Healthcare Tech Outlook: Specials Magazine

Over the last 18 months, my team has grown a lot—in number, in functions, in skills, in experience. At the start of 2022, we supported three areas: Operational and Clinical Analytics for population health, Value Contract Analytics and support, and EHR population health configuration (Epic Healthy Planet and Compass Rose). Today, we have added a behavioral health informaticist, a small project management team, two health equity/disparities data experts, a policy expert, a department Admin, and several contractors supporting key strategic areas. We promoted new managers, added new functional responsibilities, and embarked on massive projects. One of the challenges my leadership discussed at the beginning of this expansion cycle was how to foster a sense of “team-ness” across the group and develop cross-functional awareness and (when appropriate) expertise. Essentially, how could we grow and still be “us”? Here are some of the approaches we implemented to make this happen:

With mental health taking center stage in public health conversations, the demand for accessible, high-quality behavioral health solutions is rapidly growing. Hospitals and health systems recognize the need to integrate behavioral health into their continuum of care, not just to respond but to lead. But many lack the expertise and infrastructure to do it effectively. Horizon Health, a pioneer with more than four decades in behavioral health solutions, bridges this gap. Leading in the field has allowed them to refine their toolkit, develop proprietary systems and build a team with the knowledge needed to empower hospitals to launch, expand and sustain effective programs. Their expert focus on behavioral health allows them to understand the field with a precision that few can match. “What makes you an expert is not just what you know—it’s how long you have been doing the work. Our team brings deep experience, built over many years of focused effort in this field. We have a longstanding reputation for excellence,” says Jennifer Facteau, CEO. A performance-driven and passionate leader, Facteau is focused on improving lives through optimizing health system performance. Under her guidance, Horizon Health follows a comprehensive and proven approach to behavioral health solutions rooted in deep expertise across five core domains: clinical excellence, operational management, financial analysis, staffing solutions and data analytics. By integrating these disciplines, hospitals can optimize or establish new behavioral health units utilizing best practices for diverse populations and value-based care. Horizon Health’s long-term partnerships speak for themselves. Hospitals trust their expert teams to fully manage and staff their behavioral health units or to train their leadership team and staff to provide their patients with excellence in care to meet the needs of their communities. Horizon Health also provides consulting solutions which are projectbased relationships that provide strategic guidance, operational insights, and market intelligence that will help partners optimize their performance. Delivering Operational Impact in Behavioral Health Care Horizon Health’s strong operational management enables efficient and scalable delivery of behavioral health services through streamlined workflows, staff training, and technology-driven coordination. Setting them apart is their ability to operate as a seamless extension of their partner hospitals, rather than functioning as an outside consultant, they collaborate closely with each organization, aligning with their mission, teams, and community goals..

Nephrolytics is redefining kidney care with a powerful point-of-care AI solution that empowers nephrologists and care teams to engage with clinical data more efficiently, improving workflow and elevating care quality at the bedside. Nephrolytics is a category-defining platform called Saya™ — the first-of-its-kind AiPOC: Agentic Infrastructure at Point of Care. While others build piecemeal features around static EMRs, Saya™ is purpose-built to transform how care is delivered at the moment it matters most. Point of care is where over 90 percent of medical decisions are made, but it’s also where clinicians face the greatest burden from fragmented systems, documentation overload, and lack of real-time insights. Saya™ acts as an intelligent operating layer on top of the EMR, delivering actionable, domain-specific support that enhances clinical judgment, streamlines workflows, and improves efficiency and outcomes. This isn’t just automation—its augmentation, and it represents a fundamental rethinking of the EMR paradigm. Built by practicing nephrologists, Nephrolytics’ flagship platform, Saya™, is tailored to the real-world demands of kidney disease management. Purpose-built for the specialty, Saya™ automates three of the most time-consuming clinical tasks, including data aggregation, integration, and documentation, which can consume up to 75 percent of a clinician’s time. By streamlining these processes, Saya™ enables clinicians to focus more on patient care, reducing administrative burden and helping prevent burnout. The need for such a solution is particularly urgent in nephrology, where clinician shortages are growing. Nearly 40 percent of nephrology fellowship positions go unfilled, even as the number of patients with chronic kidney disease continues to climb. Nephrolytics focuses on this field not only due to its domain expertise but because of nephrology’s inherently complex and data-intensive nature. Saya™ helps bridge the gap between rising care demands and a shrinking workforce. “While others offer piecemeal tools like scribes or analytics, we are the only full-stack AI or agentic solution dedicated to kidney disease care, built specifically for the nephrology workflow,” says Dr. Fahim Rahim, MD, MBA, nephrologist, founder and CEO of Nephrolytics..