If AI is going to rapidly improve healthcare, shouldn’t we start at the ground floor - with primary care? Cityblock’s Chief Health Officer Dr. Kameron Matthews joins us to talk about how AI can reduce complexity and burnout, improve patient outcomes and free care teams to focus on human connections.

We discuss:

• What it takes to design with and for the communities
• Her work with the Coalition for Health AI (CHAI) to drive the development, evaluation, and appropriate use of AI in healthcare
• Lessons Kameron learned being a student leader for the National Medical Association

Kameron reminds us that we cannot just drop new technologies onto care teams:

“We have respect for the change management that is required to bring forward these new technologies and allow our care teams to really merge them into their current day to day practice. It's not about, as we have seen for years with EHRs. It's not about just putting them through some horrible modular training, but about actually bringing them to a level of understanding and being a part of the decision making of how we're adopting this technology, how we're blending it into their day to day, how it's making their job easier.”

Relevant Links

• About Cityblock
• CNBC Disruptor 50: Cityblock CEO breaks down the business of health care
• At Cityblock Health, ‘Everything is Driven by Data’
• Tour for Diversity in Medicine
• Coalition for Health AI (CHAI)

About Our Guest

As the Chief Health Officer at Cityblock Health, I lead the clinical strategy and operations for a rapidly growing company that provides innovative, personalized, and accessible care to individuals and communities with complex health and social needs. I bring over 15 years of experience as a board-certified family physician, a health policy expert, and a mentor to aspiring and practicing health professionals from diverse backgrounds.

My mission is to transform health care delivery and outcomes for underserved populations by leveraging innovative operations, data, technology, and human-centered design. I have co-founded and directed Tour for Diversity in Medicine, a national initiative that educates and inspires future physicians, dentists, and pharmacists of color, and serve as a Health Innovators Fellow at the Aspen Institute, a prestigious program that fosters entrepreneurial and values-driven leadership in health care. I have been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, the highest honor in the field, and served as a senior executive at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, where I oversaw the largest integrated health care network in the country in the Office of Community Care and later served as Chief Medical Officer of the health system. I am passionate about advancing health equity, quality, and innovation, and empowering the next generation of health care leaders.

Source: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kameronmatthews/

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For the past 20 years, under both Republican and Democratic administrations, the ONC has played a pivotal role shaping and regulating the health tech market. On the eve of the election, Micky Tripathi joined me to discuss the agency’s recently expanded role. Now, two months later—though it feels like a decade—the future is uncertain. Will the ONC and ASTP continue as market regulators and opportunity catalysts, or is a new direction on the horizon?

Here’s what we covered:

• The government’s role in shaping and regulating the health tech ecosystem
• AI in healthcare: balancing the risks of misuse vs. the risk of “missed uses”
• Health information sharing: why Micky is optimistic about the future
• Can technology take the pain out of prior auth?

Micky thinks we are standing on the edge of a transformative era:

“We are just at the beginning of the most exciting decade...health information technology can really start to show… the return on investment for patients. We've done a lot of hard work over the last 10 years… [With that foundation in place] we have the opportunity to say there's an ROI here for patients.”

Relevant Links

• Blog post on ONC reorganization: ONC’s Next Chapter
• TEFCA overview
• Forbes interview: Where is interoperability headed?
• Healthcare Dive: HHS AI Task Force Takes Shape (March 2024)
• Blog post by Micky: Getting real about information blocking and APIs (October 2024)

About Our Guest

Micky Tripathi is the Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, and Acting Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where he leads the formulation of HHS technology and data strategy and coordinates technology policies, standards, programs, and investments.

Dr. Tripathi has over 20 years of experience across the health IT landscape. Prior to joining the federal government he served as Chief Alliance Officer for Arcadia, a health care data and software company focused on population health management and value-based care, the project manager of the Argonaut Project, an industry collaboration to accelerate the adoption of FHIR, and a board member of HL7, the Sequoia Project, the CommonWell Health Alliance, and the CARIN Alliance.

Dr. Tripathi served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative (MAeHC), a non-profit health IT advisory and clinical data analytics company. He was also the founding President and CEO of the Indiana Health Information Exchange, a statewide HIE partnered with the Regenstrief Institute, an Executive Advisor to investment firm LRVHealth, and a Fellow at the Berkman-Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University.

He holds a PhD in political science from the Massachusetts...

There’s a lot of concern right now about healthcare affordability, but not enough action. Paul Markovich, the CEO of Blue Shield of California, is on a mission to bring down health costs by reducing administrative overhead and negotiating lower drug prices. In this episode we dive deep into Paul’s call to action for healthcare leaders to tackle the affordability crisis head-on.

Paul and I discuss:

• How Blue Shield slashed the cost of arthritis drug Humira, by offering a biosimilar at 25% of the cost
• Why reducing healthcare costs is critical to averting a national economic crisis
• Whether we need a new national mandate for health data sharing
• Paul’s advice on tackling fear and being a brave leader

Paul says healthcare affordability isn't just a pocketbook issues for patients, it’s also a huge economic issue for the nation:

“The reality is we are facing a huge affordability crisis, a fiscal crisis right now. Even though our economy is running pretty much at or near full employment, we have record fiscal deficits… We cannot keep spending on this program the way that we are. We need to bring the spending down... Even our dysfunctional political system is going to have to deal with that.”

Relevant Links

California’s new data sharing law

Announcement of new Humira biosimilar

Investment in nonprodit Civica for lower cost generics

New prior authorization platform with Salesforce

About Our Guest

Paul Markovich is Chief Executive Officer of Blue Shield of California, a nonprofit health plan with $25 billion in annual revenue serving 4.8 million members in the state's commercial, individual, and government markets. Markovich has launched and led numerous initiatives to drive innovation and help reimagine healthcare, including funding support for a statewide provider directory to make it easier for Californians to find physicians and facilities in their plan; supporting development of a statewide health information network for patients’ records, enabling more seamless and holistic care; and investing in a partnership with the California Medical Association to help physicians pilot new care delivery models and leverage technology.

Markovich is a North Dakota native and Rhodes Scholar with a master’s in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University. He is a graduate of Colorado College, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in International Political Economy and played Division I hockey.

Source: https://www.blueshieldca.com/en/home/about-blue-shield/corporate-information/leadership/paul-markovich

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