TDP 222: Care New England’s CCIO Dr. Sara Helvey: What a Startup Failure Taught Her About Vendor Selection, Why AI Clinical Decision Support Keeps Backfiring, and What Comes After Ambient Documentation

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On this episode of The Digital Patient, Joshua Liu, MD, Co-founder & CEO of SeamlessMD, and colleague, Alan Sardana, chat with Sara Nguyen, MD, MBA, MPH, Chief Clinical Information Officer at Care New England, about "What a Startup Failure Taught Her About Vendor Selection, Why AI Clinical Decision Support Keeps Backfiring, What Comes After Ambient Documentation, and more..." Click the play button to listen or read the show notes below.
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Audio:

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Guest(s):

• Sara Helvey, MD, MBA, MPH, Chief Clinical Information Officer at Care New England
• Joshua Liu, MD (@joshuapliu), Co-founder & CEO at SeamlessMD

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‍Episode 222 - Show Notes:

[00:00:07] Episode preview

[00:06:02] Why the MPH was the most transformative degree in Dr. Helvey's "healthcare triple threat"

[00:07:25] How a lack of business training in residency still shapes how physicians think

[00:11:45] What painful trade-off Dr. Nguyen made to reach the 99th percentile in EHR efficiency

[00:10:11] What drew Dr. Helvey into clinical informatics

[00:12:20] How working at a health plan startup changed Dr. Helvey's approach to vendor evaluation

[00:15:09] How Dr. Helvey stays grounded in the human story while working in data and systems

[00:16:04] The tension between AI-enabled efficiency and reduced patient contact

[00:20:36] Why Dr. Helvey pushes back on the idea that EHRs are beyond repair

[00:26:17] How she is navigating AI clinical decision support

[00:28:36] What the "Pioneers" program reveals about AI adoption strategy

[00:30:08] What Dr. Helvey sees as the next high-ROI AI use case after ambient documentation

[00:33:51] How regulatory incentives shaped telemedicine work during the pandemic

[00:35:16] What surprised Dr. Helvey about rural patients and telemedicine adoption

[00:36:43] Where she believes health systems are still underutilizing telemedicine

[00:39:51] How residents are redefining acceptable standards in medical training

[00:42:32] The parallel between trading discipline and clinical decision-making

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‍Fast 5 Lightning Round:

1. What is your favorite book or book you’ve gifted the most?
   The Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by Harv Eker
2. If you could instantly master any skill, what would it be?
   Being a concert-level pianist.
3. Would you rather have Super strength, super speed, or the ability to read people’s minds?
   Mind reading.
4. What is something in healthcare you believe others might find insane?
   "I think that it's interesting that people still think that physicians are all rich... the majority—the bread and butter physicians—aren't making seven figures a year."
5. What is the last movie or TV show you saw, and what did you think of it?
   Hamnet. "I thought it was amazing... I cried a lot for the last 10 minutes."

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