In this episode, we sit down with Scott Arnold, the visionary leader behind Tampa General Hospital's digital transformation. Scott reveals his strategies for walking the tightrope between groundbreaking innovation and maintaining operational stability in healthcare technology. We explore how he manages the delicate balance of pushing boundaries with ventures and AI while ensuring robust cybersecurity and seamless daily operations. Scott shares insights on optimizing patient and provider experiences without compromising system integrity. Learn how this healthcare tech pioneer harmonizes the excitement of innovation with the critical need to provide an optimal patient and team member experience in one of the nation's leading academic health systems.
Scott Arnold, Executive Vice President and Chief Digital and Innovation Officer, Tampa General
Megan Antonelli, Chief Executive Officer, HealthIMPACT
[00:00:00] VO: Welcome to Digital Health talks. Each week, we meet with the healthcare leaders making an immeasurable difference in equity, access and quality. Hear about what tech is worth investing in and what isn't. As we focus on the innovations that deliver. Join Megan Antonelli, Janae sharp and Shahid Shah for a weekly no BS deep dive on what's really making an impact in healthcare.
[00:00:31] Megan Antonelli: Welcome to Health Impact. Digital Health talks, the Podcast where we explore the cutting edge of healthcare innovation and technology. I'm your host. Megan Antonelli, and today we're thrilled to have with us. Scott Arnold, the Executive Vice President and Chief Digital and Innovation Officer at Florida Health Science Center, which includes Tampa General Hospital. Scott is a true pioneer in healthcare technology, overseeing a diverse portfolio that includes it, cybersecurity, analytics, clinical engineering and even a venture fund under his leadership, Tampa General Hospital has earned multiple prestigious awards and recognitions in health information technology. Well, Scott, welcome to health impact, digital health talks. I'm so excited to have you here. You know I have followed your career for many years, but we have have yet to meet in person. So I'm so glad we're able to do this today. Thanks for being here.
[00:01:19] Scott Arnold: It's exciting. I appreciate that I've been looking forward to this for a long time. So great to be here. Megan,
[00:01:26] Megan Antonelli: yeah, it's good to finally, to finally connect, you know. And as I said, You've been with Tampa General for a while. Tell us a little bit about, you know, just kind of where you've seen things change, and what your experience has been. A lot of work on sort of modernization of the organization, and I'd love to hear your story about that.
[00:01:48] Scott Arnold: Yeah, fantastic. Well, I have been with Tampa General for going on 14 years, and I talked to somebody a little bit earlier in the day, and they had pointed out the number of years and the fact that typically a CIO or digital leader is got the lifespan of a dragonfly. So now, you know, now it's really got me over thinking, oh, you know, but I, but I have had the pleasure of working and perhaps even surviving for four different CEOs and the CEO for our health system now we just, I've gotten along with all of them great. The one we have now is is a lot of fun for me. We're a lot alike, and we see the world very similarly, which really helps, you know, kind of helps with the, you know, just kind of getting things done and how we organize our team. But we've, you know, over those years, we've, we've organized the technology division a little bit differently along the way, kind of just based on whatever is happening in current at that time and whatever is relevant. So 14 years ago, there was a big focus on, you know, you know, laying down the electronic health record platform. And really that was, that was a focus. And then, you know, over the years, we've evolved to other things, to growth and expansion. And now, now the team and I are really focused on, really the digital experience through multiple lenses, but the two that we're really focused on, that we're we're looking at, you know, kind of even reorganizing our team around our really the team member digital experience. So what does that feel like, taking the the log on experience, the choppiness that may exist because, you know, as as well, traditional technology divisions are are put together. They're typically put together with applications and infrastructure. And nobody really has looked horizontally on the you know, the experience for the team member from onboarding all the way through, you know how the day goes, and it could be the portal or shift bid technology, even the, you know, bedside tech or mobile apps just that, that experience. We kind of think of it a lot like an airline. If we we really focus on our team members first, they'll take care of the patients. And, you know, and those types of things, take care of themselves and the patients really clearly. The other, the other piece of this is the digital experience for our patients, and that's. That's another way that we're kind of reorganizing our team. Is, is, is, are putting people together that are really focused and really driving the patient digital experience. Because it's, it's more than just a patient portal or my chart. It's, it's how they're interacting with our health system, from the outpatient setting, from urgent care, from emergency room to, you know, primary care and other venues. And we want the we want that experience to have some as much friction removed as possible, and and how, you know how it interacts with our experience center as well. I mean, it's a big job to put those things together and then just look at things differently, you know, across that horizontal so those are, those are really kind of some of the two big areas that we want to cluster and kind of organizationally design around. But other things that have emerged that I'm thinking about are even video technology and, well, I mean, everybody's got a, you know, an AV guy or a person, but now, you know, when you think about virtual nursing, fixed assets in patient rooms, for for hospitals, or even computer vision inside of operating theaters, and how that will be used. It's, it's, you know, it's kind of created a whole new, you know, space that we really need to have thought leadership around and strategy around so, you know, that's, you know, that's our particular area. And then also, what's interesting is robotics, you know, and not necessarily, like the Da Vinci robot type of thing, but I'm talking about the robots that do tasks around a hospital as an example. So picking up trash, delivery of linen, you know, we're finding that we need to, you know, kind of organize for that skill set. Because some of the things that we're doing with our venture team, our innovation team, kind of the team that's looking at emerging technologies. There's not always a clean drop off, you know, for where does that belong? You know, in the traditional IT format, and we're usually making it up as as we go, but we have that. The last thing I think, I tell you is, I feel, I think, super blessed to be able to have the technology vision, or that really the vision of technology in the in the division itself, wrapped with traditional it with cyber, with analytics, with our venture and emerging tech team, and biomed, and probably a few others that I'm not even thinking of right now. And as I talked to my colleagues, there's no right way to do it, and I'm certainly not you know, we're not running a monarchy here, but it sure does run a lot easier when you have, you know, all of those people together, working together, and not, you know, not against each other. So that's,
[00:08:32] Megan Antonelli: well, that is a lot, that is a lot of hats to have worn for the last 14 years, right? And and certainly changing them while the while the car is moving as well. So it's, um, you know, but I mean, I think that's amazing. And I think as you started with the sort of that shift, right, that to the digital experience for both your patients and your team members and, you know, the clinical teams. And certainly, that's not where we started, right? I mean, when we were looking at implementing electronic health records, and they were mostly building systems that UX was was, unfortunately not, not first, top of mind, right? But now it is. And I think it does mean there's, there's some reverse work that has to get done to build better systems around it. But it sounds like, you know, from where you sit, that you have that, that view of, ultimately, the, you know, multiple, the players, and where they come together. So that's amazing. You mentioned the venture side of of things, and the venture fund that you guys have, tell us a little bit more about that and what you guys are looking at,
[00:09:40] Scott Arnold: yeah. I mean, we have a great team put together for venture and as as health system, venture teams go, you know, or not necessarily, teams, but the size of fund, I put ours really kind of on the smaller, emerging side, although I feel like our team is, is. Is, you know, the type of team you find at really, any, any fund, they're the fantastic team that's put together that just does this day in and day out. But our, our venture fund itself is, has started with about 15 and a half million dollars in it. And the idea was really kind of put to put our money where our mouth was, because, you know, innovation is part of our our shared purpose, mission, if you will, and vision. And the way that we are accomplishing that in the past was, you know, we were, we were really gambling with technology money on some things that, you know, the money that we were using was, was to run our operations. So if it didn't work out, then I'd be scratching my head wondering how I'm going to cover so we did. We put, you know, we put a separate team together with, you know, money that's specifically for, you know, doing new and innovative types of things. And primarily it's around technology. But it's not always technology, and, you know, and it's, it's worked out quite well. We've really focused in in two spaces, primarily direct investing into companies that are either startups or emerging or, you know, kind of in, in, you know, on that pathway of Series A, B or C, you know, in terms of their of their growth. But we're not, you know, doing it just for the sport of it. It's, it's a direct alignment with one of our strategic imperatives, right? So, if it's helping us solve a problem, or if it's, you know, a direct line to one of the strategies that we have for the health system, then you know, we definitely are, you know, take a hard look at, you know, something like that, that that we're both, you know, using, but also taking a hard look at investing in it as well, you know, and being a partner that way. So we have, I'd say, just probably more than 10 portfolio companies that we've invested in in the in the short time we've had it up and running, and I think we look forward to kind of making our 15 and a half million dollar fund even, even larger. The other piece that we do is really kind of fund investments. So not necessarily direct to companies, but you know, other professionally managed funds that focus on supporting health tech startups, you know, and having access to that portfolio of companies. So again, you know, the benefit for us is, you know, trying new things or having exposure to new things early, that will, you know, support lowering the cost of healthcare or giving us a competitive edge. So it's been a lot of, it's been a lot of fun. Yeah,
[00:13:13] Megan Antonelli: it is, I mean, and that's, it's great to be able to wear both hats, right? So it sounds like you both sit in that innovation space where you get to, you know, look at what's coming and what's new. But also work a lot on, you know, the stuff that keeps the lights on right, and the great stuff that keeps, keeps things moving. So it's, it's nice to be able to wear those hats. But also, you know, I mean, and I think that, like, from my perspective, certainly, when I started doing events in healthcare technology and bringing people together around these discussions, you know, I wanted it to be much more about the technology touching the patients, right? You know, it's like, oh, it's all about the patients. But the reality is that so much of it is, you know, not, you know, just the stuff that keeps the organization running. And you know, not, not all of it is specific to healthcare, but it all is wrapped in a healthcare package, which you know means that it touches many patients and and providers and has to serve them. But the innovation space is, is super exciting. Um, are there specific Are there any particular portfolio companies that you're super excited about.
[00:14:22] Scott Arnold: Yeah, there's a, well, there, there are quite a few. Somebody's going to be upset if I don't mention them, but we're working on one that, like, we're implement, where we're kind of like the, you know, where we're the Hair Club for Men. We're, we're not only a client, but we, you know, we're, we're an owner or investor, and there's one right now that we're we're implementing a specific technology that will support access and just kind of modernizing our digital front door bit. And it's a company called dexcare. I'm very, very excited about that. So, so that's. One, and there's, you know, a handful of others, but I will say, I think I've, I can't undervalue the the opportunity that I have to, you know, to have that venture, you know, group, part of our technology division, because as I, as I talked to some of my colleagues around the country, again, there's no one, you know, perfect or best way to do this, but there could be a lot of friction between, you know, an innovation group that is kind of stood up and, You know, over here, and then you have your traditional technology group, or IT group that's over here. And guess what? They're, they're innovators too. They just don't like to be a utility and keep the lights on. You want to get the best out of people and inspire them. And they're inspired to try new things. So, you know, having those, those two groups together, you know, working together instead of working, you know, seeing each other as a threat, that's really worked out for us. And you know, again, that it's not perfect, and we're kind of working through some things, but I think we're moving a lot faster, yeah, because, you know, we've put those things together. And I, I that's interesting,
[00:16:22] Megan Antonelli: because it kind of that goes again. I mean, you know, going way back, right? Because Clayton Christensen, where you had to, you know, disruptive innovation, and it had to be, kind of, that was the original strategy, was to pull it out, right, to keep it to keep it separate. But, yeah, you know, it does seem to me that we are, I mean, just across, across many health organizations, pulling it back in, you know. And I guess to some degree, you know, even technology itself, right when, when we started this technology had its place, and now it's, it's everywhere, right? So technology, right? It's omnipresent. It's part of every part, every part of the organization, and every function, you know, every function and every department has a technology component. And then you, you know, you layer on top of that the need to innovate at every level, whether it's at the you know, janitorial level, at the facilities level, and at the, you know, robotics doing surgery level. You know, there's multiple, yeah, it's a, it's a large spectrum, you know. So that's that's amazing, and certainly, you know, what keeps your job interesting and hard? No doubt,
[00:17:31] Scott Arnold: yeah, it does. And I think a lot of it has to do with, you know, again, I said there's not a right, I don't know that there's a right way to do it. There are, you know, I think some health systems that are, you know, actually very, very successful having those two things in different, different places. I just happen to see that there tends to be a little bit of friction there. And you you have a group of people that may feel disenfranchised on the other side of this, and they're, they're innovators, too. And you just, again, you want to get the best out of people, and then the leaders on the top of this, you know, has a lot to do with, you know, the the personalities of those people, and how, how you can get everybody working together. That makes a difference, too. So all kinds of ways to do it. I feel like it works really well for us by having, having those things together. And I think if you were to ask our the leaders of you know, kind of both of those functions here, that they would tell you the same thing,
[00:18:36] Megan Antonelli: yeah. Well, that's great. Well, in addition to innovation and the Venture Fund. You also wear a hat that maybe some folks have already have said, you know, I don't, I don't want this to be part of my job. It's too hard and scary so, you know, but also has been quite, you know, quite the discussion. And it's like a day doesn't go by without a discussion of some of the cyber attacks and threats within the organizations across healthcare. And I know, you know, you guys have, have handled that well, tell me a little bit about that part of the job and what that's looking like these days.
[00:19:13] Scott Arnold: It's, yeah, you're absolutely it's, it's the worst part of our job. It's, it's the it's generally the phone call that I get on the weekends, at night, on vacation, like, hey, something's happening here, I feel, again, very fortunate. We've got a super strong cyber security team that does everything they can to keep our, you know, our patients and team members and partners safe. But look, I, I'm, I'm in that growing percentage of you know, leaders and health systems that have been through, you know, a an unfortunate event like this time last year was a was a bad day for us. I. Actually is a bad few weeks. And I would, I would describe to you that it is the thing that kind of sucks the life out of the job, is that you we have to spend so many calories on on what bad people are. You know, are doing? You know, in the onslaught to healthcare has just been non stop. In fact, the attack that hit one of our really good health system in the Midwest, or frankly, all over ascension, that same group before that hit, tried to hit us 900 times two, two weeks prior to that, 900 attempts. And I'm sure any of the other leaders that either you know are a part of this or listen to it, they would tell you have similar stories. I think that it's terrible. I've never actually been through an encryption event, but certainly a ransomware. We had multiple encryption attempts, and we managed to keep those off the top of us. That is a worse nightmare, and I just been, you know, watching
[00:21:22] Megan Antonelli: So for folks who might, who might not know the difference, including me Sure,
[00:21:29] Scott Arnold: so, you know, the ransomware event and encryption, you'll hear, you hear those kind of things together. But what the bad guys typically try to do is, you know, is basically gain access to your systems and lock them down so you can't get back into them, you can't use them. And while they're at it, they're they're stealing data, so they're holding it ransom. In our case, the bad actor came in through one of our one of our partners was compromised, and came in through the side door and, and frankly, you know, got a foothold and and tried to drop, you know, those encryption packages tried to lock down some of our systems so that we couldn't get to them. And it was in epic battle for about two weeks, you know, just kind of fighting that off and chasing this little ghost around our, our, the interior of our, of our, our systems and but what, what they did finally do was they were able to get a foothold and steal data right and and then hold the data for ransom. So we still have the data. But basically the threat is when, when you get the phone call from the kind of the ransom, or, if you will, or the email. And we got both the CEO and I both got phone calls and emails to solicit a ransom. They typically set their ransom at a percent and a half of revenue, which is a very big number. They it's a it's a business for people that do this for a living, these financial crimes. They they run it like a business, and they look at your revenue, what your what you can afford to pay. And then they suggest, if you don't pay us this amount, then, well, we're going to release this data onto the dark web. And you know your your patients, you know, data, or your team members data, will be all over the dark web for all to see. So that's, that's, that's what a ransomware event feels like. And then shortly after that, when you've kind of gone through and done containment, ejection of the bad, you know, of the of the bad guy, and you got your environment kind of back to healthy state, then I call, I call it the secondary extortion, the the class action lawsuits start to ensue. Some of them are frivolous. Some of them may be legitimate, but both are not in in my view, and and that that can be a very big number of lawsuits, and then you're tied up, you know, a person like me is tied up 30% of my time with lawyers for the next year or two years. And it's that is that does suck, suck the life out of you. Well, thank
[00:24:37] Megan Antonelli: goodness the innovation part is still part of
[00:24:39] Scott Arnold: the fun stuff. That's,
[00:24:43] Megan Antonelli : I mean, it, you know, I mean. And thank you so much for sharing that I know sometimes, you know, it's, it's, it's it are, those are the dark days, right? And it's, it is, it is hard and it, you know, and it's such a, you know, tough thing that healthcare systems continue to be the target. Of this, you know, consistently, what, in terms of what you've done, I mean, over the years, to kind of minimize the risk in terms of educating your staff or or even just sort of, you know, battening down the hatches. What can you share with our audience around that? Yeah,
[00:25:19] Scott Arnold: I mean, I think, you know, our strategies probably aren't terribly different than anyone else's. We do, you know, a lot of friendly fishing with our team members. So we, we send them, you know, emails that kind of look, look like fishing attempts and and do some training on the spot, you know, if you know, they click on the wrong thing, and then it's a teachable moment. At that point, I will tell you, our team members are just getting better and better and better at, you know, recognizing things and, you know, deleting or reporting them. And frankly, it doesn't matter how much you've invested in technology to capture that and filter it out before it even gets to your team members. There's stuff that still it still makes it through, and you still have to deal with that. I think we've done a lot to fortify and, frankly, reassess and assess our partners that are absolutely critical for us to do, to do business, but the way that we evaluate partnerships and their cyber hygiene is, and not just once, but continuously, is really important. So those are, I think those are, that's, that's a big, you know, that was a, that was a change for us.
[00:26:44] Megan Antonelli: Yeah, we talked about, I'm sorry, what we've talked about a little bit, you know. And it goes back to what you said about around digital experience, right? I mean, that the experience of the both the, you know, your team members, and then that battening down the hatches. So it's this balance between making, you know, making the systems accessible to the people who really need to use them, and not accessible. Are there, you know, lessons from there that you've you've learned, that you've managed
[00:27:11] Scott Arnold: Yes, in fact, you can swing the pendulum way too far on battening down the hatches. And, in fact, there's a point where it's not understandable anymore by the team, I think for the most part, team members, physicians, they kind of understand that multi factor authentication, things like when you get into your bank, or other apps that you use daily now that are less benign than a bank that you're usually like, they're making sure that it's you, and that's a multi, you know, multi factor authentication, and that's that's becoming a little more like accepted. But I think if you don't tune that right inside of a health system, and you and you're asking, you know, a provider or nurse or environmental services per you name it, you know, billing clerk, IT person to, you know, put their login credentials in, you know, 1000 times a day. That's probably taking it a little too far. So I think what we've learned is, there's, there's a little bit of tuning, and you're absolutely right, Megan, there's a balance between convenience and security and striking that balance as a special art we're still trying to figure out as well,
[00:28:29] Megan Antonelli: right? And along that, I mean, that sort of makes me think about a lot of the other stuff that we've talked about, which is innovation, and, you know, the burgeoning discussions of around AI, which may not be new or even that different from what we've been doing, but now there are some additional things, and when I think about security and like the added risk of kind of technology, and you know, to some degree, we're realizing this promise that we've we've talked about, you Know, interoperability, connectedness, but it makes us more at risk. And then when you add that layer of here, we're going to have artificial intelligence, which everyone sees as super scary, but but also the promise and the potential is huge, and also not that different from what we've been doing, and healthcare has been doing a lot. But you know, are there new risks, new threats, and what are you thinking around governance and AI, and how that's impacting, you know, sort of your look to the future? Yeah,
[00:29:29] Scott Arnold: well, I feel a lot like you. I'm I'm very optimistic and bullish on AI. I think that generative AI specifically has brought this Unbound, irrational exuberance around all of AI. And so we've written that, you know, up the top of the curve, and it's probably coming down a little bit, and people are settling out on, okay, but it's very pop like, I think we're now kind of unlocking some new things that have been concept. All you know, and we were, as a health system, we were pretty quick to determine, hey, you know what? We need to put some governance around, around this. And honestly, Megan, I'm, I'm like the anti committee guy. I don't like committees. I don't like I'd rather like, proceed until apprehended, which is not always the right way, either, but, but there's, you know, there's the right amount of governance to put in, and certainly with, with AI, and even how the regulatory agencies are, like, wait a minute, you know what's what's happening here? And you had that directive from the White House and some guidance from Health and Human Services and all kinds of things in the healthcare space the FDA, we were pretty careful to put, you know, a governance group together that would evaluate, you know, any of The assets that we have coming in that contain AI, and we, we did. We put a group, you know, small, smart team together that includes technology and physician leaders and administrators, legal compliance ethics, because there's Biomedical Ethics involved, research, cyber and, you know, all of the, all of the actors that you think might might have an opinion, you know, and guidance around this. And it's work. It's actually working quite well. So before anything with AI that we know about, you know, because lots of things are being built with AI inside of it. Now we, you know, we put it through, you know, a pretty speedy on ramp process to get into our health system, and as it's coming on, where we're also taking inventory of that asset. So we know what is, you know, roaming around in our environment that, you know, has artificial intelligence attached to it. Until we become smarter about it, we really, at least need to have an inventory of those things and then understand what it does and how it's learning. And can it, can it be a threat to us? Can it hurt patients? So we have, I think, the right people evaluating those things, and it's a pretty speedy process, because, again, I'm, I'm not a big one on getting things stuck in committees. Again, I rather move a little quicker. But do you do sometimes have to slow down and make sure, right? We don't, we don't make any big mistakes.
[00:32:32] Megan Antonelli: Well, as you said, it's all about balance, right? And it's about that, you know, balancing the risk with the with the innovation and that ability to kind of move forward. But, you know, having worn as many hats as you have for so many years, obviously, you know, you can take the learnings from from the past to apply it to this new and exciting technology so that that's great in our last few minutes. You know, I can't, you know, it's you've shared a lot about kind of the the landscape and and where you've sort of had so many such great experiences, and what you guys are doing, but share with us a little bit. I mean, you know, I can't think of anybody to give sort of that leadership advice to some of our up and coming leaders and, and even those who are, who are maybe sitting there with the same role, wondering how they're going to get through another day. Yeah, you know, how have you kept this, you know, kept such a balanced perspective on all of this? Yeah,
[00:33:28] Scott Arnold: well, there are some days I'm very confused. But because there's a it's a big surface. It's really a big surface to cover. And I think for anybody at the, you know, actually, in any part of a technology division, it's anymore, it's nearly impossible to be an expert in everything. You just can't expect that from anybody or yourself. So I think surrounding yourself with the right people, people that are, you know, super sharp and compliment each other well and get along together well as a really strong, functioning team. I feel, you know, like I've I've been blessed to have that here in our community at Tampa General, with leaders around me that have been with me almost the entire time I've been here for 14 years. So it, you know, I think it's important to again, surround yourself with the right people. They do the same thing, and then, of course, we have a strong team from that. I think the other piece of that is having a really strong handle on the strategy of your health system, and because most of what you're going to do needs to align directly to that strategy. So there's, you know, there's turning the crank and keeping the lights on every day, but you know, just modernizing and keeping up and, you know, just getting the. Best out of your your team with great leaders that do the same. That's that's really important, being self aware, emotional intelligence is right up there for me, and it just, you know, kind of, having empathy and understanding, especially around new things, listening to team members, because introducing innovation change, like humans don't really love change generally. So just, you know, listening and having an empathy, and then and then just influence and change management, you know, it's a lot of things bundled together, but, but I think that's the job, that is the job. That's job always moving and always being curious. Yeah,
[00:35:47] Megan Antonelli: yeah. Well, that's great. I was so excited that we've had, you know, been able to have this conversation, as I have watched you, you navigate all of that so, so well over the last 14 years or so. So, you know, it's an amazing thing, and I'm excited to see what you'll continue to do at the organization. So yeah
[00:36:07] Scott Arnold: thanks so much. This has been a lot of fun for me. I appreciate it. Megan,
[00:36:10] Megan Antonelli: yeah, thanks, Scott, thanks for being here. Thanks for listening. That is, that is the show for today. Megan Antonelli, with health impact,
[00:36:20] VO: thank you for joining us for this week's HealthIMPACT's Digital Health Talk. Don't miss another podcast. Subscribe@digitalhealthtalks.com and to join us at our next face to face event. Visit healthimpactlive.com.