Deepak Sadagopan, senior vice president of value based care and population health informatics at Providence in Renton, Wash., joined the Becker's Healthcare podcast to talk about his top priorities and views on new entrants in the healthcare arena.
Below is an excerpt from the conversation. Click here to hear the full episode.
Question: There are many new entrants into healthcare, like Babylon Health, which intends to be a first access point for the patients and then refer patients out. How do you see some of these new entrants? Do you worry about them? Do you embrace them as partners? How do you look at those companies versus companies like CVS Health? Are they competitors, partners, or both?
Deepak Sadagopan: When we look at new entrants coming into this space, we are excited about the potential for innovation. It's great to see a number of new names appearing in the [healthcare] space. We feel that there's so much need in healthcare right now to help our patients and communities navigate the space that we think there's an opportunity to work with all the stakeholders involved to create a better experience for our patients.
I would extend that not only to the new entrants, but the community organizers that have been playing a deeper role in assessing a holistic health situation for our [patients]. They are taking on community health assessments and identifying pockets where there is a greater need for mental health resources, where there is a shortage of housing and nutrition. Those are increasing needs for healthcare.
There is an explosion of positive considerations that are entering the healthcare ecosystem, and I think we are in this incredible period of trying to figure out how all of these pieces fit together so they can deliver an overall simpler experience for our consumers. If there is nothing else we can agree on, I think we can all agree that the notion of consuming healthcare is becoming incredibly complex for all of us as consumers and for the patients we serve.
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