Advocating for Equitable Healthcare with Syam Adusumilli, Chief Strategy Officer at GroundGame Health

[00:00:08] [SPEAKER_01]: Hey, everybody.

[00:00:09] [SPEAKER_01]: Welcome back to the Beat Podcast recorded live here at Vive in Los Angeles.

[00:00:15] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm really excited to host today's episode with Syam Adusumilli.

[00:00:20] [SPEAKER_01]: He is a seasoned healthcare leader and strategist with deep product and strategy

[00:00:25] [SPEAKER_01]: expertise across all business lines in healthcare payer organizations.

[00:00:29] [SPEAKER_01]: He has deep expertise in cutting edge technologies, including data science, AI,

[00:00:35] [SPEAKER_01]: blockchain, medical IOT, and many other things.

[00:00:39] [SPEAKER_01]: Syam has 30 plus years of experience in technology and business strategy in

[00:00:43] [SPEAKER_01]: healthcare, especially when it comes to managing IT options.

[00:00:47] [SPEAKER_01]: He's the Chief Strategy Officer at GroundGame.Health, and I'm excited to have him here with us.

[00:00:53] [SPEAKER_01]: Syam, welcome.

[00:00:54] [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.

[00:00:54] [SPEAKER_01]: Thanks for having us.

[00:00:55] [SPEAKER_01]: It's a pleasure to have you here.

[00:00:57] [SPEAKER_01]: Now we're going to get into some fun questions here for you.

[00:01:01] [SPEAKER_01]: Let's start with digital transformation.

[00:01:03] [SPEAKER_01]: How do you see digital transformation reshaping healthcare delivery in 2024?

[00:01:09] [SPEAKER_01]: And what are the main challenges and opportunities this presents?

[00:01:13] [SPEAKER_00]: So digital transformation has been a part of the healthcare rhetoric for a while now.

[00:01:19] [SPEAKER_00]: I would say at least 10 years.

[00:01:21] [SPEAKER_00]: What we find interesting about it in 2024 is we are really focused on the underserved population.

[00:01:27] [SPEAKER_00]: We're focused on the population that is not getting the care they need, that's

[00:01:31] [SPEAKER_00]: not getting the help they need.

[00:01:33] [SPEAKER_00]: That population, you have to have the commitment, the empathy, the compassion to actually see through.

[00:01:40] [SPEAKER_00]: Not all this population is digitally literate.

[00:01:43] [SPEAKER_00]: A lot of them are just starting their digital journey.

[00:01:46] [SPEAKER_00]: Some of them may have just gotten their digital equipment, phones in the last couple of years.

[00:01:52] [SPEAKER_00]: So we find it really fascinating working with this population.

[00:01:56] [SPEAKER_00]: One of the things we focus on is unmet needs.

[00:02:02] [SPEAKER_00]: Unarticulated needs of population, whether it's food or transport or shelter or they need a vacuum in their home, those kind of things.

[00:02:10] [SPEAKER_00]: And 45 percent of the American population has some kind of an unmet need.

[00:02:16] [SPEAKER_00]: One of those unmet needs could be digital literacy, interestingly.

[00:02:20] [SPEAKER_00]: As transformation has gone beyond the mainstream, we are very excited because it is now percolating into what we do at Social Determinants for Health.

[00:02:31] [SPEAKER_00]: And health-related service needs.

[00:02:34] [SPEAKER_00]: And we are seeing technology being adopted more and more in the space.

[00:02:39] [SPEAKER_00]: The days of volunteer organizations just working with pen and paper, we really want to make that a thing of the past.

[00:02:47] [SPEAKER_00]: You should be able to go into a soup kitchen and expect technology.

[00:02:53] [SPEAKER_00]: Someone should be able to go into a food pantry and expect the same technology they would expect in a Kroger.

[00:02:57] [SPEAKER_00]: That's our focus.

[00:03:00] [SPEAKER_00]: That's where we look at digital transformation from a social impact lens.

[00:03:05] [SPEAKER_01]: I love that. And I like that you came up with these examples, right?

[00:03:08] [SPEAKER_01]: Within a Kroger should be what?

[00:03:10] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:03:10] [SPEAKER_01]: In a soup kitchen.

[00:03:11] [SPEAKER_01]: Why shouldn't we be able to have that?

[00:03:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[00:03:14] [SPEAKER_00]: What in a Marriott is what you should be able to see in a shelter.

[00:03:19] [SPEAKER_00]: It's no different.

[00:03:20] [SPEAKER_00]: Humans are humans.

[00:03:21] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[00:03:21] [SPEAKER_00]: And it's not difficult to do.

[00:03:24] [SPEAKER_00]: And the cost points have dropped to a point where they are not a factor anymore.

[00:03:29] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think that's an interesting perspective.

[00:03:32] [SPEAKER_01]: Can you share some of the really, I guess before we go to the second question, would really just want to hear from you, Shyam, around the organization, Ground Game.

[00:03:44] [SPEAKER_01]: Tell us a little bit more about you guys and the focus areas that matter most to you.

[00:03:49] [SPEAKER_00]: So Ground Game started as a social impact organization.

[00:03:52] [SPEAKER_00]: Our roots are in the area agencies of aging, which a government instituted grant funded organizations in the 1950s, which still survive to this date.

[00:04:03] [SPEAKER_00]: And they serve a very small sliver of the population.

[00:04:06] [SPEAKER_00]: They have never really had technology.

[00:04:09] [SPEAKER_00]: Because of those roots, we understand the complexity of the world they live in, the people they serve, the volunteers they try to attract.

[00:04:17] [SPEAKER_00]: It takes a certain individual to be able to draw people out.

[00:04:24] [SPEAKER_00]: You have to first establish trust.

[00:04:26] [SPEAKER_00]: These are people who are depressed often, who are very needy, who don't want to talk about things.

[00:04:33] [SPEAKER_00]: They could be abused.

[00:04:34] [SPEAKER_00]: So a young lady who was 17, who was in an abuse situation, depressed, ready to take her life.

[00:04:40] [SPEAKER_00]: It's bone chilling stuff.

[00:04:43] [SPEAKER_00]: What we are doing is our little bit at Ground Game to connect these unconnected human beings into the mainstream, to bring technology to these social workers who dedicated their life to helping people.

[00:04:59] [SPEAKER_00]: This is the least we can do.

[00:05:01] [SPEAKER_01]: That's fantastic.

[00:05:01] [SPEAKER_01]: And we're glad you're doing it.

[00:05:03] [SPEAKER_01]: And glad we had a chance to level set on a company a little bit more.

[00:05:07] [SPEAKER_01]: Can you share some of the most exciting technological innovations you believe will significantly improve patient care and outcomes?

[00:05:16] [SPEAKER_01]: And do you see any limits for technology's ability to improve patient care and outcomes?

[00:05:21] [SPEAKER_00]: I wouldn't say limits.

[00:05:24] [SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[00:05:25] [SPEAKER_00]: I look at it as you have to put humans first.

[00:05:28] [SPEAKER_00]: As long as you apply technology, as a technologist who's been doing this for a long time, one of the things I learned very quickly is eventually it

[00:05:37] [SPEAKER_00]: is human beings helping human beings.

[00:05:39] [SPEAKER_00]: Technology is an enabler.

[00:05:40] [SPEAKER_00]: It can take barriers away.

[00:05:42] [SPEAKER_00]: There are some fascinating things going on with AI.

[00:05:45] [SPEAKER_00]: There are fascinating things going on with interoperability.

[00:05:48] [SPEAKER_00]: That's what the Vive conference is all about.

[00:05:50] [SPEAKER_00]: There is so much going on here, you would think that it would automatically transform everything.

[00:05:55] [SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't.

[00:05:56] [SPEAKER_00]: The beauty of it is there are these almost limitless minds, if you will, people who are thinking out of the box, who are pushing the boundaries, who are really trying to make a

[00:06:06] [SPEAKER_00]: difference in health care.

[00:06:08] [SPEAKER_00]: What we are trying to do is to bring that innovation, that commitment, passion to the population we serve, whether it is unconnected individuals in rural areas, could be people

[00:06:20] [SPEAKER_00]: in inner city neighborhoods, could be domestic abuse scenarios, could be people who are coming out of incarceration, could be folks who probably did very well in life.

[00:06:31] [SPEAKER_00]: There is an acronym called ALICE.

[00:06:33] [SPEAKER_00]: You may hear that once in a while.

[00:06:36] [SPEAKER_00]: Asset limited, income constrained, but employed.

[00:06:38] [SPEAKER_00]: One of the biggest refrains you hear in political rhetoric is these people are not employed and they're freeloading on the system.

[00:06:45] [SPEAKER_00]: No, these people are all employed.

[00:06:47] [SPEAKER_00]: They are working hard.

[00:06:48] [SPEAKER_00]: They're working two jobs, three jobs to make ends meet and to raise their children.

[00:06:52] [SPEAKER_00]: Some of the stories we hear are gut-wrenching.

[00:06:56] [SPEAKER_00]: Some of the technologies we see are amazing.

[00:06:59] [SPEAKER_00]: The disconnect between those technologies and what we do is what we're trying to bridge.

[00:07:04] [SPEAKER_00]: There are technologies, for example, everyone talks about Gen AI.

[00:07:08] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, we can talk about Gen AI too, right?

[00:07:10] [SPEAKER_00]: Everyone talks about predictives.

[00:07:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Predictive AI is fascinating, but it should give us external intelligence that says this human being potentially is depressed because they don't have food on the table.

[00:07:22] [SPEAKER_00]: They don't have a way to pay their rent.

[00:07:24] [SPEAKER_00]: They don't have heat.

[00:07:26] [SPEAKER_00]: You cannot ask for healthcare transformation or ask for these people to participate in the health delivery system unless you take care of those things.

[00:07:34] [SPEAKER_00]: Can technology help?

[00:07:35] [SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely, yes.

[00:07:37] [SPEAKER_00]: Is it really helping to the extent that we think it should?

[00:07:40] [SPEAKER_00]: No.

[00:07:40] [SPEAKER_00]: You have Uber for transportation, right?

[00:07:43] [SPEAKER_00]: Any one of us can walk out of here and get an Uber to go wherever we want to go.

[00:07:47] [SPEAKER_00]: Why is there no Uber for the poor?

[00:07:50] [SPEAKER_00]: Why is there no Vrbo or Airbnb kind of shelters?

[00:07:55] [SPEAKER_00]: Is it possible?

[00:07:56] [SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely, yes.

[00:07:57] [SPEAKER_00]: Is it exciting to have that opportunity?

[00:07:59] [SPEAKER_00]: It is.

[00:08:00] [SPEAKER_00]: But we need to take the next step.

[00:08:01] [SPEAKER_00]: We need to stop talking about opportunities and doing things.

[00:08:05] [SPEAKER_00]: Start doing them.

[00:08:06] [SPEAKER_01]: I like that.

[00:08:07] [SPEAKER_01]: And on the one hand, it's giving people these opportunities, addressing the community needs.

[00:08:14] [SPEAKER_01]: Then when you go and do it, the question of interoperability comes up.

[00:08:19] [SPEAKER_01]: So why is interoperability so important when it comes to these technologies and how should they be interfacing with mainstream?

[00:08:30] [SPEAKER_00]: There are probably three to four aspects in which interoperability really plays in our space.

[00:08:35] [SPEAKER_00]: When we are having the initial conversation with these individuals in what is essentially a closed loop system, the more we know about them, the more we have full access to their electronic health records, to their insurance, to the benefits that they are

[00:08:49] [SPEAKER_00]: eligible for, to the programs that either hospital systems or their employers or their insurance companies are creating just for them.

[00:08:59] [SPEAKER_00]: That information is invaluable because it gives us context in which to have these conversations.

[00:09:04] [SPEAKER_00]: The second way it really helps is if you have interoperability when we are doing assessments of need and we do this day in and day out and we do it in a very sophisticated way.

[00:09:17] [SPEAKER_00]: We drill down into everything from fall risk to disability, behavioral health, food, transport, shelter, home modifications, you name it.

[00:09:29] [SPEAKER_00]: We probably do a couple of hundred types of assessments.

[00:09:33] [SPEAKER_00]: That information is very useful to us in helping these people, but it is critical for hospitals to have it.

[00:09:40] [SPEAKER_00]: It's critical for a surgeon to know that the person he is operating on has all these other stresses in life.

[00:09:47] [SPEAKER_00]: It's very critical for a discharge nurse to basically say, how am I going to send this person home after knee surgery if home is a couch?

[00:09:56] [SPEAKER_00]: We have to find ways.

[00:09:58] [SPEAKER_00]: And the more we know, the easier it is.

[00:10:01] [SPEAKER_00]: The third aspect of it, which really is unsolved and we are working to solve it, we are working with US Aging, with the government, with various other organizations.

[00:10:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Some of it I cannot talk about here.

[00:10:14] [SPEAKER_00]: But what is important, we talked about soup kitchens.

[00:10:18] [SPEAKER_00]: There is no app in a soup kitchen that basically says, I can scan your Medicaid ID and your insurance company will know to pay for your food.

[00:10:27] [SPEAKER_00]: Will the folks at the soup kitchen stop you from having food?

[00:10:30] [SPEAKER_00]: No.

[00:10:30] [SPEAKER_00]: But if the insurance company knows that there is a food need and the food need has been met, they have the opportunity to participate in the system.

[00:10:38] [SPEAKER_00]: They have the opportunity to reimburse or maybe help in another way.

[00:10:41] [SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[00:10:42] [SPEAKER_00]: It also means that they can then find other points of interaction.

[00:10:49] [SPEAKER_00]: You have someone who has not taken their medications.

[00:10:51] [SPEAKER_00]: Is it logical to have a conversation with them after they've had food or while they're roaming around?

[00:10:58] [SPEAKER_01]: After they've had food?

[00:10:59] [SPEAKER_00]: We have enough unhoused in this city, for example.

[00:11:02] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[00:11:03] [SPEAKER_00]: That context where you can bring in community-based organizations, volunteering organizations, nonprofits, social service organizations under the interoperability umbrella is largely uncharted and unexplored.

[00:11:16] [SPEAKER_00]: And the fourth aspect of it, there's a lot of entities, especially these days with DEI and race, ethnicity, language, sexual orientation, gender identity.

[00:11:28] [SPEAKER_00]: There are a lot of acronyms being thrown around.

[00:11:30] [SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot of information being collected around these acronyms.

[00:11:33] [SPEAKER_00]: That information has to go into the primary health records.

[00:11:37] [SPEAKER_00]: We collect a lot of this information.

[00:11:39] [SPEAKER_00]: We want to pass that information on to all the relevant parties so the trust that we built painstakingly is maintained.

[00:11:46] [SPEAKER_00]: To us, that is interoperability.

[00:11:48] [SPEAKER_00]: Are we there yet?

[00:11:49] [SPEAKER_00]: No.

[00:11:50] [SPEAKER_00]: But the journey is important.

[00:11:51] [SPEAKER_01]: Love that.

[00:11:52] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:11:52] [SPEAKER_01]: And it's a fresh way to look at interoperability.

[00:11:55] [SPEAKER_01]: I do appreciate you sharing your perspective with us.

[00:11:58] [SPEAKER_01]: On the AI and machine learning side of things, a lot of buzzwords being thrown around in health care.

[00:12:04] [SPEAKER_01]: In what ways do you see these technologies making a tangible impact on both health care providers and patients?

[00:12:12] [SPEAKER_00]: This is more of a pedantic view, if you will.

[00:12:15] [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, there's a lot of hype around it.

[00:12:18] [SPEAKER_00]: And the hype keeps shifting.

[00:12:19] [SPEAKER_00]: The simplest way to look at it is this predictive, which in our world may mean that we look at all the data that is out there about a human being and we predict that they have a food need.

[00:12:31] [SPEAKER_00]: And it is a persistent food need.

[00:12:33] [SPEAKER_00]: It is a food need that is not for the next five days, but probably for the next five years.

[00:12:38] [SPEAKER_00]: And the causes behind food need.

[00:12:41] [SPEAKER_00]: There's an education gap.

[00:12:43] [SPEAKER_00]: There's an employment gap.

[00:12:44] [SPEAKER_00]: So we actually have the ability with AI to look at the structural reasons why this need is manifesting itself.

[00:12:51] [SPEAKER_00]: Fix the problem, not the symptom.

[00:12:53] [SPEAKER_00]: The second aspect of it is generative AI, where you can have culturally appropriate conversations with people in their intersectional context.

[00:13:06] [SPEAKER_00]: And that is very important.

[00:13:08] [SPEAKER_00]: Is gen-AI there yet?

[00:13:10] [SPEAKER_00]: No, but it'll get there.

[00:13:12] [SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot of investment going into it.

[00:13:13] [SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot of excitement around it.

[00:13:16] [SPEAKER_00]: The ones that are less talked about, you have this whole notion of AI in the environment.

[00:13:23] [SPEAKER_00]: Imagine an 85-year-old sitting in a couch watching TV all day.

[00:13:27] [SPEAKER_00]: Is there a way for AI to track that?

[00:13:30] [SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely yes.

[00:13:31] [SPEAKER_00]: Is there a way for AI, we call it gate AI.

[00:13:35] [SPEAKER_00]: Gate AI is part of this whole ambient AI dynamic where you're looking and seeing and saying, this lady is not walking steadily.

[00:13:44] [SPEAKER_00]: That's because she's not walking enough.

[00:13:46] [SPEAKER_00]: She hasn't had any visitors for the last 20 days.

[00:13:49] [SPEAKER_00]: So social isolation is going to set in and she's going to depression.

[00:13:54] [SPEAKER_00]: So this is this whole notion of ambient AI, which doesn't get talked about as much.

[00:14:00] [SPEAKER_00]: But the progress being made in ambient AI is probably faster than what is going on in gen-AI.

[00:14:07] [SPEAKER_00]: You also have AI that can basically say, how do you match?

[00:14:13] [SPEAKER_00]: We are talking to thousands of people on a regular basis.

[00:14:16] [SPEAKER_00]: How do we find them a food pantry that's open?

[00:14:21] [SPEAKER_00]: How do we find them a handyman that knows how to fix the old air conditioner in their home?

[00:14:27] [SPEAKER_00]: Not just any handyman, but a handyman that can fix that.

[00:14:31] [SPEAKER_00]: How do we find the right person in our organization with the closest match to that patient so that we can have a meaningful conversation?

[00:14:40] [SPEAKER_00]: We call it touch.

[00:14:41] [SPEAKER_00]: Right touch is about multi-channel.

[00:14:44] [SPEAKER_00]: It's about multi-model.

[00:14:46] [SPEAKER_00]: It's text, AI, chat.

[00:14:48] [SPEAKER_00]: But it's also about identifying.

[00:14:51] [SPEAKER_00]: Let us say we are talking to someone who is LGBTQI.

[00:14:55] [SPEAKER_00]: We should be able to find someone who understands that context.

[00:15:00] [SPEAKER_00]: We should be able to find someone on our staff who understands post incarceration needs.

[00:15:06] [SPEAKER_00]: We also need predictors to say, here are the food banks.

[00:15:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Here are the transport options for this population where they won't be stigmatized, where they'll be treated equally.

[00:15:21] [SPEAKER_00]: There are transport options out there where I won't name the company, but overnight, where people have gone in, looked at the person and refused to take them to a medical appointment.

[00:15:33] [SPEAKER_00]: These things happen.

[00:15:33] [SPEAKER_00]: These are stories we see every day.

[00:15:37] [SPEAKER_00]: We start our day, every day at 8.15, we share a story every day and it grounds us.

[00:15:44] [SPEAKER_00]: The technology we built is because we learned from those stories.

[00:15:48] [SPEAKER_00]: We built it configurable because it has to be accessible.

[00:15:51] [SPEAKER_00]: The effort we put in has no meaning if the people on the street who are volunteering cannot use it to solve the problems.

[00:15:59] [SPEAKER_00]: That is where we see AI making a difference.

[00:16:02] [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you so much for that, Shyam.

[00:16:03] [SPEAKER_01]: I think it's a really insightful approach and certainly big opportunities for more people to think in this way.

[00:16:10] [SPEAKER_01]: How is your organization working to ensure the advancements in health care technology are accessible and equitable, particularly for these underserved and rural communities that you seek of?

[00:16:22] [SPEAKER_00]: Probably three or four important things.

[00:16:25] [SPEAKER_00]: One, just because of our DNA from rural Indiana, that's where we started.

[00:16:30] [SPEAKER_00]: So we haven't moved away from who we are.

[00:16:33] [SPEAKER_00]: That identity is very much part of what we do.

[00:16:38] [SPEAKER_00]: It also gives us the opportunity to work with community-based organizations and we work with them day in and day out.

[00:16:45] [SPEAKER_00]: And these community-based organizations often have social workers who've been in the community for 15 years, 20 years.

[00:16:51] [SPEAKER_00]: They're put in the hard yards.

[00:16:52] [SPEAKER_00]: They have the relationships.

[00:16:54] [SPEAKER_00]: They understand what works, what doesn't work.

[00:16:57] [SPEAKER_00]: They understand which route to take.

[00:17:00] [SPEAKER_00]: They understand which food pantry will help.

[00:17:04] [SPEAKER_00]: They know if a new shelter is opened.

[00:17:06] [SPEAKER_00]: They know if a mall has shut down and it can be reused.

[00:17:09] [SPEAKER_00]: That knowledge is invaluable.

[00:17:12] [SPEAKER_00]: And we empower those organizations.

[00:17:14] [SPEAKER_00]: We partner with them.

[00:17:15] [SPEAKER_00]: One of the biggest advantages of what we do is we work with payers and with hospital systems eventually.

[00:17:22] [SPEAKER_00]: And we bring the money from them as unrestricted money to these community-based organizations.

[00:17:29] [SPEAKER_00]: If you ever worked in a community-based organization, one of the things you realize very quickly, especially the rural ones, you're all grant-based.

[00:17:36] [SPEAKER_00]: You're going from one grant to another.

[00:17:38] [SPEAKER_00]: So you're at the whims and fancies of the grant organization on what you can do on a given day.

[00:17:43] [SPEAKER_00]: We want to disrupt that model.

[00:17:45] [SPEAKER_00]: We are disrupting that model today.

[00:17:47] [SPEAKER_00]: We paid out $14, $15 million in unrestricted funds to community-based organizations last year.

[00:17:53] [SPEAKER_00]: That is how we are looking at underserved communities.

[00:17:56] [SPEAKER_00]: Our focus is on creating built capacity of social work by routing the funds the right way and giving them the technology so that they can be efficient.

[00:18:06] [SPEAKER_00]: So they can in turn help these populations.

[00:18:09] [SPEAKER_00]: Another aspect of what we do is very deep understanding of these populations.

[00:18:14] [SPEAKER_00]: If you don't understand the population, you can't serve them effectively.

[00:18:18] [SPEAKER_00]: If you don't relate to that population, you can't serve them effectively.

[00:18:21] [SPEAKER_00]: We do a lot of home visits.

[00:18:23] [SPEAKER_00]: We do door knocks.

[00:18:24] [SPEAKER_00]: Not all the people that we serve have homes.

[00:18:27] [SPEAKER_00]: We find them on the bridges.

[00:18:28] [SPEAKER_00]: We find them in tent cities.

[00:18:30] [SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes we find them on the sidewalks.

[00:18:33] [SPEAKER_00]: That knowledge, some of it is learned, but honestly, some of it's also lived experience.

[00:18:39] [SPEAKER_00]: Some of the people that we hire have gone through these situations themselves.

[00:18:43] [SPEAKER_00]: There's no substitute for that.

[00:18:45] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's for sure.

[00:18:46] [SPEAKER_01]: And just really love your commitment to this space, Shyam.

[00:18:50] [SPEAKER_01]: Walk in the walk.

[00:18:51] [SPEAKER_01]: No doubt about it.

[00:18:52] [SPEAKER_01]: It's clear.

[00:18:53] [SPEAKER_01]: That's why we're crown game.

[00:18:54] [SPEAKER_01]: I love it.

[00:18:55] [SPEAKER_01]: And the people really in this country need it.

[00:18:59] [SPEAKER_01]: So it's great to have somebody like you, a team like yours dedicated to helping the people that need it most.

[00:19:07] [SPEAKER_01]: What call to action would you leave the listeners with on this podcast today?

[00:19:13] [SPEAKER_00]: A majority of the listeners are probably healthcare folks.

[00:19:16] [SPEAKER_00]: A lot of them likely are technologists.

[00:19:18] [SPEAKER_00]: I can always tell everyone to volunteer.

[00:19:20] [SPEAKER_00]: They've heard that from their school teachers all the way through their parents and everybody else.

[00:19:26] [SPEAKER_00]: I wouldn't ask them to volunteer.

[00:19:27] [SPEAKER_00]: I would ask them to spend time with the people who volunteer.

[00:19:31] [SPEAKER_00]: Understand them and the stories of the people they serve.

[00:19:35] [SPEAKER_00]: And very soon you'll come up with your own imaginative ways to help them.

[00:19:39] [SPEAKER_00]: And when you do, please reach out to us because we can take that to scale.

[00:19:43] [SPEAKER_00]: So my call to action is, as a nation, it is alarming that 45 percent of our country has unmet needs.

[00:19:54] [SPEAKER_00]: That a lot of us are working hard and we have unemployment around 4 percent.

[00:19:59] [SPEAKER_00]: And we still have a lot of people struggling.

[00:20:02] [SPEAKER_00]: To make ends meet, forget healthcare for a moment.

[00:20:05] [SPEAKER_00]: They don't have the time to think about healthcare.

[00:20:07] [SPEAKER_00]: About 2 to 3 percent of the social workers we need is all we have.

[00:20:14] [SPEAKER_00]: We don't have a lot and we are going to lose them to retirement.

[00:20:17] [SPEAKER_00]: We're losing health workers to retirement.

[00:20:19] [SPEAKER_00]: The pandemic was devastating when it comes to health worker capacity.

[00:20:24] [SPEAKER_00]: Anything you can do to help build up health worker capacity, to build up social worker capacity, please do that.

[00:20:31] [SPEAKER_00]: It's not just about donations.

[00:20:34] [SPEAKER_00]: It's really understanding that these people deserve our respect, our support.

[00:20:40] [SPEAKER_00]: There are not many of them and we need a lot more of them than we have.

[00:20:45] [SPEAKER_00]: So that's my call to action.

[00:20:47] [SPEAKER_01]: Love it, Shyam. Doesn't get any clearer than that.

[00:20:49] [SPEAKER_01]: Folks, there's your call to action.

[00:20:51] [SPEAKER_01]: There's our call to action.

[00:20:53] [SPEAKER_01]: So make sure you take action.

[00:20:55] [SPEAKER_01]: Don't just stop at listening.

[00:20:57] [SPEAKER_01]: I think in the end, that's how we're going to create the results.

[00:21:00] [SPEAKER_01]: Shyam, thank you so much.

[00:21:01] [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you and Ground Game.

[00:21:03] [SPEAKER_01]: For the work that you guys are doing.

[00:21:05] [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.