Podcast Q&A with Mark Hulse, Part 2: “If You’ve Seen One CDO, You’ve Seen One CDO.”

During the past few months, a number of highly-respected CIOs have stepped into CDO (chief digital officer) roles, leading some to wonder about the implications for both positions. Do health systems need both titles? What is the reporting structure?

Those are just some of the questions.

And, as is often the case, it depends on the organization and the individual, according to Mark Hulse, who recently stepped into the CDO role at City of Hope. “If you’ve seen one CDO, you’ve seen one CDO.” At City of Hope, a comprehensive cancer center based in California, the primary objective in creating the CDO position was to bring IT, research informatics, and enterprise business intelligence “under one digital vertical.” And in doing so, help drive the organization’s groundbreaking oncology learning platform forward.

Recently, Hulse spoke with Kate Gamble, managing editor at healthsystemCIO.com, about the work his team is doing to drive transformation and leverage analytics to provide decision support and develop predictive models; the measures they’re taking to keep vulnerable patients safe during the pandemic; and how he hopes to keep the virtual health momentum going.

LISTEN HERE USING THE PLAYER BELOW OR SUBSCRIBE THROUGH YOUR FAVORITE PODCASTING SERVICE. 



Key Takeaways



* City of Hope quickly pivoted to create a safer environment for immunocompromised patients by setting up screening and testing sites and establishing a separate Covid inpatient unit.

* Although the primary objective of chief digital officers — driving digital transformation across the organization — is similar across the industry, how that is being implemented can be quite different, Hulse said.

* At City of Hope, Hulse’s key focus is to bring IT, research informatics, and business intelligence “under one digital vertical.”

* One component CDOs need to drive transformation? A strong CIO, said Hulse. “If I didn’t have Patrick [Anderson], I wouldn’t be able to do those things.”

* In addition to changing the way care is delivered, the oncology learning platform as served as a “unifying concept” across the organization.



Q&A with Mark Hulse, CDO, City of Hope, Part 2 [Click here to view Part 1]

Keeping vulnerable patients safe

Gamble:  One of the things we definitely wanted to touch on was with everything that has happened the past year and half, especially during the height of COVID, there was hesitancy for patients to seek care. What were some of the strategies City of Hope used to ensure patients received care?

Hulse:  We were very focused on getting testing rolled out on campus as quickly as possible for patients and visitors. We established screening at each of the main entrances, and closed down others so that patients, staff, and visitors had to move through and be monitored. This was really early on, before it was a major requirement in many places. Then we offered testing, and once we had vaccines that were at least approved for emergency use, we established sites on campus where staff and patients could readily get vaccinated. Those were the major pieces.

Many of our patients are immunosuppressed, and are very susceptible not only to Covid, but any other type of infection. So we established a separate Covid unit. Fortunately, while we did have a small number of Covid patients at any given time, we weren’t overwhelmed.