Tackling Provider Burnout with Innovative Health IT Solutions with Chad Dodd, VP of Product Management at Athena Health

[00:00:01] This podcast is produced by Outcomes Rocket, your healthcare-exclusive digital marketing agency. Outcomes Rocket exists to help healthcare organizations like yours to maximize their impact and accelerate growth. Visit outcomesrocket.com or text us at 312-224-9945.

[00:00:28] Welcome to Expanding Access, a podcast by Behavioral Health Tech, where we explore the cutting edge of mental health, substance use, and autism and IDD care. Each episode features insightful conversations with industry leaders who are driving real change through technology and innovation. Whether you're a provider, payer, or just passionate about expanding access to behavioral healthcare, you won't want to miss these stories. Let's dive in. Hey, everyone.

[00:00:58] Welcome back to another episode of the Expanding Access podcast. We're recording these sessions at the conference at the Behavioral Health Tech 2024 Conference out of Arizona. Chad Dodd is the Vice President of Product Management at Athena Health. He couldn't be here at the conference, but we didn't want to miss out on the opportunity to connect with him and hear his thoughts on what's going on. So, Chad, thanks so much for being with us. Thank you very much. It's great to be here. Yeah.

[00:01:24] And so, look, I want to just get things kick-started with you. Tell us a little bit about you and about Athena Health and what you're doing in the mental health space. Yeah, certainly. I lead our overall clinical product development and been in the healthcare IT industry 25 years, designing workflow experiences for healthcare providers across both inpatient settings, outpatient settings, and spend some time abroad working with ministries of health to solve the challenge of access to care in rural clinics.

[00:01:52] Been laser focused on how do we make and improve the documentation, the workflow experience for providers really across the healthcare ecosystem. We have a lot of experience, both on the technical side and the clinical side. So, super excited to hear that Athena Health has chosen to bring behavioral health that offering to the market now. And so, there's a lot of complexities that behavioral health providers face. But what is Athena Health bringing to the table to help them solve for?

[00:02:20] I think what's really important is we think of behavioral health as a market. And then we'll talk a little bit about why Athena and what Athena is bringing into the market. The market behavioral health for behavioral health providers has really been overlooked by the healthcare industry, I would say, for many years. But not only that, we've had an increase in just demand for behavioral health services across the network, across the UL.

[00:02:43] In fact, in some cases, in some studies, they say 47% of patients in need of mental care are in a place where there's a shortage of providers that are there to serve them. And then you add to this kind of perfect storm of an increase in regulations, administrative tasks, and administrative burden. You put that all together, and behavioral health providers are looking for more support than ever before.

[00:03:08] In higher burnouts, I think it was a Harris poll that came out, 9 out of 10 behavioral health providers are saying, hey, I'm burnt out or had feelings of burned out, and that's impacting patient care. So this burden, this demand is just right for opportunity for someone to come in to provide the right healthcare IT solutions and tools to help our behavioral health colleagues and team members. And so we believe it doesn't have to be this way.

[00:03:34] That's why we put an investment into creating a purpose-built solution for behavioral health providers. And that's what we're super excited to announce in the market. That's fantastic, Chad. And all the stats that you highlighted are certainly the big why behind the move that you guys are making. Let's talk about Athena 1 for behavioral health and what makes it different from other solutions. It seems that Athena Health has the belief that the right connections are a powerful catalyst for better outcomes.

[00:04:02] That's right. Athena 1 is a cloud-based solution for providers that allow and tailor the experience for the way providers work. But the other part of it is that we look at behavioral health as a set of connected threads that need to be fulfilled to make it easier, simpler for behavioral health practices and providers alike. Let me just provide a couple examples. Sure. One is the communication between a provider and a patient, which is critical and important, whether it's in a telehealth standpoint or asynchronous standpoint.

[00:04:31] We provide the tools to enable that seamless communications and threads and discussions for behavioral health providers and patients. Whether it's understanding the connective thread between the physical and medical space as well as the behavioral health space. And as primary care is extending into behavioral health, how do we show that physical chart for behavioral health providers alike so they can provide the best possible care that's necessary? And then the other way we look at really that connective thread is interoperability.

[00:05:01] We know that patients are going to be seen in a wide range of practices, hospitals, healthcare ecosystems. How do we bring that data visible to the provider at the point of care so they can make the right decisions in the right treatments? We think we combine all of that. That's what Athena 1 does. We set those up for and those connections once. And then everyone within the Athena network takes advantage of that. That's the benefit of that cloud environment.

[00:05:28] And then we can tailor the workflow, the documentation to really streamline the experience for our providers. And so that's, in a nutshell, that's how we think of Athena. That's, I think, the unique differentiation we can bring. And what we've done is we've tailored that experience specifically purpose-built for behavioral health providers and practices. I think that the focus is a very important one. And very interesting to hear you say that this communication,

[00:05:51] a lot of the themes coming out of the conference is obviously the shortage of providers to patients that have a need. And the idea of asynchronous communication as being one of the solutions. So the platform that you're talking about will allow a physician or a caregiver to communicate with patients asynchronously as well. Is that right? Yeah, exactly. And you're talking about the shortage.

[00:06:15] Some studies have set over 700 new behavioral health providers that needed to really fulfill that shortage. There's a couple of things that we are looking at from an IT perspective where we can help. One is how do we reduce, simplify that administrative burden? Make the documentation, the communication process simpler, easier, more intuitive. So there can be more patients seen and discussed. But I think that asynchronous collaboration, whether it's through treatment plans tailored for that patient,

[00:06:44] where you can have an engaging discussion and understanding, whether it's other communication mechanisms through back and forth with that patient offline, so that you can be able to understand and see how progress is made or not made, or where additional treatment may need to be brought into the fold. So the platform comes with, that's what we're enabling, and especially as part of the Athena one for behavioral health for love. That's fantastic, Chad. Super exciting. I'd love to see your organization's commitment to the space.

[00:07:13] Can you share what you feel the future looks like for Athena's health support of behavioral health, this specialty? Yeah, I would say this is just the beginning of what we're investing in and bringing about. So the Behavioral Health for, or Athena one for behavioral health, isn't just about the products. It's about how we serve our behavioral health practices and providers alike, whether it's the customer support, whether it's the onboarding experience. To reduce that burden or that being burned out,

[00:07:43] you want to be able to talk to someone that can help you with your concerns, be able to relate to the broader industry and bring those needs to you. So we've amassed the team that helps with either onboarding, customer success, and customer support specifically for behavioral health providers. That allows for that engagement, that discussion, that partnership. A partnership with our providers is super important. And that also allows us to tailor our solution to meet the needs of where the market is going. We're releasing out new features. We're planning to continue the product enhancements as well,

[00:08:12] whether it's custom treatment plans, whether it's group virtual therapy sessions. We support therapy sessions or group sessions already for many favorite health providers. Whether or it's we're starting to advance into a lot of the telehealth and then ambient world connections to help with documentation and to streamline and create those draft summary notes for providers alike. So those are just some of the things that are coming forward, some of the combination of how we use AI to simplify the documentation,

[00:08:41] but also bring that remote connectivity thread to the practice of healthcare. I love it, Chad. Certainly exciting to hear about the pipeline as well and the commitment that you guys have to the mental health and behavioral health space. For the folks that want to learn more, what call to action would you leave them with? And where can they reach out to you and the team to learn more and get more information? Yeah, certainly. If you're at the conference, reach out to anyone on the Athena booth.

[00:09:07] But go to athenahealth.com for more information in regards to what we're doing from a behavioral health perspective. Love to hear from you and engage in any way we can to help with your behavioral health needs. Amazing, Chad. Folks, there you have it. The amazing Chad Dodd, Vice President of Product Marketing Management at Athena Health. Here to chat with us about their release of their product for the mental health space. Make sure you check them out in the show notes. We'll leave ways to get in touch there.

[00:09:36] If you're here at the conference, check them out at the booth. And Chad, thanks for being with us. This is a true pleasure. Thank you very much. Have a great day. Thanks for tuning in to Expanding Access. We hope you're feeling inspired by today's discussion. If you've enjoyed the episode, subscribe and share it with your network. For more content and opportunities to get involved in transforming care, visit behavioralhealthtech.com.

[00:10:04] Until next time, let's keep pushing boundaries and expanding access together. This podcast is produced by Outcomes Rocket, your healthcare exclusive digital marketing agency. Outcomes Rocket exists to help healthcare organizations like yours to maximize their impact and accelerate growth.

[00:10:30] Visit OutcomesRocket.com or text us at 312-224-9945.