Steve Arner, president and CEO of Roanoke, Va.-based Carilion Clinic, a nonprofit health system serving nearly 1 million patients in the southwest part of the state, recently shared his thoughts on innovation’s role in shaping patient experience, workforce development and the future of the healthcare industry. Here are some key takeaways highlighting lessons learned from front-line teams.
Q: What innovations hold the greatest promise for hospitals and health systems? Which ones hold the greatest promise for patients?
Steve Arner: AI holds transformative potential in healthcare, not just in clinical diagnostics or imaging, but in process improvement, workflow optimization and administrative efficiency. We’re already seeing AI reduce the burden of things like documentation, freeing up clinicians to do what they do best: care for people.
Predictive analytics, for instance, give us tools to tailor treatments with a new level of accuracy. One example is work led by Dr. Lana Wahid, Carilion’s vice chair of research. She established tools within Epic to monitor and interpret patient charts in real time, allowing teams to quickly identify potential clinical trial candidates and coordinate patient education and monitoring. Patients have improved access to trials, and clinicians have more efficient data to better inform decision-making.
Q: What innovations do you see in other industries that we need more of in healthcare?
SA: Other industries have mastered frictionless and anticipatory service models. Think of how retail uses data to anticipate needs or how airlines manage complex logistics. Those aren’t new concepts in healthcare, but there is still untapped potential.
Increasing patient access is dependent on improved coordination between teams. We can take a page out of FedEx’s and UPS’ books, navigating complex logistics for a seamless user experience. Our Carilion team, for example, was among the first to establish an integrated healthcare operations center overseeing system transfers and throughput. This centralized model eliminated 30 minutes of wasted time per patient, contributing to a 0.3-day reduction in the time patients spend in intensive care. Now we’re finding ways for that type of logistics system to improve the ambulatory patient experience.
Q: How do you see our role evolving in the broader healthcare ecosystem?
SA: Our role is shifting from centralized providers of care to innovators in a broader network by improving logistics, virtual care offerings and home-based diagnostics. That means embracing new models without compromising on quality.
I’m fortunate to be surrounded by leaders and front-line teams who are eager to find new approaches to deliver on our mission. Some are investigating how we can implement drones like we’ve seen in the retail space to improve internal logistics and — one day — external logistics like flying a patient’s medication refill directly to their home. New models often require navigating existing constraints, like establishing a rulebook for drone delivery with the FAA. We’re at a pivotal moment within healthcare where we’re challenged to break and then rebuild the existing model.
Q: How do health systems prioritize which innovations to pursue, given limited resources and competing demands?
SA: Our clinicians and care teams are at the bedside every day; they know their technology, delivery and administrative pain points and they have ideas about how to fix them. The best thing leaders can do is to support those ideas through centralized, expert resources that live in the innovation space. Think about how to offer that expertise to front-line teams so they can cut through the noise and streamline strategy.
We launched Carilion Clinic Innovation (CCI) in 2020 to do just that, making a specialized team available to nurture projects from the abstract to market. For instance, Carilion surgeon Dr. Cesar Bravo partnered with CCI to enhance 2D radiographs into 3D-printed models of patient tumors for presurgical planning, an approach now taken by many surgeons. Innovation won’t flourish in a silo. For teams who already have full plates, it’s up to leaders to offer a pathway to pursue and apply out-of-the-box ideas.
Q: How do you see the balance between automation and human touch in healthcare evolving?
SA: Automation should not replace the human connection, it should amplify it. When we automate routine tasks, we’re not replacing clinicians. Instead, we’re giving them back time, space and emotional bandwidth to care for their patients.
The American Medical Association recently recognized Carilion’s Wellbeing Team for collaborating with clinicians to tackle the root causes of burnout and foster professional fulfillment. Critical to this work is engaging with clinical teams to measure and evaluate burnout and support resources. One of our many areas of focus was addressing workflow and documentation burdens to improve the physician experience, providing peer support and developing tailored goals for each department. We should prioritize automation and tools that improve a clinician’s day-to-day. The goal is a rebalanced care environment, where machines handle what they’re good at, and people do what only people can do: listen, connect and heal.
