On this episode of The Vurge, Rebecca sits down with Zahid Ali, the Chief Digital and Information Officer & Founder of TECHMEDO. Offering a unique perspective on leveraging technology to make healthcare more accessible, Zahid shares his vision of cultivating a culture of innovation and the transformative potential of AI and robotic process automation. Join us to discover the evolving landscape of healthcare and the pivotal role innovation will play in its future.
As a leading Healthcare CIO coming with CTO background, Mr. Zahid's groundbreaking achievements have made an indelible mark on the industry. HIMSS, has recognized him as a FUTURE50 Health IT Leader and Change Maker in Health. His brilliance has also earned him a spot on Forbes Next 1000, Digital Leaders 100, and Global CIO200, while winning the esteemed SIEMENS Innovation Award.
Beyond accolades, Mr. Zahid's passion is evident through his support for healthcare startups and innovations. He actively collaborates with UCSF Health Data Hub, Mass Challenge, Bridge the Billions, and MIT Solve. As a keynote speaker on Data, AI, Digital Twins, and ChatGPT, his insights captivate global audiences.
Thanks for listening! Like what you hear? Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and be sure to subscribe to The Vurge for the latest episodes and more!
Interested in being a guest on the show? Click here to learn more.
On this episode of The Vurge, Rebecca sits down with Zahid Ali, the Chief Digital and Information Officer & Founder of TECHMEDO. Offering a unique perspective on leveraging technology to make healthcare more accessible, Zahid shares his vision of cultivating a culture of innovation and the transformative potential of AI and robotic process automation. Join us to discover the evolving landscape of healthcare and the pivotal role innovation will play in its future.
As a leading Healthcare CIO coming with CTO background, Mr. Zahid's groundbreaking achievements have made an indelible mark on the industry. HIMSS, has recognized him as a FUTURE50 Health IT Leader and Change Maker in Health. His brilliance has also earned him a spot on Forbes Next 1000, Digital Leaders 100, and Global CIO200, while winning the esteemed SIEMENS Innovation Award.
Beyond accolades, Mr. Zahid's passion is evident through his support for healthcare startups and innovations. He actively collaborates with UCSF Health Data Hub, Mass Challenge, Bridge the Billions, and MIT Solve. As a keynote speaker on Data, AI, Digital Twins, and ChatGPT, his insights captivate global audiences.
Thanks for listening! Like what you hear? Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and be sure to subscribe to The Vurge for the latest episodes and more!
Interested in being a guest on the show? Click here to learn more.
Hi everyone and welcome to another episode of the Verge. Today we have Zahid Ali here and he is the Chief Digital and Information Officer of TechMetal. Welcome, how are you doing today?
Speaker 2:I'm going good. It's a very nice, very neat day over here.
Speaker 1:You are our first international podcast recording, so you win that special award today.
Speaker 2:Oh wonderful, it's super exciting and I really feel that that's an honor and it's like a privilege for me to be the first guest of the podcast.
Speaker 1:Awesome. You are a true pioneer in digital healthcare. Can you give us a little introduction and history of your background and where you started and how you got to where you are today?
Speaker 2:Yeah, sure. So basically, when I was into my educational career I always thought that I should be a doctor because I had those sympathetic feelings towards the people making their lives better. So somehow I started the medical and then I realized that this might not be a good field for me. I should be, because it's somehow like a field where you can't do much of innovation, you are just a recipient of knowledge and you apply that knowledge into your practice. So then I went into the engineering and I had done my engineering, I was a gold medalist in my bachelor's of engineering, then done my master's in computer science and I stayed from there.
Speaker 2:I jumped into health care IT. So I spent about 21 years into health care IT. Initially I started my career as a QA or project manager developing EMR systems or healthcare information systems and making all those integrations. From there I went into the academic side of the things and started a couple of things, especially a few chapters with ethyl 7 and few other bodies. Then I was more into the policy strategy and certain frameworks had been CIO to organizations and I would say a kind of a capsule consultant to the top notch organizations like WHO, like USAID, the Dysen-Belinda Gates Foundation, where I was advising them on certain like the challenges they were facing specifically to the public health. So this is about me and the work that I had done in the past few years. So that has been highly organized by force, by aims, by digital leaders 100, global CIO 200 and recently, just few, like two weeks back, I was also nominated as VIP ambassador for master's in Boston.
Speaker 1:Awesome. What is one of the biggest barriers to innovation that you're seeing in health care?
Speaker 2:today. So there are multiple barriers. The biggest barrier is the mindset, I would say, and then the status quo is another biggest barrier. And the third thing, because these are just why these things are happening. These things are happening because there is no sporting model of innovation into the health care industry actually, especially onto the provider side. Actually, they are the people who are originating the data, they are the people who are making all those things happen. They are just involved directly into the care delivery.
Speaker 2:But the problem is really that's with their mindset. So they have been a consumer over the years and just getting the things from different vendors and the vendors are taking advantage of by understanding the problems from health care industry on the provider side. Then they make the solution and then they sell the same solutions to the health care providers. So this is like a classical model that's happening. Now many organizations are really jumping into it. They are setting up the funds and then they are investing into those innovative start-ups and then they are also having their own design thinking workshops so that they can bring those problems up and their people can really solve those problems. So I have seen many organizations those are working, especially UCSF, ucla and even Massachusetts MIT, so they are all following these practices right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's really important to involve everybody to bridge the gap between technology and and operations and who's really using the software. Do you see a newer wave of providers adopting the technology and being willing to work with start-ups, or do you still see it as a big gap?
Speaker 2:So it's like a journey and that journey really has started. So, as of like post-COVID world, so we see a term that has been evolving very fast, dr Pronus. So right now, if you see, the many doctors are really taking the board seats, they are investing into the start-ups, they are advising those start-ups, so that's a very healthy sign. So they are doing at their individual capacities, but this is good, that this step has started and they can bring the value. From the adoption point of view. It's slow, but I think because it's slow, because there is a classical problem with their education they are not taught to be entrepreneurs, they are taught to be doctors. So I think it's important to bring those curriculums into their medical training, even into medical education, so that they could do a better design thinking and they could be entrepreneurs and they can do the innovation. And this is something I always say that even the trainings about the EMRs, even the trainings about the digital health tools, even the trainings about these robotics, so they should be really done at their academic levels.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, I agree. I see the more tenured physicians struggle a lot more than the ones coming right out of college and that definitely, you know, has come leaps and bounds. But I still think we have such a long way to go to help them use the technology for good and not be frustrated with it. Going to my next question, what would you think, as healthcare leaders, is the special source that healthcare organizations need to, you know, unlock their healthcare to make it more accessible, using the technology that is, you know, coming out so quickly?
Speaker 2:So just to understand, we need to just dive into some numbers. So, especially if we see from the perspective of the US, so in US for one person we are spending about $12,000 per annum per person. Okay. So if you see the same number in into especially your case union, so it's it's like $4,500. So if you see the same numbers into Middle East, so it's like something about $3,200.
Speaker 2:So the higher the cost is if we see there are like 50% of the population don't have access to healthcare. Why that's the problem? Because over the last two decades so we have not focused on to the primary care, we have not focused on to the community care and we have not focused on to the education of the people about the wellness. So we have shifted this from a typical like a wellness space things to a sick care and so everybody is getting sick and they are focusing and they was moving towards the specialized hospital. So they have to wait for longer time. So right now they are like one patient has to wait about 26 days to get an appointment. So that's that's a huge, huge time and obviously if there is a problem, in most cases the damage would be done by the time he would be coming to the doctor. So in that prospectus, the first thing we need to load and bring lower the cost of the care and the best model is the primary care.
Speaker 2:And on to the primary care we have to visualize the primary care, not the way it's happening.
Speaker 2:We should have, like, a primary care should be given through the mobile devices, through maybe the other means, by educating the people or maybe by the community health workers.
Speaker 2:So so this is the way to go about reaching to the people. And this is a secret sauce that these companies like Amazon, because they have acquired one medical, they are trying to replicate the same thing and they are bringing a retail concept to the health care right now everybody is talking about. We order pizza, so the pizza is delivered to us maybe in an hour or two hours. So if we order something about health care, so to take days and weeks and months, so that's a classical, I would say, mismatch or a fault line that we must address. And there should be some structure reforms that are required to be done at a federal level so that these kind of reimbursement models are there and people have the liberty. So even right now, if we see in US we have like 55,000 shortage of primary care physicians, so and that's a huge number and there is a huge burnout over there. So I think there is the problem to solve and a right kind of a model should be there through which we definitely can solve these problems.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, a huge passion of mine is, you know, moving towards well care and keeping people out of the system. And, on the flip side, like you stated, I think that the generations coming up are really going to want that Amazon, effective health care and being able to get their televisit or a visitor, their question, answered not in 26 days but in the next 30 minutes, and we need to start stepping up our pace. As health care organizations or the big. You know, walmart and Amazon's are going to be the ones to really make some headway in pushing us and our innovations forward. You think so as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's absolutely true, and that's the way to go forward.
Speaker 1:How do you see the CIO's role changing? You know, right now I see I was a CIO as well. I saw it changing. You know, while I was CIO into CIO, slash, coo, you know getting a lot more involved with operations, with the EHR. Now, with this whole digital front door and digital wave, do you see it changing more? Or do you see them leveraging a chief digital officer to help them? You know, make those roadmaps and strategic decisions.
Speaker 2:So there are two ways to go about. There are current roles of CIO's, or these should be really especially considering the point of like covering the whole touch point of the care, so where those interactions are happening. So when we are talking about digitizing all those interactions, so the more responsibility comes on to CIO's from the security point of view, from the data consistency point of view, and then using that data to generate analytics or generate value for the patient, for the providers and even for the organization from the financial point of view, from the administrator point of view and even from the quality point of view. And then obviously putting like AI to take a lot of loads, repetitive load, by robotic process of automation and AI so that actually the work of the physician, the burnouts, can really be eliminated. So these are like the steps or maybe a cookie cutter approach that is there for the CIO's at present. So they are not just like managing the EHRs actually. So they have to do see the infrastructure, they have to see the security, but they also have to see the patient engagement, they also have to see the design thinking, they also have to see like bringing the culture of innovation into the organization. So when they would do all those things. So there is a highest probability. They are the knowledge superpower of the organization. They would have the knowledge of all the processes, they would have knowledge of all the tech point. They would have knowledge about the data and analytics. So when they have that knowledge, so ultimately what would happen? And this is happening right now, by the way so they would be graduating towards the president or CEO's position. Right now, many like healthcare organizations, so they have put in place their CIO's into, like operational roles and then they are graduating into the CEO's role. So this is I think it would happen.
Speaker 2:So, especially in future, these, I would say the CIO roles would be transformed into more like digital transformation strategies.
Speaker 2:This is something that HIMS has raised and we have worked together with HIMS and we crafted a complete training program and certification program, especially addressing all those areas, the domain areas, knowledge tasks, functions that these chief digital transformation strategies would do, and placed a certification program. So this is our future and in future, like, more and more CIO's would be graduating towards digital transformation strategies. They should not be like just eating, because I would say every organization almost have their EHR. That's there, that's working. They have their own like maybe ERPs are there, it's working for ages, but now it's time for the transformation of the organization, so they have to play more roles from technology towards transformation. So this is very important and there was, like I was the key player in making all those this certification program and I would recommend to the CIO's do take this course, learn how the future would be brought and the people who would be into this process, who would be into this learning. I think they would make a better future for themselves and for the organizations they would be working.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree. How exciting to be one of the lead authors to create that certification with HMS and I would definitely suggest that everybody looks into that digital health transformation certification. Do you think it would be a good course for people to take that aren't yet CIO's, and do you know how long the program takes roughly to get certified?
Speaker 2:So basically it's not very like a long program. So it really depends upon you, like how you really understand all those things. So any good CIO who had the knowledge and the background so they can just get it done in maybe a month or two months. So that's it.
Speaker 1:Okay, Awesome, With the fast pace environment. I feel like COVID really put us on a trajectory to move things faster and with AI getting more sophisticated and you hear a lot about chat, GPT where do you see that fitting into healthcare? And what would you say to the people that are nervous about bringing that in and HIPAA and it's making the decisions for our providers? How do you feel on all of that innovation and change that's really coming, whether we like it or not?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you see these AI, regenerative AI, llm, chat, gpt, digital twins so these would be making the life easier for the providers, for the patient and even for the different roles that are involved into the care delivery. So especially a lot of work that is done basically by the front offices people, so that would be taken up by the digital front doors actually, so patient would have control of their medical record, they can do things at their touch points. So this is like the time and things are happening right now and these would be more and more mature. The problem in this scenario is so we are not like really fostering the culture of empathy, we are not really fostering the culture of patient care.
Speaker 2:So technology is to solve the problems of the people, of the patients and the providers and health care delivery, but like the choice of, like the problem, that is the area where we need to work a lot, but it's a challenge telling that we need to solve. So startups are coming, they find they pick a very complex problem and they start making a solution without understanding, most of the times, the regulatory aspects and many, many other things. So I always say innovations create the regulation. So if we put the regulations before the innovations happen, then innovations would die. So considering this thing, so we have to create these kind of I always call it and we have created these environment in many countries actually, we call this sandbox environment. So in a sandbox environment, it's a controlled environment. You build something.
Speaker 2:You apply that knowledge into practice and you have the outcomes. So you use that outcomes to create those policy frameworks. So I always leave that the marriage of the startups or innovators with the people who are at the apex of delivery of tax service that must be there. So if that's not happening, so there would be many, many things and I would say most of the startups who are doing the AI or charity or all those implementation, they fail because they make a solution but that is not very adoptable into the clinical process. They must understand the workflow, how the physicians are doing things, how the nurses are doing things, how the care providers are doing things. So if they correctly understand those things, so then they can build a solution that solves their problem. So it's not like a typical classical mistake that has been happening over the years. So you find a solution, you build a solution and then you find a problem. So it should always be. You had a problem, now you have to find a solution for that problem.
Speaker 1:Awesome, thank you. I'm going to pivot over to one of your posts that you just put on LinkedIn and I thought it was really exciting. Can you speak to going to H Health, which is the conference HLTH, and that you're about to be a judge on one of their awards that they give out? Can you speak to that? And how congratulations and how exciting.
Speaker 2:So the biggest thing that happened just a few weeks back, that was with Mass Challenge. Mass Challenge is one of the biggest startup and innovation program that's operating in 28 countries and it's phenomenal. Their work is phenomenal. They are focusing on the impact. They are focusing on the problems across the world in Africa, in Japan, in Israel, in states, even in the European Union and even in South Asia.
Speaker 2:So the second thing like they have selected seven VIP ambassadors, so I'm one of those ambassadors. So the role that I have to play I have to support the innovation, I have to make all those connections so that this marriage can really happen. I have to connect those startups with the medical centers, with the doctors, so that they can work together in a question manner. The other thing about HLTH this is about UCF, university of California, san Francisco. They have like built a mechanism for sporting startups that they called Health Innovation Hub, health Data Hub as well.
Speaker 2:So I'm one of the judge and right now I had like maybe a few more than 100 startups to judge and there will be three rounds.
Speaker 2:So I have to go through round by round and then we will select a few finalists and those would be presented and awards would be given to those startups at HLTH on October 9.
Speaker 2:So I would be there and I would be most likely speaking over there as well, and so my topic usually, when I talk about the startups, so I mostly talk about how they can do a design thinking that can solve the problems of the healthcare industry.
Speaker 2:So so this is something that I would be doing, and onto conferences, I speak about digital twins, check, gpti data and new models of the care. So you really, technology is there to solve a problem, it's an enabler. Technology cannot like to a holistic set, so we have to put think in a way that build a model with technology can actually solve that problem in a holistic manner. So so this is something that I usually do, and there was, like in a covert time. So I work with the design Linda Gates Foundation and came up with the disease and the warning system and we implemented in a like a gradual manner at one country, and that country, even with the limited resources, has produced the best results and the word that was recognized by the show that was recognized by word economic forum and even by the world bank.
Speaker 1:That's great. I look forward to seeing who comes out there. You know on top. So most, most of my listeners know that I have a nonprofit is called bluebird leaders or we're creating a community for women in healthcare it. What are you doing to support women leaders and other diversity groups within healthcare and healthcare it?
Speaker 2:So. So this is this is an area of interest for me like giving back to community. So and we always feel that women's, especially women's, in into the underserved area, so they are like into problems and their enablement is very important. They should be actively part of the society. They should be heard, their problems should be solved and they should have the ability to speak about their problems, not somebody else or maybe the main dominant society should decide about their problems. So in that case, so there are two areas where I'm pretty actively working. So one is supporting the women that start up into Africa, into into like us and even into many. So I share, like their advisory boards for knowing, like financial interest to help them to take them into a next step where they can like bring value to society and they can unbatter and they can be status of like icons. So who other people can see realize if this lady can do, if this woman can do, then I can do so. So this is one step that I'm doing and it's across and I would say I like very proud.
Speaker 2:We I had enabled many women's who are very successful entrepreneurs and they have made like a big value, valued companies.
Speaker 2:So and the second step obviously there is another community who may not be able to do these things. So I work, like with different NGOs who are neighborhood, those women and even the children, so that they can take better care of their families from finances and from and from the health point of. So we had, like, one organization that is a California based, its shine humanity, and they had the setup, the mobile bands, the clinics and the healthcare centers, and we enabled those centers and mobile bands in a way, if we can consider the quality of care that is given, into clean and clean a con, maybe Harvard. So we have set up those algorithms, protocols and tools through which they can deliver the same kind of quality of care into a remote area of a very like a poor country, maybe a poor city. So this is a model that we have tested and it has, like, generated phenomenal results so far. They are like 70,000 direct patients out, and out of those 70,000, like 90% are females and children.
Speaker 2:So so then, we are also doing some of community awareness programs for them, so that they understand about the problem, and then they can like add value to their societies.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's great. I had the same with you know my nonprofits, my passion project to give back. So it's always nice to talk to others that you know feel the same way. So some of the superpowers that you see for these, you know startups and entrepreneurs in, you know policy or strategy that will make them the most impactful. So what you know, what type of leader or superpower would you say that they need to have to carry out this work and really move healthcare, you know, forward at lightning speed.
Speaker 2:So the first thing I would say the blade, so believe, should be there. They should believe they are doing a good work. So even if they are not doing a good work, it would automatically, with the passage of time, they can always refine and make it better. The second thing is their persistence. So their effort should be very persistent. They should be, they should be keep on doing things and obviously so if they are like honest to their ideas, so they would always find a way to make a success. Obviously it's the time taking job.
Speaker 2:It's not something usually when the people are coming with the startup mindset, they think they would build something in three months time. It would be a unicorn. So that does not happen. So there is no cookie cutter approach. There is, like always a pathway of success. So you want anybody who is coming into that area. They must be ready to have the hard times. So like working with the startup as a founder or maybe into a funding team, always keeps I say, people. So you have two slaps on your face each day and and you have a big hope every day. So so you have to really like focus on, to onto your hopes. So every day there would be like some problems that are like a huge problems, and Then there is a hope.
Speaker 2:That is the. That hope keeps you continue. So if you can continue With your journey, so you would be successful. So this is something I believe and this is not in any book and this is not something that we used to say Is into into a typical approach of building a startup. So this is more about if you breathe into something and you invest your time, you invest your energy, so outcome would be there.
Speaker 1:A little bit of patience goes a long way too right. Yeah. What do you think that your superpower is, with all of the startups and the board seats and the Amazing work that you've done over your tenure? Why has brought you to where you are today, in a form of a superpower, so?
Speaker 2:The, everything that I do, it's on to a belief, so that believes with the creator. A lot of, so all those superpowers are really coming from from there.
Speaker 2:I had a very hard time in my life. So whenever I have a hard time, I always believe, I always go back, I pray to Allah that this is where I'm stuck, as me out, and then obviously Something would happen every time and you would be the out of the problem. So so this is. This is like a belief and testimony of belief, and that keeps me moving. So my passion is to make like I wanted everybody to feel healthy in the world. So I think that I had a very like Heavy, heavy things on my shoulders. Basically To change the entire paradigm of health care, to be especially focusing. The focus should be changed from this sick care to wellness. So all the reimbursement model, everything should go back to reimbursement, to the wellness. So if we can eat the people healthy, so then there should be higher treatment. So if we Otherwise, we have the typical model of sick care, so in the sick care.
Speaker 2:So there are multiple actors. Food is the biggest actor. Environment is another bigger sector. So if we are like teaching our children specially and, by the way, most of our children's they only like the junk food. Their taste buds are ready about Like eating all those junk foods. So if they are taking so much of junk foods so we see their health would be comfortable. So so I think like working on to these dimension and then like Working on two different areas Even I had to move to.
Speaker 2:Sometime I had to travel to a freaking country. Sometime I have to travel to Asian countries and even to your friend. So I had, like all those there I'm working with the top people special like helping the job union into, into their innovation programs, and then like working all these MIT hours and first and Cleveland cleaning into patient experience and design thinking and then going back where there is no MRF and how to deliver the care over there. So so these are like the belief and when, when we deliver something to the people, so there is a feeling, there is like contentment, so so that feeling keeps me moving forward. So that's my super power.
Speaker 1:I Love it. You have so much heart and passion. I could probably talk and ask you questions, you know, for a really long time, but for today, thank you so much for jumping on. Good luck at health and, you know, pick a good, a good winner. That's gonna really impact us and move health care it forward with innovation. Thank you for your time and I think it's almost your bedtime, so have a good night, and we're approaching lunchtime here in the States, so, yeah, little bit of time zone change. So thank you so much for jumping on today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thanks a bit. It's really an honor and Thanks for providing me the opportunity to make this voice to reach to the maximum people and I think I think your podcast would really create an impact and it would help lot of people in making the right kind of Understanding and then taking the right kind of decisions. I See the CIOs Really appreciate that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, no problem, I hope to meet you in person someday. It was great talking to you.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 3:Thanks for tuning in to the Verge podcast brought to you by divergent, a leading healthcare IT consulting firm. We hope you enjoyed this episode. Be sure to hit the follow button to stay up to date with the latest IT developments and the exciting ways Tech is transforming healthcare today.