Health IT, Hospitals

Advice to hospitals from digital health expert: Don’t start with bright shiny object

Eric Langshur, CEO of Avia, wants to help hospitals create a business case, get executive buy-in, and determine how the project will be scaled, as well as the organizational changes that should happen to accommodate the new tech.

Numerous organizations are trying to help health systems solve problems through smart use of digital health tools. One of those is Chicago-based Avia that is having a good run lately.

In back-to-back releases, the company announced $22 million in funding and a new alliance with the American Hospital Association (AHA). The combination will help AVIA expand its reach while working to make digital procurement a more rational part of a system’s overall strategy.

“We’re trying to leverage this thing called digital in all aspects of transforming their business,” said Avia’s CEO and co-founder Eric Langshur in a phone interview. “The way they deliver care, the way they connect with consumers, the way they think about reaching and assisting the most vulnerable population, the way they think about acquiring new commercial patients, the way they think about using digital teams and reducing administrative inefficiencies.”

Langshur believes that, all too often, healthcare organizations embrace a sparkling new digital technology without fully considering how it meshes with their business. Avia wants to reverse that thinking.

“Do not start with a digital solution and do not start with a bright shiny object,” said Langshur. “Start with your strategic objective. What are you trying to accomplish?”

Avia burrows into these complexities to develop more comprehensive solutions. Creating a digital front door is a necessary action, but it’s also complicated. According to Langshur, there are 58 capabilities associated with establishing that process.

“Think about online scheduling,” said Langshur. “In order to do that, you need a physician registry, a really complicated thing to do for health systems. You’ve got multiple service lines, you have some docs employed, some docs you’re affiliated with…and this is different in every service line. You need a transparency tool: price transparency, rating transparency. You need a scheduling tool.”

Avia takes its clients through the process: Creating a business case, getting executive buy in, determining how the project will be scaled, as well as the organizational changes that should happen to accommodate the new tech.

“This is a big change management project,” said Langshur. “You’ve got to redesign workflow and manage communications. You’ve got to train people, drive adoption and then scale it across the enterprise.”

The new funding will help Avia grow and compete in a crowded segment, which includes L.E.K Consulting, CitiusTech and many others. AVIA believes it has an edge because it tries to be solution-agnostic to better help its clients.

Many of these clients own a stake in the company, including Cedars-Sinai, Memorial Hermann, the University of Virginia and nine others. Langshur believes these relationships make Avia less a vendor and more a partner.

The AHA collaboration will further expand Avia’s reach, offering association members access to its tools, including Avia Connect, a database of strategies clients can use to implement digital technologies.

“The essence of strategy is optionality, and what gives you optionality to be a digitally-enabled enterprise,” said Langshur. “And that’s what we are helping our members do so they can knit together capabilities, integrate, move more quickly, reduce costs and reduce clinician burnout.”

Photo: Cecilie_Arcurs, Getty Images

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