Zafar Chaudry, MD, MS, MIS, MBA, serves as Senior Vice President and Chief Digital & Information Officer at Seattle Children's.
Zafar will be serving on the panel "Top Health IT Priorities and What It Costs to Acheive Them" 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 Zafar's session, click here.
Question: What are your top priorities for 2022?
Zafar Chaudry: 2022 top priorities for our health system include expansion of virtual care initiatives, a focus on pediatric mental health, continued focus on analytics and expansion of our footprint as a destination center for pediatrics. Technology will support that through cost improvement programs to automate repetitive tasks, such as in the support services areas, optimize our EMR, evaluate our next generation Cloud strategy (beyond our EMR, which is already in the Dell/Virtustream Cloud), and replace our ERP system.
Q: What technologies and innovations are you most excited about in healthcare right now?
ZC: Certainly, analytics is an exponentially growing, exciting area but the pivot to predictive vs. retrospective is key; there is going to be a paradigm shift to analytics as a service. Other exciting areas include better data interoperability, expanded use of AI and reduction in repetitive tasks with robotic process automation, as well as laser focus on healthcare IT security.
Q: How do you plan to pivot strategies this year to better serve patients?
ZC: Seattle Children’s will continue to improve our telehealth programs, expand on our digital front door, focus on digital patient equity initiatives, such as access to internet and hardware for patients; open a 320,000 square foot patient tower with brand new operating rooms, a new laboratory, and a pediatric bone marrow transplant program.
Q: What advice do you have for emerging healthcare leaders today?
ZC: Find a good mentor in the industry. Spend time improving your influencing and communications skills. Spend time in the trenches with stakeholders on the frontline, and don’t underestimate the politics within a healthcare system.