The Game-Changing Women of Healthcare | Sue Schade: Own Your Own Career

Today, on our second episode, host Meg Escobosa welcomes Sue Schade, a Principal at Starbridge Advisors and interim CIO at Boston Children’s Hospital.

Show Notes

The Game-Changing Women of Healthcare

Episode 2 - Sue Schade: “Own your Own Career”

Today, on our second episode, host Meg Escobosa welcomes Sue Schade, a Principal at Starbridge Advisors and interim CIO at Boston Children’s Hospital.

Meg and Sue discuss Sue’s early days in paper-based health data as a chart secretary and programmer; The evolution of health IT over 35+ years; The essential role of IT teams in making a difference in healthcare; Sue’s legacy as a role model developing the next generation of health IT leaders; What will enable increased diversity in health IT leadership; Some of the risks Sue has taken & lessons learned; The importance of finding mentors & what Sue learned about being a more effective leader; Sue’s observations about the evolution of Healthcare, C-Suite, information technology roles; and Promising healthcare startups that intend to increase access to basic and virtual healthcare.

About Sue Schade:

Sue Schade, is a Principal at Starbridge Advisors, a consulting firm that provides IT leadership advisory and interim management services to healthcare organizations. Sue has over 35 years of experience in healthcare information technology management. She has served as interim CIO for many distinguished organizations, including the University of Vermont Health Network, Stony Brook Medicine on Long Island, University Hospitals in Cleveland, Ohio and most recently for Boston Children's Hospital.

Prior to this, for almost 13 years, she served as CIO for Brigham & Women’s Hospital and then moved on to become the CIO of the University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Centers for several years. In 2015, under Sue's leadership, the University of Michigan Health System made the “HealthCare’s Most Wired” list and achieved the HIMSS Analytics EMR Adoption Model Stage 6. That same year, she won the “CHIME-HIMSS John E. Gall, Jr. CIO of the Year Award.”

Sue is currently serving as the Vice Chair of Health IT for the board of the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation® (AAMI) which is a nonprofit organization focused on the development, management, and use of safe and effective health technology. Sue achieved fellow status with both HIMSS and CHIME for which she also served as a board member.

In addition, Sue is an investor/advisor to two organizations: Excelerate Health Ventures which is helping to usher in innovation in the realm of virtual care, and AlyxHealth, a platform that enables nurses and non-physician clinicians to deliver patient care as independent business owners and entrepreneurs by providing virtual, mobile, and primary care.

LinkedIn | Twitter: @sgschade

Find Sue’s weekly blog, HealthIT Connect, HERE!

Episode Credits:

The Game-Changing Women of Healthcare is a production of The Krinsky Company.

Hosted by Meg Escobosa.

Produced, edited, engineered, and mixed by Calvin Marty.

Theme music composed and performed by Calvin Marty.

Intro and outro voiced by John Parsons.

Artwork by Paul Huber.

Creators & Guests

Host

Meg Escobosa

Meg Escobosa has 15 years of innovation consulting experience, focusing on the unique challenges of healthcare since 2012. For The Krinsky Company, Meg leads client engagements overseeing advisory board design, creation and management. She also leads industry research, expert recruitment and trend analysis to support corporate innovation initiatives centered on the future of healthcare. Her background in innovation and strategy consulting began at IdeaScope Associates where she was involved all aspects of strategic innovation initiatives including understanding the voice of the customer, industry research and aligning the executive team to invest in promising strategic growth opportunities. Meg received her BA in Latin American Studies from Trinity College in Hartford and her MBA in sustainable management from the pioneering Master’s degree program, Presidio Graduate School. She is also on the board of a non-profit foundation focused on researching and developing technology to support a sustainable society. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and two teenage daughters.

Producer

Calvin Marty

A man of many hats, Calvin Marty is a Podcast Producer, Editor, Engineer, Voice Actor, Actor, Composer, Singer/Songwriter, Musician, and Tennis Enthusiast. Calvin produces, engineers, edits, mixes, and scores The Game-Changing Women of Healthcare. Calvin is also the creator of the 2020 podcast, irRegular People, among others. Find his music under the names Calvin Marty, Billy Dubbs, Nature Show, and The Sunken Ship. Over his long career as an actor, Calvin's has voiced many Radio and TV commercials for a wide-range of companies and products and has appeared in small on-camera roles on shows such as Chicago Fire and Empire.

What is The Game-Changing Women of Healthcare?

The Game-Changing Women of Healthcare is a podcast featuring exceptional women making an impact in healthcare today. We celebrate our guests’ accomplishments, setbacks, and the lessons they've learned throughout their careers. We dig into the many healthcare issues we face today and how these innovative leaders are working to solve them. Join host Meg Escobosa in conversation with some of the many brilliant, courageous women on the front lines of the future of health.

 
Sue Schade: [00:00:00] You need to let go and be willing to delegate, if you want to grow in your career. You have to give up on perfectionism. I think you need to consider everything, a learning opportunity. Again, tough situations, easy situations: you're constantly learning. And own your own career. No matter who's advising you, given you input at the end of the day, you have to make those decisions and own your own career.  

John Parsons (ANNCR): You're listening to The Game-Changing Women of Healthcare, a podcast, [00:00:30] celebrating courage, perseverance, creativity, and vision in the pursuit of healthcare innovation. Join host Meg Escobosa in conversation with some of the most inspiring and forward-thinking women working in healthcare today. Meg goes behind the scenes to uncover previously untold stories of struggle and success in a notoriously complex and highly regulated.  

As the worlds of healthcare and [00:01:00] technology continue to converge. And as women take on increasingly more important roles in both, these are timely tales that deserve to be told. And now here's your host, Meg Escobosa.
 
Meg Escobosa: Hello everyone. And welcome to The Game-Changing Women of Healthcare. I'm your host, Meg Escobosa.  

Today we have Sue Schade, a nationally recognized healthcare information technology leader. She is a principal at Starbridge [00:01:30] Advisors, a consulting firm that provides IT leadership advisory and interim management services to healthcare organization. Sue has over 35 years of experience in healthcare information, technology management.  

She has served as interim CIO for many distinguished organizations, including the university of Vermont Health Network, Stony Brook Medicine on Long Island University, hospitals in Cleveland, Ohio, and most recently for Boston Children's Hospital. Prior to this for almost 13 years, [00:02:00] she served as CIO for Brigham and Women's Hospital, and then moved on to become the CIO of the university of Michigan hospitals and health centers.  

For several years during her leadership, the University of Michigan Health System made healthcare's most wired list in 2015 and achieved the hymns analytics, EMR adoption model stage six. That same year she won the Chime Hymns, John E. Gal Jr. CIO of the year award. She is currently serving as the [00:02:30] vice chair of Health IT for the board of the association for the advancement of medical instrumentation, which is a nonprofit organization focused on the development management and use of safe and effective health technology SU achieve fellow status with both hymns and chime for which is also served as a board member.  

In addition, Sue is an investor and advisor to two organizations, Accelerate Health Ventures, helping to usher in innovation in the realm of virtual care [00:03:00] and Alex Health, a platform that enables nurses and non-physician clinicians to deliver patient care as independent business owners by providing virtual mobile and primary care.  

Welcome Sue! We're so fortunate to have this opportunity to talk with you. Thank you for making the time to share insights about what it takes to change the game in healthcare today. 
Sue Schade: Thank you, Meg. It's a pleasure to be talking with you.  

Meg Escobosa: Terrific.Um, so, you know, we are just thrilled because we get to [00:03:30] speak to a lot of great people in healthcare.  

Um, but you know, it's always interesting to hear what got you started. What were you hoping to accomplish when you got into healthcare?  

Sue Schade: You know, I don't know that I had a specific goal of what I wanted to accomplish when I got into health care. Uh, I'll take it way back in the way back machine. I had family members who were in healthcare as clinicians and early in my  working career, shall we say both in high school and in college years I worked [00:04:00] in a nursing home and I worked in a hospital. This is before I ever thought about IT. I was a nurse aid to begin with. And then I was what was called then a Chart Secretary. So if you can picture, instead of all the computer dependency that we have now within healthcare, this was the chart secretary in a hospital on a unit would basically transcribe the doctor's orders from paper—okay—onto med cards and onto labs [00:04:30] lifts and other procedure ordering slips. So we had to read difficult to read handwriting. So this was way before everything was computerized.  

At a later point, decided to go into it. And that was in the late seventies when it was really a low barrier and the whole field was booming. I learned to be a programmer in seven different languages and started my IT career in healthcare as a [00:05:00] programmer and progressed from there. I have always been passionate about making a difference in people's lives and working for healthcare provider organization certainly fulfills that fashion. As I always tell my IT teams, we don't touch the patients, but we're part of the extended care team. And we provide the solutions and support that those caregivers and clinicians need to take care of the patients.

So, you [00:05:30] know, we are part of that. Um, you know, making a difference every day in people’s lives.  
Meg Escobosa: That's amazing. I love that, where you started: what an incredible arc to go from the paper to where you are today and all that that happened in between. It's really a stunning shift. So that's amazing.

What innovation or accomplishment or impact in healthcare are you most proud of?
 
Sue Schade: I have seen a tremendous change in evolution of technology in [00:06:00] healthcare, in my—I guess if you do the math, I got into IT in the early eighties. I say I have over 35 years in health sites and management. I was not a programmer for long before I moved into management, but I guess if you do the math, it's approaching 40 years and healthcare and technology just continue to evolve and evolve at a very rapid pace.  

So I've been part of many, um, really critical initiatives for all the organizations that I've worked on [00:06:30] and proud of a lot of what we've accomplished with the IT teams that I have worked with them led. When I think about my legacy, I think my legacy is about leadership and it's about being a role model for the next generation of leaders in particular for women.  

And I am just passionate about developing next generation leaders and some of the work that I love doing in between doing interim work or at the same time that I'm doing interim work is coaching, [00:07:00] Leadership coaching for many different people within health IT, and, uh, I get joy out of that. I think I'm providing something useful to them and, you know, that's where I think I probably made the greatest differences from a leadership perspective and a role model as a woman.  

Meg Escobosa: I love that. Um, we really are inspired by that kind of commitment to leadership and passing on your insights and what it takes to lead. Um, I know you have an expression— [00:07:30] “You can't be what you can't see.”— to kind of illustrate the importance of diverse leadership. What do you believe will enable greater diversity in IT leadership in healthcare?
 
Sue Schade: That is a great question. And I'm glad you asked it because it is—one of the things that I'm also committed to is not just developing next generation leaders in particular and seeing more women move into those leadership roles, but diversity, equity and inclusion, broadly. And one of the things [00:08:00] that I participate in right now is the Chime.
 
So Chime is the College of Health Information Management Executives. It's really the professional association of health IT leaders. And there is a committee which is the DEI committee, diversity equity and inclusion. And when I became aware of their work in the past year, I decided that I would join that and contribute where I can.
 
That committee is really trying to raise awareness and educate IT leaders as to [00:08:30] how we are more inclusive and how we build a more diverse workforce. And IT leadership teams within our organizations. It’s everyone thinking that way, whether you are a woman, whether you are a person of color, whether you are a white male, we all need to be part of this solution and part of that community.  
And, and I think that that kind of work and raising awareness and being able to discuss the tough stuff is— [00:09:00] is critical to making that happen.
 
Meg Escobosa: And do you think there is progress happening? Does it feel like there's opportunity being created?
 
Sue Schade: There's progress…there's opportunities—but there's so much more that we could be doing.  
I think if you just look at the numbers, IT and health IT, in terms of leadership roles are dominantly white men and, uh, that's changing. [00:09:30]
 
Meg Escobosa: Uh, well, you know, I appreciate that acknowledgement because one of our tasks when working with clients is to bring in diverse perspectives to guide their strategies.
 
And we put it upon ourselves to ensure that we're bringing not just a group of the same types, you know, mostly men…and we do—we've put together advisory boards of CEOs and it is challenging to identify, although in the US I feel like there is progress. [00:10:00] Um, we were able to identify some wonderful, incredible, incredibly accomplished women CEOs, but abroad, it's more challenging, I’ve noticed. It feels like it's, um, less obvious. So I don't know if you've worked on the global scale, but we certainly have been. I'm working hard at that to represent all kinds of people in the C suite in it. So…
 
Sue Schade: That's great. I applaud you for that. And I don't, I don't have that global perspective to comment on. [00:10:30] I'm speaking primarily that…  

Meg Escobosa: Right. Great. So could you share a story about any risks that you may have taken that might've fallen flat and what did you learn? And, and, uh, has this been incorporated into what fuels and guides you today?
 
Sue Schade: Yeah, the story that comes to mind is a recent one and it kind of ties into what we were just talking about, but I'm sure I've got many over time.
 
Probably some of them are just some of the opportunities that I've gone [00:11:00] for that I didn’t get…that might've been risky to put myself forward for, but I thought, why not? Um, I, you know, I could be as qualified as the next person to, to go for that, which is a whole different conversation. When you think about, in fact from a career perspective, how men versus women tend to approach, should I go for that or not?  Am I qualified? Am I ready? But I wasn't going to talk about that example. I actually was going to talk about a different example and that's a service that we [00:11:30] launched. A couple of years ago within my firm, Starbridge Advisors called Sea Change and something I'm passionate about in terms of developing women leaders in health.  

It, so we created this focus service that was going to be a combination of online courses and team-building and consulting work with organizations to help them address some of the issues that women face in health it and help them to build up their workforce as well as more individual coaching for. At [00:12:00] different points in their career.
 
So I had this idea, I was passionate about it. I thought there was a need. Another one of our advisors who shared that vision—she and I together shaped this, launched it, tried to market it, and it really didn't think off as expected. Why is that? So we took a risk. It just didn't take off, I think a combination of some competition, potentially other places that people could go for that.
 
And just, you know, how strong was our marketing effort, but you know, this. The need is [00:12:30] still there for those kinds of services. And, you know, I'm just trying to find some other ways to get there.  
Meg Escobosa: Good for you for taking that risk and trying it, I mean, is it kind of on the back burner and something you might consider relaunching? Or no: let folks find their way and you'll devote your energies into other services, the main services of Starbridge Advisors?
 
Sue Schade: It could be one of those two paths, potentially relaunch when I've got some more time and focus to do that, [00:13:00] or, you know, find other ways. Yeah
.  
Meg Escobosa: Wonderful. Tell me about Sturbridge Advisors.
 
Sue Schade: So we are a firm that is coming up on our five year, birthday in early October.  
We launched in fall of 2016. We are a Health IT advisory firm that provides interim management advisory services and consulting and leadership coaching. There's three principals. I'm one of them along with David Munson, Russ Brutish. [00:13:30] Our model basically is that we have senior, very experienced IT leaders working with us as independent contractors.

We have over 40 senior people who have experienced either as CIS. CTO chief technology officer, chief information security officer, chief medical information officer, chief nursing information officer, VP of application development—all those top levels, senior positions. We have a few people who are at the director level and subject [00:14:00] matter experts as well.  
We put people out on engagements depending on our clients. We've had really a good several years working together and helping provide organizations around the country. We focus on provider organizations, but we also do work with startups in the health IT space, and very established vendors who may be looking to get into a new market startups who are looking for help with their go to market strategy.  
Considering that we've been there and we've been in there, we've been in the buyer. [00:14:30] And organization so we can help them with that. So a range of advisory services and interim management really is our core focus. And as we talk about on this podcast, I've done several interims and currently wrapping up my most recent.
 
Meg Escobosa: Wow. It's such a unique niche in the market that you have sort of tapped into and a huge I'm sure, huge value to organizations that get access to your team. So it's wonderful to hear about. Congratulations. 

Sue Schade: [00:15:00] Thank you. Thank you. It's been great. There's people on the team who want to a lot of full-time interim work and others who wants at this point in their career, shorter engagements and less hours.  And we did find that right balance of their skills and what they're looking for.
 
Meg Escobosa: And yet another example of “creating a category.” You're really creating a new field here.
 
Sue Schade: Yeah, it’s wonderful. Thank you.  

Meg Escobosa: Very cool. Who are some of your biggest influencers [00:15:30] or mentors?
 
Sue Schade: That is another great question. A person that I would often mention when asked this would be John Glasser.  I think that he's a leader. He's got his own legacy in the health IT world. It's interesting younger folks in health often don't necessarily recognize his name. If you're of my generation, you recognize his name. He was the CIO at what used to be called Partners Healthcare in Boston for many, many, many years.

[00:16:00]Started as the CIO of Brigham and Women's hospital. And then when Partners was formed, he would mass general and Brigham in the mid nineties, he took on that role. I say formerly called that because Partners has rebranded. It is now called Mass General Brigham MGB, which doesn't always roll right off the tongue.
 
So John, John hired me. He was the CIO. What was then Partners. And I started January, whatever. The first Monday in January of [00:16:30] 2000 was right after Y2K. So he hired me in, in late 99 as the CIO of Brigham and women's hospital. And he was there through 2010. So I had 10 years of working for him, with them, partnering with him.
 
And I found John to be just an incredible leader and mentor. He got it. As in supportive of women, I sometimes credit the fact that he was so supportive of women leaders [00:17:00] and understood some of the challenges to the fact that he was raising three daughters who I think were high school age. At that time, when I worked with him, they are all grown and their own careers now, but there was that component.  

But aside from that, he was the kind of leader who would provide guidance, broadly, and then let you run with it and you own it. Right. And if you needed his support and advice, he was always there. If you stumbled, he was there to support you and help you figure it out. [00:17:30] So I just, you know, of all the people that I've worked for, I, I put John very high on that list.
 
I also worked for when I was the CIO at Brigham several leading women, Kate Walsh. The COO at Brigham and women's hospital for a period of time. And, and my boss, she left there and became the CEO at Boston medical center. She's still there. I learned a tremendous amount from her, just an incredibly down to earth, practical problem solving kind of [00:18:00] person.
 
It was interesting to hear her perspective on the role of the COO. And I think it was following her though. I may have my timing off Marade Hickey, who was the chief nurse officer at. For a long time then became the chief operating officer. And I worked for her as well. I learned a lot from Marade, as well.  
So I mean, I can just kind of go back over my career and think about some of the really influential leaders and mentors that I worked for. And, [00:18:30] you know, it's, it's also learning from and appreciating people who believe in. Right. Yeah, they may be formal informal mentors, but there are people who believe in you and can help you.
 
Meg Escobosa: You know, I was going to ask you, uh, was there, was it just that you were lucky and you got these great people to work for? Or is there something about you paying attention to recognizing, ah, this person can teach me a lot. [00:19:00] I'm going to pay attention to them. You know, I know there's a—probably a combination of things, but the idea that you had the perception and the awareness and intuition to recognize great leadership to some of us find ourselves in a sea of maybe not great leaders. And so we have to forge on our own and go find them elsewhere in our workplaces from then our workplaces. Luckily, that's not my story.

Um, but I know that there are certainly people who don't have that.  And I'm curious if there was anything more that helped you [00:19:30] recognize great leadership or are you just lucky?
 
Sue Schade: No, I'm not just lucky. I'm not just lucky. I think that, you know, you can pick who your leader is. If you are being recruited and in a search, right. And you can say, for that organization, and I want to work for that person, the hiring person. Where you can say, Hmm, that one's not right.  
I don't think that's going to be, I don't think we're going to get [00:20:00] along. I don't think that's what I want my boss to be. I always tell people when you're in the search process, it's a two way street. They're evaluating you. You were evaluating them. And if you're, oh, you have to own your own career and your own decisions.  

When the case of John—when that opportunity was there. And I got to know John and I knew of him prior to meeting him in the interview process. Of course I wanted to work with him. So, you know, he picked me and I picked him. Right. Uh, in the case of both Kate and Moraine, that was part of organization leadership.[00:20:30]  

So when I first started, there was a different CLL that I was reporting to and CFO that I was reporting to at Brigham. And then as time went on and people, you know, last coming down, I was, you know, I was then reporting to Kate who I didn't choose a Morale if I didn't choose yet. I saw that these were both leaders that I can learn a tremendous amount from.  And, so I think, you know, I'm not going to name the ones in my career that I would say are on the [00:21:00] opposite end of the spectrum, but I have them five, 10 people that I've worked for that I wouldn't have picked. You learn, you learn from every experience though. You learn from everyone and you learn from every experience.  I fully believe that good, bad, easy, and tough.
 
Meg Escobosa: Indeed, indeed. And actually, speaking of that, how has your leadership evolved over the 35 years of your career? Could you say, I mean, do you think it [00:21:30] has yeah.
 
Sue Schade: The 35, is that number, that number I'm proud of? Yeah, it clearly has. I think that there was a point now, anybody who knows me, well, it's going to go, come on.
 
So you could say that, but there was a point where I think it was ‘task-focused’ versus ‘people-focused’ and yes, anybody who knows me now, is like, no, Sue, you're still on task. You get things done and you get people to get things done. Of course I do. But the [00:22:00] people part of leadership is so critical. And I think that I evolve fairly over time.
 
And as I moved up in organizations and I moved to different organizations and then doing interim stints as a whole unique kind of opportunity in terms of leadership, which I've truly enjoyed, this is the fourth one at Boston children's since 16, when I left university of Michigan health system. But what I was going to say.  
You know, back to the coaching. I had a coach for an executive coach for a period of time when I was at Brigham. And I think [00:22:30] that's one of the key things I had been given. Some feedback. My boss had been given some feedback in terms of my leadership style. And I think, you know, one of the things that my coach was able to help me do was move from that task.
 
Chop, chop, get things done, kind of. Push push to more openness collaboration, build the relationships with people. So it's really, I guess, another way to look at it is, you know, being more controlling yeah. [00:23:00] And evolving to being much more collaborative, being more. I have to own it all. I have to do it. I can do it.
 
To really the partnerships that you need. So, uh, I hope that's concrete and tangible enough to help people as they think about who am I here? This, we think about their own experiences. And I will, I will tell you what's been really wonderful as both a mother and a business person with the career [00:23:30] is to see my two daughters who are 40 and 40.
 
As they have grown in their career. And one of them who does not want to ever manage people and wants to, and I think really likes to do things for herself and do it well. Um, which, you know, you're going to work with teams and manage people. You've got to be able to delegate. You've got to be able to let go.  
You're going to be able to say. [00:24:00] I'm going to, I'm going to help them. I'll support them, but they can do it. And I'll go all the way back to when she was maybe in fourth grade and she came home and she'd talked about a team assignment she had and how no one was pulling their weight. No one was doing anything to help on this team assignment.  

She was just going to do it. And I thought to myself then, and I said, That will not serve you. Well, as you grow up, you need to work, learn to work with the team and for them to pull their weight. You can't just do it all. So [00:24:30] parents and young children, it all plays out in the end.
 
Meg Escobosa: That's amazing. Yeah. I see the straight line.  Um, speaking of that, what words of advice or wisdom can you offer the next generation of change-makers who may be at the earlier stages of the career and thinking about making an impact?

Sue Schade: I might cheat and go back to a blog I wrote a few years ago. I do write a weekly blog. It’s called Health IT [00:25:00] connect.  Maybe you can put that in the show notes. And the link to it. I cover a lot of different topics, a lot on leadership, a lot on women and work. And I said, you know, here are my 10 tips for next generation leaders. So I'm just going to run through them quickly. Okay. For sure.

Find a mentor, find a mentor or mentors.  You can't do it all yourself.

You need to be, let go and be willing to delegate as we were just talking about, if you want to grow in your career.

You’ve got to give up on perfectionism. [00:25:30] That's not saying that perfectionism is the enemy of good. I think that's important, particularly important message for women who may be more prone to perfectionism.  

I think it's important to ask for feedback. You learn from all the feedback, whether it's easy or hard to take you learn from that feedback. I think you need to consider everything a learning opportunity. Again, tough situations, easy situations. You're constantly learning. You already quoted me: be open to the possible.[00:26:00]  

I think that's really important from a career perspective as you've grown and develop. I always say to people, you know, jobs that weren't there five, 10 years ago, jobs that aren't here today that are going to be there in five and 10 years, you know, open to the possibilities as things continue to evolve and change at work.  

Work-life balance. Or life-work balance as my colleague, David Munson at Starbridge Advisors likes to call it. I like that. It is a challenge for everyone. And don't give up right. To just keep you keep [00:26:30] working at it. I may say things, but then I don't do them. So don't, don't watch me listen to me, but you know, we all, we all struggle with that.  

I think, you know, if you are in healthcare, you've probably heard PDCA: plan do check Act. Thinking about that in terms of improvement and your own improvement of yourself, be a continuous learner.

And as I said, own your own career, no matter who's advising you, given you input at the end of the day, you have to make [00:27:00] those decisions and own your own.
 
Meg Escobosa: Wonderful. Awesome advice. And yes, I have seen your blog. It is wonderful. It's I just love that it's got such a variety of topics. I love, you know, the window into what's in your world. Uh, sounds like there's a move coming.
 
Sue Schade: There was a move that was last week. Yeah. Did you like the image that was with it?

Meg Escobosa: Buried in boxes. 

Sue Schade: Yeah. Yeah. Buried in boxes.
 
Meg Escobosa: Yeah. Um, so, and, [00:27:30] and besides the move, what is the next big problem that you are hoping to tackle that you can share with us?
 
Sue Schade: Yeah. You know, at this point in my career with the real focus on helping develop next generation leaders and what we already talked about helping achieve more diversity within IT leadership ranks in healthcare.

I am part of the chime diversity equity and inclusion committee, as I already mentioned. So, giving some time and energy to that. [00:28:00] And you also mentioned in my introduction, my involvement as an advisor and investor in Alex health, I'm really excited about Alex Health and where it can go.  
It is shifts in both the clinical workforce in terms of empowering nurses and advanced practice nurses to provide care and create their own virtual practices in their communities to provide. On the patient's side, it should increase access to [00:28:30] basic care. And in particular in underserved communities, but you look at healthcare in rural communities, provide access to basic healthcare and virtual health care in with alternative settings and to alternative providers.
 
So looking at both the nursing workforce, many of whom are leaving or who are burning out. Who are aging out and the needs on the other side, in terms of access to health care. So [00:29:00] it's a great model when I talked to the CEO and founder, Tim Smart back early this year, and he, he found me through connections in the Boston area and started telling me about the mission and the whole model.  
I was like, I was, I was in, you know, I think we have something truly needed and disruptive here. So. We'll see how that takes off.
 
Meg Escobosa: It sounds amazing. I mean, it is really decentralizing care. I mean, it's bringing character directly to the communities in which is needed or [00:29:30] where there's little access. 
That is super exciting. Good luck with that. And we look forward, we'll keep an eye on how things go and excited to hear more about that. We are very interested in innovation. We love stories about innovation. So this one clearly is on that path.

Could you answer three statements that we have that we're asking all of our guests? And, um, one of them is:  
“Innovation means…” and [00:30:00] I'll let you answer and then we'll go to the other ones. Sure. So Innovation means:
 
Sue Schade: At a very basic level it's new ideas and it's thinking differently. It's not the way we've always done. Take that to a higher level. It's really about change and disruption. And I think the disruptive nature of innovation is probably what's most bending to people.  
I mean, people don't necessarily like change either, but when you think about disruption, that's threatening, but you know, we wouldn't be where we are in 21 with all [00:30:30] the advances in every industry, including healthcare. Uh, if not for innovation...
 
Meg Escobosa: The most exciting innovations in the healthcare industry are:  

Sue Schade: I'm going to start with artificial intelligence, AI, which may be, gets overused at times, but I think it's still yet to come, how we can leverage artificial intelligence for better healthcare and to take certain burden off of our healthcare workers.  
I think [00:31:00] that in addition to that, The increased focus on the patient experience. Patient as a consumer in recent years is critical. That's going to continue. And I think that an increased focus and awareness of clinicians burning out and that we need to make their lives easier and more efficient is the other component.  

And 18 months of COVID however many months it is. Only highlights that physician burnout. Clinician burnout was an issue [00:31:30] before that…is just so much greater now. So to the extent that within healthcare and particularly within technology, we can offset any of that and help I think is critical.
 
Meg Escobosa: Wonderful. The most essential ingredients to healthcare innovation are…  

Sue Schade: I'd actually say a couple of things. I've seen a lot of different models in organizations they really vary from in terms of innovation centers, more externally [00:32:00] focused, more internally focused. I think it's important that they're very grounded solving real problems. I think that partnership is key partnership.  

I'll make it really concrete: between the chief innovation officer-the CIO-and the chief information officer. The kind of CIO that I am and have been is critical. And I think that everyone in an organization has to have an innovation mindset, not [00:32:30] just the official innovation.
 
Meg Escobosa: Terrific. Um, you know, it's funny, we, of course, encounter a lot of innovation in the world and we're seeing so much change happen in the hospitals leadership.  
There are more and more, and I know you've talked about this a little bit. The blending of roles, the evolution in the CIO, in the C suite, just chief innovation officer, chief information and innovation officer, chief digital officer. [00:33:00] It's kind of fascinating and it just reflects the demands and the transformation that's happening in healthcare today.
 
And just the rise in technology. Do you have any opinion or take on where this is going? I'd be curious to hear what you think about that.
 
Sue Schade: I think there can be position inflation in organizations and when organizations are a lot more flush, maybe C suite positions get created. [00:33:30] And I'm not saying that the need is not there, but to have a separate chief digital officer, chief analytics, officer data officer, I think you see some contracting now for a couple of reasons.  

I think some contracting and combining of those positions is happening because financially organizations can't maybe afford that inflation position. I think you're also seeing that it's dependent on the individual. So one trend is [00:34:00] CIO chief information officers are taking on additional roles.  
They're becoming chief information and innovation officer, chief information and digital officer, chief information and data officer chief information and analytics officer. I mean, I've seen all of those and that can happen when the person wants that and is ready for that. And the executives in the organization see that that person can do it.  

I think another trend is. Bringing in sometimes the chief digital officer, chief clinical [00:34:30] and digital officer, chief health information officer over the CIO, someone who can be broader, more strategic and the CIO maybe gets relegated to more of the tactical. Typically CIOs don't like that. So I think, you know, it takes different forms depending on the organization, the culture, the needs, what they can afford, where the individuals are at.
 
So I think…but there's also a lot of variations.  

Meg Escobosa: Yeah. And I appreciate the distinctions you've just [00:35:00] made and the kind of specifics of that organization. What's, who's the individual and what does the organization really need?

And of course, financially as well. So that's really, really insightful. 

Sue Schade: Go back to my partnership point: Regardless of what other positions might come in, as long as they exist, the organization has decided they exist. That if you're the chief information officer and some of those other positions are being filled by [00:35:30] others, then you know, it's for you to work with them and partner for the greater good of the organism.
 
Meg Escobosa: Awesome. Sue. It has been a real pleasure to connect with you and learn from you today. Thank you for being on our show and sharing your stories with our audience.
 
Sue Schade: It's been great to talk with you and I wish you success on this new podcast series. I will be anxious to listen to all of them. I'm an avid podcast listener when I'm out walking the dogs everyday.
 
Meg Escobosa: Thank you. To our listeners: [00:36:00] thanks for spending this time with us to learn more about Sue and read her health it connect blog, go to SueSchade.com to find more episodes, please go to your favorite streaming service and subscribe to The Game-Changing Women of Healthcare.
 
John Parsons (ANNCR): Thank you for listening to The Game-Changing Women of Healthcare. This podcast was produced, engineered, edited, and scored by Calvin Marty. Please take a moment to [00:36:30] subscribe via your favorite streaming service. The game changing women of healthcare is a production of The Krinsky Company, a growth strategy and healthcare innovation consultancy.  
Visit us on the web at thekrinskyco.com.[00:37:00]