In this episode

In this episode, Ajay Kapare, president and CEO of ELLKAY, discussed the evolving role of interoperability in healthcare and how ELLKAY is enabling healthcare organizations to innovate by supporting a more strategic approach to data. Kapare shared how ELLKAY is shaping its future as an enterprise data management company, with a focus on helping partners deliver value through clean, connected data.

• Interoperability is foundational to getting concrete results from technology like AI.
• ELLKAY’s direction is based on quality, connected data as a strategic requirement.
• Active listening helps organizations avoid wasted effort and stay aligned on goals.

“You can have the best applications out there. But if you don’t have the right data connected with the right access… you’re not going to see the ROI.”

– Ajay Kapare

Key takeaways

Kapare discussed the growing role ELLKAY plays in data quality and interoperability, and his belief that getting quality data to the places it can be used is essential to improving patient care through technology. Here are major themes he covered:

Interoperability is foundational to getting concrete results from technology like AI.

“I don’t think without interoperability, you can actually achieve anything,” said Kapare. You can have the best applications out there. But if you don’t have the right data connected with the right access and if you are not giving the quality data, you can’t actually apply your algorithms on top of it and get the result that you’re looking for.”

Kapare asserted that without a focus on interoperability, implementations of new technology like AI could actually backfire by increasing costs without having the data needed to demonstrate ROI. “If you have garbage in, garbage out, it’s not going to work,” said Kapare. “We’ll be having all these applications, all these great products, and then you’re not going to see ROI. And at the end of the day, the healthcare IT cost is going to increase,” he warned.

Kapare described an increased focus on data management and data quality from health systems that makes him optimistic about ELLKAY’s future impact. “If you ask ten different health systems what is their strategy with this AI application and how they’re going to use it, chances are you’re going to get ten different answers. But one common theme is the quality of data.”

ELLKAY’s direction is based on quality, connected data as a strategic requirement.

Kapare discussed ELLKAY’s role as a strategic partner of the CommonWell Health Alliance and across the healthcare industry to demonstrate the impact and importance of data quality. “Our commitment toward interoperability can be demonstrated by the supporting work we’re doing with CommonWell,” he said. “We are on 65,000 interfaces up and live. With our work with CommonWell and with 300 health systems, we have such a huge amount of data and transactions which happen every day,” he said.

He noted that ELLKAY plays a key role in helping other vendors and health systems prepare data for AI models and analytics. “We are not just adding another pipe, but we are adding meaningful data,” said Kapare. “That is the thing that’s going to be changed. It’s not just connectivity, but also getting the right data at the right time so algorithms can actually do their function and get the result.”

Kapare also emphasized that well-executed interoperability efforts can reduce redundancy. “If there are two organizations or IT vendors across the road from each other…and everyone starts developing the same thing, there’s a [large] amount of wastage,” he said. “We are developing our core competency and we’re trying to reutilize it” as ELLKAY moves toward becoming an enterprise data management company, Kapare said.

Active listening helps organizations avoid wasted effort and stay aligned on goals.

Describing his approach to leadership at ELLKAY, Kapare described listening as one of the most underrated leadership skills. “Listening is an art,” he said. “Listening to your customers, your team, the industry, and leaders. We’ve done that here at ELLKAY, and we’ve made changes, we’ve looked at our roadmap…which is going to get us equipped to be successful for the next few years.”
 

He explained that Elkay’s product strategy and roadmap decisions are shaped by input from partners and frontline users. That approach, he said, has helped the company focus on solving high-impact problems without getting distracted by hype or duplication.

Kapare also encouraged leaders to stay grounded in their organization’s core strengths. “There’s a lot of noise out there,” he said. “Keep your head down, focus on what you’re good at, and excellence will happen, and results will come.”

Finally, he stressed the importance of patience and adaptability. “You’re going to have great quarters and not-so-great quarters,” he said. “It’s okay. That’s when you learn, adjust, and keep going.”