“Healthcare is going to change faster than it ever has,” declares Dr. Jason Hill, Innovation Officer at Ochsner Health. In an era of critical physician shortages and mounting healthcare challenges, innovative solutions aren’t just beneficial — they’re essential for survival. Dr. Hill’s unique journey from engineer to physician to innovation leader offers valuable insights into transforming healthcare delivery while maintaining clinical excellence.
Solving the Right Problems with AI
Although artificial intelligence holds immense promise for healthcare, Dr. Hill emphasizes the importance of focusing on the right problems. “It’s easy to get new shiny thing syndrome,” he says, recounting Ochsner’s experience with a sepsis prediction algorithm. “[But] if you’re not good at treating sepsis, it doesn’t matter how good you are at diagnosing sepsis. And so we then focused our care then on treating it and creating a bunch of tools to help people standardize the treatment.” This led to a crucial insight: technology must be coupled with improved clinical workflows to drive better outcomes.
Patient Empowerment as a Path Forward
The future of healthcare lies in patient empowerment and democratized knowledge. “Most of the problems that kill us all as Americans are decisions we make,” Dr. Hill observes. “We’re not exercising, we’re not eating the right food, we’re not taking our medicine. All of those things are decisions that we make every day.” By leveraging technology to influence behavior and engage patients in their own care, healthcare organizations can achieve better outcomes while addressing resource constraints.
The Power of Digital Medicine
At Ochsner Health, digital medicine is revolutionizing chronic condition management. “In a traditional clinic environment, it takes around 12 months to achieve blood pressure control because you’re only seeing your doctor twice,” explains Dr. Hill. “In a digital medicine environment, we achieve optimal blood pressure control in about a month and a half.” This 10x improvement in outcomes isn’t just about speed, it’s about accessibility. The program works even better for underserved populations, as Dr. Hill notes. If, for example, a patient is working multiple jobs or lives far away from their provider, it’s easier for them to engage on their phone, grab their blood pressure whenever they can, and then adjust their pills based on messages from their team, rather than having to trek all the way into an office for the same result.
Conclusion
Ochsner Health’s innovative approach demonstrates how healthcare organizations can successfully transform care delivery through digital solutions and patient empowerment. Dr. Hill’s insights reveal that true innovation in healthcare requires both technological advancement and fundamental changes to care delivery models, always keeping patient needs at the center.
