Andy Shares

Q: What excites you about the current and/or future state of digital health?

A: We spend a lot of time as an industry talking about the need for health delivery organizations to apply lessons learned from other industries and be more “Amazon-like” and “Google-like,” but I think it is really exciting whenever I take a step back and think about what things will look like when that actually happens. The industry has made a lot of progress in the last few years, and if we can truly close the gap with other consumer-facing service industries when it comes to intuitive digital tools that enable convenience, access, personalization, and cost transparency – the changes to the patient experience will be massive (even more so than I think we even realize). The thought of eventually being able to achieve that goal as an industry is definitely exciting!

I also think alternative models of care that are enabled by digital health are pretty exciting. One, in particular, that is gaining a lot is the “Hospital at Home” model. It isn’t “new” per-se (been around since the 1970’s I believe), but it has become much more prevalent in the U.S. over the last year because of emerging digital/virtual capabilities, the need to free up capacity because of the pandemic, and (of course) reimbursement changes. Basically, a program that provides inpatient-level care in a patient’s home, relaying a combination of 1) virtual care and/or services, and 2) in-person and/or physical care (in the patient’s home). I think hybrid models like that are really going to be exciting to watch and will change the way we think about “care delivery” in the future.

Maybe the ability for digital health tools to drive real, tangible outcomes for chronic conditions (especially when used in conjunction with medications or other types of treatment)? For example, I personally think it is incredible that we now have FDA-approved digital therapeutics to help treat opioid use disorder.

Lastly, there are a lot of areas that get a ton of attention when it comes to uses for artificial intelligence (the ability to detect clinical anomalies and even help diagnose specific conditions; the ability to predict the likelihood of a specific outcome, event, trend, or behavior occurring in the future; etc.), but for me, what is most exciting is the unknown. With so much data increasingly being available – and algorithms becoming so much more sophisticated – I think AI has the potential to impact prevention, diagnosis, and treatment in ways that have yet to even be imagined.

Q: Share a story that represents your CHIME experience.

A: The creation of the CHIME Opioid Task Force. I was really struck several years ago when Jim Turnbull and Ed Kopetsky stood in front of the group and asked for help to really battle this addiction, this scourge in our world. and I immediately felt the need to contribute. The story that was most meaningful to me was when we had our inaugural meeting in Washington D.C., we sat down with a number of people who were all very committed to the cause. We all got in small groups and shared our experience and why we were drawn to fighting this epidemic, and it’s very, very personal for each and every one of us. There is no one that I know that hasn’t been touched by addiction, and it’s been really meaningful to be a part of that and help contribute to some of the remediations and some of the solutions to really battle the epidemic. You know we have done quite a bit of webinars, vlog leadership, best practices, lessons learned, and really helped our industry advance in how we are tackling the opioid epidemic, and that’s something I’m proud to be affiliated with, that really represents the mission of CHIME, and I think it will make a really big impact.

Q: How do you hope to impact health and care in your organization, community, or at large?

A: Our mission statement at Impact Advisors is to create a positive impact, and that’s something that we really hope to do, very broadly, not just in the healthcare industry, but in our personal lives. It’s a mission we can even practice in line at the grocery store. Really, we are very proud and privileged to serve healthcare. Our mission really relates to making healthcare safer, more efficient, and more effective, and we believe we touch a lot of lives. While we may not be direct caregivers, the provision of technology, the advancement of technology, and the inclusion of technology in our workflows really makes a huge difference as a multiplier. If you look at CHIME’s mission, more broadly stated, the impact we can have across the industry is really almost limitless.

Q: When you think of what is required to be a successful healthcare leader, which do you feel is most important to you personally and why?

A: The things that strike me are really the same traits we really look to hire people here, at Impact Advisors, and that’s leadership. The ability to create order from chaos, to really lead us to a common outcome, that’s very important to us. Next, is work ethic, obviously, there is a lot of work to be done and we want people that work, really hard. The third trait is flexibility. This is a very dynamic industry, it changes. The economic forces that control our industry aren’t like any other industry that I know, and you really need to be nimble and flexible on how we address some of those challenges. The fourth would be diversity and it’s become very important to us as a firm to really make sure we have diversity in thought and action. It’s a mission we are committed to and looking to improve on, and I can attest to the fact that it has made a big, big difference in how we have approached the management of the firm and how we have organized our projects. It really brings not just diversity of thought, but the diversity of action and impacts what we can bring to the industry.

Q: What does being a Member of the CHIME Foundation mean to you?

A: I really commend CHIME for their work in this industry and convening leadership. If you look at the membership of both the providers and the Foundation members, it’s really an amazing group of thought leaders. There is no doubt that this is the right group to make a significant change and significant improvement to the healthcare industry. I’m proud to be a part of their membership.

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