This week I am talking to Jeff Fallon, (@IamJeffFallon) Chairman and CEO of eVideon (@evideonhealth) who are delivering solutions to engage with patients using one of the few patient facing tools to be found in hospital rooms. Jeff spent the early part of his career in the medical device and pharmaceutical space but like myself was inspired by Leonard Kish and Eric Topol’s work that highlighted that
“Patient engagement is the blockbuster drug of the century”
And Michael Porters book – Redefining Healthcare, that pushed him to consider how a medical device pharmaceutical company, could deliver more value to their customers and especially hospitals increasingly finding themselves in value based financial future. He was involved in early work at the Cleveland clinic with teaching and engagement tools that led him down a path to enabling patient engagement with solutions that had to be inside the hospital systems. As he highlights the two key things in a patients room that face the patient are the television and the nurse call button and eVideon has focused on bringing updating the experience for everyone’s benefit.
Listen in to hear the the importance of modernizing the patient digital experience and the impression it leaves with patients. It’s not just about the patients being more engaged and delivering a higher hospital and physician ratings, but actually helps in delivering better care that is safer, less costly and has better outcomes. It has the added value of attracting high quality clinical staff who want digitally enabled facilities to support the delivery of high quality healthcare
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Raw Transcript
Nick van Terheyden
Today I’m delighted to be joined by Jeff Fallon. He is the chairman and CEO of E video. Jeff, thanks for joining me today.
Jeff Fallon
Hey, Dr. Nick, great to be with you today really appreciate the opportunity to chat with you and reach out to your listeners.
Nick van Terheyden
So as I do with all my guests, I think it’s always important to get a little bit of background to individuals and how they arrived at this point, you’ve got an interesting background, tell us a little bit about how you arrived as the CEO of EA video on your journey to this point, if you would.
Jeff Fallon
Yeah, happy to. So it’s 33 years into a career in healthcare, largely up until 2011 was medical device and pharmaceutical side of healthcare delivery leading commercial stuff in the hospital space. And back in 2010, I was working with the Cleveland Clinic as the corporate leader for for a large global medical device diagnostic pharma company, and we’re doing some really innovative stuff, trying to skate where the hockey puck was going, so to speak for our hospital clients who were facing increasingly value based reimbursement future versus the volume based financial history that we’d all really build our businesses on. And it was through that interaction with the Cleveland Clinic where I really began to get intimate with the idea of pay for performance quality implications for hospital providers, and patient satisfaction scores, particularly in the idea of patients being engaged in their own care as a lever on improving the quality, the satisfaction and the efficiency of the care delivery as well. So I really pivoted my career at that point in 2011, and jumped in with both feet into this idea of technology as a fulcrum. And that whole idea of making patients an active participant in their care rather than some of the just receives the care sort of passively. And we’re excited to be on that journey, really, for the last, golly, going on 12 years now. And I think the future is very bright for this company. But more importantly for the idea overall.
Nick van Terheyden
Yeah, so I agree with you. I mean, if you’re not familiar, you probably are. But Leonard Kish his famous quote, in this space is, you know, patient engagement is the blockbuster drug of the century, in terms of its effectiveness. And I imagine coming from the pharmaceutical industry, you’re looking at this going, Wow, we need to deliver more of that, right?
Jeff Fallon
Yeah, exactly. And actually, it was the Cleveland Clinic. That introduced me to a book called redefining healthcare by Michael Porter, who’s a Harvard Business School professor. And his chapter seven was titled implications for suppliers. It was that idea that, you know, how would a medical device pharmaceutical company, deliver more value to their customers, in my case, it was hospitals, who were facing an increasingly value based financial future, when the reality is that a med device or drug company, their business is dropping off devices or pills at the loading dock and then leaving their brain essentially, at that loading dock and not bringing it to the bedside to improve the episode of care for all the reasons that, you know, we all understand very well reducing readmissions, improving satisfaction, improving efficiency, the experience so it was really the that idea of how does a drug or device company help their clients navigate what’s ahead? That got me into this business of technology, it was really a light bulb, and loaded tissues quote that you rightly point out neck is, was seminal for me, along with Michel Porter’s work that just made me think I wanted to be part of making this idea, the standard of care. I didn’t want to get to the end of my career and say, you know, I saw that happening and sat on the sidelines and wish I would have done something about it. So it’s been an exciting ride. I’m excited about what’s ahead. Still.
Nick van Terheyden
It’s interesting, as you think about that, and the the way in which we’ve, I want to say almost ignored the patient element of this. I mean, it was a very paternalistic system that here you are, here is your care, be grateful for it. And we have moved away but it has what I would consider a fairly checkered past and I’ll you know, claim some ownership of that, certainly in terms of not intentionally the way that I delivered care, but you know, certainly my experiences in delivering that care when you saw that you obviously It, you know, triggered something in you that you go, that’s great. But what was your next step? How did you then progress that into your career and the next steps that you’ve gotten into?
Jeff Fallon
Yeah, well, to be specific, what we were doing with the Cleveland Clinic was thinking about how to how would that how would I and my team bring air insights about the care experience, not just the dosage and side effects of of the devices and pharmaceuticals, but the needs and fears and expectations, the actual journey that the patient is on because we have deep insights about the disease states that are products treated? Well, we really, apart from building some online patient, you know, teaching tools or engagement tools, we really weren’t much of a participant in that care experience. And so around that, thinking about patient engagement, we realized that we needed to have a platform inside the hospital through which we could deliver those insights not actually to be a provider of care, like a medical doctor or nurse would, of course, but to bring those insights. And to do it from a kind of a HIPAA compliant distance, you really needed a platform inside the hospital. And the reality was hospital technology that faces the patient not not receives information or data from the patient’s, you know, veins and organs, but actually interacts with the patient was simply non existent. So we kind of dreamed up that you needed this in patient platform. And because of that work, and the visibility it was getting, at this company, the venture capital guys, over there, who had invested in a company who had technology like this, brought me into that team, and we made an investment in in this company. And, frankly, when the company decided not to require them, I thought it would be a much better use of the future of my career to join that mission attempt to really bring that technology to the fore. And again, make it a standard of care at the bedside just like you wouldn’t go to a hospital that doesn’t have infusion pumps at the bedside, right or the nurse call button even talking about antiquated technology. I think it’ll it’s only a matter of time until you wouldn’t similarly want to go to a hospital that didn’t have technology like this that that helps people understand what’s happening for the majestic mystifies what’s what’s all around. So that’s the that’s the specific instance, like we were actually dreaming up this idea. I won’t say we invented it, frankly, there were lots of people working on the idea before Weaver had the idea. But it was that it was that specific project that got me excited in just numerous things like Michel Porter’s book, and like the things that I was hearing from leaders like Jim Merlino, the chief experience officer at the Cleveland Clinic that that made me convinced that this would be probably one of the highest use as of the rest of my career. And, again, I jumped in with both feet at that time in 2011.
Nick van Terheyden
So that, that’s really cool. Fast forward a little bit. And as you explored the technology, you explore this concept. What were the steps to creating this? Because at the time that you did this, I mean, sure there were players in that space, but I don’t think there was much going on. I mean, I think there was intent, but not so much actual delivery, right?
Jeff Fallon
No doubt. I mean, if you think about what’s happened with smartphones, just in the, in the last 12 years, just use the timeframe that I’m talking about. Right? I mean, a new expert on the iPhone, but that changed the world. And it changed how we interact with not just technology, but information, how we digest it, what forms do adjust it in and what do we do with it, the velocity, the information and the relevance the sort of contextual, specific to our individual, even location or heart rate, for crying out loud. It just changed dramatically. So certainly as the idea of using technology to educate people about what’s happening for them in a hospital at the bedside, began even with the telephone. I mean, there were there were people putting, you know, cassette tapes on on telephone lines, and they were listening to education. Now that’s that’s one automated way to educate patients and certainly as technology is advanced things like these smartphones and tablets that we all carry around, and smart TVs, which are now ubiquitous, right? I mean, if you’re going to buy a TV for your house today, would you not buy a smart TV I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t And likewise, hospitals are doing this. Now to you. Just as there’s a new world of things we can do with the devices we carry around, there’s a new world of things that hospitals can do with these smart devices that they put in the room. And that’s opened up a, just a world of possibilities for what a company like ours that ivideon can do with hospitals, to help just demystify what’s happening for that patient in the bed, who’s probably feeling at least vulnerable and maybe in fear for their life. But also, the technology possibilities have changed for the nurses and doctors who care for those people, or their ability to influence and educate and prepare them for life after the hospital. But to do it in an efficient way, not one that takes more of their time, but gives them time back.
Nick van Terheyden
So I help the listeners out a little bit, share a little bit of the detail of what a video is and what it does, if you weren’t.
Jeff Fallon
Yeah, so if you if you’ve ever been a patient in a hospital room or visited one, even if you’ve only seen a picture of half the room on TV, you know, the people are surrounded by technology. As I said earlier, infusion pumps, very sophisticated monitors EKGs, there’s devices tapping into the patient, gathering information and then putting things into our bodies. But the only TV or I should say the only device, the only technology in there that’s really interface to that patient that’s pushing information or gathering information to them, there’s really two of them. One is the TV on on the wall, we call it a foot wall kind of at the foot of the bed. And then there’s a button that’s 1979 technology called the nurse call button. Right? So in 2021, that those are the those are the two way mechanisms for pushing and receiving information, actually from the patient’s eyes and mouth so to speak. It’s just unthinkable in this world where we’re current carrying supercomputers in our pockets. And that’s what we’re relegating people who are in fear of their lives and at least very vulnerable in a bed medically vulnerable, probably, you know, wearing an embarrassing, open back medical gown. You know, you just like to think that we give them a bit more information about what’s happening for them. So the short story of what we do is we make the TV on the foot wall, a smart TV, we connect that television to the electronic medical record of the hospital and many other information systems that the hospital relies on. We use tablets at the bedside, that are also connected to the EMR these IT systems. So that an interface is presented to the patient that welcomes them to the hospital, in whatever demographic interface is appropriate for them. So if it’s a kid, it’s a pediatric interface. It’s in their first language, whatever language they speak, according to the electronic medical record, it’ll welcome them in that language. It will present entertainment content, that demographically appropriate relaxation content, things to distract them from whatever has been in the hospital. But the most important personalization comes from that electronic medical record that while the patient is distracting themselves through TV or relaxation, or whatever, we’re going to prompt them to say for example, Nick, you’ve just been prescribed a new medication. Click this button and watch a short video about hydrochloric acid. And you can snooze it, but we can be relatively persistent about coming back to you. And then we’re going to use asynchronous, automated delivery of short videos specific to you the diagnosis, the procedures, whatever’s got you in that hospital, we’re going to push these videos to you, and we’re going to automatically deliver it we’re going to automatically document your completion and even your comprehension. So taking the education load off of the nurse by automating it this way, we’re doing other things in the room like that whiteboard, that’s a dry erase board where the nurse writes their name, your medications, your pain scores, and things like that. They’re woefully incompleted generally, they’re certainly manual and and pandemic these these, you know, handwritten dices are not necessarily a fantastic idea. So we digitize that we can put a very simple display on the wall connected to the electronic medical record, real time location systems, dietary systems, etc. to just present a very rich picture of whatever’s happening for that patient and take that off the nurses to do list so that that nurse doesn’t have to write that stuff out. The patient can actually put questions using the smartphone up on that digital whiteboard. The nurse can see those questions from the nursing station before they even come into the room. Digital door sign outside the room so that HIPAA compliant informatics or graphics are presented to all who walk up to the room so that at a glance, they know just like an air traffic controller would when they take a look at a graphic rich interface area know at a glance what’s happening in that room and enter appropriately, whatever that situation may be. So there’s a, there’s a kind of a short story on the handful of the things that we’re doing in and around that patient room. Really, the idea is present the patient and the staff who cares for that patient, the right information at the right time on the right interface, so that everybody just understands better than more efficiently what’s happening.
Nick van Terheyden
So for those of you just joining, I’m Dr. Nick the incrementalist today, I’m delighted to be joined by Jeff Fallon, he is the chairman and CEO of a video, we were just talking about a video on solution and the wall bed, I’m sorry, I forget the term you use. But the end of the bed monitor, which, you know, is historical. And as I think about that, as a well, not even as a patient just as a regular person, the first thing I do pretty much in almost any room I enter certainly hotel rooms and whatever is you turn that TV on, it’s it’s sort of it’s built into our culture. I know it wasn’t historically, but it’s really sort of become part of that. And that becomes this sort of primary interface. But I imagine that this is just one aspect of it. I mean, this just because it’s there, that’s just you know, you use that. But it could be anything, ultimately, I mean, you’ve got the capacity to sort of interact with patients in their preferred form. Is that true?
Jeff Fallon
Yeah, that’s right. I mean, to your point that when you walk into a hotel room, imagine if you saw a big, you know, tube TV sitting on the dresser there, what you may think about the other experiences that you could anticipate at that particular hotel, it doesn’t sound very comforting message about the quality of the experience you’re going to have, I believe that hospitals that are not modernizing the patient facing technology. And I don’t mean just in the entertainment way, which is obvious, but also important. But more importantly, in terms of the demystification of what’s happening for that patient in the room. I believe that those hospitals that are not modernizing that are going to be left in a disadvantaged position in terms of who’s attracted to that hospital, because just as you probably wouldn’t be going back to that same hotel, if you didn’t have to, because you’d have some questions about where else are they cutting corners, you know, a hospital is wants to attract patients that want to be engaged in their own care, I believe, I believe that. Well, the data absolutely says that engage patients have lower costs and better outcomes. Therefore, you want to attract patients who are engaged in their own care, or at least want to be engaged in their own care, if you don’t invest in these sorts of things. And you are left with the people who really don’t give a doggone about whether they’ve got a big tube TV on their desk, whether they’re, you know, in the hospital or the hotel is cutting corners or not, in their stay, you’re left with, I think a proxy of patients or I should say a cohort of patients that really don’t care about being engaged in their own care. And that’s not a cohort that I think is going to predict greater outcomes and satisfaction and efficiency of care. So I think it becomes a competitive differentiator. It’s also certainly, again, if you believe that engaged patients have better outcomes and lower costs, you better do a pretty good job at it. But you’re also leaving yourself with a subset of patients who really don’t care to be engaged in their own care if you don’t invest in enabling that. So it’s a competitive differentiator. I also think that there’s no doubt if you’re a nurse, or a physician who comes to rely on this kind of technology to enable you to better reach patients and achieve greater outcomes more efficiently in your practice, then you will likewise prefer to work at hospitals that have this kind of technology to enable you to reach those greater outcomes and more efficient care.
Nick van Terheyden
So it occurs to me as I listen to this, that there’s an opportunity, instead of just the passive delivery of information, where you know, you’re a bit like the Netflix of the worlds where, hey, I see that you’ve got this condition, I’m going to give you some education, that it’s actually something that can be delivered by the clinical team as almost a describable activity. Is that the case?
Jeff Fallon
Yeah, in fact, it is the case. And I think that’s the idea that litter Tish really had on his mind when you cited him earlier today, when he said patient engagement is the blockbuster drug of the next century, I think, the idea that prescribing education that actually engages or engaging patients, specifically, for whatever has been in the hospital is the most important lever on the outcome and the cost of the care and via the video on platform, the doctors and nurses actually literally prescribe education, video education. Now, historically, education in the hospital, was something that happened, as you’re trying to get out the door for discharge, right, the nurse comes into the room with a pile of papers, some of which you’re to sign some of us here to take to your doctor. Some of what your education, there’ll be, you know, 10 forms, read this, read that one, call your doctor, make an appointment, see them in two weeks, call us if you’re bleeding, go to the emergency room, like that’s the education process. So this is about being more intentional, asynchronous, and using video to do it so that you’re actually informing people in a way that they can hear. Because if you’re waiting until discharge to educate the patient, you’ve totally missed the medical moment of epiphany, you’re talking to somebody that is just trying to get out the door and is wondering if their ride is there yet. They’re concerned about are they going to be in pain when they get home? They’re, they’re simply just not very receptive to the education at that moment. So so it’s exactly that, Nick, it’s about using technology, and adult learning principles and video to do a better job of educating patients. And it is exactly like prescribing education.
Nick van Terheyden
Fantastic. I think, you know, the importance of that point, you know, that the, I want to get out of the hospital. And I actually, only just recently I got rid of an old book that was actually tear out patient instructions that you would hand out which, you know, as I think about it, in today’s day and age, it’s just so so Stone Age, you know, we have to do better than that. Closing couple of minutes. What would you say? What are you excited about in the next, you know, several months years about the technology and what the potential is.
Jeff Fallon
I’d say we’re, we’re excited to be involved with some really highly innovative, forward thinking, hospital and health systems across the United States that are dreaming Big right now about what’s possible for them. They’re starting with baby steps, of course, because there is a boatload of transformation around this, this whole idea, but we’ve got numerous clients that are establishing hospital rooms of the future. And it saved that those are exciting for us, frankly, the things that we’re doing in these hospital rooms of the future, that there are things that we’re doing in hospital rooms of today, even today, but knitting them all together, and then designing the workflows around this technology to transform what it is to be a patient in that room. And to be a nurse or a doctor who cares for patients in that room. Or it is it is tremendously transformative, what they’re, what they’re dreaming of doing. And we’re excited about being a part of it, some of the most prestigious names in healthcare, and I’ll get a hold those for press releases and whatnot. But we’re just excited about what’s ahead with the hospital clients that we have, and some that we’re about to announce as well. Fantastic.
Nick van Terheyden
Well, as usual, we’ve, unfortunately run out of time. Exciting times, I think, you know, utilizing existing technology for me, incremental steps, you know, it may be an old style TV, but if we can actually deliver information and do a better job, but then capitalize feels a little bit like the airlines where, you know, they put backseat videos in but they’re taking them out now because we all bring our own devices and I think you know, enabling that whole capability in the healthcare setting. Very exciting. Jeff, it’s been a delight. Thanks very much for joining me on the show.
Jeff Fallon
Thank you, Nick. It’s been a pleasure to speak with you and appreciate the opportunity.
