What is your process of picking out digital health companies to work with?
Wilda: We can all get enamored by the nice, shiny objects and do a bunch of pilots. We just don’t have the bandwidth for that. Our first goal is always to be intentional. Do we know what problems we want to solve? Let’s find technologies that are very intentional. We also want to look at them from a soft perspective. It’s not just about key performance indicators. We really want to find technologies that will bring patients and providers closer together.
Kapoor: I wish I could say there’s a magic formula that we figured it out. We’re constantly tweaking it. In the digital space, there’s a difference between incrementalism and transformation. The word transformation is thrown around all the time. Not everything can be transformative because there’s only X amount of bandwidth for transformation. But also incrementalism shouldn’t be viewed as a bad word. If something is incrementally getting better, it’s a very good thing. I construct a triple alignment in my head when the right opportunity arises. It’s when the consumer is ready, the technology is ready and the operator, as in the provider, is ready. When all three are aligned and ready, that’s the sweet spot for digital transformation.
Vuchak: We have a governance structure that mixes executive leaders and clinical partners across the organization. We weigh any potential technology on what’s the value to the organization and what can it do to improve outcomes? When we’re looking at innovation and investments, we want everything to be outcomes based. It might not be something that makes financial sense or it’s going to be an investment that will cost us some money, but we’ll do it if it can improve patient outcomes.
