Today in Health IT, What I believe will happen this year and why it matters to you.

My name is Bill Russell, I'm a former CIO for a 16 hospital system and creator of This Week Health a set of channels dedicated to keeping Health IT staff current and engaged.

We want to thank our show sponsors who are investing in developing the next generation of health IT leaders, Suretest and Artisight. Check them out at thisweekhealth.com/today

Having a child with cancer is one of the most painful and difficult situations a family can face. In 2023 to celebrate five years at This Week Health, we are working to give back. We will be partnering with Alex's Lemonade Stand all year long. We have a goal to raise $50,000 from our community. We are already at $10,000 for the year. We ask you to join us, hit our website and in the top banner you will see the logo for our Lemonade stand. Click on that and give today. We believe in the generosity of our community and we thank you in advance.

Today: "I want to look you in the eyes and tell you the future." This is from the movie Air which I watched this past week. It is the start of an incredible monologue that Matt Damon's Character, of Sonny Vacharo delivers to Michael Jordan during the pitch to endorse Nike Shoes. It is the climax of the movie and one leads to one of the most impactful moments in sports history where the athletes finally get a piece of the millions in merchandise that they help sell every year. Because we want to be like Mike.

If you haven't seen the movie, I'd highly recommend it to you. It is streaming on Amazon Prime. Great cast. I'd put it in the historical fiction category. Don't put too much weight on the actual words, but the events are absolutely real.

If you can believe it, Nike's portion of the basketball shoe business was near the bottom. Converse was king with Bird, Magic and Dr. J as their leading men. Addidas was Michael's pick and they were well ahead of Nike. But Sonny Vacharo sees something in Michael that makes him want to risk it all and instead of signing three or more players, he wants to take their entire budget for the year and risk it on one person. He see's greatness. It's not just a cliche as he explains how he sees it.

In the finals of the NCAA Michael Jordan's takes and makes the final shot in the final game to win North Carolina the national championship. We don't think anything of that moment, because we witnessed it so many times in our lives. But that moment was interesting. North Carolina coach Dean Smith was a legend. He had many wins and coached some great players, but he could never win a national championship. He wanted this, he needed this to cement his legacy, not as the coach that won a lot of games, but as a great coach who won championships. There was another great player on that championship team. Jame's Worthy. He was drafted by the Lakers. How good was James Worthy. He was drafted, #1. The first pick in the NBA draft. The NBA thought he was the best player to come into the NBA that year. Where was Jame's worthy in this defining moment. He was the decoy. The coach who desperately wanted to win this championship, drew up a play and used his best player, likely the best player in the league as a decoy. As drawn up, the defense focused on Worthy and Michael was left open. Why not? He was a freshman. He was good, but no one thought he was Michael Jordan. Even saying his name today mean's greatness, especially in the last minute of a basketball game. Sonny points out that while the play is developing, this freshman, with the world watching, in the biggest game of his career to this point, knowing he is about to take the last shot of the game looked like he was playing a pickup game with a bunch of friends. He was loose, calling for the ball, ready and he knew he was going to make the shot.

Sonny see's greatness. Nike signs the deal that will change sports merchandising, and today Michael makes $256M a year from Nike. The brand for Nike brought in $5.1B. He hasn't played professional basketball since 2003.

During the movie they flash to the Nike Principles that had made the company a strong company to this point but they were floundering after going public and as discussed they were not able to really make a mark outside of running shoes. Basketball was the next big thing but they couldn't figure it out.

Here are some of the principles.

1. 1. Our business is change

2. 2. We’re on offense. All the time.

3. 3. Perfect results count — not a perfect process. Break the rules: fight the law.

4. 4. This is as much about battle as about business.

5. 5. Assume nothing. Make sure people keep their promises. Push yourselves push others. Stretch the possible.

6. 6. Live off the land.

7. 7. Your job isn’t done until the job is done.

8. 8. Dangers. Bureaucracy. Personal ambition. Energy takers vs. energy givers. Knowing our weaknesses. Don’t get too many things on the platter.

9. 9. It won’t be pretty.

10. 10. If we do the right things we’ll make money damn near automatic.

Worth a watch if you have time this weekend.

I'll come back to how we started. "I want to look you in the eyes and tell you the future." It has started. The reimagining of healthcare has started. AI is going to transform healthcare. Computer vision, ambient listening are just the start. Generative AI is going to be a significant part of the workforce moving forward in healthcare. Every clinician will have a Generative AI assistant in the next five years. The AI assistant will know their specific job and be able to support them in many ways reducing the cognitive load, bringing critical information to bear when it is needed most and alleviating the mundane tasks. Health information will be at everyone's fingertips. We will ask a computer about our health and trust the answer like it was coming from a physician because the technology will have been trained in the latest healthcare journals. Every person will have a personal health assistant at our fingertips or better yet, in response to our voice. It will help us to understand our options based on our location, means and insurance. It will help us to understand our bills. Technology will make providers better at providing care, patients better at navigating and understanding their situation, and the average person better at staying healthy. The future of healthcare has promise. Those that make the most money from it will hold on like there is no tomorrow, because there may not be. Transformation is upon us. Are we ready. Will we embrace the future or be found standing in the way? Will we be found holding onto what was. Will there be misteps along the way, of course. There always is on the way to progress. But this is going to happen. Healthcare is at an inflection point based on technology alone, and there are many other influences that are ushering in change.

That is the future that I see. Let me know what future you see.

That's all for today.

If you know someone that might benefit from our channel please forward them a note. They can subscribe on our website.ThisWeekHeatlh.com or wherever you listen to podcasts. Apple, Google, OverCast, Spotify, Stitcher. You get the picture.

We want to thank our channel sponsors who are investing in our Mission to develop the next generation of health IT leaders. Suretest and Artisight. Check them out at thisweekhealth.com/today

Thanks for listening, That’s all for now.