Technology can drive revenue growth, improved health, Novant Health digital chief says

Technology should not be seen as a cost drain but something that truly adds value to a business, Angela Yochem, chief transformation and digital officer for Novant Health, said in a recent interview with CIO.

That's especially true for healthcare, where technology has the opportunity to improve the health of communities and grow revenue at the same time.

In her position Ms. Yochem oversees technology for the Winston-Salem, N.C.-based health system with 15 hospitals and more than 350 physician practices.

Here are some highlights from her talk with CIO, published May 26:

On why IT isn't just a "cost center": "It's important for business leaders to understand that there is a strong digital underpinning to all successful products and services. It's impossible to separate the evolution of business from the advances in technology and our unprecedented access to data."

On shifting the mindset about technology: "Many senior executives grew up in their careers at a time when technology was really doing little more than just tracking personnel files, allowing for basic taking of orders, shipping of goods, billing for services, and the like.

"Today, the script has changed. Companies apply money to the digital capabilities that will differentiate their products and services. And that is something that must be factored into every business leader's budget and projections for what their margins are going to look like."

On rebranding Novant's IT department as Digital Products and Services: "Our Digital Products and Services organization also contains teams focused on new business growth — identifying new streams of revenue that are adjacent to the services we traditionally provide.

"We have a digital health business inside of DPS, which includes all 24/7 virtual clinical services, with all of the operations of that business, including dozens of physicians, nurses, pharmacists and advanced practitioners as well as operators. We have a device company that sells solutions directly to consumers and to corporate entities. The physicians responsible for clinical informatics, which is essentially the strategy for incorporating advanced tech into clinical environments, are also inside DPS."

"So all of the groups live inside Digital Products and Services, which isn’t IT but contains IT, and that allows our IT team members to engage in a much broader context."

On her inspiration: "One of the things I’ve learned about myself is that if the company is trying to do something meaningful to make our communities better, if there’s a mission that supports growth of communities and health of communities in the broadest possible sense, those are the things that motivate me."

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