of deputy chief standards implementation officer.

Viet is an internist, pediatrician, and clinical informaticist who has held leadership roles such as chief medical officer and chief medical information officer at Leidos Corporation, Lockheed-Martin, and Systems Made Simple.

HL7 selected Kaminker as the deputy chief standards implementation officer. He is the founder and owner of Kern IT with specialties in integration, software development, and project management.

Kaminker has been a member of the HL7 community for twenty years and has served multiple terms as the chair of HL7 Argentina as well as an affiliate director of the HL7 International board of directors. Throughout his career, Kaminker has defined, implemented, and maintained hundreds of HL7 interoperability projects.

On this episode of the podcast this powerhouse leadership team talks about their strategies for engaging more healthcare stakeholders in the implementation process to better inform those building the specification.

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Lyniate Chief Marketing Officer Michelle Blackmer talks data evolution and trends with host Sandy Vance from the show floor at the inaugural ViVE Event. Whether you are in a growing healthcare provider organization or a technology start up - you depend on clean patient data. Michelle talks about how Lyniate partners with organizations to make sure you have the infrastructure you need.   

Michelle is responsible for defining the go-to-market strategy and leading the marketing team. Her passion for empowering health innovators with complete connected data shapes the go-to-market messaging and helps grow mindshare. With 25 years of healthcare data management experience, Michelle thrives at the intersection of marketing, sales, product, and customers. Her curiosity and collaborative approach make Michelle a natural convener and trust builder — ensuring the voice of customer is heard. Prior to Lyniate, Michelle lead healthcare marketing at Verato, Initiate Systems/IBM, Informatica, and CareEvolution. Michelle lives in the great Pacific Northwest.

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On this episode we talk to Carrie Liken from YEXT, a company on a mission to transform enterprises with AI search. Carrie heads the healthcare vertical for YEXT. She shares why keyword search is no longer enough to power business platforms and how this product is helping healthcare organizations gain customer loyalty by deliver better information with automated intelligence - powered searches.   

Carrie Liken joined YEXT as the company’s first Head of Industry for Healthcare. In her role, Liken leads all healthcare-related activities, including product and partnership development. Over the last fifteen years, Liken has gained experience in the government, legal, nonprofit, and for-profit sectors, focusing on healthcare and health policy. For 8.5 years, she worked for Google, where she worked with healthcare organizations of all sizes to better understand the patient journey, digital’s impact on patient and customer acquisition, and how to drive increased revenue and sales through digital means. Liken holds a degree in public policy and political science from Duke University and a Master of Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where she focused on health policy.

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All healthcare organizations have legacy systems and that means there is a pile of legacy patient data that needs to be managed. Host Sandy Vance talks to MediQuant Chief Clinical Officer Kel Pults about her company’s experience over the past 20 years and how MediQuant helps healthcare providers efficiently archive, secure, and share private patient information.

Dr. Kel Pults is Chief Clinical Officer for MediQuant and has been with the company for eight years. The first nurse and the 42nd hire for the now 200+-person company, Pults assumed her current role in 2018 as part of MediQuant’s commitment to strengthening its clinical data management services with experienced, frontline professionals. Pults applies her deep healthcare and health informatics training and expertise to build effective health information solutions that support hospitals’ and health systems’ clinical data management needs. Brought on as MediQuant’s Director of Clinical Consulting in 2014 and later appointed Vice President, Strategic Consulting and Client Services, Pults’ duties included: working with potential clients to scope out archival requirements for new electronic health record (EHR) systems; monitoring project performance against commitments; and serving as clinical subject matter expert and collaborator with MediQuant’s leadership, and development and project management teams. In addition to building MediQuant’s clinical archiving department from the ground up, Pults has been involved in virtually every facet of the operation. For example, she partnered with developers of the flagship product DataArk® to enhance current and create new clinical modules to meet evolving client needs and contributed created and winning the prototype that resulted in the company’s recent award of a U.S. Defense Health Agency contract.

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Brenda Hopkins MBA, BSN, RN is the Chief Health Information Officer and General Manager Healthcare for Consensus Cloud Solutions where she is focused on strategy, interoperability, and usability of Consensus Cloud Solutions Healthcare products and solutions in partner and customer workflows. In this episode, Brenda will discuss Consensus’ digital cloud fax technology and how they are able to enable better continuity of care.

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Epion Health is creating proactive technology to remind patients to get screenings that could save their lives. Epion’s Chief Revenue Officer Scott Friedman, along with Chief Technology Officer Matt Racki, talk to host Sandy Vance about how their user-friendly technology is also allowing healthcare providers to do more in an age of increased demand and less staff.

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In this episode entrepreneur Kavi Misri talks about his personal experience and drive to found Rose Health in 2019 after his own struggles with depression. Rose Health , a population health SaaS company, is leveraging artificial intelligence to simplify the process for patients to seek and receive mental health care. The app uses both passive and active monitoring to keep providers informed with a mental health scoring system. It enables providers to more efficiently and effectively manage mental health care. The Baltimore-based start up recently won the annual TRAILS startup competition hosted by Seattle healthcare innovation hub Cambia Grove and is implementing in two major health systems.

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Ophir Lotan joined TytoCare in 2014 as a part of the founding team and is part of the company's executive leadership team and heads product and US customer success. Dr. Nick Patel serves as the Chief Digital Officer at Prima Health and Vice Chair of Primary Care in Department of Medicine in South Carolina. These two discuss how their vision of building a remote at-home experience that emulates a clinic to extend telemedicine became a reality.

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Diameter Health was co-founded by John D’Amore, a Harvard graduate who has spent his entire career researching and implementing interoperability best practices that advanced quality measurement and population health. Dr. Danny Sands, Diameter’s Chief Medical Officer is a practicing physician who has worked in clinical informatics for more than 25 years. The two share the story of Diameter Health and how the company is leveraging automated intelligence gained from nearly a decade working with EHRs to upcycle health data, provide patient access to their records, and change the world of population health for healthcare providers.

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Kevin Erdal has been Nordic’s managing director and practice lead for digital health for about 3 years, and is a proven leader across the analytics spectrum with a current focus in Healthcare. Experience in Digital Health, Data Strategy, Data & Analytics, Data Governance, Modern Data Platforms, Data Delivery, and Data Integration, among additional areas throughout the Digital Health environment.

In this episode of the InteropNow! podcast Kevin guest hosts a dynamic panel of experts as they explore what cloud transformation strategies should look like for healthcare organizations and how the AWS suite of tools can play a valuable role in ensuring a cost effective, seamless transition. On the panel are Saran Sonaisamy, Director, Advisory Services, Nordic, Reza Chapman,  Managing Director, Cybersecurity Nordic, Jimmy DeLurgio, Senior Solution Architect AWS.

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Health Equity is not just something Kristen Valdes talks about – she and her team at b.well® Connected Health are providing consumer choice to improve healthcare for over seven million lives. On this episode Kristen Valdez talks about her journey as a caregiver, empowering consumers to make navigating the healthcare system the way it should be, and teaching healthcare systems how to respond to the needs of their communities through data transformation. Join us at the ViVE Event March 6-9 in Miami Beach! www.viveevent.com

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Come hear Dr. Shane McNamee talk about how open standards allow data to flow cleanly and enable clinicians to identify emerging risks. Better yet – join us at the ViVE Event March 6-9 in Miami Beach and see it for yourself! www.viveevent.com