John Bass serves as the Founder and CEO of Hashed Health.
On Saturday, September 23, Mr. Bass will speak on a panel at Becker's Hospital Review 3rd Annual Health IT + Revenue Cycle Conference. As part of an ongoing series, Becker's is talking to healthcare leaders who plan to speak at the conference, which will take place September 21 through September 23 in Chicago.
To learn more about the conference and Mr. Bass's session, click here.
Question: Looking at your IT budget, what is one item or expense that has surprised you in terms of ROI? How so?
John Bass: We are coming at this from a slightly different angle in that we are convening networks of companies to tackle projects with shared investment rather than working directly within our own IT budget framework. Our premise is that in the early stages of a new technology (pre-competitive), there is no reason for any single entity to shoulder the burden of bringing the technology to market. In fact, a narrow point of view will likely be detrimental to broad adoption. The surprise we see is novelty of lowering entry barriers and sharing risk, to have an early seat at the table without cutting big checks.
Q: Finding top tech talent is always a challenge. Say a CIO called you up today to ask for an interview question that would distinguish the best candidates from the mid- to low-performers. What question do you suggest he or she ask?
JB: Particularly in a hot sector, we have found test projects or pitches to be an effective differentiator. Willingness to put some effort in before an interview is a good indication of excitement and ability to self-start once on board. A hypothetical development plan or project pitch requires thought and effort. If you ask a candidate to come prepared to present something in a way he/she will be called to work going forward, everyone gets a view of the future. If they hate the assignment, the candidate learned something too.
Q: We spend a lot of timing talking about the exciting innovation modernizing healthcare. It's also helpful to acknowledge what we've let go of. What is one form of technology, one process or one idea that once seemed routine to you but is now endangered if not extinct? What existed in your organization 2-5 years ago but not anymore?
JB: Hard to look back two years in a startup, but broadly we see an overdue death of internal email strings. With the advent of communication tools like Slack and Trello, conversations are focused on projects and topics and the groups with which they are involved. This keeps threads together, and makes sure that everyone who should be involved is connected. We try hard to only use email for external communication and conversations of record.
Q: Tell us about the last time you were truly, wildly amazed by technology. What did you see?
JB: Over the course of the last year, all of us at Hashed Health became so wrapped up in the possibilities of blockchain, that we literally couldn’t face the idea of not pursuing it. To a person, our team left the stable confines of established companies to jump into the deep end of an undefined, emerging technology. We see blockchain as a once-in-a-generation transformative technology. It would be hard to sleep at night if that conviction did not lead to action.