AiThority Interview with Donna Morrow, VP of Clinical Operations and Client Success at Noteworth

Please tell us about your current role and how you arrived at Noteworth?

I am currently the Vice President of Clinical Operations and Client Success. I made my way to Noteworth through a recruiter that reached out after investigating my background and experience. I have been blessed to have great opportunities available to me in the support of healthcare innovation and improvements to patient care and Noteworth was no exception. I met with the CEO and members of the team and after seeing the solution in action, coupled with my understanding of the challenges facing healthcare delivery, I was all in for the opportunity to join the team.

Please tell us what kind of challenges you faced in the beginning of your career — an anecdote that would help other professionals starting fresh in the healthcare industry.

This is not an easy question to answer. I started over 30 years ago pursuing a career in nursing, something I always dreamed about. I couldn’t wait to take care of patients, be an advocate for them and their family, and most of all support them to a place of health and wellness. My focus was on the women’s health service-line, primarily in L&D and NICU. It was my dream job and I looked forward to every shift. Then in 2005, I was working as a nurse manager in a busy L&D unit in Houston and I was presented with the opportunity to provide leadership for the building and management of technology that supported documentation and care delivery in the L&D units. This was totally out of my comfort zone in the sense that computer or electronic documentation was still pretty new in specialized clinical areas and not as comprehensive as it is today. I jumped in with both feet and lots of excitement for what this could bring. A few short months later, we were deploying a brand-new technology that supported remote management of patients in labor. It was a startup company that at the time only had two customers, and the founders approached me to join the team as the VP of Professional Services. After about a year of deliberation, I took the leap. This opened up experiences and challenges that I was not prepared for, as I was thrust into a world dominated by men, as the only female on the leadership team (and for a while the only female at all). I was often seen as “only a nurse.” Every day was a proving ground and it seemed everyone I encountered expected me to fail. I had to trust my instincts, be confident and show leadership, while inside I was dealing with my own self-doubt. When I look back now at my journey thus far, I am grateful for many of the challenges as they made me stronger. My advice is to always show your authentic self. Trust your gut and lead by example. Look to grow those around you and never judge a book by its cover. Treat others like you want to be treated.

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Tell us about Noteworth and what are your top services/solutions? What is your go-to-market strategy for 2021 in the post-pandemic era?

At Noteworth, we know providers need a better way to extend their reach to patients. Noteworth is the first comprehensive digital health platform that increases patient engagement and captures health data throughout the entire care journey to help eliminate therapy friction, improve patient outcomes, and reduce costs. Unlike disparate point solutions, Noteworth enables care teams to easily leverage all domains of the digital-medicine spectrum: telemedicine, remote patient monitoring, patient education, medication adherence, and patient-reported outcomes. Additionally, Noteworth can be used as a standalone solution or easily integrated with an existing EMR.

Our GTM strategy for 2021 and the shift toward a post-pandemic era continues to focus on empowering health systems and providers to enhance and streamline consistent virtual care delivery to patients across the care continuum. We know that for most health systems, telemedicine is table stakes at this point. We help organizations reduce fragmented care approaches with a single, scalable platform that not only includes telehealth, but also allows for assessment, education, and monitoring for continuous patient care and engagement across multiple ambulatory care specialties, care settings, and patient populations. One that captures and surfaces health data throughout the entire care journey so that clinical teams can seamlessly manage transitions of care, identify care gaps, and maintain both value-based and managed care populations simultaneously. Leveraging a single platform also improves clinician and patient adoption with fewer portals to visit or apps to download. When everyone is working in the same digital ecosystem, patient engagement goes up and clinician frustration goes down.

What is the most contextual definition of “Digital Medicine”? What kind of technologies are we talking here?

Digital Medicine really came to prominence when smartphones became a staple for a large section of our population. When you think about the impact of having access to the world in the palm of your hand…total game changer. Fast-forward to 2020 and how the world was impacted by a pandemic. The time had come to bring the technology to the forefront in the support of healthcare management and delivery. While COVID-19 was the focus of all, our patients still had acute conditions: chronic disease, behavioral health issues, and wellness needs that didn’t go away. By bringing healthcare to patients, we opened the door for innovative ways to be collaborative in the engagement, monitoring, and management of care plans. We could now expand the reach of digital medicine through technology that can be accessed through smart devices already in the home. More payers are stepping up to provide cost coverage and greater access to services. We (Noteworth) can digitize just about anything, from education, to surveys and assessments. We can bring the provider into the patient’s home in a safe and secure way. We can integrate EMR data, and patient-generated data via devices sent into the home to manage vital signs and track progress against a care plan. The intersection of people, process, and technology has taken on a whole new life in the support of greater patient outcomes and greater engagement with our healthcare providers now that the digital front door is opening.

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Tell us how Noteworth is revolutionizing Chronic Care management in 2021?

Noteworth is taking Chronic Care Management to a level of engagement not seen in a typical CCM program. The current process around chronic care management, while important, focuses on points in time to engage the patient to discuss progress against a defined care plan. The way that Noteworth thinks about chronic care management is more interactive and brings about awareness to increase engagement and accountability (for both patients and providers). We allow for better decision-making due to greater access to the patient and their data. Noteworth goes beyond simple vital sign management and surfaces the relevant patient data necessary to empower clinicians to act in a timely fashion, support wellness and prevention, and create an environment that better engages patients to take an active role in their own care. By bringing a comprehensive patient record together to document, track, and monitor all the necessary components of CCM in a collaborative environment, Noteworth identifies care gaps and improves the visibility on what is working (or not) for a patient.

Why should CIOs and CISOs in healthcare look to modernize with the help of telemedicine?

The healthcare industry as a whole can be challenged to modernize. Healthcare information and security officers have to balance the regulatory and security requirements with interoperability in a way that supports improved patient care. Recognizing what is needed to extend the reach of your providers and clinical team is more important than ever. Take the time to examine the barriers of getting patients connected with providers. Implementing a telemedicine program can be costly and even prohibit smaller practices and health systems from fully deploying a program. Create a plan that is personalized to your care goals as a provider and/or health system. Have tools in place that your patient population can trust and easily use. Telemedicine can start as easy as a video call. Take a look at what is being endorsed by major healthcare organizations, such as American Medical Association and others. The changing landscape of how patients of all generations and clinical conditions look at accessing healthcare should be a top priority for all health systems and providers.

What is your advice to female leaders in healthcare ahead of the International Women’s Day event?

My advice to women leaders in healthcare today, don’t let anyone silence you. Knowledge sharing and building up other women to have a strong voice is an important part of our job. Finding relevant intersections in our experience and current projects is very useful in bringing best practices to light. The role women play in the healthcare industry needs a greater voice, and the best way to amplify that is to share the story of your success, failure, and how you learned from it; where you can bring value; and where you want to go on your professional journey. Do not let your strength be misunderstood and do not let anyone else write your story.

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Thank you, Donna! That was fun and we hope to see you back on AiThority.com soon.