Behind Houston Methodist's 3-Year Road Plan for Healthcare Transformation

Roberta Schwartz, the health system's EVP and Chief Innovation Officer, identifies 10 key technologies and strategies that will push the industry forward.

Houston Methodist has developed an aggressive strategy to address healthcare technology and innovation over the next three years.

Roberta Schwartz, the health system's EVP and Chief Innovation Officer, says the plan is rooted in understanding which new technologies and programs will resonate most with clinicians and patients.

"Where we're concentrating on is where we think the world is moving to, [so we're] kind of skating to that puck," she says. "But in order to skate to the puck, you have to guess at where the puck is going. So we've spent time over the last six months shaping 10 bets about where we think [the industry is moving]. We did this about four years ago and that helped us enable our hospital of the future, Cypress Hospital, where we put all of this functionality."

Cypress Hospital, which opened this past March, is the latest example in a long list of innovative ideas for Houston Methodist, one of the top health systems in the country for understanding where healthcare is going. It's all part of what Schwartz calls the "virtual highway," an interconnected platform that enables consumers to access care where and when needed.

But while the health system is touting its tech advancements, Schwartz notes that a lot has to happen behind the scenes before that technology makes it to prime time.

"I always tell people that tech is 25% of the problem, but 75% is change management," she says. "We can't just add this technology and not do the change management that's necessary and expect to get out a better result. A lot of it requires doing things differently. Doing things differently is really, really hard."

That's why a lot of those projects need time to develop.

For example, Schwartz is querying her fellow innovation executives on how long it will take before the so-called hospital room of the future no longer needs computers. What's the outlook for in-room technology over the next three, five or 10 years?

The answer isn't clear. Schwartz says she's expecting it to happen sooner rather than later, and eyeing portable computers for now.

Roberta Schwartz, EVP and Chief Innovation Officer at Houston Methodist. Photo courtesy Houston Methodist.

"We're pushing ahead in a lot of things that would really benefit from a slowdown, to make sure they're being done right before you push them, especially into a hospital room," she says.

The 10-Point Plan

So where is Houston Methodist placing its bets? Here are the 10 areas of innovation:

Smart spaces. This ties into the development of smart devices and sensors, particularly in the hospital space but eventually in the home. Health systems are developing what many call the "hospital room of the future," with technology designed to unobtrusively monitor patient vitals and movement and give patients access to more resources, ranging from entertainment to education to a virtual link with their care team. This would also include AI-enabled cameras hat can monitor patients in their room, traffic flow in the ED, or OR procedures.

Connected virtual care. Telehealth has come a long way over the past decade, spurred in part by its use during the COVID pandemic. According to Schwartz, Houston Methodist has spent about five years developing its connected virtual care platform, which includes virtual ICU, virtual nursing, telemonitoring, telepharmacy, telemetry (RPM), telestroke, telemental health and virtual hospitalists.

Remote monitoring. Houston Methodist has been in the forefront in piloting wearables inside the hospital to track patient vitals. Expect that trend to continue – and to move outside the hospital setting – as remote patient monitoring (RPM) gains further value as a means of tracking patient health.

Care traffic control. This is one of the key elements to Houston Methodist's innovation strategy, says Schwartz. Much like an airport's air traffic control center, the health system is developing a foundation that channels care to where it's needed. That platform would also help guide consumer health choices.

"We believe that the next generation of technology will enable people to look at what's happening and be able to push and nudge care both at home and in the inpatient environment, so that we can push people to what they should be doing by that combination of what we have in our charts as well as any remote monitoring that we have," she says. "We're doing it a little bit on the inpatient environment, but we think that will broaden."

Smart chart. This area focuses on ambient AI, or voice-over-text. While it's being used now to transcribe the clinician encounter in ambulatory settings, Houston Methodist is one of many health systems working on integrating the technology into inpatient settings, especially for nurses.

Clinical intelligence. AI also holds great potential as a clinical decision support tool, giving clinicians access to more resources at the point of care to improve diagnoses and decision-making. Schwartz says Houston Methodist is working with a vendor to integrate AI in radiology, and has its sights set on pathology as well.

Smart concierge. Schwartz calls this "a digital-first, white glove method of doing things." In short, she says, Houston Methodist envisions a care platform that identifies and addresses a patient's specific care concerns, offering personalized resources and guidance.

Business modernization. Also known as the back end of the healthcare enterprise, this is where AI is making an impact now, with tools that improve revenue cycle operations and supply chain management, allowing healthcare facilities to run more efficiently. There's also a place here for the use of drones in the supply chain.

Next-gen marketing. Today's healthcare ecosystem is consumer-facing, and health systems and hospitals need to modernize their outreach to meet consumer demands and get in front of competitors, both traditional and non-traditional.

AI agents. Healthcare organizations across the country are experimenting with agentic AI, both in communication with consumers and as a data mining tool for clinicians. Schwartz says AI tools that can gather and sort data for clinical care have a bright future if they can reduce clinician workloads and provide the right information to doctors and nurses when they need it most.

Schwartz addresses the concerns that AI will take jobs by noting that the technology is revolutionary in how it can improve workflows. This means that traditional healthcare "jobs" may need to be redefined.

"We need to accept the fact that we will be doing different things," she says. "That means we need to train our people to do different things. That means we need to work with our folks a little bit differently. It doesn't mean we don't have jobs, but we will have different jobs."

As for those trends the health system isn't pursuing, Schwartz isn't bullish on the Hospital at Home movement. She feels the platform is too complex and costly, and sees more of a future in RPM and ambulatory care programs that aim to reduce length of stay by getting patients home a day or two earlier.

Asked what surprised her about the pace of innovation, Schwartz says she expected AI "to be further along" by now, and attributes the uncertainty to healthcare's natural aversion to change. The same could be said for virtual care, she says, which surged during the COVID pandemic but has slipped backwards since then.

"We could have basically forged new pathways and opened up access," Schwartz says. "But, you know, I have to also be patient and recognize sometimes things take longer than I want them to."