In March 2025, doctor informaticist Alan Weiss, M.D., M.B.A., joined Phoenix-based Banner Well being as senior vp of medical development to steer efforts to enhance the effectiveness and effectivity of care supply by know-how. Banner’s telehealth, informatics, course of engineering and medical high-reliability teams report back to him. He lately sat down with Healthcare Innovation to debate decision-making round know-how deployment and the newest AI developments at Banner.
Weiss has greater than 24 years of expertise as a doctor informaticist with the Cleveland Clinic, Cedars-Sinai, Memorial Hermann and the BayCare Well being System. At Florida-based BayCare, he was chief medical data officer. The nonprofit Banner Well being has 33 hospitals, throughout Arizona, California, Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada and Wyoming.
Healthcare Innovation: After working as CMIO at BayCare Well being System in Florida, what drew you to this place at Banner?
Weiss: It is a a lot bigger group. My position right here is way bigger, and the range of what I oversee is larger. I’m right here to allow know-how, which suggests not simply implement what we’ve got and refine it so we use it higher, however go and discover new stuff. And there are such a lot of new applied sciences on the market. The issue is making an attempt to know how we are able to use them and advance our outcomes at a time when there are many monetary pressures.
HCI: Have you ever had plenty of expertise working with exterior distributors and startups and are you bringing some new methods of interested by that to Banner?
Weiss: I’ve labored with plenty of exterior distributors in my profession, and had nice experiences serving to develop a few of their merchandise. One of many merchandise that I helped develop at BayCare was a man-made intelligence chatbot that helped to triage the signs of a affected person and direct them in the direction of the correct stage of care.
HCI: From speaking to different well being system leaders, I collect that it may be difficult to determine how one can carry startups into the ecosystem and make it possible for what they’re doing is having a optimistic affect for the well being system.
Weiss: Completely. Each at BayCare and right here, a part of my position is to determine how you’re employed with these distributors, how one can develop a enterprise case for them, and to assist implement the know-how. I most likely get pinged a number of instances every week, both by a doctor or government who has seen one thing they need to discover. The truth is, I joke that I really feel like I’ve grow to be the know-how Santa Claus, the place everyone’s giving me their want record. It is difficult, as a result of making an attempt to evaluate a few of these merchandise is tough, and also you’re making an attempt to know the affect of the know-how on the group, and assess it for ROI.
HCI: A lot of the well being methods we’re interviewing are deploying the ambient AI scribe instruments and different AI instruments for gathering and presenting disparate sources of affected person knowledge, in addition to instruments to enhance documentation. Is Banner engaged on a few of these issues?
Weiss: Sure, all these issues. In ambient listening we’re piloting a few options on the ambulatory aspect. We began piloting one answer on the inpatient aspect. We’re going to maneuver to a complete of 4 options that we’ll strive on the inpatient aspect, and and the suggestions from the docs has been terrific. The truth is, it has been so good {that a} strategic planning group final week mentioned, “Go quicker, get it in there, begin utilizing it.”
HCI: So that you’re doing a “style check” of 4 totally different options?
Weiss: Sure. It’s plenty of work. However we need to determine which one works the very best, and albeit, one may work higher for some specialties than others. So it is necessary that we do a radical check. However I’ll let you know that I’ve used the ambient listening in clinic. I am an inside medication doctor, and I am a quick typist. I’ve all my macros arrange, and it is uncommon for me to not be finished with a notice by the point the affected person leaves the room. I’ll let you know that it was releasing to have the ambient listening. You simply do not understand how a lot of your mind, your cognitive perform, is spent interested by how one can create and arrange your notice. And I can undoubtedly say, having used them, that I spend extra time actually speaking to the affected person, wanting of their eyes, and interested by the problems. I jot a few issues down on a bit of paper, simply to recollect to ask one thing or order one thing, however not loads. It is fairly wonderful to see the affect that it has.
HCI: What about instruments that assist with documentation and reporting to registries? Can the identical distributors do this, or is {that a} separate set of distributors engaged on instruments that do this a part of it?
Weiss: All of these distributors try to do this. I do not assume any have succeeded as of but, however they’re all engaged on it. There may be further work that is happening with these ambient instruments. Think about that I am having a dialog with you concerning the want for antibiotics, and within the dialog, I point out the antibiotic. It’s going to queue up the order. Properly, that is fairly phenomenal.
There are additionally quality-of-documentation sort of nudges which are coming in. Let’s say a affected person has congestive coronary heart failure. There are several types of congestive coronary heart failure. The instruments are being constructed to nudge the supplier to say which sort the affected person has. That may assist get the documentation proper simply as you are doing it, so you do not have to return in a while.
HCI: Do you assume the big EHR distributors themselves are engaged on the identical sort of AI instruments themselves?
Weiss: Completely. We use Cerner. They’re growing their very own ambient listening, and it is fairly good. I’m impressed. All people’s leaping into the house. We’re doing our personal AI work. The instruments have grow to be a lot simpler to develop and construct that you simply’re simply seeing folks soar in.
HCI: Does Banner even have an informatics crew engaged on different methods to scale back burnout and enhance clinician satisfaction with the EHR, and maybe enhance medical determination assist?
Weiss: Sure. One of many issues that we’re doing is automating processes. If I order a vaccine, there must be an order for drawing the vaccine, for administering it, for educating the affected person on it, for placing within the invoice. We’re automating all that, and it actually reduces the burden on the supplier and their employees.
We’re additionally doing the identical factor on the documentation aspect. For those who name up for a refill, there are particular items of data that I need to know, together with the final time you had been in, the final time you bought the refill, different drugs you’ve got bought, and your labs. Properly, beforehand, you needed to do a chart dive and search for all that data. Now in a few keystrokes, you may carry that into your notice. That makes it a lot simpler, and is a way more standardized option to ship care.
HCI: I perceive you are additionally accountable for telehealth efforts there at Banner as properly. How deeply embedded are telehealth efforts in main care and specialty care at Banner practices? Is there loads happening by telemedicine partnerships with rural locations in Arizona?
Weiss: It is someplace between 6% and seven% of our ambulatory visits, which is just about the place most healthcare methods are. Actually within the rural areas in Arizona — and we’re in 5 states — it is a massive boon to our suppliers and our sufferers. It is an excellent functionality and it’s embedded into their workflow in order that it makes it fairly straightforward to do a telehealth go to.
HCI: Does banner even have an acute hospital-at-home program?
Weiss: We shouldn’t have a hospital-at-home program. It is one thing we’re investigating.
HCI: Evidently with the hospital-at-home applications, the way in which Congress has funded it in six-month increments with the Medicare waiver has made investing in it more difficult.
Weiss: Sure, I feel you’ve got hit the precise subject. Why make investments once you’re not sure of it long-term? I do know of a number of well being care methods which have finished the funding and have not seen plenty of sufferers take up on hospital-at-home. I feel it is nonetheless wonderful. I feel it is an excellent factor to do. I am simply not sure if it is sensible operationally or financially.
HCI: Does plenty of this work on issues like enhancing documentation feed into Banner’s, participation in value-based care applications and do you speak to ACO leaders about what they want?
Weiss: I meet with our ACO group about each two to a few weeks to know their wants from a know-how standpoint. They usually have a ton of know-how that they are bringing in involving knowledge analytics workflow enhancements. Additionally they have a bunch of issues that they need embedded into our digital well being report to attempt to nudge the suppliers to do the correct factor. We try to make it possible for we accomplish every part we have to do proper up entrance within the technique of delivering care.
HCI: How do you do strategic planning for digital well being innovation when it comes to interested by the place you need the well being system to be in 2028 or 2030?
Weiss: There is definitely plenty of stuff already within the hopper. We’ve bought plenty of issues that we already invested in, however there are a ton of further investments that we’re interested by making. What we try to do is weigh what we have to put money into short-term and long-term. The monetary scenario throughout the nation due to Medicaid cutbacks go away us with plenty of questions, so we’re specializing in higher understanding know-how’s ROI.
