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Keynote: Don’t be the Hero, Be a Pro - AI and Tech Governance with Chris HarperChris harper KN 7/17

Chris Harper: My role as a CIO really isn't to present the best technology. It's in collaboration with my peers, really understanding the problem at first. Right? And so today I think, a lot of CIOs want to be the hero, I'd rather be a pro than a hero.

(Intro)

I'm Sarah Richardson, a former CIO and president of this week Health's 2 2 9 community development where we are dedicated to transforming healthcare at one connection at a time.

Our keynote show is designed to share conference level value with you every week. Now let's jump into the episode (Main)

Sarah Richardson: Welcome to this week Health keynote, where we engage with top healthcare leaders to explore the intersection of healthcare and technology. Chris Harper is the Chief Information Officer and Senior Associate Vice Chancellor of AI at the University of Kansas Health System and University of Kansas Medical Center.

Chris Harper: Thank you. Good to be here. Good to see you virtually. Hopefully we'll get that together in person. But yeah, thanks for having me.

Sarah Richardson: I. Oh, absolutely. We've seen you in Phoenix. We've seen you in kc. We'll be back to KC and you know you're always welcome at any of our summits. So I love how long your title is and you serve in the unique dual role as CIO for both the University of Kansas Health System and KU Medical Center.

How does this combined position help you align technology strategies across clinical care, research, and education?

Chris Harper: Well, so, kind of to tweak that I actually now have three responsibilities. So, unknowingly to me they added another responsibility hence the really obnoxiously long title.

Sarah Richardson: and extra hours in the day to accomplish said tasks that have been assigned.

Chris Harper: Yeah, so I, I, I I developed some avatars using ChatGPT so that, that kind of helps me get ahead of it.

Sarah Richardson: But truly, I mean, you've expanded your title and responsibilities and it's intriguing because of the need for the lean in these spaces. What prompted the focus on AI and what are your primary objectives with all three responsibilities?

Chris Harper: First thing is really I have an amazing team and leaders and staff, right? So that, that allows us to kind of execute on the really the important mission of, health systems from taking care of patients and make sure that we're providing the best outcome as possible.

healthcare perspective. I think the broader, education side on the KU also recognize that, it's interesting I think with, what's been happening at DC I think we are all under very similar constraint and we don't have enough funding or money, right?

We don't have enough people at the end of the day. And so I think we decided to double down on the technology and where we're at in terms of, really the advancement and technology that gets us to that power of ai. And so. What we're deciding is that we wanted to build on the assets we've built for across the board, right?

Sarah Richardson: When you think about that structure and what you have set up, is the governance the same for all three settings? And how are you deciding who's gonna go first with certain either proofs of concept pilots or ideas that are coming forward with the technology?

Chris Harper: It is not. And so that's what makes I think my role pretty interesting.

because I have to play essentially in all three sandboxes whether it's government or governance or funding or decision making. And so, couple things I've been able to accomplish is really my prior organizations had this, which is kind of the concept of believe that office of CIO concept and so that it is important to recognize the uniqueness.

So sometimes, it doesn't make sense and you gotta make sure you stay unique from a technology, But more or less, a lot of the big ticket items as I call them, can be leveraged in online. And so, that's how you're able to just navigate. And then, good news is I have support from, senior executives and all of those institutions to be able to navigate through those rather smoothly.

Right. Again it's never alleviates hard decision making that we each need to do. But, having support from my team and my peers and senior executives is really helpful.

Sarah Richardson: When you've posted about clinical decision support systems and how they can vary dramatically between health systems, I'd love for you to elaborate on how you're working to standardize this space across your organization, given the breadth and depth of responsibility that you have.

And we've been very fortunate to again, select the right technology partner there so we don't have to go through this, massive replacement of EMR. And so the second phase second bet on a technology strategy or platform is the data and analytics piece. And so I. We were able to, again, bet big there and kind of, it's been proven out almost a decade later that we made the right choice, meaning that we don't have to replace it now.

And we've consolidated different systems through that data platform approach of getting all the data and analytics into the right place. And then now we're able to truly automate and leverage all of those assets to be able to really in my mind what healthcare technology is always meant to be, is to alleviate, really the waste and manual work for patients and provider to have a better outcome. And so, again, we've been very fortunate that we've made those big bets that kind of paid off. And so that really pushed us in a, I think, a strategic position to kind of continue that journey.

What I've seen to your question, other organizations, I think again, have to pivot along the way and so that really is difficult, and it creates a, you have to replace or you have to have additional, sweat equity or capital invested to make that pivots.

And fortunately we haven't had to do that, which gets us in a more of a smoother path to where we need to be.

you've mentioned that data and AI have immense potential to enhance healthcare. What applications that are leading with AI are most exciting to you, and how are you utilizing them most effectively?

Chris Harper: I don't know if it's necessarily an application, but it's when I look at AI landscape, again I think about it in different components of the ultimate ai platform, right? So you think about what it tries to mimic is things like, ambient dictation, right? So that's where, AI voice comes into a play, and so we knew that.

One of the big problems that we wanted to solve more than five years ago is, with the physician burnout and clinician burnout and nurse burnout, that we knew we had to figure out a kind of a solution around that. And we believe that am, and dictation could be one of those, as it's maturing in its capability.

Or any kind of AI capability but not looking a technology as to find a problem. But really in reverse, we're looking at doubling down on the problems that we have. And then once maximize your ability to solve using your conventional methodologies like process improvements or other methods, once we hit that critical mass and we're not able to move the needle anymore, then we look for, a solution around technology and particularly ai and in today's era,

How has that foundation positioned you for your current initiatives? And also the trust to go after the things that are more exploratory than they are, to your point, solving just the problem. You can look at it from multiple lenses now.

Chris Harper: Yeah. It's funny because I think, we're talking about technology and digital and AI, but it goes back into that people trust in one another.

Right. So I think what. enables me today is the relationship I built with our organization and our leaders in a way that you know when, we go through a hardship, like whether it's pandemic or the financial struggles we're having now I think they understand that, my role as a CIO really isn't to

present the best technology. It's in collaboration with my peers, really understanding the problem at first. Right. And so, one of the things that I kind of started to think about is, today I think, a lot of CIOs want to be the hero, right?

I know we had a hard super Bowl, but, one of the things I appreciate about professional sports is that to operate at that high level. You have to trust your teammate right? And so if I think about, you know what happened, at our last Super Bowl is we have an amazing team.

And rather than, I take the approach of me speaking from a pulpit or, trying to single handedly solve this problem. I decided to really double down on my teammates and how we're able to solve through it together. So, same thing with some of the financial struggle we're having and how do we generate additional revenue or cost savings. Partnering heavily with our CFO and really the revenue cycle

executive team members and how do we solve those problems together versus, me trying to single handedly drive the right technology for all of those areas.

Sarah Richardson: So are you satisfied with the draft ready for another shot?

The Sean, Heimer era. So what I believe in is, again the relationships and the culture that the chiefs, owners, leaders, coaches and the team members built so, I'm looking forward to this year. because again they have the right foundation and I think they add us some pretty amazing pieces to that.

Not just for this year, but for the next, three to five years, right? And so yeah, I'm excited to get the new season going.

Sarah Richardson: You rarely see Andy get riled up on the sidelines, and yet he just has to give that look or those moments or say one thing to a player and they get it. And I have to believe that's a lot of the structure you've built because the politics, the sports, the politics of university, the politics of healthcare.

Universally, there are some core elements that are not significantly different, and you have to come forward with almost that calmness that allows people to know that even when times are tough, you're still gonna come out ahead.

Right? I hate to, drop name, but that crowdstrike incident, showcased really the value and the strength of our team and our ability to respond to issue like that, one of the key metrics that we tracked during the whole period and again, I had an amazing IT executive team members who really help execute that.

But, one of the key metric is we did not want to have a single patient impact during that period. And so, good to report out that we had zero for instance cost of rescheduling, of our, any procedures or appointments because again, that was our single focus.

And I think it's that you can't just have a vision and think about the long term but you have to execute. Right. And to your point. Andy Reed and the Chiefs, even though they lost the Super Bowl, but they won two Super Bowls in a row. And I think that's why people forget this was a third one, right?

Sarah Richardson: So I'm a 49 er fan, Chris, so I know all too well how you've been performing the last few years. But I do wanna flip it back to the significant investments you've made in your platforms. And some of them do have several AI tools that it's a flip of a switch. How do you approach the integration of those tool sets within the EHR?

And then what are some of the opportunities and challenges that come with knowing which of those to turn on versus which ones you need to go get from the marketplace as an example,

Chris Harper: lots of trial and error to kind of start with, right? So we know that there are some predictives and kind of now the AI capabilities that come with your EMR and, through trial and error, we knew that we turned few of them on and we turned a lot of it off because it just did not deliver and perform.

So they're the ones that's really giving you that feedback. And you have to develop the process in a way that, that feedback loop between our users to our technical teams, to the vendor is really tight. Meaning that you can't wait a month or six months to solve that. You have to really kinda commit to that iterative but really rapid approach.

And I've forgotten barring this from somebody that said the, I remember when, Ubers and different types of services started coming out. I just kept hearing that in healthcare You have to disrupt healthcare to fix it from technology. And something bothered me about that.

So I think rather in healthcare, what I'd rather do from an AI perspective is to move fast and be responsible. Meaning, if you break it, you gotta fix it right away, right? There's no room for error. And so that's kind of the mindset that we take is, again, you have to have that, iterative approach.

right?

Sarah Richardson: We don't have that luxury in our business, as you have noted. But you also shared. Some of the debate about the role of large language models in healthcare and the guardrails that need to be in place. What are some of the ones that have worked in your governance structure and also how are you viewing, what I just love to say is the universal phrase of the human in the loop.

We expect this a hundred percent accuracy componentry to what we do, and we know humans are not a hundred percent accurate. How are you balancing the usage of models in your system, but also what percent of correctness and ability to course correct are some of the guardrails for your organization?

Chris Harper: something that we're not unique to I think others are deploying this kind of a strategy too. But you know, there's lot of opportunity to deploy, whether it's generative AI or AI solutions that are probably not central to some of those patient care.

get value and human in the loop and safety and being responsible and we just had to kinda teach ourselves along the way. So those were kind of the areas we deployed first just to make sure that we're, it's kind of like training camp, right? Again, I think we're about to enter into NFL training camp, but we really had to bring the teams together and just kinda

figure things out, but do it in a safe manner, right? Not in a regular season or even the playoffs, but, in a kind of a training camp kind of a mentality. And then, like I said, I think that the key thing is you have to have right people in the seats to be able to make that work.

champion some of those early use cases. And so, I mean he just loves, these capabilities and is willing to work with peer physicians to build out a strategy, give feedback and be responsive. And so again, technology is less important.

It's having the right physician partners or right, teammates, playing that role to be able to really drive success and outcome

Sarah Richardson: well, and the strength, the breadth and depth of the composition of that executive team and those clinicians has also allowed you to go into a partnership with K State to support rural healthcare.

How do you then see technology, and potentially the AI componentry, factor into addressing healthcare disparities in rural Kansas?

And I'm sure other Midwest states are very similar that, there's a urban density and population that, have ability to consume a lot of great healthcare services. But we always think about how do we, partner or help in those rural area.

because really, if I think about it, that's the area that really need these types of AI capabilities even more. Right? And so. We always think about kind of this, back to, don't be a hero, but be a pro. Meaning that partner with those, other institutions or other whether it's rural health clinic or other initiatives that we can help lead, but make sure that they're becoming our partner to be able to help deliver those solutions.

But, make sure that you're providing those, services or outcome in a partnership way to those rural area as well. And so part of our, I think, strategy is always thinking about those rural facility and community and population as well.

Sarah Richardson: In your background with multiple sectors, including UnitedHealth Group, before joining KU has really informed the ability for you to have this outside perspective of provider organizations, and I'm wondering how that Chris has shaped your approach to how you lead technology where you are today.

Chris Harper: I'm probably very non-traditional career path to being a CIO to be honest. Like if you would ever ask me what I wanted to do when I graduated or grew up. I wanted to be actually a a ski bum, right? because I love outdoors and, I just love kind of the freedom.

My role is really people process technology, right? So technology's the least important component of that. And so really, I always try to look at way to solve problems, again, from a people perspective first, right? Whether it's the users or the stakeholders I need to partner or from a governance perspective, right?

Like whose problem is, more strategic in a way that may match the current maturity of technology. Right? And so, and then people always forget the processes. If you tried solving it through people solution first then move to a process solution first, right?

Right? So the idea is that you have to make sure you take that approach and from me, from my past experiences that, I've learned those techniques from other industries, I think healthcare I saw at one point, I don't know, Sarah, maybe you mentioned it or somebody mentioned it.

I remember somebody mentioning that healthcare was even behind postal office in technology. I don't remember where I heard that exactly, but, so long story short, way I always approach it is again, who do I need to partner with? What are the people component that we can address and fix, then move on to the process and make sure that we're efficient.

At solving that problem and then move on to technology. And like I said, whether there's retail space a financial sector or a benefit sector that I've learned those lessons and because really you have to show value. You have to every day think about the value you and your team is adding and the technology adding.

Because it just wasn't the right thing to deploy that technology. because we knew that it wasn't gonna solve the problem.

Sarah Richardson: Which is why having those milestone evaluations throughout project implementation is so key and not always practice. So I'm actually glad to hear you say that the post office comment I heard most recently from William Walder at our Boston event, although I do believe it's sourced even prior to that.

And yet, funny enough, over the weekend I was reading an article about systems that still run on three 11, and believe it or not, most of the ATMs in the country still run on Windows three 11 because finance is pretty advanced to technology. But the operating systems that function for ATMs are so embedded in the hardware they haven't changed in 30 to 40 years, which I find fascinating

And also the skillset that kids coming out of college need to really be thinking about and some of the things that they need to be able to do, they're not even learning today. What do you see the next two to three years as a landscape for you?

Chris Harper: there's few questions there but I would kind of maybe start with saying that self-reflection I think is probably the most important thing. because I had to kinda recalibrate even my approach or my thinking. So, I am essentially actually kind of relaunching our IT operating model, right? So we, back to we're third evolution of that.

kind of a old way of doing things as a CIO or IT, do I need to really rethink about calibrating and finding your, peer teammates whether it's from a C-suite or different departments to kind of really think about it in a way that you're gonna add value. Because I think, I mean a lot of people are overhyping this AI capability. But

there's a tsunami of advancement in different technology that there's gonna be tremendous value created through this. And so you're gonna have to, as a CIO, just think about how do you position your organization, but more importantly your team, your people, right. So they can succeed.

because I do believe in that human-centered approach and responsible AI usage. And so you're gonna really have to get ahead of it. because we don't have a whole lot of years to get there, right? If you're gonna be responsible then you have to start teeing up your team to take advantage, but not be, ran over by this.

Right? And so you're gonna have to really think about that.

Sarah Richardson: No, that's great advice. Self-reflection is not something you hear very often from executives in terms of how to keep building upon their expertise and the value they're delivering to the organization. So I'm glad you shared that. Are you ready for speed round?

Chris Harper: Sure. Uh, Hopefully I can answer in a dumb way, but we'll see.

Chris Harper: Early bird, and I think I'm getting up even earlier. So, funny thing, because my significant other is a night owl.

So we balance each other pretty well, where literally as soon as I put my kids to bed around 8:30, 9 sometimes I fall asleep before they do. And so, but you know, way I've been doubling down is I'm getting up even earlier than I used to. because there's so much, happening whether it's home life or work life that I.

I feel like I just can't waste any minute of every day. And so I've been getting up anywhere from like four 30 to five and even this morning as soon as I get up I'm like, all right, I gotta go, exercise so that gives me the energy to kind of go through the rest of the day.

And then jokingly you can't see it, but I always tell my team that you're gonna see me eat gas station sushi when I'm in a meeting because I don't have time to eat lunch, so I'll just grab whatever and sometimes you'll see me eating at lunch at 3:00 PM but yeah, so the only way I can get outta the game is getting up earlier so that we can solve the rest of the day.

Chris Harper: I would say probably the most common lately has been Again, listen, right? And, you have to back to that self-reflection. You can't always be projecting out your ideas and thoughts or whatever, but listen and truly self-reflect on how to approach it or solve it or, because I think a lot of our, high performing it.

Individuals or leaders were quick to solution things, right? So, you know what I remember I used to do a lot in my earlier in career is. Somebody's talking and I'm already thinking about a solution, right? And I'm already in my brain, like architecting and how does this fit together? And coming up with answers and questions that, is gonna address this.

I'm really not listening. Right? And so, probably the biggest advice I've been given is just you gotta take time to listen and it's okay to sit in silence, right? Meaning, we're inundated with, instant gratification of podcasts or you can, use your phone to just about do anything, right?

Sarah Richardson: That's a good call. because you're right, there's the always on perspective sometimes need to break that chain. Which non-healthcare industry do you draw the most inspiration from when you think about innovation?

Chris Harper: Oh, interesting. I think about retail. It is probably what I think about all the time where, because we all experience it almost every day, right? So. Like I said, I just went and grabbed sushi at a gas station, right? I paid like $12 for it, which is like, seems crazy right now.

But no, I think retail it's ups and downs of economy that have to shift and adjust. And so I, really pay attention to how some of these, whether it's online retailers or physical retailers are solving problem. because I think in healthcare. We're kind of in that, that both domains, right?

And then really. Try to also not make the same mistake that they are. Right? Sometimes I see them taking an approach that I think is sometimes not responsible. And so I'd rather make sure we're thinking through all of those things before we deploy any kind of a digital strategy

Sarah Richardson: chris, thank you for sharing your insights and experiences with us today. Your leadership continues to shape the future of healthcare IT, and we look forward to seeing how the University of Kansas Health System evolves under your guidance.

Chris Harper: Thank you, Sarah.

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