Stewart Gandolf (Healthcare Success):

Whats up, and welcome to the Healthcare Success Podcast. Right this moment I’ve one other very educated visitor. We will do some issues slightly bit in another way in the present day. So I’ve Vasanta Pundarika on our interview in the present day. She is CEO of Lotuspring.

Welcome, Vasanta.

Vasanta Pundarika (Lotuspring):

Thanks for having me, Stewart.

Stewart Gandolf (Healthcare Success):

You have acquired a very attention-grabbing background. And as we put together in the present day, we’ll speak about easy methods to combine scientific mission with scalable enterprise technique. However you might have a singular perspective. So I needed to start out off for only a second. Inform us about your background and since you’ve completed fairly a number of various things and assist our listeners perceive what it’s you do.

Vasanta Pundarika (Lotuspring):

Yeah, completely. That is, it is loopy to consider, however that is my twentieth 12 months working in well being care. Wow. In order that ages me slightly bit. However I began off in well being care, , earlier than the ACA, earlier than individuals had digital well being document. You recognize, my first few years, I used to be creating these graphs of paper paperwork and paper information that individuals had.

And so it is loopy to consider. However I began off as a well being care funding banker in 2006, and I used to be working with hospitals and well being care techniques, advising them on easy methods to finance constructing new mattress towers. And a few years later, three issues occurred across the similar time.

One was digital well being data changing into one thing that hospitals truly wanted to put money into. And the second was the ACA approaching the scene. And the third was the market crashing. And so hospitals could not actually afford to construct these new mattress towers anymore. So that they began merging collectively. And I did a number of these transactions, merging these hospitals collectively.

And as soon as you have merged many hospitals collectively, you have now have this built-in supply community. After which the subsequent query is, okay, what are we going to do with behavioral well being, house well being, hospice, dialysis, labs?

And so in some unspecified time in the future or the opposite, I’ve labored on transactions throughout the complete healthcare ecosystem, mainly something {that a} well being system would have owned, acquired actually concerned with behavioral well being over time and began actually focusing in on that.

I’m actually concerned with are behavioral well being and girls’s well being. These are the areas I actually need to have an effect on. And the businesses in these two areas, they need assistance promoting, however additionally they need assistance rising. And so I needed to be extra versatile and nimble. And so I began my agency Lotuspring to have the ability to be an advisor to firms in each of these areas and assist them promote, but in addition assist them develop and be able the place I may assistance on each side. I really like that.

And as , we do rather a lot with personal equity-owned suppliers. And in addition, particularly in behavioral well being and girls’s well being as effectively. So hopefully we’ll get to work collectively or I will be capable to consult with you periodically as a result of that is actually one thing we see rather a lot. And we’ll discuss extra offline about that.

However in the present day you needed to speak about integrating the scientific mission with the scalable enterprise technique.

Stewart Gandolf (Healthcare Success):

I might love so that you can perhaps begin by describing the issue as you see it and describe what meaning as effectively.

Vasanta Pundarika (Lotuspring):

Yeah, , and we have all, , once I begin describing this, you are going to suppose, like, oh, I’ve seen that earlier than. We have all seen this occur, proper? Both there are firms which have actually good scientific mission, actually good scientific imaginative and prescient, they usually do not develop it. And so it turns into an organization that is actually positively impacting only a few individuals. You recognize, the people who it is impacting is doing a very good job with, however what about all people else that might profit from this firm?

On the flip facet, now we have a number of firms that basically focus in on advertising and marketing and scaling and constructing this like snazzy large model that they only continue to grow, rising, rising, however with out scientific substance beneath it. And so in some unspecified time in the future, , the corporate flops on prime of itself as a result of, , there is not that connection between advertising and marketing and scientific technique and operations.

So I actually suppose in an effort to construct a protracted -term sustainable enterprise, that is going to maintain on rising, like, out into the longer term and nonetheless be round, , three, 5, ten years from now, it’s essential combine the 2 of these. Like, have {that a} scientific mission, however combine it along with that scalable enterprise technique in order that whenever you’re advertising and marketing, you are truly connecting that in with the operations and the scientific mission of the enterprise.

I simply suppose that that is the way you affect extra sufferers. That is why we’re all in well being care, proper? We’re in well being care to have the ability to positively affect as many sufferers as doable. And when an organization would not work when it fails, you are actually pulling a rug out from beneath these sufferers which have actually put their belief into this firm. And so it’s actually essential from a number of completely different facets to ensure that that scientific mission is built-in with enterprise technique.

Stewart Gandolf (Healthcare Success):

In order that’s nice. And it is humorous as a result of I’ve seen, as you’d count on, each side of this. I’ve seen, , companies that weren’t keen to put money into themselves and simply type of kicked round for years, I’ve seen people who grew too quick with out actually determining what they’ll do with it. And that type of collapses in a extra seen method and doubtless extra painful method, proper?

As a result of it is arduous. Then it’s essential go restore versus simply mounted. However past that, like synchronizing this all collectively, like, why is that so vital? After which particularly how ought to the CEO be concerned with this and to border this of their decision-making internally? And I’ve a comply with -on query of this in a second, however reply that one first.

Vasanta Pundarika (Lotuspring):

Yeah, I imply, I believe it comes again to, like, what’s the product in well being care companies, proper? The product is affected person expertise. And what’s tied into the affected person expertise? So, , clearly, it is well being care companies. They should have actually good scientific care. But additionally, what’s their affected person journey, , what are all of the operational techniques that they are interacting with as they undergo that affected person journey? And, , how are you getting that affected person?

And so if these three completely different facets will not be truly coordinated collectively, then you find yourself in a scenario the place both the corporate would not develop or it would not have a scientific mission or it begins rising with the affected person expertise suffers, proper?

So I do suppose that, , as a CEO, occupied with these facets collectively in an built-in method is actually essential. I usually discuss to CEOs who, , their advertising and marketing group is doing one thing over right here and their operations group is doing one thing over right here and their scientific group is doing one thing over right here. You recognize, as a CEO, like, it’s essential carry all these items collectively and want to consider that in a coordinated vogue.

Stewart Gandolf (Healthcare Success):

So having labored on this enterprise for fairly some time, even longer than you, when a, for instance, like in case you’re speaking about psychological well being otherwise you’re speaking about girls’s well being, a number of these suppliers are multilocation, personal fairness owned. And I all the time say, if a type of companies, a type of companies.

So what I imply by that’s, yeah. Some companies, the CEO could be very strategic, hands-on, has the interior respect to get stuff completed. Different instances, it is like extra of a figurehead. You recognize, the CEO has are available, has been positioned in there, however would not actually have the backing.

Generally the founding docs are nonetheless actually in cost and as issues are being completed by committee. Generally  the CEO, particularly once they get larger, that often falls aside and that is once they want a CEO, however there’s sort of a continuum there.

After which thirdly, the PE firm could be both actually hands-on or actually hands-off.

So I am assuming it’s essential to should navigate by way of that whenever you’re… these points, prefer to carry all people on the identical web page. Is that a problem for you or how does that work?

Vasanta Pundarika (Lotuspring):

I imply, completely. I utterly agree with you, Stewart. Like whenever you’ve seen one in all these companies, you have seen one in all these companies and that is it, proper? Each single one in all these companies is so completely different. That stated, the entire patterns that you just had been simply describing, I’ve additionally seen earlier than. Yeah.

You recognize, conditions the place the physicians are nonetheless answerable for the enterprise, so there is not that one figurehead CEO that is over all people. After which secondly, the place the CEO is only a figurehead and isn’t truly plugged into the technique and the combination of all of this stuff.

So I do suppose each scenario is exclusive, however in case you do not deal with this and you do not deal with the affected person expertise and you do not deal with synchronizing mission and technique, then you find yourself in one in all these pitfalls. So I do suppose it is on the corporate’s board to actually make certain that there’s a CEO in place who can combine all of this stuff collectively and on the corporate’s boards and be asking these questions.

Like what metrics are you truly monitoring for the corporate? Do you might have a number of scientific workers turnover? You recognize, all of this stuff are actually essential that can assist you perceive whether or not, , your mission, your operations are literally transferring in the identical path as the expansion of your organization. And I believe all of it sort of connects collectively.

Stewart Gandolf (Healthcare Success):

So final query earlier than I’m going again to this, a number of the pre -questions we had was, so getting on the identical web page is commonly so essential. Is that like, so I am assuming you might be getting engaged by the CEO, by the board, by anyone else.

Is that always part of you simply to get all people aligned on this entire concept of bringing the scientific and the enterprise technique collectively? And is that simple to do or troublesome to do generally?

Vasanta Pundarika (Lotuspring):

It is not simple to do as a result of it is, , each scenario has completely different personalities, proper? And it goes again to whenever you’ve seen one in all these, you have seen one in all these. And every scenario has completely different individuals concerned. And a title doesn’t imply the identical factor in numerous firms.

So you might have anyone who’s the chief medical officer in three completely different firms and what they really do, what they’re answerable for are very various things. And so you need to take the time to, initially, sit down with the CEO. And that is how I begin with. I begin at most of those engagements with the CEO.

How does your organization work? What’s your organization tradition? Is there a purpose why mission and technique will not be synchronized with one another? Are these teams truly talking to one another or are they utterly separate?

And, , as you carry these two teams collectively, what do you suppose the problems are going to be? What do you suppose the pitfalls are going to be?

As a result of I do suppose it is like a triangle, proper? You have acquired. components that you just all the time speak about everytime you’re occupied with a model. And one in all them is product. So what’s the product right here? The product is the affected person expertise.

And so in case you are the advertising and marketing group and also you’re making an attempt to develop the model, how are you going to do this in case you’re not plugged into what the affected person expertise truly is? And how are you going to do this successfully, proper? You are able to do it, however not successfully. And so it’s actually essential to be plugged into what the affected person skilled, which ties in very on to what the scientific mission and imaginative and prescient is and really on to what are all of the operational techniques which can be in

place to verify there is no friction.

And once I speak about operational techniques, it might be something from, hey, they made an appointment after which they confirmed up and the appointment wasn’t there on the books, proper? Like that could be a large operational friction.

And even on the reverse, they made an appointment, the appointment did not seem. They’re a no-show and that is now an issue for the corporate, , for the affected person and firm. That is an issue for the clinician that was ready for that affected person.

So on both finish, that’s a problem. Or as a affected person, I’ve been on the receiving finish of a textual content message the day earlier than my appointment that requested me to obtain one more app that I then have to recollect the password to only press verify for my appointment. Like, reply one to verify.

I do not need to should obtain one other app that I’ll overlook the password to, proper? And so all of these little factors of, these are all systematic, , operational, systematic points that in the event that they’re all streamlined, and if you concentrate on them from the affected person expertise perspective, that may all assist.

From a advertising and marketing perspective, in case you are not occupied with that affected person expertise, I actually do not perceive how one can successfully market as a result of that affected person expertise is the largest a part of what you may market.

Like, individuals make it simple for you. That is an enormous a part of the model.

Stewart Gandolf (Healthcare Success):

For positive. And it is humorous as a result of we have been speaking about affected person expertise now on this podcast since about 2011 once I spoke at a affected person expertise convention, however now it is lastly getting some traction. I imply, it took endlessly.

They used to have conferences on this. How did we get affected person expertise even being mentioned? And it was like, effectively, I do not care in the event that they like me. I simply need them to get higher. It is like, that is sort of lacking the purpose slightly bit.

In order the…

Vasanta Pundarika (Lotuspring):

And in addition in behavioral well being, in behavioral well being, that is like actually lacking the purpose, proper? As a result of in behavioral well being, if they do not such as you, they don’t seem to be coming again. And, , in behavioral well being, now we have a number of sufferers that we do not simply should persuade them to, , come to us. We additionally should persuade them to get care within the first place.

Stewart Gandolf (Healthcare Success):

Yeah, and I believe the entire concept of affected person expertise and well being care consumerism, it is lastly starting to acknowledge what’s been occurring all alongside. And, , as customers have develop into extra empowered, they acknowledge they’re extra empowered. And so, and finally, lastly kicking and screaming, the supplier’s like, yeah, I suppose they do sort of have a degree. So, , issues are altering.

So, as , one of many issues that, , you are speaking concerning the sorts of firms we each take care of, scaling is all the time one thing that is an essential matter. So generally as organizations develop, how do they be sure that they’ll scale and it would not dilute the scientific mission on the similar time, however truly even it strengthens it.

How do you guys do this?

Vasanta Pundarika (Lotuspring):

So I believe that comes again to, once more, it is like whenever you’ve seen one firm, you have seen one firm. Like, what’s the scientific management of this firm? And ensuring that the entire different techniques are in place in order that it is easy for the affected person and the clinician to see one another and for that care to be delivered.

But additionally, , how do you proceed to construct and develop and recruit extra clinicians which can be purchased into what your scientific imaginative and prescient is, proper? An enormous a part of that’s being very clear about what your scientific mission and what your scientific imaginative and prescient is. And in case you, as you had been rising the corporate, if you do not have that built-in in together with your model, then it is not that clear what your scientific mission is.

So in the event that they’re built-in, then as you develop, each new clinician that joins is aware of precisely what the scientific protocols are.

Stewart Gandolf (Healthcare Success):

So it is so essential to appreciate that.

And we talked slightly bit offline about type of hiring the best individuals, letting the fallacious individuals go. However, and in reality, in our firm, we simply acquired by way of our mission, imaginative and prescient, and values, and we’re our vacation celebration’s in a pair days right here, we’re actually reinforcing the values as a result of we had values earlier than they usually’re nonetheless good values, however like the place we’re and in the present day is slightly bit completely different. So we need to actually focus that.

However I believe in case you do not actually reinforce that, rent for that, reward for that, fireplace for the shortage of it, then it turns into a joke. No one believes it anymore. Like, you may have, I do not know you probably have any feedback on that, however this may be empty guarantees that everyone acknowledges is not actual. The sufferers, the workers, the suppliers, all people.

Vasanta Pundarika (Lotuspring):

Yeah, it is not. It is lack of alignment, proper? I used to be truly simply talking about this with the CEO yesterday. We had been speaking about, , he was saying the costliest selections he is ever made was, , hiring the fallacious individuals and holding onto them too lengthy.

And, , whenever you rent the fallacious individuals that aren’t aligned together with your values and the tradition of your organization and this entire idea that we have been speaking about, which is integrating scientific mission with scalable enterprise technique, they should each consider within the scientific mission and need to scale it, proper?

All of these issues should occur and the corporate worth, it will be very aligned with firm values. And in case you do not rent for that and hold individuals for that, then you find yourself breaking that entire system. and, , I speak about this rather a lot, however there’s, it is actually arduous to, it is actually arduous to return on the idea of sunk prices,

You recognize, when, when you might have paid for one thing or employed somebody and it is not working, , a number of instances I hear individuals say, that is, , it is already spent a lot cash on it. I’ve already spent a lot time coaching this particular person. And so it should be arduous for me to go in a special path.

Properly, this particular person is not working to your firm. You recognize, it is, I imply, their particular person is working to your firm, nevertheless it’s not, like, they don’t seem to be working to your firm tradition, proper? Like, it is not figuring out. After which the system that you’ve in place, like your sufferers do not prefer it or your clinicians do not prefer it. Why are you persevering with to put money into it?

As a result of each single day that you just proceed to put money into one thing that is not working for you, you proceed to have one thing that is not working for you is a day that you just’re persevering with to put money into it, proper?

And so, you proceed to… That is an issue. And, , like simply we got here to slightly corollary, and we simply stated, so one in all our values that we’re actually imposing is loyalty to our shoppers, loyalty to your group, and loyalty to our firm. And we have had individuals which can be loyal to 1 or two of these, however not all three. And it is like, you need to be. It’s important to be. You can’t be loyal to, effectively, I am loyal to the shoppers, however I do not care about my firm or group. Or, firm or I care about my group however I do not care concerning the shoppers of the corporate, like none of that works. It’s important to be constant, and so for us that was an essential worth and I believe you need to be actually clear on this stuff and why it issues a lot and that phrase “loyalty” might sound antiquated in the present day however I believe that is why we would have liked much more, by the way in which, simply saying “so let’s speak about belief,” you talked about that you just alluded to behavioral well being a minute in the past. Inform me about affected person belief and behavioral well being and likewise girls’s well being. Like, what elements matter there?

Vasanta Pundarika (Lotuspring):

Properly, I believe each in behavioral well being and girls’s well being as effectively, which we’ll speak about extra, is these are areas the place there are a number of sufferers that really feel just like the well being care system hasn’t been working for them. And so when you might have a scenario like that they are like these sufferers are looking for somebody to place their belief into, proper?

And in order that affected person belief, like in case you’re a behavioral well being firm otherwise you’re a girl’s well being firm and a affected person involves you and turns into your affected person, that affected person belief is like gold. And it must be treasured in any respect prices, proper? It is actually essential that you just actually nurture that affected person relationship and actually ensure that that affected person stays with you as a result of if in case you break that affected person belief, that is now an individual which may not truly go to a different behavioral well being supplier. They may not go to any behavioral well being supplier, proper?

And the identical factor in girls’s well being. This is likely to be an individual who decides that they’re now not going to be accessing any such well being care as a result of they really feel just like the system is not working for them.

And so I do suppose that simply by the character of these two elements of these two sectors inside healthcare, the place there was a number of disjointedness up to now and a number of healthcare firms which have not likely been offering excessive -quality behavioral well being and haven’t been not truly treating girls’s well being accurately handled, I believe a number of these sufferers are actually hesitant to place their belief in an organization.

And in case you are the corporate that they’ve determined to place their belief into, in case you create model loyalty with them and also you domesticate that affected person expertise, they might be with you for a really very long time.

Stewart Gandolf (Healthcare Success):

 So let’s discuss concerning the girls’s well being. It is humorous, after we had been speaking about this offline, individuals have completely different imaginations or completely different viewpoints on what girls’s well being is. So how would you characterize what girls’s well being is? And is there a special strategy with girls’s well being than the rest, behavioral well being or no matter else?

Vasanta Pundarika (Lotuspring):

I am truly going to share my story of how I acquired into girls’s well being. I had a variety of completely different behavioral well being, I have been in behavioral in a very very long time and I had a variety of completely different shoppers in behavioral well being that had been residential care firms and I stored listening to the identical factor popping out of COVID: “You recognize, our males’s unit has crammed again up however not our girls’s unit.”

And I heard this and I used to be considering, effectively, clearly that may be the case. And, , they’re me like not likely understanding why clearly that may be the case. And I used to be occupied with a number of the people who I do know, a number of the ladies that I do know, they usually’re nervous about their children and their partner and their mother and father and their partner’s mother and father, their job.

You recognize, you have acquired 5 fingers on one hand, 5 issues which you could fear about. They’re however of issues that you just truly do not have power in time to fret about, proper? And these firms had been asking these girls to depart that entire ecosystem that they had been the linchpin of and are available into residential care.

By the point they acquired into that residential care, they had been going to be a way more extreme affected person they usually had been going to be handled as in the event that they had been the identical affected person that may have walked in there earlier, proper?

In order that led to that idea and seeing that occur in entrance of me with shoppers is definitely what led me to start out occupied with clearly we’re lacking girls in behavioral well being. What I used to be simply speaking about is the logistical facet to it. There’s additionally the scientific facet of girls have completely different markers of despair and anxiousness.

And ladies make much less of that enzyme that breaks down alcohol sugars. We additionally make roughly of that enzyme relying on, , the place girls are on their estrogen cycles. And that made me begin considering, like, okay, what else are we lacking in girls’s well being, proper?

As a result of previous to that, I had actually thought of girls’s well being as OBGYN care. However girls’s well being is a lot larger. And when you begin wanting into it, you notice that girls’s well being is definitely the entire well being care from the tops of our heads to the bottoms of our toes.

I used to be simply speaking about behavioral well being, however there’s additionally mind well being. 67 % of Alzheimer’s sufferers are girls. You recognize, an enormous majority of migraine sufferers are girls. Coronary heart well being. You recognize, a number of girls’s coronary heart illness would not present up, initially, with left arm ache, however slightly with jaw ache and nausea, and girls usually have coronary heart assaults with out blocked arteries, orthopedics, the place girls are way more prone to ligament tears, like ACL tears, issues like that. And it goes in all places.

We are able to speak about oncology, we are able to speak about gastroenterology, endocrinology, and so on., and so on., and so on., and so on. Lupus, I simply discovered, is a predominantly girls’s well being subject. Lots of autoimmune that goes into that class.

So what’s girls’s well being is all of well being care for ladies, proper? And it hasn’t been studied individually and hasn’t been cared for individually. And it is one thing that, you now see a number of firms actually focusing in on that.

And there is a number of nationwide dialog about menopause, which is nice as a result of that is actually one thing that everybody can speak about and listen to about and perceive. However there’s so many different issues that go into this as I used to be simply speaking about.

So I do suppose, in the case of behavioral well being inside girls’s well being, so far as there are reproductive modifications that girls have, hormonal modifications that girls have, and likewise how girls relate to behavioral well being is completely different than how males relate to behavioral well being.

Stewart Gandolf (Healthcare Success):

Nice. A complete sea and ocean of issues to speak about right here.

So going again to the enterprise implications of approaching girls’s well being inside behavioral well being, what do you imply by that? Assist me perceive.

Vasanta Pundarika (Lotuspring):

Properly, I believe that to come back at girls’s well being, we want each firms which can be in well being care usually to create—it may well’t simply be a advertising and marketing play. It must even be that that they had like clinically thought of a special method to deal with girls.

So I believe the enterprise implications of approaching girls’s well being particularly inside behavioral well being wants to incorporate each the advertising and marketing and the precise scientific technique and the operations to ensure you’re getting, you are assembly girls the place they’re, proper?

I used to be simply speaking concerning the logistics of residential care, for instance. It’s worthwhile to take into consideration the completely different logistics as effectively. However there are a number of girls that, it is not like you’re going to should take them from one other well being care firm. There are a number of girls on the market which can be truly not getting care in any respect.

And so the enterprise implications of making a girl’s well being line of enterprise inside a bigger firm is an entire new set of sufferers that you might be bringing into your organization.

However it may well’t simply be a advertising and marketing plan. It wants to truly be like an actual factor.

Once more, one in all our shoppers is in Florida and has a big residential remedy heart. We had this precise dialog. And sadly, they acknowledge we won’t simply name ourselves having a Christian group after we’re not likely that. We won’t simply say we’re speaking for ladies if we’re not likely doing that. So I completely agree with that.

You talked about boards earlier and sort of bringing us again to their governance, their monetary stability with scientific priorities. Like, how do you do this half? Is it one thing you do over a time frame? Do you determine goals? Like, how does that every one work?

I believe this comes again to metrics first and alignment. So metrics to me are what, like, what are you monitoring? It might be the CAT ratio. And so I believe that boards must also be seeing a few of these metrics.

I see a number of firms that, initially, do not even observe some of these things. They’re actually centered on the monetary, what are the full variety of appointments that you’ve? Which is a no,

I am not saying that is not an essential metric. That is a crucial metric, however you additionally have to be monitoring the turnover on all this stuff. And I believe boards asking for that kind of data is essential in order that they’ve a greater understanding of what is truly occurring throughout the firm. As a result of in case you begin having this big meteoric rise of the advertising and marketing theme and the advertising and marketing plan and the corporate appears to be like prefer it’s rising, however in the meantime, you are simply getting new appointments in and now these sufferers are coming again. That is a really completely different firm than an organization that has been getting new appointments and repeat appointments again, proper?

And you may’t see that in case you do not ask for these sorts of numbers. So I do suppose, particularly round that metric, we all the time care about it. And I used to be speaking about one in all our large dermatology companies that has hundreds of thousands of {dollars} of potential financial incentive to go to their charts and ensure sufferers are coming again. And if they don’t seem to be, what’s the issue there?

Stewart Gandolf (Healthcare Success):

The final query for in the present day is, what do you see as tendencies? Like by way of this entire concept of scientific mission and scalable enterprise technique and balancing and all that, the place are we going subsequent. I do suppose that you just truly alluded to this earlier.

Vasanta Pundarika (Lotuspring):

I do suppose that buyers have taken a stronger place on this entire dialog as a result of individuals are loud once they do not like one thing they usually’re loud once they like one thing, proper? So a affected person expertise being actually good and actually clean is one thing that individuals are going to speak about to different individuals.

And I believe because of this, firms are beginning to have a look at this imbalance between scientific mission and scalable enterprise technique extra. I do suppose that a number of the traders that I’ve spoken to are actually centered on one sector or the opposite.

And they also usually do not see one thing that occurs in one other sector when there’s an organization that basically grew from advertising and marketing perspective after which fell on itself or collapse on itself. I do not suppose that they see that as a lot, however sufferers do. And so I believe it is actually essential that we ensure that we perceive what sufferers are seeing and the way they’re reacting to those issues.

I additionally suppose that as healthcare continues to evolve, and now we have extra know-how, we have been speaking rather a lot throughout this dialog. We have not talked about AI but, however AI can be going to be an enormous a part of mission and scalable enterprise technique.

However I simply actually suppose that you need to combine each of them in case your purpose is to affect extra sufferers positively, which I do genuinely consider when individuals begin a healthcare enterprise, that’s their purpose.

Stewart Gandolf (Healthcare Success):

Yep. So to wrap of that, I discussed about AI. So when individuals are occupied with AI, that is one thing we take into consideration on a regular basis. So what do you imply whenever you say AI? There’s a lot of completely different variations. And so in healthcare, like one place to look is, okay, how can we automate clerical activity? How can we automate advertising and marketing duties or advertising and marketing issues?

However extra, it is often issues like, how do you reply the cellphone with AI? How do you do your calls of AI? How do you, just like the sufferers and what, , taking notes with the AI so I could be extra current with a affected person if I am a health care provider.

You recognize, there’s different issues like income cycle administration. How can we do this? So there’s many alternative purposes.

However I suppose in case you needed to choose one factor that will get you excited, I’ve mine, however I need to hear you first. Like, what’s the primary factor you suppose will assist the affected person expertise with AI coming ahead? I am curious what you suppose.

Vasanta Pundarika (Lotuspring):

 Oh, that is a giant one: to assist with the affected person expertise?

Stewart Gandolf (Healthcare Success):

 Properly, I can share mine first if you need. Selfishly, the largest downside I’ve needed to resolve in 20 -plus years of doing that is we drive a whole bunch or hundreds of calls they usually cannot reply their cellphone, which is a catastrophe from a advertising and marketing standpoint, nevertheless it’s even worse from the affected person expertise.

And in case you take a look at surveys, I went to a convention a pair weeks in the past and my pal Aaron Clifford from Press Ganey was there. And he requested the viewers, “what is the primary factor individuals will complain about?” and all people across the room shouted out various things.

I am like, scheduling an appointment, that is it. It is the quantity that drives individuals completely insane. It sounds so mundane, nevertheless it’s the stuff that they know. It is the stuff they will really feel.

So the concept of getting AI brokers that may direct sufferers and assist them enroll both on the cellphone or by way of no matter else is a fairly substantial. There’s different issues clearly, however that was mine.

So curious you probably have any ideas.

Vasanta Pundarika (Lotuspring):

To start with, I utterly agree with that. I believe two issues to ask that. One is when you need to fill out your affected person kinds, like 500 instances.

Stewart Gandolf (Heatlhcare Success):

Oh, there you go too. That is a very good one. Yeah, that is a terrific one.

Vasanta Pundarika (Lotuspring):

It simply could be a lot simpler in case you may have AI do this. After which generally I’ve to fill it out earlier than I’m going to an appointment. After which I’ve to fill out it once more once I present as much as the appointment. After which generally on paper, too, whereas I am bodily there, I am like, why am I doing this so many instances? I already gave you an identical info.

So I discover that to be irritating. And I do know I am occupied with it from a affected person perspective, however I do discover it helpful to consider the friction within the well being care system from like once I truly work together with the with the well being care system as a result of that is once I truly get to see what’s truly occurring.

After which I do suppose on the reimbursement facet, there’s rather a lot that may be completed there to cut back friction for sufferers.

I, for instance, harm my knee. This cellphone name got here and informed me that my MRI was not approved. And I am able the place I didn’t need to additionally pay for that, however I may have if that was the case.

However I additionally knew that it had already been approved. So I informed him that, the one that referred to as me. And I believe that decision was a name like did not have to be made, proper? And if AI will help us resolve that problem, as a result of that decision may have been made to somebody who couldn’t have afforded to pay for the MRI if it hadn’t been approved. And that may have put them in a very robust spot.

Stewart Gandolf (Heatlhcare Success):

Yeah, I agree.

Vasanta Pundarika (Lotuspring):

And so I believe if a few of these sorts of issues could be alleviated by way of AI, that may be superb. In addition to there’s a number of issues that we miss within the well being care system as a result of individuals are not capable of, individuals are not handed off with a heat handoff, like leaving from one kind of care, one facet of care to a different facet of care with the listing of individuals they need to name versus already having an appointment made for them or eager to entry one thing in the midst of the evening the place there won’t be somebody on a name heart or one thing like that.

If we are able to alleviate all of these sorts of friction factors, that may even be big.

Stewart Gandolf (Healthcare Success):

Superior. Superb. Yeah. Vasanta, how do individuals attain you in the event that they need to community with you or inquire about what you do?

Vasanta Pundarika (Lotuspring):

Yow will discover me on LinkedIn.

Stewart Gandolf (Healthcare Success):

All proper. Superior. Hey, Vasanta, it has been nice working with you in the present day. It has been actually enjoyable. I hope we get to work collectively someday sooner or later as effectively.

Vasanta Pundarika (Lotuspring):

I am wanting ahead to it. Thanks a lot, Stewart.

Stewart Gandolf (Healthcare Success):

Whats up, and welcome to the Healthcare Success Podcast. Right this moment I’ve one other very educated visitor. We will do some issues slightly bit in another way in the present day. So I’ve Vasanta Pundarika on our interview in the present day. She is CEO of Lotuspring.

Welcome, Vasanta.

Vasanta Pundarika (Lotuspring):

Thanks for having me, Stewart.

Stewart Gandolf (Healthcare Success):

You have acquired a very attention-grabbing background. And as we put together in the present day, we’ll speak about easy methods to combine scientific mission with scalable enterprise technique. However you might have a singular perspective. So I needed to start out off for only a second. Inform us about your background and since you’ve completed fairly a number of various things and assist our listeners perceive what it’s you do.

Vasanta Pundarika (Lotuspring):

Yeah, completely. That is, it is loopy to consider, however that is my twentieth 12 months working in well being care. Wow. In order that ages me slightly bit. However I began off in well being care, , earlier than the ACA, earlier than individuals had digital well being document. You recognize, my first few years, I used to be creating these graphs of paper paperwork and paper information that individuals had.

And so it is loopy to consider. However I began off as a well being care funding banker in 2006, and I used to be working with hospitals and well being care techniques, advising them on easy methods to finance constructing new mattress towers. And a few years later, three issues occurred across the similar time.

One was digital well being data changing into one thing that hospitals truly wanted to put money into. And the second was the ACA approaching the scene. And the third was the market crashing. And so hospitals could not actually afford to construct these new mattress towers anymore. So that they began merging collectively. And I did a number of these transactions, merging these hospitals collectively.

And as soon as you have merged many hospitals collectively, you have now have this built-in supply community. After which the subsequent query is, okay, what are we going to do with behavioral well being, house well being, hospice, dialysis, labs?

And so in some unspecified time in the future or the opposite, I’ve labored on transactions throughout the complete healthcare ecosystem, mainly something {that a} well being system would have owned, acquired actually concerned with behavioral well being over time and began actually focusing in on that.

I’m actually concerned with are behavioral well being and girls’s well being. These are the areas I actually need to have an effect on. And the businesses in these two areas, they need assistance promoting, however additionally they need assistance rising. And so I needed to be extra versatile and nimble. And so I began my agency Lotuspring to have the ability to be an advisor to firms in each of these areas and assist them promote, but in addition assist them develop and be able the place I may assistance on each side. I really like that.

And as , we do rather a lot with personal equity-owned suppliers. And in addition, particularly in behavioral well being and girls’s well being as effectively. So hopefully we’ll get to work collectively or I will be capable to consult with you periodically as a result of that is actually one thing we see rather a lot. And we’ll discuss extra offline about that.

However in the present day you needed to speak about integrating the scientific mission with the scalable enterprise technique.

Stewart Gandolf (Healthcare Success):

I might love so that you can perhaps begin by describing the issue as you see it and describe what meaning as effectively.

Vasanta Pundarika (Lotuspring):

Yeah, , and we have all, , once I begin describing this, you are going to suppose, like, oh, I’ve seen that earlier than. We have all seen this occur, proper? Both there are firms which have actually good scientific mission, actually good scientific imaginative and prescient, they usually do not develop it. And so it turns into an organization that is actually positively impacting only a few individuals. You recognize, the people who it is impacting is doing a very good job with, however what about all people else that might profit from this firm?

On the flip facet, now we have a number of firms that basically focus in on advertising and marketing and scaling and constructing this like snazzy large model that they only continue to grow, rising, rising, however with out scientific substance beneath it. And so in some unspecified time in the future, , the corporate flops on prime of itself as a result of, , there is not that connection between advertising and marketing and scientific technique and operations.

So I actually suppose in an effort to construct a protracted -term sustainable enterprise, that is going to maintain on rising, like, out into the longer term and nonetheless be round, , three, 5, ten years from now, it’s essential combine the 2 of these. Like, have {that a} scientific mission, however combine it along with that scalable enterprise technique in order that whenever you’re advertising and marketing, you are truly connecting that in with the operations and the scientific mission of the enterprise.

I simply suppose that that is the way you affect extra sufferers. That is why we’re all in well being care, proper? We’re in well being care to have the ability to positively affect as many sufferers as doable. And when an organization would not work when it fails, you are actually pulling a rug out from beneath these sufferers which have actually put their belief into this firm. And so it’s actually essential from a number of completely different facets to ensure that that scientific mission is built-in with enterprise technique.

Stewart Gandolf (Healthcare Success):

In order that’s nice. And it is humorous as a result of I’ve seen, as you’d count on, each side of this. I’ve seen, , companies that weren’t keen to put money into themselves and simply type of kicked round for years, I’ve seen people who grew too quick with out actually determining what they’ll do with it. And that type of collapses in a extra seen method and doubtless extra painful method, proper?

As a result of it is arduous. Then it’s essential go restore versus simply mounted. However past that, like synchronizing this all collectively, like, why is that so vital? After which particularly how ought to the CEO be concerned with this and to border this of their decision-making internally? And I’ve a comply with -on query of this in a second, however reply that one first.

Vasanta Pundarika (Lotuspring):

Yeah, I imply, I believe it comes again to, like, what’s the product in well being care companies, proper? The product is affected person expertise. And what’s tied into the affected person expertise? So, , clearly, it is well being care companies. They should have actually good scientific care. But additionally, what’s their affected person journey, , what are all of the operational techniques that they are interacting with as they undergo that affected person journey? And, , how are you getting that affected person?

And so if these three completely different facets will not be truly coordinated collectively, then you find yourself in a scenario the place both the corporate would not develop or it would not have a scientific mission or it begins rising with the affected person expertise suffers, proper?

So I do suppose that, , as a CEO, occupied with these facets collectively in an built-in method is actually essential. I usually discuss to CEOs who, , their advertising and marketing group is doing one thing over right here and their operations group is doing one thing over right here and their scientific group is doing one thing over right here. You recognize, as a CEO, like, it’s essential carry all these items collectively and want to consider that in a coordinated vogue.

Stewart Gandolf (Healthcare Success):

So having labored on this enterprise for fairly some time, even longer than you, when a, for instance, like in case you’re speaking about psychological well being otherwise you’re speaking about girls’s well being, a number of these suppliers are multilocation, personal fairness owned. And I all the time say, if a type of companies, a type of companies.

So what I imply by that’s, yeah. Some companies, the CEO could be very strategic, hands-on, has the interior respect to get stuff completed. Different instances, it is like extra of a figurehead. You recognize, the CEO has are available, has been positioned in there, however would not actually have the backing.

Generally the founding docs are nonetheless actually in cost and as issues are being completed by committee. Generally  the CEO, particularly once they get larger, that often falls aside and that is once they want a CEO, however there’s sort of a continuum there.

After which thirdly, the PE firm could be both actually hands-on or actually hands-off.

So I am assuming it’s essential to should navigate by way of that whenever you’re… these points, prefer to carry all people on the identical web page. Is that a problem for you or how does that work?

Vasanta Pundarika (Lotuspring):

I imply, completely. I utterly agree with you, Stewart. Like whenever you’ve seen one in all these companies, you have seen one in all these companies and that is it, proper? Each single one in all these companies is so completely different. That stated, the entire patterns that you just had been simply describing, I’ve additionally seen earlier than. Yeah.

You recognize, conditions the place the physicians are nonetheless answerable for the enterprise, so there is not that one figurehead CEO that is over all people. After which secondly, the place the CEO is only a figurehead and isn’t truly plugged into the technique and the combination of all of this stuff.

So I do suppose each scenario is exclusive, however in case you do not deal with this and you do not deal with the affected person expertise and you do not deal with synchronizing mission and technique, then you find yourself in one in all these pitfalls. So I do suppose it is on the corporate’s board to actually make certain that there’s a CEO in place who can combine all of this stuff collectively and on the corporate’s boards and be asking these questions.

Like what metrics are you truly monitoring for the corporate? Do you might have a number of scientific workers turnover? You recognize, all of this stuff are actually essential that can assist you perceive whether or not, , your mission, your operations are literally transferring in the identical path as the expansion of your organization. And I believe all of it sort of connects collectively.

Stewart Gandolf (Healthcare Success):

So final query earlier than I’m going again to this, a number of the pre -questions we had was, so getting on the identical web page is commonly so essential. Is that like, so I am assuming you might be getting engaged by the CEO, by the board, by anyone else.

Is that always part of you simply to get all people aligned on this entire concept of bringing the scientific and the enterprise technique collectively? And is that simple to do or troublesome to do generally?

Vasanta Pundarika (Lotuspring):

It is not simple to do as a result of it is, , each scenario has completely different personalities, proper? And it goes again to whenever you’ve seen one in all these, you have seen one in all these. And every scenario has completely different individuals concerned. And a title doesn’t imply the identical factor in numerous firms.

So you might have anyone who’s the chief medical officer in three completely different firms and what they really do, what they’re answerable for are very various things. And so you need to take the time to, initially, sit down with the CEO. And that is how I begin with. I begin at most of those engagements with the CEO.

How does your organization work? What’s your organization tradition? Is there a purpose why mission and technique will not be synchronized with one another? Are these teams truly talking to one another or are they utterly separate?

And, , as you carry these two teams collectively, what do you suppose the problems are going to be? What do you suppose the pitfalls are going to be?

As a result of I do suppose it is like a triangle, proper? You have acquired. components that you just all the time speak about everytime you’re occupied with a model. And one in all them is product. So what’s the product right here? The product is the affected person expertise.

And so in case you are the advertising and marketing group and also you’re making an attempt to develop the model, how are you going to do this in case you’re not plugged into what the affected person expertise truly is? And how are you going to do this successfully, proper? You are able to do it, however not successfully. And so it’s actually essential to be plugged into what the affected person skilled, which ties in very on to what the scientific mission and imaginative and prescient is and really on to what are all of the operational techniques which can be in

place to verify there is no friction.

And once I speak about operational techniques, it might be something from, hey, they made an appointment after which they confirmed up and the appointment wasn’t there on the books, proper? Like that could be a large operational friction.

And even on the reverse, they made an appointment, the appointment did not seem. They’re a no-show and that is now an issue for the corporate, , for the affected person and firm. That is an issue for the clinician that was ready for that affected person.

So on both finish, that’s a problem. Or as a affected person, I’ve been on the receiving finish of a textual content message the day earlier than my appointment that requested me to obtain one more app that I then have to recollect the password to only press verify for my appointment. Like, reply one to verify.

I do not need to should obtain one other app that I’ll overlook the password to, proper? And so all of these little factors of, these are all systematic, , operational, systematic points that in the event that they’re all streamlined, and if you concentrate on them from the affected person expertise perspective, that may all assist.

From a advertising and marketing perspective, in case you are not occupied with that affected person expertise, I actually do not perceive how one can successfully market as a result of that affected person expertise is the largest a part of what you may market.

Like, individuals make it simple for you. That is an enormous a part of the model.

Stewart Gandolf (Healthcare Success):

For positive. And it is humorous as a result of we have been speaking about affected person expertise now on this podcast since about 2011 once I spoke at a affected person expertise convention, however now it is lastly getting some traction. I imply, it took endlessly.

They used to have conferences on this. How did we get affected person expertise even being mentioned? And it was like, effectively, I do not care in the event that they like me. I simply need them to get higher. It is like, that is sort of lacking the purpose slightly bit.

In order the…

Vasanta Pundarika (Lotuspring):

And in addition in behavioral well being, in behavioral well being, that is like actually lacking the purpose, proper? As a result of in behavioral well being, if they do not such as you, they don’t seem to be coming again. And, , in behavioral well being, now we have a number of sufferers that we do not simply should persuade them to, , come to us. We additionally should persuade them to get care within the first place.

Stewart Gandolf (Healthcare Success):

Yeah, and I believe the entire concept of affected person expertise and well being care consumerism, it is lastly starting to acknowledge what’s been occurring all alongside. And, , as customers have develop into extra empowered, they acknowledge they’re extra empowered. And so, and finally, lastly kicking and screaming, the supplier’s like, yeah, I suppose they do sort of have a degree. So, , issues are altering.

So, as , one of many issues that, , you are speaking concerning the sorts of firms we each take care of, scaling is all the time one thing that is an essential matter. So generally as organizations develop, how do they be sure that they’ll scale and it would not dilute the scientific mission on the similar time, however truly even it strengthens it.

How do you guys do this?

Vasanta Pundarika (Lotuspring):

So I believe that comes again to, once more, it is like whenever you’ve seen one firm, you have seen one firm. Like, what’s the scientific management of this firm? And ensuring that the entire different techniques are in place in order that it is easy for the affected person and the clinician to see one another and for that care to be delivered.

But additionally, , how do you proceed to construct and develop and recruit extra clinicians which can be purchased into what your scientific imaginative and prescient is, proper? An enormous a part of that’s being very clear about what your scientific mission and what your scientific imaginative and prescient is. And in case you, as you had been rising the corporate, if you do not have that built-in in together with your model, then it is not that clear what your scientific mission is.

So in the event that they’re built-in, then as you develop, each new clinician that joins is aware of precisely what the scientific protocols are.

Stewart Gandolf (Healthcare Success):

So it is so essential to appreciate that.

And we talked slightly bit offline about type of hiring the best individuals, letting the fallacious individuals go. However, and in reality, in our firm, we simply acquired by way of our mission, imaginative and prescient, and values, and we’re our vacation celebration’s in a pair days right here, we’re actually reinforcing the values as a result of we had values earlier than they usually’re nonetheless good values, however like the place we’re and in the present day is slightly bit completely different. So we need to actually focus that.

However I believe in case you do not actually reinforce that, rent for that, reward for that, fireplace for the shortage of it, then it turns into a joke. No one believes it anymore. Like, you may have, I do not know you probably have any feedback on that, however this may be empty guarantees that everyone acknowledges is not actual. The sufferers, the workers, the suppliers, all people.

Vasanta Pundarika (Lotuspring):

Yeah, it is not. It is lack of alignment, proper? I used to be truly simply talking about this with the CEO yesterday. We had been speaking about, , he was saying the costliest selections he is ever made was, , hiring the fallacious individuals and holding onto them too lengthy.

And, , whenever you rent the fallacious individuals that aren’t aligned together with your values and the tradition of your organization and this entire idea that we have been speaking about, which is integrating scientific mission with scalable enterprise technique, they should each consider within the scientific mission and need to scale it, proper?

All of these issues should occur and the corporate worth, it will be very aligned with firm values. And in case you do not rent for that and hold individuals for that, then you find yourself breaking that entire system. and, , I speak about this rather a lot, however there’s, it is actually arduous to, it is actually arduous to return on the idea of sunk prices,

You recognize, when, when you might have paid for one thing or employed somebody and it is not working, , a number of instances I hear individuals say, that is, , it is already spent a lot cash on it. I’ve already spent a lot time coaching this particular person. And so it should be arduous for me to go in a special path.

Properly, this particular person is not working to your firm. You recognize, it is, I imply, their particular person is working to your firm, nevertheless it’s not, like, they don’t seem to be working to your firm tradition, proper? Like, it is not figuring out. After which the system that you’ve in place, like your sufferers do not prefer it or your clinicians do not prefer it. Why are you persevering with to put money into it?

As a result of each single day that you just proceed to put money into one thing that is not working for you, you proceed to have one thing that is not working for you is a day that you just’re persevering with to put money into it, proper?

And so, you proceed to… That is an issue. And, , like simply we got here to slightly corollary, and we simply stated, so one in all our values that we’re actually imposing is loyalty to our shoppers, loyalty to your group, and loyalty to our firm. And we have had individuals which can be loyal to 1 or two of these, however not all three. And it is like, you need to be. It’s important to be. You can’t be loyal to, effectively, I am loyal to the shoppers, however I do not care about my firm or group. Or, firm or I care about my group however I do not care concerning the shoppers of the corporate, like none of that works. It’s important to be constant, and so for us that was an essential worth and I believe you need to be actually clear on this stuff and why it issues a lot and that phrase “loyalty” might sound antiquated in the present day however I believe that is why we would have liked much more, by the way in which, simply saying “so let’s speak about belief,” you talked about that you just alluded to behavioral well being a minute in the past. Inform me about affected person belief and behavioral well being and likewise girls’s well being. Like, what elements matter there?

Vasanta Pundarika (Lotuspring):

Properly, I believe each in behavioral well being and girls’s well being as effectively, which we’ll speak about extra, is these are areas the place there are a number of sufferers that really feel just like the well being care system hasn’t been working for them. And so when you might have a scenario like that they are like these sufferers are looking for somebody to place their belief into, proper?

And in order that affected person belief, like in case you’re a behavioral well being firm otherwise you’re a girl’s well being firm and a affected person involves you and turns into your affected person, that affected person belief is like gold. And it must be treasured in any respect prices, proper? It is actually essential that you just actually nurture that affected person relationship and actually ensure that that affected person stays with you as a result of if in case you break that affected person belief, that is now an individual which may not truly go to a different behavioral well being supplier. They may not go to any behavioral well being supplier, proper?

And the identical factor in girls’s well being. This is likely to be an individual who decides that they’re now not going to be accessing any such well being care as a result of they really feel just like the system is not working for them.

And so I do suppose that simply by the character of these two elements of these two sectors inside healthcare, the place there was a number of disjointedness up to now and a number of healthcare firms which have not likely been offering excessive -quality behavioral well being and haven’t been not truly treating girls’s well being accurately handled, I believe a number of these sufferers are actually hesitant to place their belief in an organization.

And in case you are the corporate that they’ve determined to place their belief into, in case you create model loyalty with them and also you domesticate that affected person expertise, they might be with you for a really very long time.

Stewart Gandolf (Healthcare Success):

 So let’s discuss concerning the girls’s well being. It is humorous, after we had been speaking about this offline, individuals have completely different imaginations or completely different viewpoints on what girls’s well being is. So how would you characterize what girls’s well being is? And is there a special strategy with girls’s well being than the rest, behavioral well being or no matter else?

Vasanta Pundarika (Lotuspring):

I am truly going to share my story of how I acquired into girls’s well being. I had a variety of completely different behavioral well being, I have been in behavioral in a very very long time and I had a variety of completely different shoppers in behavioral well being that had been residential care firms and I stored listening to the identical factor popping out of COVID: “You recognize, our males’s unit has crammed again up however not our girls’s unit.”

And I heard this and I used to be considering, effectively, clearly that may be the case. And, , they’re me like not likely understanding why clearly that may be the case. And I used to be occupied with a number of the people who I do know, a number of the ladies that I do know, they usually’re nervous about their children and their partner and their mother and father and their partner’s mother and father, their job.

You recognize, you have acquired 5 fingers on one hand, 5 issues which you could fear about. They’re however of issues that you just truly do not have power in time to fret about, proper? And these firms had been asking these girls to depart that entire ecosystem that they had been the linchpin of and are available into residential care.

By the point they acquired into that residential care, they had been going to be a way more extreme affected person they usually had been going to be handled as in the event that they had been the identical affected person that may have walked in there earlier, proper?

In order that led to that idea and seeing that occur in entrance of me with shoppers is definitely what led me to start out occupied with clearly we’re lacking girls in behavioral well being. What I used to be simply speaking about is the logistical facet to it. There’s additionally the scientific facet of girls have completely different markers of despair and anxiousness.

And ladies make much less of that enzyme that breaks down alcohol sugars. We additionally make roughly of that enzyme relying on, , the place girls are on their estrogen cycles. And that made me begin considering, like, okay, what else are we lacking in girls’s well being, proper?

As a result of previous to that, I had actually thought of girls’s well being as OBGYN care. However girls’s well being is a lot larger. And when you begin wanting into it, you notice that girls’s well being is definitely the entire well being care from the tops of our heads to the bottoms of our toes.

I used to be simply speaking about behavioral well being, however there’s additionally mind well being. 67 % of Alzheimer’s sufferers are girls. You recognize, an enormous majority of migraine sufferers are girls. Coronary heart well being. You recognize, a number of girls’s coronary heart illness would not present up, initially, with left arm ache, however slightly with jaw ache and nausea, and girls usually have coronary heart assaults with out blocked arteries, orthopedics, the place girls are way more prone to ligament tears, like ACL tears, issues like that. And it goes in all places.

We are able to speak about oncology, we are able to speak about gastroenterology, endocrinology, and so on., and so on., and so on., and so on. Lupus, I simply discovered, is a predominantly girls’s well being subject. Lots of autoimmune that goes into that class.

So what’s girls’s well being is all of well being care for ladies, proper? And it hasn’t been studied individually and hasn’t been cared for individually. And it is one thing that, you now see a number of firms actually focusing in on that.

And there is a number of nationwide dialog about menopause, which is nice as a result of that is actually one thing that everybody can speak about and listen to about and perceive. However there’s so many different issues that go into this as I used to be simply speaking about.

So I do suppose, in the case of behavioral well being inside girls’s well being, so far as there are reproductive modifications that girls have, hormonal modifications that girls have, and likewise how girls relate to behavioral well being is completely different than how males relate to behavioral well being.

Stewart Gandolf (Healthcare Success):

Nice. A complete sea and ocean of issues to speak about right here.

So going again to the enterprise implications of approaching girls’s well being inside behavioral well being, what do you imply by that? Assist me perceive.

Vasanta Pundarika (Lotuspring):

Properly, I believe that to come back at girls’s well being, we want each firms which can be in well being care usually to create—it may well’t simply be a advertising and marketing play. It must even be that that they had like clinically thought of a special method to deal with girls.

So I believe the enterprise implications of approaching girls’s well being particularly inside behavioral well being wants to incorporate each the advertising and marketing and the precise scientific technique and the operations to ensure you’re getting, you are assembly girls the place they’re, proper?

I used to be simply speaking concerning the logistics of residential care, for instance. It’s worthwhile to take into consideration the completely different logistics as effectively. However there are a number of girls that, it is not like you’re going to should take them from one other well being care firm. There are a number of girls on the market which can be truly not getting care in any respect.

And so the enterprise implications of making a girl’s well being line of enterprise inside a bigger firm is an entire new set of sufferers that you might be bringing into your organization.

However it may well’t simply be a advertising and marketing plan. It wants to truly be like an actual factor.

Once more, one in all our shoppers is in Florida and has a big residential remedy heart. We had this precise dialog. And sadly, they acknowledge we won’t simply name ourselves having a Christian group after we’re not likely that. We won’t simply say we’re speaking for ladies if we’re not likely doing that. So I completely agree with that.

You talked about boards earlier and sort of bringing us again to their governance, their monetary stability with scientific priorities. Like, how do you do this half? Is it one thing you do over a time frame? Do you determine goals? Like, how does that every one work?

I believe this comes again to metrics first and alignment. So metrics to me are what, like, what are you monitoring? It might be the CAT ratio. And so I believe that boards must also be seeing a few of these metrics.

I see a number of firms that, initially, do not even observe some of these things. They’re actually centered on the monetary, what are the full variety of appointments that you’ve? Which is a no,

I am not saying that is not an essential metric. That is a crucial metric, however you additionally have to be monitoring the turnover on all this stuff. And I believe boards asking for that kind of data is essential in order that they’ve a greater understanding of what is truly occurring throughout the firm. As a result of in case you begin having this big meteoric rise of the advertising and marketing theme and the advertising and marketing plan and the corporate appears to be like prefer it’s rising, however in the meantime, you are simply getting new appointments in and now these sufferers are coming again. That is a really completely different firm than an organization that has been getting new appointments and repeat appointments again, proper?

And you may’t see that in case you do not ask for these sorts of numbers. So I do suppose, particularly round that metric, we all the time care about it. And I used to be speaking about one in all our large dermatology companies that has hundreds of thousands of {dollars} of potential financial incentive to go to their charts and ensure sufferers are coming again. And if they don’t seem to be, what’s the issue there?

Stewart Gandolf (Healthcare Success):

The final query for in the present day is, what do you see as tendencies? Like by way of this entire concept of scientific mission and scalable enterprise technique and balancing and all that, the place are we going subsequent. I do suppose that you just truly alluded to this earlier.

Vasanta Pundarika (Lotuspring):

I do suppose that buyers have taken a stronger place on this entire dialog as a result of individuals are loud once they do not like one thing they usually’re loud once they like one thing, proper? So a affected person expertise being actually good and actually clean is one thing that individuals are going to speak about to different individuals.

And I believe because of this, firms are beginning to have a look at this imbalance between scientific mission and scalable enterprise technique extra. I do suppose that a number of the traders that I’ve spoken to are actually centered on one sector or the opposite.

And they also usually do not see one thing that occurs in one other sector when there’s an organization that basically grew from advertising and marketing perspective after which fell on itself or collapse on itself. I do not suppose that they see that as a lot, however sufferers do. And so I believe it is actually essential that we ensure that we perceive what sufferers are seeing and the way they’re reacting to those issues.

I additionally suppose that as healthcare continues to evolve, and now we have extra know-how, we have been speaking rather a lot throughout this dialog. We have not talked about AI but, however AI can be going to be an enormous a part of mission and scalable enterprise technique.

However I simply actually suppose that you need to combine each of them in case your purpose is to affect extra sufferers positively, which I do genuinely consider when individuals begin a healthcare enterprise, that’s their purpose.

Stewart Gandolf (Healthcare Success):

Yep. So to wrap of that, I discussed about AI. So when individuals are occupied with AI, that is one thing we take into consideration on a regular basis. So what do you imply whenever you say AI? There’s a lot of completely different variations. And so in healthcare, like one place to look is, okay, how can we automate clerical activity? How can we automate advertising and marketing duties or advertising and marketing issues?

However extra, it is often issues like, how do you reply the cellphone with AI? How do you do your calls of AI? How do you, just like the sufferers and what, , taking notes with the AI so I could be extra current with a affected person if I am a health care provider.

You recognize, there’s different issues like income cycle administration. How can we do this? So there’s many alternative purposes.

However I suppose in case you needed to choose one factor that will get you excited, I’ve mine, however I need to hear you first. Like, what’s the primary factor you suppose will assist the affected person expertise with AI coming ahead? I am curious what you suppose.

Vasanta Pundarika (Lotuspring):

 Oh, that is a giant one: to assist with the affected person expertise?

Stewart Gandolf (Healthcare Success):

 Properly, I can share mine first if you need. Selfishly, the largest downside I’ve needed to resolve in 20 -plus years of doing that is we drive a whole bunch or hundreds of calls they usually cannot reply their cellphone, which is a catastrophe from a advertising and marketing standpoint, nevertheless it’s even worse from the affected person expertise.

And in case you take a look at surveys, I went to a convention a pair weeks in the past and my pal Aaron Clifford from Press Ganey was there. And he requested the viewers, “what is the primary factor individuals will complain about?” and all people across the room shouted out various things.

I am like, scheduling an appointment, that is it. It is the quantity that drives individuals completely insane. It sounds so mundane, nevertheless it’s the stuff that they know. It is the stuff they will really feel.

So the concept of getting AI brokers that may direct sufferers and assist them enroll both on the cellphone or by way of no matter else is a fairly substantial. There’s different issues clearly, however that was mine.

So curious you probably have any ideas.

Vasanta Pundarika (Lotuspring):

To start with, I utterly agree with that. I believe two issues to ask that. One is when you need to fill out your affected person kinds, like 500 instances.

Stewart Gandolf (Heatlhcare Success):

Oh, there you go too. That is a very good one. Yeah, that is a terrific one.

Vasanta Pundarika (Lotuspring):

It simply could be a lot simpler in case you may have AI do this. After which generally I’ve to fill it out earlier than I’m going to an appointment. After which I’ve to fill out it once more once I present as much as the appointment. After which generally on paper, too, whereas I am bodily there, I am like, why am I doing this so many instances? I already gave you an identical info.

So I discover that to be irritating. And I do know I am occupied with it from a affected person perspective, however I do discover it helpful to consider the friction within the well being care system from like once I truly work together with the with the well being care system as a result of that is once I truly get to see what’s truly occurring.

After which I do suppose on the reimbursement facet, there’s rather a lot that may be completed there to cut back friction for sufferers.

I, for instance, harm my knee. This cellphone name got here and informed me that my MRI was not approved. And I am able the place I didn’t need to additionally pay for that, however I may have if that was the case.

However I additionally knew that it had already been approved. So I informed him that, the one that referred to as me. And I believe that decision was a name like did not have to be made, proper? And if AI will help us resolve that problem, as a result of that decision may have been made to somebody who couldn’t have afforded to pay for the MRI if it hadn’t been approved. And that may have put them in a very robust spot.

Stewart Gandolf (Heatlhcare Success):

Yeah, I agree.

Vasanta Pundarika (Lotuspring):

And so I believe if a few of these sorts of issues could be alleviated by way of AI, that may be superb. In addition to there’s a number of issues that we miss within the well being care system as a result of individuals are not capable of, individuals are not handed off with a heat handoff, like leaving from one kind of care, one facet of care to a different facet of care with the listing of individuals they need to name versus already having an appointment made for them or eager to entry one thing in the midst of the evening the place there won’t be somebody on a name heart or one thing like that.

If we are able to alleviate all of these sorts of friction factors, that may even be big.

Stewart Gandolf (Healthcare Success):

Superior. Superb. Yeah. Vasanta, how do individuals attain you in the event that they need to community with you or inquire about what you do?

Vasanta Pundarika (Lotuspring):

Yow will discover me on LinkedIn.

Stewart Gandolf (Healthcare Success):

All proper. Superior. Hey, Vasanta, it has been nice working with you in the present day. It has been actually enjoyable. I hope we get to work collectively someday sooner or later as effectively.

Vasanta Pundarika (Lotuspring):

I am wanting ahead to it. Thanks a lot, Stewart.