Michael Archuleta, BSIT, ITIL, serves as director of information technology services, HIPAA and information for Mt. San Rafael Hospital.
On Thursday, Sepember 21, Mr. Archuleta 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. Archuleta's sessions, click here.
Question: Looking at your IT budget, what is one item or expense that has surprised you in terms of ROI? How so?
Michael Archuleta: With 91 percent of cyber attacks coming through a phishing email, it has been a top priority for our organization to train our end users on cybersecurity. A new report shows 43 percent of consumers in the U.S. and Canada don't know what ransomware is. Your end users hold the keys to your organization and it's critical to train them. We've designed a simulated phishing email campaign that gets sent out to our end users to determine who the clickers in the organization are. This has allowed us to focus more time educating the individuals that are considered a risk. With proper cybersecurity training, we're able to reduce our overall risks and create a culture of individuals that now know what cybersecurity threats are and what they can do to an organization. Conclusively, this will eventually help you create a Return of Investment back to your organization.
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?
MA: This question may sound funny or even ridiculous, but during an interview I always ask, "When was the last time you cleaned a toilet?" I like to point out that sometimes all of us have to do unwelcomed chores. The best performers will be willing to get their hands dirty and humble themselves in completing the task, while the mid- and low- performers will not. If a candidate tells me about their willingness to clean a toilet, that speaks volumes about their character and humility and desire to work hard at earning their position. Humility is our ability to admit that we don't know everything, and that everyone has equal value.
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 two to five years ago but not anymore?
MA: Biometric technology has been a routine form of the authentication process to identify an employee. Biometric Technology is now endangered and will be replaced with palm vein authentication. Being that veins are located inside the body, it makes it nearly impossible to duplicate and/or steal. Since there is no risk of forgery or theft, palm vein technology provides higher security compared to fingerprint recognition, which improves the overall cybersecurity strategy.
Q: Tell us about the last time you were truly, wildly amazed by technology. What did you see?
MA: I'm wildly amazed by IBM Watson, which is a cognitive computing system that can think like a human. With 1.7 million new cancer cases and approximately 50,000 oncology research papers published annually, IBM Watson is going to play a key role in providing personalized, evidence-based treatment recommendations to cancer patients, which can help improve quality of care and outcomes. This can be a life changer to patients diagnosed with cancer. Artificial Intelligence is a wildly amazing technology and will bring great value into healthcare to improve the overall care and life of our patients.