Hear what two executives consider their most exciting initiatives and key technology trends in this month’s FutureCAST videos:

• Gary Pederson, SVP of Life Plan Communities at MatrixCare. CareCommunity by MatrixCare is a LeadingAge Gold Partner with CAST Focus.
• Peter Kress, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Acts Retirement-Life Communities, Inc., a LeadingAge CAST Patron. 

This CAST video series asks 24 health care executives where they think health care technology is headed and how CAST can play a role. The interviews were held at the 2017 LeadingAge Annual Meeting & EXPO. Each issue of Tech Time in 2018 will feature two insightful interviews. IBM’s Susheel Ladwa, co-chair of the America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) IT Advisory Group, leads this month’s discussions.

Gary Pederson, SVP of Life Plan Communities, MatrixCare

Gary Pederson is SVP of Life Plan Communities at MatrixCare. CareCommunity by MatrixCare is a LeadingAge Gold Partner with CAST Focus. Pederson is a CAST Commissioner and has enjoyed a career of continuous success with increasing accountability in many areas of health care technology. Upon graduating from the University of Wisconsin, he worked for Siemens and Toshiba in the diagnostic imaging industry and then had an opportunity to run several business units for Cerner Corporation in healthcare IT for 15 years. He joined MatrixCare in October 2016.

Watch the video, and read the full transcript.

Ladwa: What is the most exciting thing that you and your team are working on today?

Pederson: From a tactical standpoint, what we’re working on at MatrixCare Life Plan Communities (LPC) is extending the value of the platform to our client base. We have a very large footprint in the life plan community sector; over 20,000 users use our software every day. One common thing tactically we hear from our clients is that they’re running too many systems, so we’ve spent a lot of money on innovating solutions that give our clients an opportunity to bring as much onto the MatrixCare Solution as they can.

A few examples: we have a dietary system that’s now integrated with physician’s orders, so clients can get rid of their standalone dietary system and go with ours. We have a very good point of sale system that, again, is integrated into our workflow in our database. We have a front-end CRM marketing tool that gives our clients an opportunity to again bring that all into one platform.

Our clients have been clamoring for a set of new analytics solutions, which are now available. We started as a solution developed specifically for Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRCs), so we already have clinical, financials, and operational on one platform. To be able to augment that with these other solutions is pretty interesting.

And then more broadly from a strategic standpoint, we’re all about keeping our eye on the future of the CCRC/ Life Plan Community (LPC) market. We’re trying to stay nimble for our clients who want to increase their exposure in some care settings and decrease their exposure perhaps in others. So, we’re constantly developing and taking a strong hard look at our strengths, in skilled nursing, in senior living, and home health, and making sure we incorporate those into the LPC platform.

Finally, we’ve introduced a solution called CareCommunity that allows our communities to connect outside their four walls, so they can speak to the acute care centers, to the ambulatory providers, to accountable care organizations. Ultimately that is going to benefit the residents in our communities, by providing them a personal health record that will be the single source of truth. They can use it to manage their diabetes or their memory care or health and wellness program.

Ladwa: Out of all the technologies that are coming up, is there something that piques your interest more than the others?

Pederson: Technologically, the thing we’re most excited about is enabling our clients to take advantage of future things like telehealth. A solution like CareCommunity offers a direct route into our clients’ community and, most importantly, into their resident’s personal health record.

Ladwa: You’ve been part of CAST for some time, what is the value that your organization sees with the relationship with CAST?

Pederson: I’ve been here a year. My very first week on the job I met Majd Alwan and his colleagues. I represent our company as a CAST Commissioner, and what I value the most are the other Commissioners: learning what other people in the industry are thinking about, and what they’re doing. I really have an appreciation for CAST and Majd and company keeping an eye out for regulatory changes.

Some of the macro environmental issues—we have our own staff that looks out at those things as well, but CAST seems to have connections that perhaps we don’t. So that perspective is very important, not only to me and to MatrixCare, but to the industry as well. Telehealth is a great example. That’s such a no-brainer technology, but today Medicare doesn’t recognize it as a reimbursable procedure, and I know CAST is playing a big role in trying to influence that.

To have CAST behind the effort of our clients and our communities, pushing for the continued use of technology to improve the lives of seniors, is huge.

To learn more about Pederson’s advice for health care executives in times of uncertainty, the technology that interests him most, his past experience, and his words of wisdom for younger executives, watch the video, and read the full transcript.

Peter Kress, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Acts Retirement-Life Communities, Inc.

Peter Kress has led Information Technology enabled change initiatives at Acts Retirement-Life Communities, Inc., a LeadingAge CAST Patron, for 19 years, the last 15 as Vice President and Chief Information Officer. He serves on the CAST Commission and leads their standards and Electronic Health Record/Personal Health Record efforts. He also participates on the Long Term and Post-Acute Care (LTPAC) Health IT Collaborative and is co-planning the Collaborative’ s annual LTPAC Health IT Summit.

Watch the video, and read the full transcript.

Ladwa: What are the key technology trends that you see shaping the future of health care, and are there any specific ones that Acts is focused on?

Kress: Acts retirement life communities are a large non-profit provider of a full continuum of services for our residents. As our residents join us, perhaps in their 70s or even 80s, they expect to live the rest of their lives with us and to receive care in independent settings, but also have available to them assisted and skilled and home health and a variety of other settings.

That continuum provides a very interesting opportunity. On a cruise ship you’ve got to keep people happy with your food and amenities and services for seven to 10 days, and our average stay is 11 years. So, it’s an interesting challenge, which gives me the opportunities to explore a wide range of technologies.

Internet of Things (IoT) technologies are fundamentally important in campus settings, and we think IoT is going to smarten up our apartments, our campuses, our transportation, and other sectors.

We’re avid users of electronic medical records technology. I have spent many years partnering across the organization, across the industry to ensure that aging services standards are a component of electronic health record conversations.

I’m especially excited about technologies that allow us to create great resident experiences, whether they are care experiences, wellness experiences, or support experiences.

In our retirement community sector, we’re users of most of the trends—the business intelligence (BI) trends, the machine learning trends, the decision support trends.

IoT generates a huge amount of data. We expect to leverage all of that. We of course are involved in interoperability, and technology for us is not just a tool; it actually becomes part of the lifestyle of our residents.

Ladwa: What do you see as the biggest challenge to adopting new things?

Kress: Helping your technology teams, management teams, and frontline workforces to refresh their experiences, capabilities, and skills is a huge challenge. At Acts, we continue to make new investments. Getting great results is especially difficult when new technology strategies are evolving almost as fast or even faster than you can get deployed. Making sure you’re delivering great results while preparing yourself for the next wave is an interesting challenge.

Ladwa: What do you see as the key value that CAST brings to Acts?

Kress: CAST brings value to many different stakeholders. CAST has its members, not only large-scale providers such as ourselves, but many small providers, vendors, researchers, policymakers, and other participants.

I think a big part of the value to Acts as a large provider is the networking opportunities. It gives us a chance to sit at the table together with technology leaders, not just traditional vendors selling specifically into our space, but technology companies who are trying to shape the future and make sure that we have a voice with them. It also gives those companies an opportunity to understand our unique take.

We’re not hospitals, we’re not the traditional health care space. It’s a pretty interesting space for large technology vendors to get a handle on. We have a lot of experience that I think becomes relevant as technology companies engage.

For me that networking aspect has been a huge benefit. From time to time it can have a significant impact on an individual decision I’m making. It also provides opportunity for our organization through CAST to contribute back to the knowledge of the industry and to ensure that many providers that CAST serves have the benefit of large, middle, and small companies delivering services.

To learn more about Kress’s past experience and advice for younger executives, watch the video, and read the full transcript.