This is part two of a two-part special CDIO profile story. To read part one, click here.
Building a digital ecosystem and crafting the technology elements of a health system’s five-year strategic plan are no small feats. But Lisa S. Stump says she’s up to the task.
Stump is Mount Sinai Health System’s newly minted chief digital information officer who also serves as dean for information technology at Mount Sinai’s Icahn School of Medicine.
Yesterday, in part one of this special two-part interview, we talked about what Stump brings to the table at Mount Sinai; bridging clinical, educational and research missions; and bolstering a digital strategy. Today, we’ll be talking with Stump about planning and developing a comprehensive enterprise digital ecosystem and charting a five-year strategic plan.
Enable value creation, drive growth
Stump is in charge of the planning and development of that enterprise digital ecosystem with the goals of improving collaboration between providers and researchers and working to integrate new technologies to enable value creation and drive growth.
“Let me build a little bit on some of my comments and observations from the first part of our interview and emphasize, again, that first and foremost, building that digital ecosystem is about simplifying the experience of the digital ecosystem,” she explained. “Today, it often takes an individual employee or clinician logging into multiple systems, performing a few tasks in one, logging into another to complete the overall workflow or function.
“Until we can simplify that digital ecosystem, the cognitive burden on our teams will continue to be a source of burnout and frustration, potential source of error, and it complicates the underlying data ecosystem that is an incredible asset,” she continued.
“Streamlining around those enterprise platforms, layering in new technologies and emerging capabilities where appropriate, often now enabled and powered through artificial intelligence and machine learning, is really the construct of the digital ecosystem that will begin to serve us well going forward.”
Keeping a learning attitude
Technology is advancing at an incredible pace, and as a result, Stump will not say what she is building today absolutely will set up Mount Sinai well for five years. She and her team are taking bite-sized chunks of digital strategy, keeping a learning attitude and ensuring they stay as connected as they can to the developments in the health IT space.
“It’s been a privilege to join the team here at Mount Sinai,” she said. “We’re ranked top five in Newsweek’s World’s Best Smart Hospitals. Credit to the organization’s investment and view that technology is a critical asset to be harnessed and leveraged. We’ve got one of the top supercomputing environments in the world.
“We are the leading academic health system on the list of top 500 supercomputing environments,” she noted. “So when we think about that computing capacity to power and support research and the development of AI and machine learning tools, we’ve got an amazing set of resources at our disposal and an incredible team I’m now privileged to work with to leverage that and bring it forward.”
Mapping a 5-year plan
Stump also is helping chart a five-year strategic plan for Mount Sinai, executing the technology components of that vision. She has advice for her peers at other health systems when it comes to creating such a vast plan.
“It really starts with understanding the problems,” she advised. “We need to clearly identify, understand and prioritize the problems that need to be solved. We’re faced with a deluge of technical capabilities, new applications and vendor systems. We often can get trapped in a little bit of that bright, shiny object syndrome.
“We have to flip that and always start with: What are the problems we’re trying to solve?” she added. “And are these the problems worth solving right now? Healthcare also is faced with many challenges and opportunities to improve. So, understanding, defining and prioritizing the problems is absolutely the key first step.”
Then comes leveraging technology as a strategic asset, she said.
“We know the United States healthcare system and many of our large and leading health systems have faced financial challenges over recent years, coming out of the pandemic and still trying to create financial sustainability,” Stump noted. “Some organizations are then viewing technology as a cost center and an expense, simply to be minimized in an effort to reduce overall expenses.
“As digital and information technology leaders, we need to help organizations see the value, and that by leveraging technology as a strategic asset, we have the actual opportunity to think about driving those efficiencies and the financial sustainability of healthcare,” she said.
Walking the walk of clinicians and patients
Health systems must always focus on workflow – it’s one thing to sit in a room across from a colleague over a desk but getting out and walking the walk and seeing how clinicians are working, how patients are experiencing the care, is really important, she added.
“No technology will reach its full impact if it doesn’t fit naturally into the workflow of the people using it,” she said. “So part of the digital strategy is ensuring we never lose sight of the workflow. Then a little bit of table stakes, we have to identify early wins and embrace setbacks. Know that not everything we do is going to be perfect. Perfect is the enemy of good.
“Bottom line: It’s about promoting a culture of innovation and humble inquiry,” she continued. “How can we do better? How can we then support those opportunities with data and technology to support the overall care we’re honestly privileged to deliver? Those are some of the key principles I am using as I help this organization develop that strategic plan.”
On another front, Stump offers advice to her peers at smaller health systems having to wrap their hands around artificial intelligence. Stump works for one of the biggest health systems in the country, a very prominent one with a lot of assets and resources. Smaller health systems have their work cut out for them with the very fast-growing technology of AI.
“Leverage your networks, your peers, and really look for forums and opportunities to collaborate,” she advised. “HIMSS is a phenomenal example of the opportunity to participate, engage with the vendors and developers who are creating the new systems, but also to collaborate with peers – we’re all trying to figure out the best and safest way to deploy these technologies while they are coming incredibly rapidly.
“I wouldn’t sit and be shy and afraid – I’d really be out, networking, talking with the developers, the vendors and the peer community,” she concluded.
That is the end of part two of two of our interview with Mount Sinai Health Systems’ new chief digital information officer, Lisa S. Stump. To watch a video presentation of this interview, click the video below.
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