Consumerism
Gina Altieri Executive vice president and enterprise chief communications officer Nemours Children’s Health System
Altieri has been a key member of Nemours’ leadership team for the past decade and has played a major role in building out the system’s digital, consumer-centric strategy, including overseeing the launch and expansion of a mobile app that allows patients with chronic conditions to connect immediately with a doctor. She also helped launch Nemours’ Center for Health Delivery Innovation, which spurred such innovations as remote patient monitoring, provider-to-provider digital health consultations, and an early literacy digital assessment tool kit. She was promoted to her current role just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. During the past year, she oversaw implementation of virtual rounding and telehealth tools to help primary-care doctors continue to do well-child visits, as well as create outdoor clinics for immunizations.
Eduardo Conrado Executive vice president and chief strategy and innovation officer Ascension
As chief strategy and innovation officer, Conrado helps lead the large not-for-profit health system’s efforts to grow its digital footprint. Among other things, he directed the launch of a new customer relationship management tool that feeds Ascension staff more personalized information so they can better address patient needs when they call. He also oversaw the launch of such virtual care options as video consultations and online home monitoring. Those were in place prior to the pandemic but saw accelerated use over the past year. His team is also rolling out customized apps to remind patients to take their medications.
Christine Pearson Chief financial officer AnMed Health
After hearing patients complain about receiving separate bills for physician and hospital charges, Pearson sought out a solution that would ease their angst. She oversaw implementation of a billing tool that consolidated statements and integrated seamlessly into the health system’s electronic health record, eliminating the need to overhaul the EHR’s revenue cycle program. Through the effort, AnMed is also better positioned to accept new forms of payment, like Apple and Google pay, and send targeted communications to patients. Three months after implementation, AnMed improved collections by 20% and saw patient-satisfaction scores climb to 91%. A new payment plan option resulted in patients committing to pay $2.2 million in charges.
Niobis Queiro Senior vice president of revenue cycle Wellforce
Queiro thought there had to be a better solution to the long lines and long wait times patients encountered at Tufts Medical Center as they answered a 90-question COVID-19 intake form, no matter how many times they returned for a test. She helped implement an artificial intelligence tool that allowed patients to fill out the form at home, generating results that instructed patients to come in for a test or to stay home. The tool was eventually integrated into the health system’s electronic health record. She played a key role in automating processes that cut registration and testing time by 60%. The intake process fell from an average of 15 minutes per patient to 6 minutes, and lines that would snake around up to four blocks essentially disappeared.
Rajeev Ronanki David Perlin Chief scientific officer and senior vice president Hackensack Meridian Health’s Center for Discovery and Innovation
Formally established in 2019, the Center for Discovery and Innovation aims to conduct “science with clinical impact” and bring innovations to patient care using insights from molecular and cellular science. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the center team developed novel diagnostics, improved antiviral therapy and supported several clinical trial efforts, including one of the first molecular tests to get Food and Drug Administration emergency use authorization. The center’s work also extended to new digital tools, such as an online vaccine appointment scheduling system, which saw 80,000 people use it by the first week of February, and the launch of a chatbot to help answer questions, which was used by 50,000 people in 2020.
Senior vice president and chief digital officer Anthem
Ronanki and his team were key players in the creation of Sydney Health, a mobile app that simplifies and personalizes options for Anthem members. It includes a symptom checker, smart provider search and more. Anthem added a COVID-19 tracker during the pandemic, which helped members connect to a doctor virtually and locate testing sites. From 2020 through the first half of 2021, there were nearly 300,000 downloads and more than 44,000 completions of the symptom checker tool. Over the course of the past five years, Ronanki’s team has grown Anthem’s digital footprint in other ways, including the launch of Anthem Skill, an Alexa tool that allows members to access plan benefit information, refill prescriptions and more via voice commands. In 2020, nearly 3,000 Anthem commercial plan members accessed it with more than 8,000 questions.
Melinda Schriver Director of digital health Carilion Clinic
A longtime champion of telehealth services, Schriver joined Virginia-based Carilion in 2019. Carilion’s community health needs assessment the year before revealed an increased need for access in rural communities. Schriver quickly helped build out the system’s digital services, including Carilion Clinic Pediatrics’ first telemedicine visit between a patient who lived more than an hour away from her pulmonologist. She also oversaw expansion of telestroke technology for three rural hospitals within her first year. Under her leadership, Carilion won a $1 million federal grant to further expand teleneurology, virtual care centers in rural areas, and telehealth devices in primary-care and assisted-living centers.