Population Health Management

I've watched 3 "revolutionary" healthcare technologies fail spectacularly. Each time, the technology was perfect. The implementation was disastrous. Google Health (shut down twice). Microsoft HealthVault (lasted 12 years, then folded). IBM Watson for Oncology (massively overpromised). Billions invested. Solid technology. Total failure. Not because the vision was wrong, but because healthcare adoption follows different rules than consumer tech. Here's what I learned building healthcare tech for 15 years: 1/ Healthcare moves at the speed of trust, not innovation ↳ Lives are at stake, so skepticism is protective ↳ Regulatory approval takes years usually for good reason ↳ Doctors need extensive validation before adoption ↳ Patients want proven solutions, not beta testing 2/ Integration trumps innovation every time ↳ The best tool that no one uses is worthless ↳ Workflow integration matters more than features ↳ EMR compatibility determines adoption rates ↳ Training time is always underestimated 3/ The "cool factor" doesn't predict success ↳ Flashy demos rarely translate to daily use ↳ Simple solutions often outperform complex ones ↳ User interface design beats artificial intelligence ↳ Reliability matters more than cutting-edge features 4/ Reimbursement determines everything ↳ No CPT code = no sustainable business model ↳ Insurance coverage drives provider adoption ↳ Value-based care is changing this slowly ↳ Free trials don't create lasting change 5/ Clinical champions make or break technology ↳ One enthusiastic doctor can drive adoption ↳ Early adopters must see immediate benefits ↳ Word-of-mouth beats marketing every time ↳ Resistance from key stakeholders kills innovations The pattern I've seen: companies build technology for the healthcare system they wish existed, not the one that actually exists. They optimize for TechCrunch headlines instead of clinic workflows. They design for Silicon Valley investors instead of 65-year-old physicians. A successful healthcare technology I've implemented? A simple visit summarization app that saved me time and let me focus on the patient. No fancy interface, very lightweight, integrated into my clinical workflow, effortless to use. Just solved an problem that users had. Healthcare doesn't need more revolutionary technology. It needs evolutionary technology that works within existing systems. ⁉️ What's the simplest technology that's made the biggest difference in your healthcare experience? Sometimes basic beats brilliant. ♻️ Repost if you believe implementation beats innovation in healthcare 👉 Follow me (Reza Hosseini Ghomi, MD, MSE) for realistic perspectives on healthcare technology

Seahorses don’t gallop, and lionfish don’t roar. It’s easy to misjudge something when it sounds similar, & this happens quite often in digital health. Take these examples: 1️⃣Automated Nurse Rostering: Optimizes staff allocation based on shift patterns & availability. 2️⃣Surgical Inventory Tracker: Tracks surgical equipment availability in operating theaters. 3️⃣Clinic Appointment System: Reduces no-shows & streamlines scheduling for outpatient visits. 4️⃣AI-Driven Diabetes Monitoring: Analyzes patient data from wearables to predict & manage diabetes proactively. 5️⃣Telehealth Platform: Enables remote consultations, prescriptions, & follow-ups for rural communities. Which of these are digital health solutions? The answers are 4 & 5. The rest are IT systems used in healthcare. 🔸 IT in healthcare: Optimizes infrastructure, processes, operations. 🔸 Digital health: Empowers patients, transforms care delivery, redefines outcomes. "Just because it’s shiny doesn’t mean it’s gold." Similarly, just because IT (or AI) is involved doesn’t mean its digital health. What if a surgeon designed the Surgical Inventory Tracker? Well, just because a baker made chicken stew doesn’t mean it’s a cake (even if it tastes good). Pre-COVID, I was brought into a “digital health transformation” project at a large hospital group. They had invested heavily in systems like nurse rostering, appointment scheduling & clinical information systems. Yet the leadership was puzzled: “Why don’t patients feel any difference in their care journey?” I asked one simple question. “What would success look like from the patient's perspective?” Within months, we launched: 🔸A telehealth program, reducing travel time for rural families. 🔸An AI tool (pre-ChatGPT) for chronic disease management, empowering patients to track and manage their health. The impact? 🔸Missed appointments dropped by 40%. 🔸Patient satisfaction improved by 25%. But beyond the numbers were the stories: 🔸Mothers gaining back time with their families. 🔸Patients feeling cared for & empowered. Try asking yourself these questions, does your initiative: 🔸Directly empower patients? 🔸Transform care delivery, not just processes? 🔸Integrate seamlessly with other systems? If the answer to all three isn’t yes, it’s probably IT in healthcare. Both IT and digital health are essential and work together. But confusing the two creates misaligned expectations, misplaced priorities. Operational improvements don't necessarily guarantee patient-centered care. Have you seen this confusion between IT & digital health? How can we better align the two to transform care delivery? Let's discuss! #HealthTransformation #Innovation 💡This post is part of 'Rethinking Digital Health Innovation (RDHI)', empowering professionals to drive impactful digital health transformation beyond IT and AI myths. 💡The full series is available at the companion website (URL is in the comments section).

New research published in Healthcare: The Journal of Delivery Science and Innovation by Sonali Saluja et al highlights something we see every day at SCAN’s Healthcare in Action: healthcare outcomes improve when care doesn’t stop at hospital discharge. The paper evaluates a street medicine-based post-discharge program created through a partnership between Cedars-Sinai and Healthcare in Action for patients experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles. The model is simple in concept but profound in implication: meet people where they are, stay connected after discharge, and build continuity for populations that too often experience fragmentation instead of care. At SCAN, we often talk about healthcare needing to move beyond the walls of traditional institutions. This partnership is an example of what that actually looks like in practice. Cedars-Sinai has been an extraordinary partner in advancing a more humane and coordinated approach to caring for some of Los Angeles’ most vulnerable residents, including through direct collaboration, technology integration, and community investment. Thanks to Peter Slavin, MD, Tom Priselac, Sharon Isonaka, Mike Directo, MD, MBA, Craig Kwiatkowski, Nathaniel Jembere, Richard Riggs and others for their engaged partnership. Healthcare in Action’s teams deliver care on sidewalks, in encampments, under bridges, and in places where traditional healthcare systems rarely operate effectively. The work is hard. It is deeply human. And increasingly, it is evidence-based. I’m grateful to the teams at Cedars-Sinai and Healthcare in Action for demonstrating what’s possible when health systems, payers, and street medicine organizations work together around a shared mission. This is the future of community health. And it is already happening in Los Angeles. Read the paper here: https://lnkd.in/gajM6WcW

Healthcare adoption is 10x harder than you think. I’ve worked with founders who built brilliant tech. Only to watch it sit unused. Not because it didn’t work, but because they underestimated the real barriers to adoption. Here’s what gets in the way (well some of things) of HealthTech adoption: Clinician resistance. If your product adds steps, disrupts workflows, or increases liability, expect pushback. Regulatory roadblocks. If you don’t understand compliance from day one, you’ll waste years fixing preventable mistakes. Misaligned incentives. Just because your product improves patient care doesn’t mean hospitals, insurers, or providers will pay for it. The startups that survive don’t just build great tech, they solve for adoption. How? Get inside the hospital. Work alongside clinicians. Shadow them. Understand their pain points before you build. Master the business of healthcare. Know who makes the buying decisions and what drives them. Prove outcomes early. If you can’t show measurable impact, you won’t make it past the pilot stage. In HealthTech, the best product rarely wins. The best-adopted one does.

Excited to share my new article in Medical Buyer magazine! I dive into how integrating medical devices and healthcare can reshape patient outcomes through innovation, accessibility, and smart regulation. Medical devices and healthcare: the next frontier. 1. AI & Robotics Using advanced diagnostics and robotic systems to deliver precision care. 2. Wearable Technology Empowering patients and clinicians with real-time data for proactive treatment. 3. Regulatory Alignment Creating frameworks that nurture innovation while upholding safety. 4. Interdisciplinary Collaboration Ensuring doctors, technicians, and nurses maximize these cutting-edge tools. 5. Urban-Rural Accessibility Bridging gaps in care and bringing state-of-the-art solutions to underserved regions. By focusing on these areas, we can build a stronger, more resilient healthcare ecosystem—one that’s ready to meet the demands of 2025 and beyond.

The most powerful innovations in healthcare don’t always involve artificial intelligence, robotics, or Million-dollar investments. Sometimes, they are a front door. I recently learned about an idea from dementia care in the Netherlands that has stayed with me. Kudos to Herman Singh for making me aware. Instead of identical institutional doors lining endless corridors, some care homes install life-size replicas of residents’ former front doors. Each entrance is unique, familiar, and deeply personal. The impact? Residents are better able to recognize their own rooms, reducing confusion and anxiety while reinforcing independence and dignity. It struck me because it illustrates a lesson we sometimes forget in healthcare innovation: Technology should adapt to people. People should not have to adapt to technology. We often chase complexity when the greatest opportunities lie in understanding human behavior. A thoughtfully designed environment can sometimes achieve what another layer of technology cannot. As healthcare leaders, we spend significant time discussing AI, cloud transformation, automation, and interoperability. Those conversations matter enormously. But innovation should also make us ask a simpler question: What unnecessary friction can we remove for the patient? Whether it’s redesigning a workflow, simplifying a digital experience, or making a care environment more intuitive, the best innovations often feel obvious in hindsight. Because they weren’t designed around the system. They were designed around the human being. That’s a principle worth remembering, regardless of whether you’re designing a hospital, a product, or the next generation of healthcare AI. What’s the simplest innovation you’ve seen create an outsized impact?

In healthcare, innovation isn’t just about shiny apps or breakthrough devices. The most impactful innovations can involve rethinking how an entire system works—while still keeping it running. That’s the challenging truth facing large US health systems like Advocate Health and Sutter Health. With mounting pressures—rising costs, staff shortages, and digital-first competitors—these organizations are finding that focusing only on incremental change won’t cut it. They’re building enterprise-wide innovation ecosystems designed to unlock creativity at scale. I explore what they’re doing in a new article for Forbes (a link is in the Comments below). At Advocate Health, for example, this means going beyond pilot projects or siloed innovation labs. Their approach includes: - Strategic partnerships with startups and accelerators - Internal investment funds and innovation districts - Tech transfer capabilities to bring discoveries to market - Leadership development programs built around tools like Jobs to Be Done, human-centered design, and the business model canvas It’s a significant shift—embedding innovation not just in strategy decks, but in the day-to-day work of solving persistent pain points. Teams aren’t just testing new tech. They’re tackling the real “struggling moments” for patients, clinicians, and administrators alike—from vendor inefficiencies to emergency room backlogs—and redesigning care delivery around those needs. One key lesson? Change happens when innovation teams forge close ties with operational leaders and treat them as co-creators, not gatekeepers. That approach opens the door for adoption and scale—critical in a sector that can be both risk-averse and in dire need of reinvention. In a future where innovation methods are as standard as EHRs and MRIs, standalone “innovation departments” may become obsolete. But, until then, health systems that build these capabilities now will be better equipped to navigate uncertainty—and lead the industry transformation already underway. The takeaway for innovators everywhere: When facing entrenched systems and high stakes, don’t just think different—build systems that work differently.

Traditional healthcare takes weeks to get an appointment for life-saving medication. An AI-powered program in LA just cut that down to 4 hours. The problem is clear. Most unhoused patients struggle with substance use disorders. Life-saving medications exist, but getting an appointment takes weeks. By that time, it's often too late. Akido Labs built an AI platform called ScopeAI to solve this. Here's how it works: ▶︎ 1. AI guides medical assistants through visits The platform walks them through patient interactions in real time, listening and adapting as the conversation unfolds. ▶︎ 2. Clinical reports generated on the spot ScopeAI creates full reports with preliminary diagnoses and treatment plans immediately after each visit. ▶︎ 3. Licensed providers review everything Every recommendation gets checked and approved by a real doctor before any action is taken. ▶︎ 4. One provider oversees entire teams Instead of handling dozens of patients, one provider can now supervise care for thousands. And the results are impressive: - 70% retention rate at 6 months - 40% reduction in emergency department visits - Treatment initiated within 4 hours of first contact But here's what makes this truly remarkable: it's financially sustainable. The program is entirely funded by Medi-Cal, not grants. That means it can scale and last, not disappear when funding dries up. They've already expanded to Kern County and are now launching in the Bay Area. The real innovation isn't just the AI. It's using technology to address the provider shortage while reaching people the system has left behind. Do you think this model can be replicated in other cities or for other underserved populations? #entrepreneurship #healthtech #innovation

#AI adoption in #healthcare doesn’t fail because of technology. It fails because we skip the habits. I’ve watched brilliant clinicians burn out while “cutting-edge” tools gathered dust. I’ve also seen simple, intentional AI deployments quietly save time, restore focus, and improve care. The difference isn’t budget. It’s behavior. After years in the ER and years working in healthcare AI, these are the 7 habits I see in teams that actually make AI work 👇 1️⃣ Be proactive Don’t wait for perfect tools. Learn the basics. Pilot safely. Own the responsibility. 2️⃣ Begin with the end in mind Outcomes first. Mortality. Access. Equity. If the AI doesn’t move those, it’s noise. 3️⃣ Put first things first Automate admin before touching diagnostics. Fix volume problems before chasing complexity. 4️⃣ Think win-win AI + physician beats either alone. Precision improves when trust exists. 5️⃣ Seek first to understand Explainability isn’t optional. If you can’t explain the “why,” you shouldn’t deploy the “what.” 6️⃣ Synergize Medicine is multimodal. Text, images, signals, humans AI works best when combined, not isolated. 7️⃣ Sharpen the saw Models drift. Humans fatigue. Continuous learning protects both patients and clinicians. This framework isn’t about replacing doctors. It’s about protecting humanity while scaling intelligence. Where do you see healthcare AI succeeding or breaking right now? #HealthcareAI #DigitalHealth #HumanCenteredAI #DrGPT

⚡𝗜𝗻 𝗠𝗲𝗱𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵, 𝗰𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝘀𝗺 𝗶𝘀 𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗱𝗼𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘃𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 ⚡   After years spent launching and scaling imaging and digital health businesses, one lesson keeps coming back: in MedTech, crossing the chasm is less about proving the technology than about making adoption operationally inevitable.   Geoffrey Moore’s 𝘊𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘴𝘮 remains one of the clearest frameworks for understanding why strong innovation does not automatically become mainstream adoption.   In MedTech, however, the chasm is often deeper than it looks.   From what I have seen over the years, the hard part is rarely getting early believers interested. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗳𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗿𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗲, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗜𝗧 𝗲𝗻𝘃𝗶𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗰 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆.   That is why so many technologies clear regulatory and technical hurdles… and still struggle to scale.   In healthcare, adoption does not happen because the product is impressive. It happens when several conditions come together: - a very clear use case, - a workflow that does not add friction, - clinical sponsorship, - economic logic that holds, - and an organization able to support the solution over time.   So yes, Moore’s framework still applies, BUT ...   👉 𝗜𝗻 𝗠𝗲𝗱𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝘀𝗺 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁. 𝗜𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗳 𝗼𝗳 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗿𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗮𝗱𝗼𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻.