In this episode

Arz Raheem, Former Senior Director of Digital Transformation at Montefiore, explores how health systems can drive meaningful change without getting stuck in outdated processes. He discuss the critical role of culture, stakeholder buy-in, and balancing innovation with the unique challenges of healthcare.

“You need the influencers within your health care system….Create that coalition of the willing. Only then can you make real meaningful digital change.”

– Arz Raheem

 

Key takeaways

Raheem shared his insights on balancing speed and caution, leveraging agile methodologies, and ensuring solutions address both provider and patient needs. Let’s dive into the conversation to learn about his toolkit required to drive meaningful digital transformation in healthcare. Here are his takeaways:

Digital transformation requires a culture shift.

Success in healthcare digital transformation depends on moving away from rigid, slow-moving processes and fostering a culture of innovation, iteration, and collaboration across all stakeholders, Raheem said.

“Culture is really important. In technology, we’ve always had a culture of preservation and maintenance, but in digital it’s a culture of iteration and innovation. [To innovate,] you have to be able to bring the village to the table and say, ‘I’m going to try small things. I’m not gonna promise you the world, but I think I’m onto something. I’m going to show you what I’ve got, and iteratively, I want you to tell me if I’m on the right track,” said Raheem.
 

“If we can promote that and and and instill a culture of innovation in our entire health care system, then and only then, you can you can do real meaningful digital transformation,” Raheem said.

Stakeholder buy-in is essential for speed and impact.

Engaging the right people—clinicians, administrators, IT, compliance, and more—ensures that digital initiatives are adopted effectively and drive meaningful change, Raheem said.

“You need the influencers within your health system, the folks that can help bring about change,” he said. “Even if it’s just, ‘I’m part of this pilot. It’s going well.’ Identify your influencers in security, in compliance, on the operations side, administrators of your department, physician champions, and your superstars who are interested in technological change,” Raheem said. “[Then] create that coalition of the willing.”

Raheem sees this coalition as essential to creating impact and getting ideas off the ground. “If you don’t have the right support, then that speed to impact doesn’t really happen because you can’t rush things in an environment that is heavily regulated. You have to be extremely careful about what we do and how we implement change. So for me, that village is very important. If you don’t have the right support, then you’ll have great ideas, but they’ll die on the vine,” he said.

To be effective in his role and solve pain points, Raheem said, he connects with others as much as possible.
 

“I communicate a lot,” Raheem said. “I speak a lot with lots of different people. I’m interested in different viewpoints. The best ideas for me are the ones that you have by the water cooler or you’re having offline.”