TDP118: Providence's Chief of Virtual Care & Digital Health, Dr. Eve Cunningham: AI-Driven Referrals

Episode 118 of The Digital Patient - Stories from the frontline of Digital Patient Engagement. Show notes 👇
[00:01:10] Dr. Cunningham’s journey into medicine and how reading Dr. Christiane Northrup’s book, “Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom”, inspired her to work in women’s health;
[00:02:46] How Dr. Cunningham’s journey from OBGYN to clinical leadership to technology was consistent with a focus on care transformation;
[00:03:04] How Dr. Cunningham took initiate to lead a large multi-specialty medical group, chairing executive committees, and leading patient experience initiatives before becoming the chief medical officer of a 350 provider group;
[00:07:28] The three key priorities driving Dr. Cunningham's digital health roadmap today at Providence: addressing workforce shortage and burnout, hospital capacity and throughput, and patient retention;
[00:13:43] Insights into the remote patient monitoring program at Providence, emphasizing a comprehensive care team approach that extends their team by monitoring and surfacing care for patients outside the four walls of the hospital;
[00:14:54] The challenge of managing and responding to a high volume of patient information and inbox messages in healthcare, and how extended care teams can support this process;
[00:21:21] MedPearl - how it started and how it improves patient referrals using AI-driven specialist knowledge for primary and urgent care at the point of care;
[00:24:56] How Dr. Cunningham is thinking about the challenges in referral optimization in healthcare, with a focus on ensuring patients see the right specialist with the correct urgency and improving the workup process;
[00:32:42] Discussing the success of other AI programs at Providence, including Prov Aria, an LLM for organizing and categorizing patient messages, and its integration into Providence’s system for improved patient communication;
[00:34:18] Dr. Cunningham's involvement with the Providence Global Center in India and collaboration on international healthcare technology projects;
[00:37:10] Dr. Cunningham’s perspectives on eliminating inefficiencies in healthcare through technology, focusing on referral optimization and provider support;
[00:38:23] The need for EMR systems to improve the intake process and reduce provider burnout by minimizing repetitive tasks, like filling out identical paper forms for different physicians;
Fast 5 Lightning Round:
1. What is your favorite book or book you've gifted the most?
"Cutting for Stone" by Abraham Verghese
2. Who is a person, dead or alive, you'd love to meet?
Dead: Steve Jobs
Alive: Taylor Swift
3. Would you rather have Super strength, super speed, or the ability to read people’s minds?
Mind reading
4. What is something in healthcare you believe that others might find insane?
The way we train surgeons is insane.
5. If you could travel back in time to any event or moment, what would it be and why?
A crisis moment to experience what it was like firsthand and understand how the U.S. as a country was able to overcome and move on. This perspective might help alleviate some of the anxiety I feel about current events…