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Health X Conversations by CNBC-TV18 and Optum

We created a platform to foster impactful conversations and drive solutions for a more flexible, progressive healthcare ecosystem.

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Health X Conversations by CNBC-TV18 and Optum

In a strategic collaboration aimed at shaping the future of healthcare in India, Optum India and CNBC-TV18 have launched Health X Conversations, a pioneering platform designed to foster dialogue, healthcare innovation, and leadership in the healthcare sector.

The initiative debuted with a curtain raiser episode aired on November 30, 2024, featuring Uma Ratnam Krishnan, Managing Director, Optum India, in conversation with CNBC-TV18 anchor Mugdha Kalra. The discussion focused on the “Triple Aim” of healthcare — lowering costs, improving access and enhancing outcomes — while highlighting the transformative role of technology, data and talent.

“We are fundamentally focused on creating better healthcare outcomes, and innovation is what drives us culturally,” said Uma Ratnam Krishnan. “Health X Conversations is a platform to inspire the next generation of healthcare leaders and drive meaningful change.”

The campaign includes a series of panel discussions, expert talks and campus engagements across India, spotlighting the intersection of technology, wellness and leadership. The curtain raiser episode was featured on CNBC-TV18, YouTube and Optum India’s digital platforms, with widespread coverage across national media.

Health X Conversations aims to empower future healthcare professionals, encourage cross-sector collaboration and promote a more inclusive, value-based healthcare ecosystem.

Health X Conversations: Uma Ratnam Krishnan

0:10 Healthcare is one of the most crucial 0:12 sectors that impacts our society its 0:15 evolution is vital to ensure that 0:17 everyone has the opportunity to live 0:19 their healthiest Life currently there 0:21 are almost 3.5 billion people worldwide 0:24 who lack access to Essential Health Care 0:26 Services with health spending taking up 0:29 to 10% of global economy increasing 0:32 Healthcare expenses are putting an 0:34 immense strain on people and governments 0:36 yet failing to improve life expectancy 0:39 to bring an urgent focus on these core 0:41 issues of access affordability quality 0:44 and experience of care CNBC tv18 in 0:47 association with optum brings to you 0:50 health X conversations decoding 0:52 tomorrow's Healthcare today joining us 0:55 today will be a very special guest who 0:57 will Deep dive into some of the most pressing 1:00 challenges in healthcare and how 1:02 innovative solutions are helping address 1:05 these very challenges across the globe 1:07 before we do that let's take a look at 1:10 this 1:11 [Music] 1:14 report Healthcare a fundamental human 1:18 right but for Millions around the world 1:21 it is still a distant 1:23 Dream from rural villages to crowded 1:26 Urban centers the challenges of 1:28 healthcare are clear 1:30 access affordability quality and the 1:34 experience of 1:36 care remote locations lack basic medical 1:40 services and delayed treatments make 1:42 Access to Health Care a major issue in 1:45 rural 1:47 communities even in cities overcrowded 1:50 hospitals and endless waiting times 1:53 often lead to worsened health 1:57 outcomes along with access a 1:59 affordability of Quality Healthcare is 2:02 another pressing 2:03 issue High out-of-pocket expenses are 2:07 preventing people from seeking essential 2:09 care and even in countries with 2:11 universal health care medical costs can 2:14 drive families into poverty it is not 2:17 just the rising cost of Health Care 2:20 straining communities lack of Quality 2:22 Medical Care is another major concern 2:25 inconsistent standards outdated 2:28 equipment and the shortage of trained 2:31 professionals can all compromise medical 2:33 care but then there's the experience of 2:36 care administrative burdens are a 2:39 constant drain for healthcare 2:41 providers leaving them with less time to 2:43 focus on what matters most their 2:50 patience however Innovation and 2:52 technology is driving a health care 2:55 Revolution with tele medicine breaking 2:57 the geographic barriers to AI by 3:00 augmenting care efforts and mobile 3:02 Health apps enabling patients to manage 3:04 chronic conditions and access crucial 3:07 health information right at their 3:09 f ingertips technology is truly reshaping 3:13 healthcare delivery with new 3:14 generations embracing digital Health 3:16 Solutions and United efforts from 3:19 governments communities and 3:21 organizations we can build a world where 3:23 healthcare is accessible affordable 3:27 and of the highest quality for 3:33 everyone and well this is just the 3:35 beginning of not just a tech aid but 3:37 also a med decade which is going to 3:40 revolutionize the way we live and look 3:43 at longevity in a healthy way joining us 3:46 today a very special guest Umar ratnam 3:49 Krishnan managing director of optum 3:51 India welcome to the show Uma so good to 3:54 have you here uh let me start by asking 3:57 you know we are living in times that 3:59 were very different before pandemic and 4:02 after pandemic we are seeing Health Care 4:04 in a new way we are looking at our own 4:06 lives in a very new way we are very 4:08 worried about our Health and Longevity 4:11 and we're looking at entire industry and 4:14 the industries of Tomorrow seeing this 4:17 sector as a very vital sector but there 4:21 are challenges what are some of the most 4:24 pressing challenges that you see that 4:26 need to be addressed 4:28 immediately yeah so I guess the 4:31 challenges of the healthcare industry uh 4:34 we can think of it as a triple aim right 4:37 what do I mean by that uh one is uh cost 4:40 of healthcare uh the second one is 4:43 better quality outcomes and the third is 4:46 improved access and I think at the 4:48 center of all of that is that very 4:51 sacral relationship between the 4:53 clinician or the doctor and the patient 4:55 right uh whatever happens that's 4:58 fundamental to this so let's unpack this. 5:01 a little bit so let's talk about cost. 5:03 right cost of healthcare as you 5:05 mentioned has been increasing at 5:08 skyrocketing at a frenetic Pace uh right 5:11 across the world more in some locations 5:13 and less in others now some of this the 5:16 reasons for the rise in these costs is. 5:18 for good reasons you know no new 5:20 medicines new protocols new uh ways of 5:24 treatment uh people with chronic 5:26 illnesses living much longer lives and 5:28 so on but on the other hand there's also. 5:30 really bad reasons for why cost is. 5:32 increasing like administrative expenses 5:35 sucking up a lot of the cost and 5:37 sometimes it's fee for services which. 5:39 means then you don't there's no end to 5:41 it um so cost of care is one of the 5:43 biggest challenges the second one is 5:46 actually access uh access is simply that 5:49 whoever needs Healthcare should be able 5:51 to get it at the time they need it and 5:53 in the most optimal way I think covid um 5:57 changed a lot of behaviors IE tell 5:59 Health became a big thing uh but I think 6:02 there are lots of it it's a trend 6:04 to stay but I think many other issues of 6:07 data and privacy and all of those have 6:09 to be uh 6:11 solved the third one is the quality of 6:14 the outcome uh like you said we're 6:16 spending a lot more but the quality of 6:17 the outcome uh you know uh Health 6:20 outcomes is not great and that is again 6:22 a fundamental challenge to fix now that 6:25 can happen only if we have the right 6:27 tools and techniques and enable uh both 6:30 the clinicians and the patients or the 6:32 consumers to actually uh get to the 6:36 right care Pathways standardize some of 6:38 the things so you actually build some 6:40 efficiency into how you actually use the 6:42 information and data to get better 6:44 quality outcomes when we talk about the 6:46 cost of technology and then of course 6:48 the cost of Health Care it is um it is 6:52 Unfortunately they say that you know 6:54 it's not a poor man's country to fall 6:56 ill and that is and that is so sad um 7:00 how can Innovations in technology bring 7:04 down the 7:05 cost yeah so I think there are a few 7:08 things here right one is affordability 7:11 is sort of fundamental to access so 7:14 there's a need to work on affordability 7:16 here and affordability comes in two or 7:18 three areas right uh one is the fact 7:21 that uh helping move into value based 7:26 care right which is to say that we'll 7:29 integrate the care rather than do it 7:31 for services each time so which 7:33 basically means can I integrate uh Home 7:36 Care can I integrate home care with 7:38 Clinic care after a delivery whether 7:40 it's virtual or in clinic or at home and 7:43 then I can I integrate Pharmacy Services 7:45 then can I integrate so which then means 7:47 for one individual it's an integrated 7:50 model uh which is the value based care 7:52 approach now what that does is actually 7:54 reduces the cost because you're able to 7:57 uh look at the whole picture 8:00 right and because of that you get 8:02 also better quality outcomes because 8:03 you're joining up everything right the 8:06 second one which is really important to 8:08 bring down the cost and how does 8:10 technology help here right which is how 8:12 can we use the analytics to build 8:15 decision support systems for clinicians 8:18 which basically means that the most 8:21 up to-date research the most uh you know 8:23 using the data to say what could be the 8:25 next best action so actually use some of 8:28 that technology to deliver a better 8:30 quality outcome and third I think is a 8:33 big uh thing on transparency so the 8:36 minute you know you give the consumer 8:38 which is already kind of starting the 8:40 consumer is taking more and more power 8:42 and uh taking more ownership of their 8:44 own Healthcare outcomes but it's about 8:46 transparency right uh so transparency of 8:49 the cost of drugs transparency about 8:51 cost of surgical procedures true and 8:54 that's going to play a big role in 8:55 bringing down the cost I'll give you a 8:57 couple of examples in in this right so 8:59 for example if you take uh with at optum 9:02 uh we actually say we have give options 9:05 to people to say here's a generic drug 9:07 and here's another drug so you can see 9:09 the cost and how transparent the costs 9:12 could be and then you can take that 9:14 decision and then talking about um the 9:16 decision support systems and the data 9:18 and input that we provide clinicians uh 9:21 so they can then use that and then spend 9:23 more time for better quality outcomes 9:25 now as a result and also accessibility 9:27 as a result of this right if you invest 9:29 in digital and T Health cost comes down 9:32 because you are getting care in a much 9:35 more um calibrated planned way so I 9:38 think there are and Technology can play 9:40 a big role in many of these right uh so 9:44 it's really about using that technology 9:46 for the right outcome while optum India 9:49 operates as a capability Center but what 9:52 kind of technological innovations are 9:54 you offering to the world so optum India 9:56 as a healthcare company as a healthcare 9:58 Global in Innovation Center uh for optum 10:02 uh we are fundamentally focused on. 10:04 creating better Healthcare outcomes now 10:07 and uh Innovation is culturally what. 10:12 drives us to find ways to get better. 10:15 healthcare outcomes um I gave you some 10:18 examples of what optum health does uh in 10:21 the US market uh the optum health 10:23 delivery is mainly in the US market but 10:26 uh what we do here actually helps us 10:28 create much better outcomes uh for 10:32 the global Health outcomes in in opum uh 10:35 so let me give you so we work with 10:38 technology uh very closely in the global 10:40 uh capability center it's a question of 10:42 zero distance so sometimes technology 10:44 folks just do applications or fix apps 10:47 or whatever right but the way we've 10:50 actually organized ourselves is for the 10:52 technology teams and the business teams 10:54 to work together and pretty much at zero 10:56 distance and actually look for 10:59 s in you know to fix uh which are 11:02 actually outcome related problems right 11:04 which is how can I better the healthcare 11:06 outcome that's the objective uh is not 11:09 just about fixing something uh fixing a 11:11 technology uh platform um I'll give 11:15 you an example again this is from um for 11:18 uh the work we do for opum uh globally 11:21 uh we get a lot of calls coming in from 11:23 people who you know our people in our 11:26 agents uh take calls where people want 11:29 and many of these calls are to fix 11:30 appointments with doctors right and uh 11:34 so the minute an agent gets a call 11:36 saying Hey I want an appointment with 11:38 the doctor then the agent has to do a 11:40 whole bunch of things one first figure 11:42 out where the patient location is uh 11:44 where they're calling from the second is 11:46 what are the doctors available in that 11:48 area right third is are those doctors 11:52 does is it aligned to the customer’s 11:54 insurance plan and so on so one of the 11:56 innovations that we worked with the 11:58 global teams to actually build uh is a 12:02 uh NLP app like uh NLP powered app right 12:07 which does two things the minute the 12:09 customer calls it automatically pulls up 12:12 f igures where their location is it 12:13 automatically pulls up the uh the uh 12:17 clinicians in the area or the doctors in 12:18 the area also make sure they get the 12:20 rating of those clinicians also make 12:22 sure that they align with the um 12:25 Insurance all in real time right and 12:27 that was one of the uh you know pieces 12:29 of innovation and then we're also 12:31 looking to integrate Pharmacy 12:32 requirements and then including 12:34 scheduling transport to the hospital or 12:37 to meet the doctor so that's a good 12:39 example of a app that was developed for 12:41 the US U uh market right uh so yeah and 12:45 that happens with technology here uh 12:48 with uh our business and operations 12:50 people and our Global stakeholders 12:52 wonderful uh lots more to discuss but 12:55 we'll quickly slip into a very uh short 12:58 break but stay tuned as we 12:59 continue this insightful conversation 13:06 [Music] 13:11 with welcome back to optum presents 13:14 healthx conversations decoding 13:16 tomorrow's Healthcare today joining back 13:19 in conversation with Umar ratnam Krishnan 13:21 managing director of opum India and we 13:24 were talking about the Innovations we 13:26 were talking about the challenges um and 13:28 some of uh the latest tech offerings 13:31 but one of the things that we uh have to 13:34 address is the talent pool do we 13:37 have enough and more talent pool how do 13:39 you at optum India look at that and 13:42 where are these health professionals The 13:44 Cutting Edge professionals coming from 13:46 yeah I mean if you look at the macro and 13:48 I'm sure you've seen these numbers right 13:50 we more than 65% of our uh people are 13:54 below 30 uh we're going to be one of the 13:57 youngest countries in the world for the 13:58 next maybe 30 40 years um and we have 9 14:02 and a half million graduates coming out 14:05 every year uh we've focused a lot on 14:08 engineering right but the fact is we 14:10 also have a lot of talent in the 14:12 non-engineering spaces which is not just 14:14 the Arts but also um The Sciences and 14:18 some of the medical paramedical 14:21 paramedical and sort of ancillary uh 14:24 disciplines right so the fundamental 14:27 raw pool of talent is absolutely 14:29 available now what's also interesting is 14:32 as we go forward the way we need to 14:34 think about Talent given the 14:35 conversation we've just had about 14:36 technology and how it's going to uh 14:40 accelerate uh I think there is going to 14:42 be a whole bunch of technologists who 14:45 will build systems and tools and you 14:48 know platforms to actually help with the 14:51 delivery of Healthcare on the other side 14:54 they have to work with people who 14:56 understand the business who understand 14:58 the clinical part and who 14:59 understand operations and efficiency I 15:01 spoke about uh inefficiency of 15:03 operations being one of the big uh 15:05 reasons for higher cost as well so I 15:07 think the way we're looking at Talent is 15:09 we're looking at Talent across areas 15:12 right and for them to actually intersect 15:14 and work with each other to solve some 15:16 of these Health Care problems right now 15:19 the way and when people ask me you know 15:22 uh in India tech services is a big thing 15:25 uh there are many Industries there are 15:26 traditional Industries and I think 15:28 healthcare is now 15:29 uh coming more to the Forefront and I 15:31 keep telling people if you have uh an 15:34 understanding of Technology if you like 15:35 solving complex problems but at the end 15:38 of the day you want to make a real 15:40 difference to big problems and touch 15:42 individuals lives um please you know 15:45 consider the healthcare uh world and 15:48 Healthcare world is not necessarily just 15:50 being in a hospital it's also working 15:53 with companies like us where you know 15:55 you have a bigger opportunity and why is 15:57 that a bigger opportunity because you 15:59 also work with our Global teams right to 16:02 understand uh different types of 16:05 Health Care models delivery models and 16:07 can work with global teams to actually 16:09 build and solve some of the problems so 16:11 I think Talent uh is exciting uh but 16:15 it's got to be I think intersected and 16:17 work together and collaborate in the new 16:19 world to build the healthcare models of 16:20 the future I think The Young techies and 16:23 the and the young um uh talent pool also 16:26 needs to be told about how purposeful 16:28 and lucrative the industry is going to 16:29 be because it is the industry of 16:31 tomorrow in a very huge way we come 16:34 to a very interesting aspect of the 16:37 current talent pool which is upskilling 16:40 a lot of the times we see that the 16:42 employability index is not as huge and 16:46 also there is a lot of uh relearning and 16:49 uh reimagining things and keeping up 16:52 with the technology needs to be done how 16:55 do you think we can grip uh we can 16:56 Bridge the upskilling and the re 16:58 learning Gap yeah so you know one of the 17:01 things that always resonates with me is 17:04 learning is lifelong right every day you 17:07 have to keep that learning uh Habit and 17:09 the learning muscle alive right uh it 17:12 doesn't matter what you do when you do 17:13 and I think with today's world that's 17:15 become even more critical because it's 17:17 changing so much I think from our 17:20 perspective uh we uh focus a lot on 17:24 learning and training and of course it's 17:26 not a simple thing because we train and 17:28 make people ask people to learn across 17:31 domains across functions across U Global 17:35 practices or us Healthcare Systems um so 17:38 it's a very big ask right but I think 17:41 the focus is we kind of make it uh 17:43 happen in three or four ways right so 17:46 one is we have many e-learning modules 17:49 uh and very uh specific e-learning 17:51 modules some are directly related to the 17:54 US Healthcare System some of it is just 17:56 simply your function or your domain or 17:58 your pro process so that's uh that's a 18:01 continuing part of what we try and do 18:03 the second thing which we do uh is we 18:06 actually have uh what we call an always 18:08 learning on mode now what we've done is 18:11 uh we keep getting asked this quite 18:13 often right uh we've done um sort of 18:15 gamification of training uh we've done 18:18 virtual reality I'll give you one 18:20 example so we deal with a lot of seniors 18:24 uh in the US Healthcare System and many 18:27 of the people here are young people 18:29 right so we actually developed as part 18:32 of this training a gamification where 18:34 for one half a day they virtually 18:37 spend time with somebody who's between 18:39 80 and 85 right which then means they 18:42 can actually see what's going on how 18:44 they behave and that can actually help 18:46 them and it's really helped in 18:48 increasing customer engagement and uh 18:50 feedback right so you understand what 18:52 they need a bit better uh so another 18:55 example of how we use this and upscale 18:57 is uh we have people uh reviewing 19:00 clinicians clinical reviews of you know 19:02 to see whether somebody's uh defrauded 19:05 the system for some payments or done 19:06 some wrong things or whatever so for 19:08 them to actually understand how this 19:10 works we do a virtual uh setting in a CL 19:14 in a clinic so we actually take them 19:16 into a clinic and then they do some 19:18 virtually and then they do some mock 19:20 exercises so we kind of we kind of 19:22 make this a little more fun than you 19:25 know and the last one is really uh 19:28 upskilling in areas outside your core 19:30 day-to-day work right whether it's Cloud 19:33 whether it's design thinking whether 19:34 it's AI whatever it is but there's a big 19:37 set of um learning opportunities and 19:40 that simply is hey if you're really 19:42 interested and you're the kind who wants 19:44 to learn every day you have every 19:46 resource and every opportunity um and I 19:49 think we take our training and 19:50 development uh you know uh a seriously 19:53 but also try and make it 19:55 fun uh um before I let you go I have to 19:58 ask you this what are you 19:59 personally excited about in this 20:01 Healthcare uh new uh decade and what are 20:05 the innovations that you're looking 20:06 forward to yeah I I'll pick it 20:10 up in four buckets right and then within 20:13 each of it anything can happen right one 20:16 is this whole consumerization of the 20:18 experience you know personalization 20:20 personalization 20:22 consumerization yes of course whatever 20:24 that means it's variables it's apps it's 20:27 uh you know uh personalize I'm taking 20:30 responsibility for what's important to 20:31 me uh diet is important something else 20:34 is but the whole consumer experience is 20:36 actually changing right the third the 20:39 second one for me is this concept of 20:41 well-being we spoke about it briefly 20:44 which is each one's idea of well-being 20:46 is different some is Diet some is you 20:48 know will I what are the issues I will 20:50 face how do I prevent it uh some is am I 20:53 eating the right food but the whole idea 20:56 of Wellness so which basically means 20:58 prevent 20:59 is going to play a really big role and 21:01 you know as uh Healthcare uh State all 21:04 the parts of the healthcare ecosystem 21:06 kind of understand that uh that's going 21:09 to change a lot of the Dynamics of the 21:11 how and the what and then it will 21:13 actually also integrate the way care is 21:16 given right it could be in your house it 21:18 could be anywhere so that that whole 21:21 thing the third one is the whole how 21:23 will the digital platforms evolve and 21:25 there could be two or three ways to do 21:26 this one is uh digital Health platforms 21:29 for individuals and consumers but also 21:32 digital Health platforms at a um sort of 21:36 uh ecosystem level which is if you go to 21:38 a doctor today and you have a health 21:40 record how easy will it be to have 21:42 interoperability with the right data 21:45 protections and privacy and all of that 21:47 which then means there's a single record 21:49 which means you can then decide where 21:51 and what and how right so the whole 21:53 digital platform and the 21:54 interoperability at various levels I 21:57 think is going to evolve 21:59 um in a very big way and the last 22:01 one uh I think we're in in the early 22:04 stages of uh value based care which is 22:07 instead of dealing with one thing at a 22:09 t ime how do I look at full 22:11 accountability as well right so this 22:14 is my health beginning to end who's 22:17 responsible it's a full accountability 22:19 model with an integrated way of 22:22 delivering and I think that will rather 22:24 than just one service at a time and then 22:26 you're running around trying to figure 22:27 out what to do so I think that's so I 22:29 would say four big buckets and I think 22:32 the uh The Innovation and the kind of 22:35 ideas in each of these uh are going to 22:38 be really interesting what comes out but 22:40 I think as a collective it's going to 22:42 fundamentally shape the health care uh 22:45 of the future well all I can say is 22:48 exciting times ahead and we are living 22:49 in very interesting times all right that 22:52 brings us to the end of this 22:54 enlightening discussion a heartful thank 22:57 you to um of course for sharing all 22:59 these wonderful insights and valuable 23:01 insights in the next phase of this 23:03 series The healthex dialogues will take 23:05 us to the campuses of India's Premier 23:08 management and Engineering colleges 23:11 where leading Healthcare innovators 23:13 experts and Founders will offer deeper 23:16 insights into how Innovation is 23:18 reshaping the global Healthcare 23:19 landscape and engage with students on 23:22 some critical questions such as are we 23:24 inspiring young talents to make an 23:25 impactful difference in healthcare and 23:28 is the next generation of leaders ready 23:30 to bring fresh ideas to transform 23:33 Healthcare stay tuned and thank you for 23:35 watching 23:40 [Music] English (auto-generated) 

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