Before joining the Saudi German Hospital Group in Dubai, United Arab Emirates as enterprise CIO, Saad Chaudhry served as the associate CIO of Annapolis, Md.-based Anne Arundel Medical Center. In his new role, Mr. Chaudhry is managing the influx of technology and innovation with clinical necessities.
Below, Mr. Chaudhry details how consumerism has changed healthcare as well as how he encourages clinicians to remain innovative.
Editor’s note: Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Question: How has the rise in viewing patients as consumers changed health IT?
Saad Chaudhry: It’s changed health IT drastically, in my opinion. It has forced organizations to change their view of health IT from an internal-facing function to one that is salient for clinical, business and marketing operations. Furthermore, it has forced us all to think of our patients’ experience in the same light as Amazon and Uber. As in, what are the pain points for our patients when they utilize our services? And how do we go about building an eHealth ecosystem that allows for alleviating those?
Q: How do you get the rest of the team into an innovative mindset/on board with rapid-fire digital transformation?
SC: Whenever I find my teams running in circles trying to find the best place to start on a digital transformation or innovation initiative, I love to tell the story of Intel, and how they completely transformed themselves in the 1980s. Most people may not know this, but Intel was initially exclusively in the computer RAM chip business. However, between the 1970s and 1980s, they saw increased competition from, and were eventually overtaken by, Japanese RAM manufacturers. So, the Intel C-suite came together and asked themselves, “If the board voted to let us all go today, what would our replacements do when they walked in that door?” All of a sudden it was clear that they needed to transform themselves. So, just like that, Intel switched their entire business arena to CPU microchip manufacturing and its current dynasty was born and remains strong to this day. Transformation in business is hard. Digital transformation is even harder, because it upends all areas of the business. But, it’s no longer an option in today’s age. If we are unfair to our organization and don’t initiate it on our watch, there will absolutely come along someone else who will.
Q: What are the biggest obstacles you face when deploying a new tech/innovation initiative? How do you overcome them?
SC: There are the usual obstacles —those who do not see the value in change. Then there are those who believe that investing in new tech/innovations is a waste of capital. I think the most important thing for a CIO is to ensure that he/she is able to connect any tech changes directly to their impact on the business/operations side. There needs to be a clear link established from the implementation of a new piece of software, hardware or device to an improvement in a clinical or operational process, however minute. In today’s world, IT is no longer yet another department in an organization. It is something that is salient in every department. As CIOs, we must act like it. We must consider each decision from the perspective of not just a tech leader, but also the CMO, CFO, COO, etc. To overcome obstacles with tech-related initiatives, you need to understand them fully from each angle, ensure that understanding is communicated to your peers and colleagues, and then you overcome them together.
Q: What strategies do you have for leaders looking to create a culture that promotes collaboration?
SC: I think what I wrote above rings true here as well. You must ensure that you are continuously tied in with your team. As a CIO, that includes your organization’s C-suite. In the manner that you must show a direct link from a tech-related initiative to its organizational value, you must link communication all the way across the continuum as well; from your boardroom to your helpdesk.
When your helpdesk person is taking calls from upset users due to a large change being implemented across the IT landscape, they must be able to address issues with an understanding of why/how the change occurred. This must link back directly to the same large-scale understanding that your team must also have. As the CIO, this is entirely your responsibility, to build this chain of understanding for all those involved from the boardroom down. This will provide a single purpose and will promote collaboration via transparency within your workplace culture.
Q: What is the most difficult part of your role?
SC: This is probably a combination of things for me currently. It might be different for me than for many of your other CIOs back in the U.S. because I recently took on the role of an enterprise CIO at a health system in the Middle East.
My organization consists of about a dozen medium-to-large hospitals spread out across four countries. Not only are we going through a transformation from a corporate standpoint — we are in the midst of bringing together many disparate and siloed processes/resources under a central enterprise organizational structure — but I am also the first-ever enterprise CIO here. This means that I need to embark on a digital transformation for my organization, whilst building a cohesive large IT department. Internal politics aside, this includes being up to speed on regional geopolitics as well.
One of the things I admire about the MENA region, in general, is their willingness here to take risks with technology and attempt to leapfrog its implementation. They’ve done this quite successfully in many sectors of their countries. Most of their social services have skipped over the slow and grueling switch from paper to electronic by going directly to device/app-based systems. The movement for drastic tech change, therefore, is easier to create in this part of the world. However, with healthcare, due to its complexity, the leaps in tech implementation must be approached with great care. And so, I am, also having to carefully manage expectations for which new tech we should implement in our organization based on our current footprint and state and its impact to our people and most importantly, our patients. In many cases, this includes me campaigning to forego the latest and greatest for something more established to ensure that a solid foundation is built for our next leap forward. This isn’t always easy, and often times I find myself in a Twilight Zone for CIOs where I’m pushing for us to not put certain high-tech items on our short-term roadmap. It happens often enough here in the Middle East where I’ve coined a term for it “The Leapfrog Conundrum” and have even written about it as well.
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