Priya Bathija, JD, MHSA, serves as Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at American Hospital Association.
Priya will serve on the panel "Digital Solutions Advance Perinatal Outcomes" at Becker's Hospital Review 12th Annual Meeting. As part of an ongoing series, Becker's is talking to healthcare leaders who plan to speak at the conference, which will take place in Chicago from April 25-28, 2022.
To learn more about the conference and Priya's session, click here.
Q: What are your top priorities for 2022?
Priya Bathija: My top priority is helping hospitals and health systems improve affordability and value for their patients and communities, a key part of AHA’s recently released 2022-2024 Strategic Plan. I’m excited to continue doing this through AHA’s effort, The Value Initiative, where for the last four years we have been helping hospitals lower costs, improve outcomes and enhance patient experiences.
We all know that value is personal. For some, it’s finding the right mix of health care services that meet their needs. Others want the highest quality of care, regardless of price or convenience. For others, value means friction-free, convenient access to health care services. Yet others focus solely on price. And, individual definitions of value have likely evolved as a result of the pandemic.
As a result, we will focus on providing tools and resources to help hospitals navigate and scale a broad range of strategies that allow hospitals to meet patients where they want to be.
Q: What technologies and innovations are you most excited about in healthcare right now?
PB: I’m most excited about the surge in FemTech and the growth in efforts to improve women’s health. While this includes everything from consumer menstrual products to fertility, I have been closely following those focused on maternal health patient support.
For example, remote patient monitoring for pregnant and postpartum women with hypertension is front and center. AHA has been highlighting best practices from hospitals around the country, and we recently joined Million Hearts® 2027, a national initiative co-led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to prevent one million heart attacks, strokes, and other cardiovascular events in the next five years.
At the Becker’s Hospital Review Annual Meeting, I will have the opportunity to speak with leaders from Boston Medical Center and CommonSpirit Health who will share how they are using digital solutions to advance perinatal care. This includes remote patient monitoring, digital patient engagement and navigation technology all aimed at improving outcomes for mothers.
Q: What will the lasting legacy of COVID-19 be on the healthcare system?
PB: I am hopeful that we will see two things after the pandemic.
First, is continued use of virtual care and the models virtual care support, including hospital-at-home. We have data from before the pandemic on how these strategies improve value. But, the pandemic has really shown us how hospitals and health systems can use these strategies not only to meet patients where they are, but where they want to be.
Second, a continued and sustained focus on health equity. We have seen hospitals and health systems take a number of steps to elevate equity for their patients and communities. This includes efforts to better collect and analyze data, improve cultural humility, and increase diversity and inclusion within their organizations. We are also seeing them take on the societal factors that influence health by addressing the social needs of their patients, the social determinants of health in their communities, and the systemic causes that lead to poor health.
The AHA is focusing on health equity as well. We recently updated our vision and mission statements to more directly reflect the importance of equity in advancing the health of individuals and communities. We are making investments in Black-founded and Black-led health care companies and forming partnerships and collaborations to address inequities. We also continue to develop new resources to meet our members where they are on their health equity journeys.
COVID-19 has given us the opportunity to reflect, reimagine and improve. I am looking forward to seeing how the health care field as a whole will rise to the challenge and use this historic opportunity to reimagine health care delivery and improve the health of individuals and communities.