IFDHE Podcasts

00;00;00;25 - 00;00;31;29
Tom Haederle
Hospitals and health systems have navigated some pretty choppy waters over the past several years. Most are not anchored in a safe harbor even now. The many pressures squeezing health care providers - finances, workforce retention, supply chain issues - have all served to make the role of hospital trustee or governing board member more challenging than ever. Hospital boards have accurately been described as the North Saintar in hospital operations, charged with making sure that quality metrics are met and that strategic priorities guide the mission.

00;00;32;02 - 00;01;11;25
Tom Haederle
Not an easy lift. But it is doable. Welcome to Advancing Health, a podcast from the American Hospital Association. I'm Tom Haederle with AHA Communications. On this leadership dialog series podcast, John Haupert, AHA’s board chair and president and CEO of Grady Health, is in dialog with Greg Bentz, board chair of Saint Luke's Health System in Kansas City, Missouri, and also the current chair of AHA’s Committee on Governance.

00;01;11;28 - 00;01;34;16
Tom Haederle
Saint Luke's Health System is big. It includes 14 hospitals and campuses across the Kansas City region and offers home care, hospice and behavioral health care, dozens of physician practices, a life care senior living community and more. Providing effective board oversight is a daily challenge and as Bentz says "it feels like the past three years have been a pretty intense time in the governance world.

00;01;34;23 - 00;01;42;07
Tom Haederle
The margin of error feels like it's pretty thin, so we focused our efforts very intently on governance."

00;01;42;09 - 00;02;30;26
John Haupert
Good afternoon and thank you everyone for joining me today for another leadership dialog session. I'm John Haupert, president and CEO of Grady Health System in Atlanta and board chair of the American Hospital Association. I am looking forward to our conversation today as we take a look at the important role of hospital and health system governance. Hospital trustees have been an important part and do an important job as they work to foster a positive and productive culture within their organization, ensure their hospitals are meeting high quality and patient focused performance metrics and act as a North Saintar in always ensuring that strategic priorities guide the mission by providing needed medical care, as well as supporting the broader

00;02;30;26 - 00;02;58;02
John Haupert
health and wellness of the communities they serve. Here at Grady, it's been fun to see the evolution of our board of directors. It's a 17-member board, so it's manageable. It meets quarterly, which I think is appropriate. But as many hospital boards experience, oftentimes the board members are already very familiar with things like financial acumen and the performance on customer service.

00;02;58;04 - 00;03;20;17
John Haupert
But sometimes they struggle to understand what is good quality and what does quality mean. So we've invested a lot of time in educating our board around where we are, where we're positioned and providing high quality care. But what should the goal be and what does that look like? And so for us, that's been a big focus. So today I want to introduce Greg Bentz.

00;03;20;18 - 00;04;01;22
John Haupert
Greg spent his days as a trial attorney with Wallace Saunders in Overland Park, Kansas, but he is here with us today in a different capacity, and that is as chair of Saint Luke's Health System, board of directors. The Saint Luke's Health System is a fully integrated regional health system with about 13,000 employees based in Missouri and Kansas. The health system has 13 hospitals ranging from a large tertiary hospital in the middle of Kansas City to metro hospitals outside the city to critical access hospitals, as well as a children's behavioral health hospital and a rehabilitation hospital.

00;04;01;27 - 00;04;30;04
John Haupert
I will say serving as the chair of that board really is extensive, given the broad range of types of facilities that are being served by Saint Luke's. Greg first started his service to Saint Luke's by serving on the board of one of their individual hospitals before being elected to the system Board and becoming chair in 2022. Additionally, Greg also serves as the chair of AHA's Committee on Governance.

00;04;30;07 - 00;04;34;26
John Haupert
So Greg, thank you for joining me today. And we're going to jump in with our first question.

00;04;34;29 - 00;04;36;19
Greg Bentz
Thank you, John.

00;04;36;22 - 00;04;55;04
John Haupert
It goes without saying that hospitals and health systems have faced some tremendous and I mean tremendous challenges these past few years with the pandemic and then grappling with the significant financial pressures that followed. What has that looked like from a governance perspective at Saint Luke's?

00;04;55;06 - 00;05;26;11
Greg Bentz
As we tried to move through COVID and past it, whether we'll ever really be past it remains to be seen. But we really focused everything we were doing on trying to invest in those things that would help us maintain the quality of our care and improve and reshape the efficiency with which we provided that care. It feels like the last three years have been a pretty intense time in the governance world.

00;05;26;14 - 00;06;04;03
Greg Bentz
The margin of error feels like it's pretty thin, and so we've really focused our efforts very intently on governance. Really we've invested primarily in our people and technology. You know, we've had a situation where health care's lost half a million workers in the last few years through burnout and retirement, illness and even sometimes death. And so it's really been critical that we focused on employee retention.

00;06;04;06 - 00;06;35;28
Greg Bentz
We made sure that we tried to keep our team together. We felt like if we could do that, we would be ahead of the game. We've invested a lot of time and effort in retention. We've listened carefully to what our team has been living through these past few years and tried to provide support for them, both technologically and with programs that would provide them both physical and mental support.

00;06;36;01 - 00;07;15;06
Greg Bentz
We've expanded our digital care as part of our investment in technology and that's been very well received by our patients. And so we've really tried to stay with our culture and be transparent with our patients and with the physicians as we try and govern during what the last few years has been a very challenging time. One thing we did change is we went a lot more virtual in our meetings with our boards, and we certainly needed to improve our technology related to that type of access for the board members.

00;07;15;09 - 00;07;36;08
Greg Bentz
As I mentioned, we made significant investments in digital care and also Hospital in Your Home, which is a program that is technologically intensive but has been very well received by the patients and more and more people are signing up for that type of program.

00;07;36;11 - 00;08;02;13
John Haupert
Great. Thank you. That was very good information and I appreciate that greatly. You're a great person to have answering these questions because you served on both a hospital specific board, but then on the broader health system. Which really I know is two different perspectives. In your experience so far and in both of those roles, have you seen changes in the structure or makeup of boards or focus of boards over time?

00;08;02;16 - 00;08;30;17
Greg Bentz
I sure have, John. I think there's been a big shift to the intentionality that it takes to develop a diverse board. I think that has become a higher and higher priority for boards and it's something we should all strive to do. The statistics, though, are still not fabulous. The AHA did a governance survey recently and the results of that are improving.

00;08;30;17 - 00;09;10;26
Greg Bentz
But we still have a situation where over 60% of the board members are over age 50. 80% of them are white and 65% of them are male. But those numbers are all better than they were five years ago. We have started using more out (?). At Saint Luke's we haven't done this, but nationally, more and more boards are reaching out to people from beyond their geographic region and bringing them on to boards to try and bring in diverse views and views that are not necessarily limited by parochial concerns.

00;09;10;29 - 00;09;42;00
Greg Bentz
One other area that is interesting to me is that nurses have been kind of overlooked as potential board members, and we found that having nurses who have their feet on the carpet of the hospital rooms are a great source of information for a board. As you mentioned, we've got a very diverse set of hospitals and delivery systems throughout a large geographic area.

00;09;42;03 - 00;10;11;27
Greg Bentz
And so trying to build a diverse board takes a lot of effort. It takes building relationships and sometimes you have to go out of your comfort zone to do that. But we think it's very important to kind of rebalance the table and make sure that all the communities we serve have a voice on the board so that we can be aware of their concerns and their needs so we can try and serve those as best we can.

00;10;11;29 - 00;10;41;13
Greg Bentz
There's been a effort to build a what we call leadership pipeline so that we can bring people in and educate them about the health system even prior to them being on the board. And then, of course, once they're on the board orientation is critical. There's been a big focus on diversity, equity and inclusion in governance recently, and that's something everybody needs to spend time thinking about.

00;10;41;20 - 00;11;14;23
Greg Bentz
And we do that. Workforce, as you mentioned, quality. I love the true North Saintar. That's a term I use a lot because I really believe that. But we've also been focused on workforce and trying to make sure that their needs are being met. And I actually noticed, or I've recently read some AHA Trustee Services board briefs that were very good on workforce, including physical safety, but also behavioral health support.

00;11;14;26 - 00;11;54;01
John Haupert
You brought up some really great points. And one of the ones that I have thought about often is bringing in someone from beyond your borders. And we did that here at Grady so that we could assure the board that the direction we were heading in from a quality and equity point of view was on target. And so we went outside our market and brought in a chief quality officer from another health system who's really well known to both support us and provide input, but also to assure the board from their position on our quality committee that we were headed in the right direction.

00;11;54;01 - 00;12;20;28
John Haupert
So I'm glad to hear that you see that as a priority. Now, this next one I know has received a little criticism, but we are increasingly hearing criticism of health systems or large health systems with multiple hospitals. And some of the naysayers are saying health systems are not in tune with the needs of the individual communities where they have all of these facilities.

00;12;21;00 - 00;12;39;05
John Haupert
So can you share your insights on how at Saint Luke's and as chair of that board, how are you all balance seeing that system oversight along with assuring that the voice of those very different communities that you serve are heard?

00;12;39;08 - 00;13;14;24
Greg Bentz
It's always a challenge. We've got a system board similar in size to yours with 15 members, but there are also 15 subsidiary boards that are at the entity level. I've been, as you mentioned, on several of those boards. I started on what we call the Plaza Board, which is our tertiary quaternary hospital in the center of Kansas City and served on that board for a while, was also during that time period on the South Board, which is a suburban hospital, and had the opportunity to serve as chair on that.

00;13;14;26 - 00;13;42;21
Greg Bentz
And now, of course, the system board. Five years ago we reorganized our system structure in a drive toward a higher level of systemization, and we've been successful with that and it's been a very strong and positive thing for us. But one of the decisions we made while we were doing that was to retain all of our subsidiary boards.

00;13;42;23 - 00;14;23;07
Greg Bentz
And we felt very strongly that those subsidiary boards provide a great amount of information and advocacy and potentially philanthropy that we really could not go without. So we retain those boards. We think it's important to get tuned in to them and to hear the voice of the communities that we serve. They play a critical role in that. But we also get an opportunity to educate them about what's going on at the national level through AHA information.

00;14;23;13 - 00;14;47;20
Greg Bentz
As you know, Mindy Estes, our CEO, was a chair as you are now, and it was a great source of information for all of us at the system and that the entity levels. We need to explain to them how Saint Luke's fits into the solutions that are necessary for the community and how each entity also fits into those solutions.

00;14;47;22 - 00;15;21;22
Greg Bentz
You know, local boards tend to focus on quality credentialing, financial, local issues, advocacy, those are all super important and they have to share that information with the system so we can build it in. The system boards are faced with a difficult task, and that is prioritization of decisions.And the system board has to take that all in and use it to make these hard allocation issues.

00;15;21;24 - 00;15;53;10
Greg Bentz
And, you know, being part of a system includes the possibility that a decision will not be the best one for an individual hospital, but it is the best one for the system overall. And those are hard decisions, but they're decisions that have to be made at the system level. And we think that it's important for the good of the entire system that they're made with the input from the individual hospitals.

00;15;53;13 - 00;16;15;07
John Haupert
Well, Greg, I really appreciate your answer to that question, because it sounds to me as if Saint Luke's and knowing Mindy and now having met you, you all have done this the right way by maintaining that open communication channel between all of the different entities that fold up under the Saint Luke's umbrella and getting that input from the communities.

00;16;15;07 - 00;16;46;27
John Haupert
And the reality is allocation of resources at a system level is one of the key roles that a system board plays. And so the way you describe that to me really sounds like you all have that one under control and doing well with that. Kind of tying into that, what role do you think board members can play in reputation management for a health system  - serving, as you said - as advocates, being a voice in the community, telling the hospital's story.

00;16;47;00 - 00;16;49;12
John Haupert
What does that look like at Saint Luke's?

00;16;49;14 - 00;17;19;13
Greg Bentz
Yeah, sure, John. We feel like our board members, not only at the system but at all of the entity levels, are our greatest advocates. They are a great source of credibility in the community. They have the ability to go out and explain the how and why of what's going on at the hospital to the community. They also internally provide information to our medical staff.

00;17;19;15 - 00;17;50;11
Greg Bentz
The medical staff is really almost like a community unto itself, and we certainly have doctors who are on our boards so that they can share and educate their colleagues about what's happening at the health system and the individual hospitals and why. They kind of act as educators. All of our board members act as educators in the community and a great source of feedback from the community, which we think is very important.

00;17;50;13 - 00;18;29;28
Greg Bentz
We need to arm our trustees with talking points to let them know what's going on, what information is important for us to share with the community, what information we're looking to get back from the community. The AHA's Seizing the Conversation process is a great example of that. Wonderful program. Actually, the trustee insight piece that goes out monthly in June had a very nice piece on board advocacy and the proper use of board members and advocacy in the community.

00;18;30;00 - 00;18;56;07
Greg Bentz
John, many hospitals are making significant community contributions, but their stories aren't always effectively being told or fully understood. And trustees can do a great job telling the story about what a hospital is doing in the community, its financial contribution, its health care contribution, its social contribution.

00;18;56;10 - 00;19;24;25
John Haupert
Well, that's music to my ears, by the way, because as you know, as chair of the AHA, one of our biggest priorities is getting the true and real story out into the community. As of late, there's been a little bit of hospital and health system bashing, and I think the AHA is doing an incredible job of arming hospitals and health system staff within our facilities with the right information then to go forth and share.

00;19;24;28 - 00;19;50;02
John Haupert
And I'm really pleased to hear you talk that you all are doing that throughout your system. That's just great work. So earlier on, you shared some pretty innovative things with us. Like Hospital at Home and expansion of your digital platform that's already happening at Saint Luke's. But when you look beyond that, are there some innovations or new care models or other things that Saint Luke's Board is focusing on?

00;19;50;05 - 00;20;20;20
Greg Bentz
We are, John. We actually have been working very diligently the last two years on reimagining and reinventing our care model. We realized that the care model was 30, 40, 50 years old and that it really needed a very strong analysis of the pros and cons of it. We worked hard to try and get nurses to be doing the work that they trained for, to be practicing at the top of their license.

00;20;20;23 - 00;20;47;13
Greg Bentz
We found, as we did an analysis of nursing at Saint Luke's, we found that nurses were spending what I would call it inordinate amount of time taking menu selections down, ordering food for patients. That's certainly something that you don't need a nursing degree to do. And so we've gone about hiring additional staff, which is a challenge right now.

00;20;47;13 - 00;21;30;25
Greg Bentz
But trying to remove the burdens that are unnecessarily placed on our nursing staff so that they can spend their time providing health care to the patient rather than doing what I would call more ministerial jobs. One interesting thing that we've tried and it's only been recently is we've actually purchased some robots and we have these robots and they're trained to travel back and forth from the nursing station to the pharmacy so they can go and get the medications and bring them back to the nursing station so the nurses don't have to leave the floor to do that.

00;21;30;28 - 00;21;59;01
Greg Bentz
And not only is it kind of fun to see a robot puttering around the halls, but it we found it's relieved our nurses of time that they can now spend with the patient in a meaningful way. So looking forward, we also are in the middle of the discussion with BJC Healthcare in Saint Louis about joining forces and becoming an integrated health system with them.

00;21;59;04 - 00;22;31;21
Greg Bentz
We have not received regulatory approval yet, but we hope that joinder can occur by the end of the year. And that would give us a large presence on both the west side and the east side of the state of Missouri and in Kansas and Illinois. So we're very excited about that and we hope that that'll go forward. And that will then, of course, cause us to spend a significant amount of time working on integrating the two health systems to become one efficient unit.

00;22;31;24 - 00;22;57;09
Greg Bentz
And then, as you know, I believe our fearless leader, Dr. Estes, is going to take a well-deserved retirement. That's a major issue for us. I mean, Mindy has done unbelievable things from Saint Luke's and as well for the AHA, and I know we're both going to miss her as far as her being retired from us. We're immensely grateful to her

00;22;57;09 - 00;23;14;22
Greg Bentz
and I think the AHA feels the same way. But we're going to have to come up with somebody that can try and fill her ample size shoes. And so those are kind of the biggest things that we're focused on for the coming year or so.

00;23;14;24 - 00;23;42;06
John Haupert
Yeah, Thanks, Greg. That's really great. The comments about looking at the care model and care model redesign is so critical and we have a committee on workforce that's doing some fantastic work and all throughout the pandemic was getting information out available to us in the field, even regionally, about workforce issues, best practices. They, too, are going to be moving into this

00;23;42;09 - 00;24;14;17
John Haupert
look at how do we redesign the care model to get nurses at the bedside and get them away from doing tasks they don't need to do like you have already brought up. So as you all work through that, I know with Mindy and you, you'll share that great work with us at the AHA and that can really become part of our research we're doing around defining what these models could be, because I know there'll be different models for different types of facilities, but I couldn't agree with you more about needing to revolutionize that model.

00;24;14;17 - 00;24;19;09
John Haupert
We are sitting on a 40 and 50 year old model and that has to be very different.

00;24;19;11 - 00;24;27;02
Greg Bentz
We'll be pleased, John, to share anything we've come up with or we've had some good findings and good results. So we'll be happy to bring that to the table.

00;24;27;04 - 00;24;51;22
John Haupert
Great. I really appreciate that. I appreciate you sharing the great work you're doing at Saint Luke's, as well as your insights into the important role that hospitals and health systems can play in both positioning organizations for success and also in helping to communicate the tremendous value that hospitals and health systems provide to their communities. Until next time, thank you to everyone for joining us today.

00;24;51;25 - 00;24;56;06
John Haupert
I hope you'll be back next month for our next Leadership Dialog. Thank you.

00;00;01;10 - 00;00;23;23
Tom Haederle
It's often been observed that leadership is lonely, and that's especially true for a specific and too small cohort of leaders, black women who are hospital and health system CEOs. It's been difficult for these leaders to find and connect with others like themselves, people who understand the challenges. As health care intensifies, its efforts on health equity, diversity and inclusion,

00;00;23;25 - 00;01;01;19
Tom Haederle
there is a need to lift the voices of black women members as active contributors to the field. Welcome to Advancing Health, a podcast from the American Hospital Association. I'm Tom Haederle with AHA Communications. In 2022, the AHA launched the Black Women CEO Roundtable to facilitate meaningful connections and create a support system among black women, hospital and health system CEOs.

00;01;01;22 - 00;01;25;00
Tom Haederle
Its current membership stands at about 24. And there is a lot of room to grow. The group celebrated its one year anniversary in late April. In this podcast, roundtable member Asha Rodriguez, vice president, facility executive with Atrium Health Cabarrus in North Carolina, reflects on what it has meant to her and the support, encouragement and honest dialog that has helped her bond with her fellow CEOs.

00;01;25;02 - 00;01;38;09
Tom Haederle
She's in conversation with Joy Lewis Senior Vice President, Health Equity Strategies at AHA. This podcast was recorded just prior to the Roundtable's one year anniversary at the AHA’s annual meeting in Washington, DC.

00;01;38;11 - 00;02;10;22
Joy Lewis
Such a pleasure to be sitting down with you today to. We're going to have fun diving into quite a few topic areas here. I really want to learn more about you as a leader. And I'm wondering if you want to start out by sharing a personal story that would illustrate to our listeners an experience, something that's helped to shape the way you see yourself as a leader, your leadership style.

00;02;10;22 - 00;02;14;29
Joy Lewis
Even if you want to harken back to your interest in becoming a leader.

00;02;15;00 - 00;02;42;03
Asha Rodriguez
I would say when you aren't in a position of leadership, it can be quite intimidating. It's in the space of: First of all, I don't I don't know what that looks like. I don't know what it feels like. I don't know how I'm going to do well in that space. And I think for women and women of color, I think it can be particularly challenging because of what they don't know and maybe the lived experience as well.

00;02;42;06 - 00;03;11;08
Asha Rodriguez
And so I would say that I've been pretty blessed in that regardless of the amount of fear or trepidation I've ever had stepping into it, I've had really phenomenal individuals around me inspiring me to move ahead, but also who saw things in me that I didn't really see in myself. And so I reflected on that question just for a second, because I've had a bevy of reports who were white males.

00;03;11;11 - 00;03;20;02
Asha Rodriguez
I've had two men that I directly reported to who were men of color. And then I've had one woman of color in my entire career.

00;03;20;02 - 00;03;20;28
Joy Lewis
And how many years.

00;03;20;28 - 00;03;49;12
Asha Rodriguez
In my entire 20 plus year career who I reported to. Phyllis Winget. Now, in terms of my inspiration and becoming a leader, I think that there were people who saw something in me many, many moons ago who said, you have to keep going. And I was like, well, are you sure? Because the more I step into this space, the more I'm speaking up, the more I'm pushing things that aren't necessarily popular.

00;03;49;15 - 00;04;13;08
Asha Rodriguez
And I would say that there were a lot of women of color who maybe I wasn't reporting to who appreciated my leadership, for lack of a better term, in that space of my advocacy and who kept moving me ahead or saying, you have to keep trying, you've got to go back to school. You have to participate in these organizations.

00;04;13;10 - 00;04;16;08
Asha Rodriguez
We like what you have to say. We like how you are.

00;04;16;10 - 00;04;17;01
Joy Lewis
You're showing up.

00;04;17;07 - 00;04;37;15
Asha Rodriguez
You're showing up, right. And I don't think at the time I really recognized how important that showing up was for other people. I knew that I had to show up because the person that I was I had to wake up with her every day and I had to go to bed with her every day. Right. And and there were things I just wasn't willing to let go of.

00;04;37;18 - 00;04;42;07
Asha Rodriguez
Otherwise, I wasn't going to feel complete. But I want to talk about Phillis for just a minute.

00;04;42;10 - 00;04;43;07
Joy Lewis
Tell me about her.

00;04;43;08 - 00;05;11;22
Asha Rodriguez
I would say that I've. I had an only reported tuff a brief period of time, but Phillis actually was a board of directors in 2011 for AHA before it was called the board of trustees. And she chaired the North Carolina Hospital Association, none of which I had known before reporting to her. But one of the things that I saw in her was an example of a incredibly moral, ethical, tempered, inclusive leader.

00;05;11;25 - 00;05;22;01
Asha Rodriguez
She's an amazing, amazing woman, and I got the benefit of working with her towards the end of her career, meaning that she had felt like she had

00;05;22;08 - 00;05;25;09
Joy Lewis
Accumulated a lot of knowledge and experience. Absolutely.

00;05;25;11 - 00;05;51;18
Asha Rodriguez
And had become truly. I would say, the best. I'm sure she felt that way. She may not feel this way, but fully evolved as a leader. And so she has inspired me greatly since then to consider who do I want to be and how, and more importantly, how do I want to help shape the experiences of other leaders who are deciding to bravely step into the unknown.

00;05;51;21 - 00;06;14;29
Asha Rodriguez
And so I'm ever grateful for her example. But the other examples of women who may not have been in her shoes, you know, leading as a president or a CEO, but managers and directors and even the ladies in the cafeteria who right now call me Baby doll, which I love. So the shout out.

00;06;14;29 - 00;06;16;16
Joy Lewis
To you visit them often?

00;06;16;16 - 00;06;36;01
Asha Rodriguez
I visit them often, but I think there's something special about women in the way we nurture each other and hold space and protect and guide. And I think women of color do it so well because they understand the challenges that we face without even ever having to discuss it.

00;06;36;03 - 00;06;37;20
Joy Lewis
That's right. Mm hmm.

00;06;37;23 - 00;06;58;27
Asha Rodriguez
It's the head nod. It's the look, the acknowledgment. It's the extra hug. It's the extra word of encouragement. It's the email that comes out of the blue. And I've been the recipient of a lot of those things. So what inspires me to be a leader is knowing that I show up for more than just myself. I show up for those people.

00;06;58;29 - 00;07;02;09
Joy Lewis
Who don't even know yet, right? Who don't even know what they don't know.

00;07;02;10 - 00;07;03;10
Asha Rodriguez
Yeah, absolutely.

00;07;03;11 - 00;07;35;11
Joy Lewis
So I guess one of the things then that I'm really curious about is when the AHA a year ago decided to launch its Black Women CEO roundtable. Yeah, right. Phenomenal moment. We're celebrating our one year anniversary during this conference. Tomorrow, in fact, on Monday, April 24th. You got the invite in your inbox. Why did you say yes to this opportunity to engage with this group of women?

00;07;35;14 - 00;08;06;14
Asha Rodriguez
So, first of all, anything that Dr. Roxie Wells is doing, I want to participate in, complete and total, you know, amazing, amazing leader. My understanding is that Roxie really understood and laid out a vision for creating a community and a space for African-American women leaders or black leaders, excuse me. I think that's amazing because what I think, you know, I just laid out for you sort of a case for that when I started talking about Phyllis.

00;08;06;14 - 00;08;44;05
Asha Rodriguez
Right. So in my 20 plus career, I've reported to more more white men or black men than I've ever reported to a black woman. And it's taken me 20 something years to find her. And she retired about a year and a half into my time with her. And I think it was important to me because my viability and the long term likelihood of my career, I knew it was going to require I know it's going to require support, but support from women who understand my experience.

00;08;44;05 - 00;08;44;21
Joy Lewis
Right.

00;08;44;23 - 00;09;07;02
Asha Rodriguez
And Roxie is leading in a rural space where I'm sure there just aren't very many of those women who are willing to do that. And doing those things come with some tradeoffs. I mean, there's some definitely some pros and cons, and she's leading in a very fierce way. And the fact that she came to AHA and said, you know, we have to have this.

00;09;07;04 - 00;09;07;22
Joy Lewis
Here's a gap.

00;09;07;24 - 00;09;33;19
Asha Rodriguez
Here's a gap. Right. And here's how we can fill it. But here's my vision for how we fill that has been incredible. I mean, and, you know, when we first started, just the few meetings that we had together as a group, I think the relationships, the support, the encouragement, the honest dialog that we've been able to have, I think those things make the biggest difference in ensuring that leaders don't feel alone in the journey. 

00;09;33;21 - 00;09;40;12
Asha Rodriguez
And and isolated or perhaps misunderstood.

00;09;40;14 - 00;09;51;06
Joy Lewis
Yeah, because to your point, these ladies didn't know that each other existed. Right. I mean, there was this amazing moment. In fact, emotional moment when they got in the room together.

00;09;51;06 - 00;09;51;26
Asha Rodriguez
Right.

00;09;51;29 - 00;09;58;01
Joy Lewis
And saw so many. So many. Right. And and it continues. The group continues to grow.

00;09;58;01 - 00;10;00;29
Asha Rodriguez
Absolutely. And you say so many others. I mean, but.

00;10;01;00 - 00;10;04;11
Joy Lewis
Well, it's relatively relatively speaking.

00;10;04;11 - 00;10;05;25
Asha Rodriguez
Right? There's still not nearly.

00;10;06;02 - 00;10;10;19
Joy Lewis
Nearly as much. We've got nearly 5000 members and we have 24 women in this group.

00;10;10;19 - 00;10;13;14
Asha Rodriguez
24 women. And I say that again, Joy. 

00;10;13;15 - 00;10;16;13
Joy Lewis
24. So let's not overstate.

00;10;16;16 - 00;10;50;01
Asha Rodriguez
But the idea that there were more than I correct. I'm sure every woman sitting at the table, we had an aha moment where we looked around each other and it's pretty emotional to see people who look like us or represent communities like us, right. You know, who live on a diaspora in different ways. And to see all of these women dotted all across the country, like when we started to look at the geographics of where all these women were at, like and we're relatively far away from each other, but not that far, you know, to pick up the phone and to call or to say, Hey, sis, I got you.

00;10;50;07 - 00;11;16;12
Asha Rodriguez
I'm thinking about you today. What do you need? And it's been highly productive without having, I think for any of us to have to ... all of these women highly competent. You know, we're not going in we're not going into this in terms of competence. This is this is also key. This is not about the scale of competence of any of these women, it simply is an opportunity, I think, for us to remain engaged and support our own individual resilience.

00;11;16;18 - 00;11;26;21
Joy Lewis
Absolutely. Because it's such a radical act in so many of these spaces to even be there, to even be occupying the roles that you occupy. Right.

00;11;26;27 - 00;11;33;06
Asha Rodriguez
So I was going to say, I thought about that and the fact that we exist.

00;11;33;09 - 00;11;34;08
Joy Lewis
Exactly.

00;11;34;10 - 00;12;05;05
Asha Rodriguez
The fact that we exist, I'm sure walking into some of the spaces, especially for women, the women who lead some of our rural hospitals. That alone, I'm sure, automatically, quickly to your point, it is I wouldn't call it a resistance, but it is also a huge acknowledgment of the fact that women leaders can hold space and be highly, highly effective because they reflect marginalized communities.

00;12;05;05 - 00;12;06;25
Asha Rodriguez
Right. So who better?

00;12;06;28 - 00;12;10;06
Joy Lewis
Who better because they're proximate to the very issue.

00;12;10;06 - 00;12;11;02
Asha Rodriguez
To the very issue.

00;12;11;02 - 00;12;12;18
Joy Lewis
That we're solving for in health care.

00;12;12;20 - 00;12;16;20
Asha Rodriguez
I may even have experienced those issues nicely.

00;12;16;21 - 00;12;25;03
Joy Lewis
Yeah, precisely. Yeah. So lean into that a little bit more around what you've benefited from your engagement with this roundtable.

00;12;25;05 - 00;12;56;18
Asha Rodriguez
I think for me, it has energized me in a way that I didn't think I could ever find. And I say that to you because when I say walking along the journey or ... It's lonely in leadership and and it's even lonelier for women of color. Right. So you hear people talk about I was just sharing with a junior associate recently that, you know, you as a leader, you walk a journey for some time as two different people: an individual and a leader.

00;12;56;20 - 00;13;20;16
Asha Rodriguez
And at some point, those worlds have to converge. And I would imagine that as for a person of color, having those worlds merge can be a very painful experience, knowing that the parts of you that make you such an individual is generally not either accepted in leadership and/or can become a barrier to you being successful.

00;13;20;16 - 00;13;22;08
Joy Lewis
Uncelebrated, right? 

00;13;22;08 - 00;13;41;22
Asha Rodriguez
Uncelebrated. And because people see you, they can't hear you, that you have to convince people of how competent you are, that you worry that maybe just my being itself is a barrier to the work. And I think this type of a group allows us to sort of unpack the fear.

00;13;41;29 - 00;13;42;25
Joy Lewis
Right.

00;13;42;28 - 00;13;53;26
Asha Rodriguez
And some people will say, well, that's not real. Well, you know, it may not be real to you, but how do you explain some of the barriers and the reason that there aren't more women of color leading?

00;13;53;27 - 00;13;58;12
Joy Lewis
Exactly. Why is there that you get to that manager level and then.

00;13;58;12 - 00;13;59;00
Asha Rodriguez
Just can't.

00;13;59;00 - 00;14;00;14
Joy Lewis
Get can't get over that hump?

00;14;00;15 - 00;14;22;27
Asha Rodriguez
Right. And and I'm sort of and I really want people to understand that women of color can have ... it's not a relational issue. We can have and build relationships. There is a community of people who may not relate to us. And I think what makes us a little bit different, you know, men have sports and that sort of crosses lots of barriers.

00;14;22;27 - 00;14;48;17
Asha Rodriguez
Men have hobbies that crosses those barriers. But when you think about a lot of how and I think women of color have tried to overcome that by also embracing perhaps hobbies like sports and golfing and tennis or the socialization. And what about people who those aren't things that either interest them? Be It's not how they were. They grew up.

00;14;48;17 - 00;15;10;02
Asha Rodriguez
It's not a part of their cultural makeup. How do they build a relationship with a community of people who that is or has been centrally how they connect with others? And so I think that this for us gives us a space that allows us to really be authentic to who we are, discuss truly our challenges without feeling a bit gaslit.

00;15;10;04 - 00;15;22;23
Asha Rodriguez
And very productively, I would say. So it's not that we're walking around in the conversations in a woe is me, but it's a real acknowledgment around we have a unique needs. So how do we support one another with those unique needs?

00;15;22;27 - 00;15;27;11
Joy Lewis
Now, this is not a session for I mean, in fact, you have goals and objectives.

00;15;27;11 - 00;15;51;18
Asha Rodriguez
Goals and objectives. We spend our time lifting up each other's accomplishments. We have an opportunity for us to nominate or identify women we think need to be stepping into other roles and or be acknowledged or recognized. But nationally, I also think the fact that we're talking about those goals and objectives like you've described; it's a very productive experience for us where I think we haven't had a coalition.

00;15;51;18 - 00;15;55;12
Asha Rodriguez
So this this space has created coalition.

00;15;55;12 - 00;15;56;13
Joy Lewis
And agency.

00;15;56;16 - 00;16;25;11
Asha Rodriguez
Agency. That's where when you have an agency and there is nothing more powerful than knowing that you have more control over your experience, good or bad, and that any are making choices, good or bad, that help you to sustain how you move ahead. And I think having that sounding board experience is really, really powerful. But sharing opportunities across all of us and being very intentional, right.

00;16;25;19 - 00;16;51;07
Asha Rodriguez
Very, very intentional and deliberate in supporting and identifying other women who have a voice that needs to be heard. And, you know, we just did we did something really phenomenal recently, which I appreciate. We talked about our unique skill sets, whether it's behavioral health, rural health, finance strategy, operations. So we're we're now starting to say to ourselves in this group

00;16;51;09 - 00;16;58;26
Joy Lewis
who are we and what contribution, what's here's my expertise and how do I share that Absolutely. More broadly.

00;16;58;26 - 00;17;30;24
Asha Rodriguez
How do I share that more broadly? And then how does AHA potentially tap into us? Right. You know, I think and Joy, you all are doing it. And let me first give you guys a huge shout out for I have to give Roxy a shout out for her vision in terms of creating this community. But let me give you and Krista and Priscilla a huge shout out for creating our framework within which we can be incredibly productive and seeking to leverage our strengths and our voices for a much larger, much, much larger good in the organization.

00;17;30;26 - 00;17;54;05
Asha Rodriguez
Because I think that when you compound social identifiers, whether it's, you know, you take gender, then you put race and ethnicity on top of that, you put socioeconomic on top of all of those things. We see the world differently. And I would I would argue we see the world in a way that the hospital, American Hospital Association, perhaps needs to start seeing the world.

00;17;54;07 - 00;17;57;12
Asha Rodriguez
if we want to start solving real issues.

00;17;57;14 - 00;18;14;27
Joy Lewis
So you're calling out the the dimensions and the intersectionality of of the diverse characteristics that we all bring to the table. And so how do you leverage that? Yeah. How do you celebrate it? How do you take those assets that people bring?

Asha Rodriguez
Right. Because this is an asset. 

00;18;17;24 - 00;18;23;08
Joy Lewis
Asset, Right. For the greater good to solve some of these vexing issues in the field.

00;18;23;08 - 00;18;42;06
Asha Rodriguez
And I would you know, as you say, that I think it's been hard because they feel like such taboo things. And then there's a lot of critique around, even the way we hired for diversity  - people who do diversity work, right, which is why do we always hire a woman of color or man of color instead.

00;18;43;00 - 00;19;00;23
Asha Rodriguez
Of hiring a facilitator? But I do think it's important. What you just said is that intersectionality is so critical to the work that we do. We've got to start seeing those things from different lenses and recognizing the differences are an aspect.

00;19;00;29 - 00;19;01;25
Joy Lewis
Yep.

00;19;01;27 - 00;19;10;10
Asha Rodriguez
We don't have to smooth them over. We actually need to begin to call them out because those are the cracks that our patients fall through.

00;19;10;11 - 00;19;10;23
Joy Lewis
That's right.

00;19;11;22 - 00;19;32;18
Joy Lewis
It's the same reason being that using the term colorblind blind is a no no. Right. Like, no. I want you to see my color. I want you to see it. See me? I want you to celebrate it. Right. You know, I celebrate it. And yeah. So this notion that we're using a broad brush to kind of paint that landscape. Right. And create the experience, right?

00;19;32;19 - 00;19;32;29
Joy Lewis
No.

00;19;33;06 - 00;19;33;17
Asha Rodriguez
Right.

00;19;33;18 - 00;19;37;29
Joy Lewis
That's not the goal. That's not the goal of equity. That's not justice.

00;19;38;01 - 00;19;39;12
Asha Rodriguez
It's not transformative equity.

00;19;39;13 - 00;20;01;26
Joy Lewis
It's not transformative equity. Yeah. So when you think about the pipeline and all the women who aspire to be where you are and where are the women in this black women CEO group sit, how might this group begin to impact those young emerging leaders and their trajectory?

00;20;01;28 - 00;20;28;06
Asha Rodriguez
Well, first of all, representation matters. So seeing someone that you could ultimately become is important. But I also think we have to whom much is given, much is required. So we have a huge responsibility to work on tilling the soil, if you will, to create an inclusive environment for those women to lead. And I mean that there's a lot of work to be done there.

00;20;28;06 - 00;20;46;10
Asha Rodriguez
I think there's a lot of organizations who are very interested in DEI efforts and we go through great lengths to diversify. Mm hmm. But the real question is, is have we done the work inside of our organizations to undo some of the structure is both formal and informal.

00;20;46;10 - 00;20;46;24
Joy Lewis
Right.

00;20;47;00 - 00;21;15;15
Asha Rodriguez
That create an environment for these women to succeed as we intend them to bring their full selves because they can be successful. And we can argue that there are people maybe who have survived in leadership, but have they thrived in leadership? They've been able to really bring their whole selves and have the conversation you and I are having around that intersectionality and the differences and the celebration of it, or that that or just frankly, the acknowledgment of it.

00;21;15;17 - 00;21;16;06
Joy Lewis
Exactly.

00;21;16;06 - 00;21;40;07
Asha Rodriguez
And I think that I imagine that people like Phyllis and Roxy and other women who have been in leadership for decades. Mm hmm. You know, 20, 30, 40 years, I imagine what that experience was like for them back then. I imagine, you know, I asked myself, like, what would that if Phyllis had a group? She was wildly successful.

00;21;40;08 - 00;21;40;25
Joy Lewis
Right.

00;21;40;27 - 00;22;03;24
Asha Rodriguez
But if Phyllis had a group like that back then, what could have happened? Where would we have been as a national health care? 
00;23;16;06 - 00;23;35;25

Asha Rodriguez
So how do we get those people to access us in a way that is meaningful to them, meeting them where they need us? But I'd imagine that this group is going to it's you know, we're on a year end, Right, right. And here I am with lots of thoughts and ideas, But I imagine what it would be like.

00;23;35;25 - 00;23;42;22
Joy Lewis
You have to have a vision and you have to you know, this is innovative, transformative work and is so it'll take time. But we have to.

00;23;42;29 - 00;24;04;29
Asha Rodriguez
But we have people like you. We have now we've planted enough seeds and hope in the women who are sitting at that table who feel the agency, who know that while maybe my decision is unpopular today, I have a whole group of women who are seeing it work in their organization. So I'm going to step out on not just faith, but on really solid best practice.

00;24;04;29 - 00;24;05;13
Joy Lewis
Correct.

00;24;05;17 - 00;24;30;02
Asha Rodriguez
Because I'm because we're having these conversations. So I'm I'm actually incredibly hopeful, inspired. I think I told you, for me, it was a lifeline personally for us. And not that I not that I don't have supportive leadership, but it's different. And I think I think you need to have people who see you fully because this work is hard.

00;24;30;04 - 00;24;31;00
Joy Lewis
You need your village.

00;24;31;00 - 00;24;50;06
Asha Rodriguez
You need your village. And I think these women have created a village for each other, for me, certainly for each other. And I see that continuing to exponentially increase as we look at our own individual spheres of influence and how we create villages for people to belong while they become.

00;24;50;13 - 00;24;52;23
Joy Lewis
That is awesome. Oh my gosh.

00;24;52;24 - 00;24;59;23
Asha Rodriguez
This we you know, we should do this more often. I know. I feel like I should give you a copay for this experience.

00;24;59;25 - 00;25;27;12
Joy Lewis
Where it's launching. Yeah, actually, exactly. Well, yeah, what let's not, you know, have this be the last time. Yeah. I think there's just so much that we can put out there for others to kind of noodle on to, to reflect on, to help, to, to plant some seed, share some nuggets along the way because we were all building off of the legacy of those who came before us.

00;25;27;12 - 00;25;49;23
Joy Lewis
Absolutely right. And so to your point earlier, to whom much is given, much is expected, and this is a part of our reaching back and giving back and making sure we're pulling our sisters up with us. So thank you for your time. Thank you for your transparent conversation today and being so authentic. And I'm sure our guest will will gain a lot from your insights.

00;25;49;23 - 00;25;50;24
Asha Rodriguez
Thank you, Joy.

00;25;50;26 - 00;25;52;02
Joy Lewis
Thanks for your leadership.

00;25;52;02 - 00;25;54;21
Asha Rodriguez
And thank you for yours sincerely.

00;25;54;21 - 00;25;56;23
Joy Lewis
Okay, Take it easy. Bye bye. Bye.

00;53;36;28 - 00;54;03;12
Tom Haederle
Women's History Month here in March of 2023 includes an exciting new historical line, one that is still being written. And that is the very recent history of female led venture capital firms that are out to change women's lives for the better. One such firm is SteelSky. It invests in innovative companies working to improve health outcomes for women by focusing on improving health care, access, quality and affordability.

00;54;03;29 - 00;54;52;03
Tom Haederle
Raising capital for investment funds isn't easy, especially for historically marginalized groups. But SteelSky and a number of similar funds got a big boost last year when the American Hospital Association announced it was providing early financing. Welcome to Advancing Health, a podcast from the American Hospital Association. I'm Tom Haederle with AHA Communications. Financial support of investment funds that focus on addressing disparities in health outcomes and creating meaningful economic opportunity aligns with ASHA's strong commitment to these issues.

00;54;52;21 - 00;55;18;20
Tom Haederle
In this podcast, recorded in May of 2022, SteelSky Ventures founding partner Maria Velissaris talks about her goal of advancing women's health through an equity lens. Joining the discussion is Lara Khouri, executive vice president, chief strategy and transformation officer at Children's Hospital, Los Angeles. She's also a member and past chair of AHA’s Maternal and Child Health Council. Let's give a listen.

00;55;19;16 - 00;55;52;29
Lara Khouri
I'm so excited about this conversation today and thank the American Hospital Association for the opportunity to lead this important discussion on the connection between women's health and innovation with an equity lens. The AHA announced it's providing early financing for investment funds run by leaders focused on improving health care access, quality and affordability. The funds were selected because they financed historically marginalized entrepreneurs who have limited access to the capital needed to develop innovative solutions in health care.

00;55;53;23 - 00;56;21;22
Lara Khouri
I’m so excited because SteelSky Ventures is one of the funds receiving early AHA investment. It's a female led venture capital firm focused on companies working to improve health outcomes for women. SteelSky Ventures has invested in 14 women led and women oriented health care startups since 2017. And that's just so far. My conversation partner this afternoon is Maria Velissaris.

00;56;21;28 - 00;56;45;16
Lara Khouri
Maria is a venture capitalist and she's founding partner of SteelSky Ventures. She is passionate about developing a pipeline of female entrepreneurs, something we're going to talk about more in a moment. In March 2021, Maria was named by Forbes as one of eight female venture capitalists to watch. So, Maria, welcome again and thank you. Let's jump right in.

00;56;46;03 - 00;56;48;25
Maria Velissaris
Wonderful. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to chat today.

00;56;49;14 - 00;57;07;03
Lara Khouri
So I've got so many great questions I want to ask you. And I had to pick just a few. So I'm really excited to hear what you have to say. So first, I understand that SteelSky Ventures is among the largest, if not the largest, women led venture fund in health care today. Can you tell me a little bit about yourself?

00;57;07;04 - 00;57;09;12
Lara Khouri
SteelSky Ventures and how you got here?

00;57;09;25 - 00;57;31;08
Maria Velissaris
Yes, I'd be happy to. And it's been quite a journey to SteelSky, but have been really excited all the way. I started my journey as an entrepreneur. I'm a serial entrepreneur turned venture capitalist. So really always had a passion for building businesses, even from when I was a young girl starting lemonade stands, babysitting clubs, garage cleaning businesses.

00;57;31;08 - 00;57;53;23
Maria Velissaris
It's just always been in my DNA to be a builder. And since then, you know, 17 years of my career learning how to build companies and operate and then I jump to the other side of the table and learning how to invest. And I started investing in female led companies, typically. And then I just saw really a lack of dollars going into women's health companies because it's hard to navigate health care.

00;57;53;23 - 00;58;30;21
Maria Velissaris
And a lot of angel investors don't have that expertise. And so that's where I saw that I could really make a difference and carve out a market for myself in my fund. And so I started SteelSky Ventures Fund in 2020, and since launching, we've now invested in 17 companies and raised a platform of over $72 million. And so we're really excited about what the state of women's health care and being able to be a big part of pushing that forward and so happy that also having the partnership with the AHA and other women's health enthusiasts like yourself so that we can create better outcomes for women around the world.

00;58;31;13 - 00;58;55;05
Lara Khouri
Well, that's wonderful. It's so nice to hear your journey. And I'm sure that bringing that entrepreneurial and operating experience into the venture capital side has made you particularly well equipped to be able to identify opportunities that are going to be able to be successful and make the type of impact that you're looking for. And I'm curious about that impact and the big picture.

00;58;55;05 - 00;59;12;04
Lara Khouri
So you've made health equity a focus of your investment of your investing. Can you talk a little bit about why you see health equity as such an important feature of what you do and from your perspective, how do you see health equity connecting with health outcomes?

00;59;12;22 - 00;59;37;17
Maria Velissaris
Very good questions. I think post-COVID, it really illuminated for us the disparities in our health care system. And health equity has to be top of mind when we're making investments. We have to understand when we're investing in a company how it not only impacts women who have access to wiFi and cars and transportation and healthy food, but how does that affect the other half and how does the other half live and how can we better serve them?

00;59;37;23 - 00;59;55;21
Maria Velissaris
Because that is where the majority of health care spending is and that's where the majority of the progress needs to be made. And so we make sure that our investments all have a lens toward health equity so that we can make sure we are serving the most vulnerable populations, which also happen to be the most expensive populations for payers.

00;59;55;29 - 01;00;16;04
Maria Velissaris
And by investing in companies that can create better outcomes for them health wise, it also can create better outcomes for, you know, health care systems, for payers because they're saving money, they're having better outcomes, are getting better ratings, and in it's just a win-win for everyone. But I think it's definitely should be top of mind more than it is.

01;00;16;21 - 01;00;33;04
Maria Velissaris
It's a shame that I actually have to have a women's health fund because women's health has been overlooked. I should just be able to have a health care fund. But not all funds are focusing on women and the needs of other underserved communities. And so that was really important to us, and it's been a driving factor for our fund.

01;00;33;25 - 01;01;06;05
Lara Khouri
It's so wonderful to hear that intention that you're bringing to it. And it is always striking to think about how women are half the population, but we're disproportionately underinvesting in women's health. And so to imagine how you can accelerate that and make an impact through that intentionality is really wonderful. I'm curious for you, as you bring this lens and start to engage in companies and explore ideas for making a difference, what qualities are you looking for from the companies that you fund?

01;01;06;05 - 01;01;14;17
Lara Khouri
And especially curious about how you think about identifying companies that are run by founders that are going to be able to make a difference?

01;01;15;03 - 01;01;36;17
Maria Velissaris
Well, it's really hard decision making process. We get hundreds and actually thousands of portfolio companies coming to us every day. So it's a lot. It's a groundswell and it's been really tough to try to figure out which companies to invest in. But we are able to focus our efforts on a few key verticals that we think have the most need.

01;01;36;22 - 01;01;59;05
Maria Velissaris
And so when we're looking at entrepreneurs, we're looking at companies that are really solving big pain points, right? So there's a lot of reports around vitamin versus a painkiller. And we're trying to invest in companies that are pain killers that are solving the most challenging problems in healthcare. So that is one of our criteria for investment. Another one is inclusivity, like I mentioned before.

01;01;59;10 - 01;02;26;19
Maria Velissaris
Are you thinking about gender equality? Are you thinking about racial equality? Are you thinking about socioeconomic equality? Are you thinking about geographic diversity? Those are all components that we look at when we're evaluating companies and we want to make sure people are serving all of these markets. And for us, we really also want to make sure that things are covered by insurance and that people are taking Medicaid because we just do not want to continue to leave out whole bottom of the pyramid.

01;02;27;07 - 01;02;38;24
Maria Velissaris
And also, we're looking for passionate teams that want to make change in the world. We have an opportunity to invest in any companies that we want. We want to invest with like-minded individuals who have aligned missions.

01;02;39;12 - 01;03;05;27
Lara Khouri
That's wonderful. It's I liked your painkiller versus vitamin analogy. We probably need both of those. But as you think about big impact, that's a wonderful way to think about it. And it's also really neat to hear how much interest there is. Right? It's exciting. And I imagine that you all existing and coming to the table really clear about your goals motivates people to be interested in the work.

01;03;05;27 - 01;03;26;10
Lara Khouri
And so just by your existing, you're kind of building that and it's a wonderful way to imagine the impact that you're making going even beyond those companies that you're able to to fund and finance. So that's really wonderful to hear. So I've got one last question for you, although I could ask you many, many questions actually, I'll ask I'm going to ask you two more questions.

01;03;26;22 - 01;03;43;04
Lara Khouri
When you think about success and impact, how do you know whether you're achieving what you want to achieve? So what are some of the metrics or what do you look for to indicate that you're making the progress that you want to make, not just from a business perspective, but also from an impact perspective?

01;03;43;20 - 01;04;02;07
Maria Velissaris
We look at number of lives impacted. Our goal is to change and increase the health of women around the world. So how are we doing that? How many lives are we touching? How many people are living more pain free because of the companies that we've invested in? How are we creating better ways to access and engage the health care with the health care system?

01;04;02;07 - 01;04;25;19
Maria Velissaris
How are we helping marginalized communities feel safe when they go to the doctor? These are all different components that we look at to measure our outcomes and to measure if we are making the impact that we want to see and that we are intentional about trying to see in the world. And so we look for number of lives impact, we look for if people are healthier and safer and all of these things are measurable.

01;04;25;28 - 01;04;43;00
Maria Velissaris
So it's really important to us to keep track of those metrics so that we can make sure that we are actually doing what we say that we're doing. We're putting our money behind these companies to create better outcomes, and these can be measured, and we want to make sure that we continue to measure them and make sure that, you know, we're actually having outcomes.

01;04;43;00 - 01;04;51;15
Maria Velissaris
Right? There's a lot of people throwing money in a lot of places. But to truly make sure that you're being impactful, you have to be able to measure these outcomes.

01;04;52;13 - 01;05;14;14
Lara Khouri
You almost sound like you're talking about how hospitals think about what we do as well. It's really nice to hear somebody, you know, that the opportunity to have that perspective that you have driving where funding is going is going to make a big difference. And what you talk about is scale. And what you talk about is is impact.

01;05;14;14 - 01;05;34;04
Lara Khouri
And to talk about impact in scale in the populations that you're targeting is really exciting. And I think it really resonates for me as somebody who's been involved in the delivery side of health care for most of my career. It really is is nice alignment and I'll use that actually to segway to what I promise you will be my last question, although like I said, I could ask many, many more.

01;05;34;28 - 01;05;54;13
Lara Khouri
Part of what brings us together today is that engagement that the American Hospital Association has with SteelSky. And so I'm curious because I know that in addition to the AHA, you've got some other non kind of nontraditional investors in health care who've been engaged with you. And I'm not surprised because you're offering something really, really special here.

01;05;54;29 - 01;06;01;28
Lara Khouri
And you talk a little bit about how these partnerships come about, how you've been engaged with the AHA and where you see it going.

01;06;02;13 - 01;06;23;02
Maria Velissaris
Well, it feels good. We see ourselves as solution providers, right? We're solution providers for hospital systems, payers and women across the world. And so those are key stakeholders. So we talk and engage with health systems so that we can understand what are your biggest pain points, what are your gaps in care? And then we can go to the market and focus on finding solutions to those gaps.

01;06;23;07 - 01;06;45;24
Maria Velissaris
And so that we feel that partnering with the end customer really helps us drive great investment because we are focusing on the areas that are the greatest need for all of our key stakeholders. And that's why the partnership with the AHA is so important and so impactful for our fund is because we are hearing straight from the user community what they need and we can bring exactly what they need.  

01;06;45;24 - 01;07;05;00
Maria Velissaris
And sometimes we also have the ability to co-create together. A lot of the companies that we're looking at a very early stage and they're still in their foundational development until we're getting really unique insight from the hospital systems or the payers or the pharmaceutical companies about what they need to do to make their product offering more appealing to this community.

01;07;05;00 - 01;07;15;25
Maria Velissaris
We can do that early on, and so that's why it's such an interesting and important partnership so that we're building companies and solutions that actually can serve the needs of the end users.

01;07;16;14 - 01;07;39;08
Lara Khouri
It's such an effective approach, I expect, because you're thinking about your market in both your end user, the population you want to impact, as well as that entity and the stakeholders who are going to be involved in actually actualizing those opportunities. So it's a really, really smart and exciting way to think about how you advance some of these innovations.

01;07;39;08 - 01;07;57;05
Lara Khouri
So congratulations and thank you so much for your thoughtful answers. I know that this discussion is going to be a great resource for our AHA members and members of the public. I understand you have a few questions for me as well, and I'm very happy and honored to talk to you and answer any questions you might have for me, Maria.

01;07;57;28 - 01;08;19;02
Maria Velissaris
Yes. Laura Now it's time to turn the tables in your end. So I do have a lot of questions for you that I'm sure the audience will be really excited to hear. I know that innovation is really important at Children's Hospital Los Angeles and at SteelSky, one of our focus areas is maternal and child health, and we're constantly looking at new innovations in the space.

01;08;19;10 - 01;08;27;04
Maria Velissaris
Can you tell me about some recent innovations that you've been looking at from the hospital perspective? And what are some of your key focus areas of the year?

01;08;27;18 - 01;08;56;14
Lara Khouri
Sure. Thanks for that question. It's really timely. You know, mental and behavioral health conditions in children and youth is a growing crisis in our our country. And you've talked about disparity. And this is certainly something that's come up, especially on the heels of COVID, but certainly existed beforehand. And there is a dearth of resources and infrastructure for screening, for diagnosis, for treatment for a large number of patients, especially those who are in underserved communities.

01;08;56;28 - 01;09;33;04
Lara Khouri
When I was learning a little bit about you and SteelSky saw that you've invested in Bend Health, which is also focused on helping increase access to mental and behavioral health for women and families. We have an accelerator called Kids X, and we're supporting a few innovative startups that are working on products ranging from things like voice biomarkers that screen for depression while providers are talking to patients and families, to things like digital therapeutic that can use to can be used to treat depression through app based cognitive behavioral therapy.

01;09;33;22 - 01;10;07;06
Lara Khouri
Through our Office of Virtual Care, we've launched a virtual autism assessment program. And this is a really neat innovation that allows families to asynchronously submit videos for their children so they're able to, at their time in convenience, submit videos. And one of our autism specialists will provide an assessment. So it's a unique form of access. It's a really patient and family centered approach, and it offers something that's really underserved right now, especially in our populations, that we focus on serving.

01;10;07;23 - 01;10;38;19
Lara Khouri
So we're also working on supporting technologies that can help improve screening, diagnosis and treatment of a wide range of mental and behavioral health conditions. So there's definitely a lot going on and you've noticed it in your work. We've noticed it in our work. And it's something that, just like you were saying before, we have to decide that we're going to pay attention to it and through that intention and bringing innovation and expertise and that entrepreneurial spirit that you've described, we think there's a lot of impact that can be made. 

01;10;38;19 - 01;10;55;01
Maria Velissaris
Definitely. And it sounds like your hospital system is really on the forefront of innovation, technology and change. Sometimes we know that hospitals can get a bad rap for being slow to adopt. What are some of the components that make this so successful at Children's?

01;10;55;18 - 01;11;22;05
Lara Khouri
So one of the things that we've built here at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, which I alluded to, is an accelerator. So in 2019 we launched Kids X and it's actually a national consortium of 30 children's hospitals that are working together to accelerate pediatric digital innovation. You talked about the kind of lack of attention that's brought to women's health, and often women's health and children's health are kind of alongside each other.

01;11;22;17 - 01;11;45;26
Lara Khouri
And we see the same thing in pediatric challenges as well. So we brought together these 30 hospitals to understand the process by which they test and implement innovative new solutions. Through that understanding, we developed a toolkit that our kids across hospitals can use to accelerate the speed by which they can launch pilots and studies of digital innovation tools.

01;11;45;26 - 01;12;25;25
Lara Khouri
During the past two years, KidsX hospitals have launched more than 25 projects using this process. So it really takes innovation and moves it into an operationalization. That's often the challenge that we face in our provider settings. As you alluded to at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, we've used this process to test and evaluate an augmented reality-enabled gamified physical therapy app, and we've also used it to test a robot that can deliver medications to patients in the hospital and a clinical decision support tool that helps our emergency department physicians conveniently leverage clinical best practice to inform their decision making.

01;12;25;25 - 01;12;45;11
Lara Khouri
So one of the things that we've tried to do is demystify how you test innovation, create process and clarity around how you can do it successfully. And we've done it not only here at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, but in collaboration with many of our peer children's hospitals, because we, many of us face the same types of challenges.

01;12;45;11 - 01;12;50;15
Lara Khouri
And being able to accelerate that testing of innovation has been really, really effective.

01;12;50;24 - 01;13;14;20
Maria Velissaris
Amazing. It sounds like so many amazing things are going on over there, things that I should be probably getting involved with. As we wrap up, I could talk to you all day. I would love to just understand a little bit more and selfishly for input to my portfolio companies. What are some key characteristics that you see of companies that are creating successful digital applications for health systems?

01;13;14;20 - 01;13;38;03
Lara Khouri
So, you know, it's a lot of what you've talked about, Maria. For us in the provider environment, we are such a regulated environment. We're so focused on quality and safety that we do a lot of work to standardize practice, to put into place protocols to make sure that we're addressing risk of errors and hospital acquired conditions in so many different things.

01;13;38;16 - 01;14;14;21
Lara Khouri
So we can often identify problems and opportunities for improvement. But how we integrate change and how we change our processes is the place where the rubber hits the road. And so I actually will reflect back to you something you were saying, which is really understanding the market of the user, right? So for us having innovation and tools, digital solutions and otherwise that understand and anticipate our operating environments and are able to accommodate and flex for that is the best way for us to execute on innovation.

01;14;15;01 - 01;14;48;16
Lara Khouri
And so understanding not only your end user, so you've talked about wanting to make an impact for women. If you're thinking about women, if you're thinking about children, whoever your targeted population is, as providers having tools that can easily integrate into our electronic medical records, into our processes that anticipate some of the barriers and the regulatory and quality and safety realities that we're managing, I think is one of the most important things, because the worst thing is to have a great idea that can't be implemented and executed, right?