The finalists for WashingtonExec’s 2023 Pinnacle Awards were announced Sept. 25, and we’ll be highlighting some of them until the event takes place live, in-person Nov. 16.
Next is Ben Cushing, chief architect of health & life sciences at Red Hat, and a finalist for Healthcare Exec of the Year, Public Company category. Here, he shares key accomplishments, focus areas and his best career advice.
What key achievements did you have in 2023?
In 2023, the Red Hat team partnered with Guidehouse to participate in The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Mission Daybreak Challenge. Organizations were tasked with coming up with innovative ways to address the issue of Veteran suicide. Our team focused on data-driven identification of veterans at risk for suicide and placed third overall in the challenge.
I served as the strategy and technology leader of Team Guidehouse and led the development of a solution that combined the VA’s risk model with a Red Hat AI technology on a Guidehouse platform for analyzing patient, demographic, and socioeconomic data, delivering insights for providers to leverage in care for at-risk veterans.
The solution expands past suicide prevention. As the largest U.S. healthcare system, the VA could implement the AI solution to create risk scores for any health issue: heart disease, stroke, or diabetes for thousands of patients. Automation of clinical care pathways at the VA and other healthcare facilities – for suicide and other disease prevention – can have a profound impact on healthcare best practices nationwide.
What are your primary focus areas going forward, and why are those so important to the future of the nation?
I am passionate about healthcare automation: applying technology to automate clinical care pathways – or in other words, applying technology to optimize efficiencies, reduce costs, and achieve better health outcomes. Many healthcare processes are manual, including scheduling appointments and follow-ups, defining a treatment plan, and tracking the stages of a clinical care protocol. The expansion of AI automation in healthcare will reduce the burden on healthcare professionals, who are then able to spend more time focused on patients.
Healthcare automation directly impacts the quality and duration of people’s lives. In our current healthcare system, people must advocate for themselves and be their own health champions. Healthcare automation can improve the quality and consistency of healthcare patients receive, as well as reduce the amount of time they must wait to receive it.
Mission Daybreak is a direct example of how healthcare automation can modernize care processes and achieve positive outcomes for patients sooner.
What’s your best career advice for those who want to follow in your footsteps?
Be a Kermit the Frog. Have a creative vision and no ego, and recognize the talents of those around you.