Podcast Q&A with Mark Hulse: “There’s a Lot We Can Learn” from the Data

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.

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Key Takeaways



* “Increasingly, data and analytics are going to be such an important part of what we do and what we offer,” which means leaders need to focus just as much as being a data and analytics company as being a clinical and research institute.

* By leveraging AI and machine learning, organizations are able to “surface patterns within the data that aren’t readily obvious with more traditional analytics techniques.”

* Of the three major components that comprise the oncology learning platform, real-world action is the most critical, said Hulse. “Discovering evidence within the data doesn’t make a whole lot of difference unless you can really influence decision-making at the point of care.”

* City of Hope has developed a number of predictive models, including one that can detect moderate or high-risk sepsis in bone marrow transplant patients by extracting data out of Epic.

* It’s not just about clinical data. When clinicians have all of the pertinent information about a patient, it can foster discussions about key areas such as end-of-life care.





Q&A with Mark Hulse, Chief Digital Officer, City of Hope

Gamble:  Let’s start with a brief overview of City of Hope. Can you give some high-level information about the organization?

Hulse:  Sure. City of Hope is an NCI (National Cancer Institute) designated comprehensive cancer center. We have 51 centers nationally. Our main campus is located in Los Angeles County, just north of downtown Los Angeles. Over the years we’ve expanded to more than 35 sites throughout Southern California. We’re currently building a new cancer center in Orange County that will be opening next year, as well as a new hospital. So we’ve definitely been in expansion mode.

Clinically, we’re a national leader in blood cancers in particular, including bone marrow and stem cell transplants. We’re also leading in emerging treatments such as CAR-T cell therapy, a type of immunotherapy that’s showing a tremendous amount of promise for some difficult-to-treat cancers.

As a major research institute, we typically have well over 500 active clinical trials at any given time. We also have three good manufacturing plant facilities, which allow us to manufacture our own drugs and immunotherapy agents. And so,