Becker's Hospital Review

44 WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP POPULATION HEALTH Health innovation insider: 7 rapid-fire Qs with Henry Ford Health System innovation chief Lisa Prasad By Katie Adams O ne of the reasons Lisa Prasad, vice president and chief in- novation officer at Detroit-based Henry Ford Health System, enjoys her job is that it presents "limitless" opportunities, with new challenges constantly emerging. When the healthcare industry faced the COVID-19 pandemic, Ms. Prasad was an integral part of Henry Ford's response efforts. She be- came the health system's vice president and chief innovation officer in April, a role that requires her to lead technology development as well as guide corporate business, product and commercialization ventures. "It is an amazing privilege to be at the center of both harnessing the data we have inside the institutions that create these tools and to be the receptor for the new technologies that are being created," she told Becker's Hospital Review in August. Below, Ms. Prasad shares her rapid-fire thoughts on healthcare inno- vation amid the pandemic, from insight about Henry Ford's innova- tion efforts to what she thinks is the biggest obstacle impeding further improvements in the field. Editor's note: Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and style. Question: What COVID-19 data dashboard do you find yourself checking the most? Lisa Prasad: For public dashboards, it's split between John Hopkins and e New York Times. For internal dashboards, it's been inpatient census ventilator utilization and supply chain. Q: If you had to choose just one, which one of your orga- nization's IT achievements has made you the most proud during the pandemic? LP: Telemedicine success rolling out video visits for ambulatory care as well as communications solutions for inpatients who were unable to have visitors. Q: In what ways do you think the pandemic has catalyzed innovation in health IT? LP: Incredible new solutions have been introduced, and we have rap- idly overcome adoption hurdles. At the fundamental level, however, the pandemic has gotten us back to our values and priorities as they should be. We did projects with a different view of the return on in- vestment. We collaborated better, solved problems together, struggled together and survived together. Q: How do you think the pandemic has shined a greater light on predictive analytics? LP: Predictive analytics is now an expected part of nearly every digital innovation and is being applied across the board. One example that stands out has been our ability to leverage Henry Ford's incredible public health sciences team as they utilized predictive analytics to help us track COVID and plan for the upcoming weeks as we navigated the worst of our first surge. Q: How would you most like to see health IT further adapt to the pandemic? LP: I would like to see increased leveraging of technology and analytics to enhance remote care and education, and to promote healthcare eq- uity across our community. is requires us to think critically not only about creating new products, services and payment models, but also about implementing them in a way that promotes inclusion and access. Q: What's been the biggest roadblock to COVID-19 innovation? LP: Our clinicians and staff throughout the system are tired. It's hard to find the institutional energy to pursue new innovations while still in battle mode with COVID. At the same time, our patients' lives are getting worse through continued joblessness, food insecurity and oth- er societal barriers exacerbated by COVID. e need for innovative solutions has never been greater. Q: What are the first words that come to mind when you think about your innovation team's response to COVID-19? LP: Nimble, responsive, persistent. n Physician named first CMO of NYC health agency By Kelly Gooch M ichelle Morse, MD, was tapped as the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's first CMO. Dr. Morse, an internal medicine hospitalist, will also serve as deputy commissioner for the health department's Cen- ter for Health Equity and Community Wellness. She will succeed Torian Easterling, MD, who was appointed to serve as the health department's first deputy commissioner and chief equity officer last September. "Dr. Morse's experience has combined the best of public health, social medicine, anti-racism education and activ- ism," the city's health commissioner, Dave Chokshi, MD, said in a Feb. 16 news release. "Health equity requires leaders who propel change, and I am grateful that she has joined the department to help us create a healthier, more equitable, city." Dr. Morse is co-founder of EqualHealth, a Brookline, Mass.- based nonprofit organization focused on health equity, and an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. She also previously served as deputy CMO of Partners in Health, a nonprofit organization based in Boston, and serves on its board of directors. She was a Howard Hiatt Global Health Equity resident in internal medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston from 2008 to 2012. n

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