2022 Arizona’s Bioscience Roadmap Progress Report — Gabrielle Finley-Hazle
Arizona’s bioscience sector is performing at historically high levels two decades after the creation of Arizona’s Bioscience Roadmap placed the state on a long-term trajectory toward success. For a closer look at the data and to learn more about the past year’s developments and accomplishments, the Flinn Foundation organised a panel discussion to dive into the latest Progress of the Biosciences in Arizona.
Gabrielle Finley-Hazle, President and CEO, Dignity Health Arizona, is a proactive change agent in health leadership. She manages the largest non-profit healthcare system in the country and the largest provider of graduate medical education in the state of Arizona With over two decades of experience, Gabrielle participated in the 2022 Arizona’s Bioscience Roadmap Progress Report Panel Discussion.
Below are the excerpts from the discussion -
Q. Talking about taking healthcare into the community, we have seen that hospitals are a driving force behind Arizona’s bioscience employment numbers. Yet, we also know that hospitals nation-wide are losing healthcare professionals at a rapid clip and this trend is projected to continue. Could you talk about how hospitals and health systems are adapting to this new dynamic and where do you see your new workforce coming from in the years ahead?
“I’m really happy the state of Arizona included hospitals and the definition around biosciences because there is such a huge focus on not just clinical excellence but also scientific discovery and translational research. That’s our secret sauce and what we contribute to the bio-sector. So, as you can imagine losing healthcare professionals has an impact on not only how we deliver care to the community but also how we are contributing to the bio sector. “
“The impact of the pandemic is actually even more amplified in Arizona for 2 reasons. One is because of the pandemic and the other one is because of the growth. Most cities are not experiencing that type of population growth that we are experiencing here in Phoenix. That alone is exasperating the issue. For us, we had to be really creative very quickly.”
“So, you will hear hospitals talk now about new models of healthcare delivery that’s not centered just around the nurse but really looking at a team-approach…. The other thing, for those of us that are heavily involved in biosciences in our hospitals, there’s also a shortage of scientists, researchers and all those team members that are needed for that scientific discovery. That’s where partnering with not just our bio-science team members but also partnering with the schools is really important.”
“I would say 3 categories briefly as far as where we are looking for the future. One is using technology. There’s going to be a lot more use in technology when it comes to how we deploy healthcare professionals. There’s something called acute care at home that we are piloting right now that will help with that. The second thing I would say is piling different care models which I just talked about. Lastly is expanding learning opportunities. There’s a lot of data around the need to provide more faculty for the universities to be able to produce more healthcare professionals. We are committed to doing that and we have had many of our clinicians get trained so they can be faculty as well. Then lastly is creating more clinical training sites which is what we are doing across the state.
Q. We have heard about the importance of digital healthcare and certainly all of us personally know that during the pandemic the digital healthcare boomed. Could you talk a little about how telemedicine and AI are impacting the everyday business of healthcare at St Joes and Barrows Neurological Institute.
“AI is a big part of growing biosciences further. An example of how we are making sure that we are a part of that is that we just invested millions of dollars in creating an AI division in Bear Neurological Institute with our Bear Innovation Center. Its super important for the future.”
“What’s great about the pandemic was that it created an opportunity for us to expand telehealth and digital health and so now we are getting now data that we would normally get in the healthcare arena but also at home. So … we are able to get all types of data and that creates enhanced data lakes which all of our university partners love because it gives us an opportunity to do more research. But we are using those data lakes to actually feed into our AI technology to really help us with disease progression and actually improving the way we diagnose and treat various diseases. I think we are going to see that more and more within our state.”
“We are very fortunate to be in a city that is very supportive of biosciences and AI that allow us to bring some innovations into the state…it’s a big part of what we do today but it’s going to continue. The pandemic has forever changed the way we do business for sure. “
About Gabrielle Finley-Hazle: Gabrielle Finley-Hazle is the President and chief executive officer of Dignity Health Arizona Central and West Valley Market, a flagship market of CommonSpirit Health, the largest nonprofit health system in the United States. With 20 years of experience in the health care sector, she has made notable achievements in creating mission-driven, high-performance cultures to consistently hit stretch goals; manage through crises; and develop focused growth strategies with measurable outcomes.
