Innovations Profile Series: Sonja O'Malley, MBA, PMP, Senior Director and Domain Lead, Digital Health

In our latest Innovations Profile feature, Sonja O'Malley, MBA, PMP, Senior Director and Domain Lead, Digital Health, at Cleveland Clinic Innovations, discusses her role in digital health and innovation, perspectives on AI and its future impact, sources of inspiration, and advice for aspiring inventors and more. Sonja has recently been named one of the 141+ women in health IT to know in 2024 by Becker's Healthcare!

Q: What brought you to Cleveland Clinic, and how long have you been with the organization?

A: I’ve been at Cleveland Clinic for 12 years. I started my career in the clinical laboratory at University Hospital Health System and grew up in Cleveland. After working in the clinical laboratory, I was headed to either medical school or business school. Ultimately, I decided to go to business school, but even after I started working at Accenture for some years, I went back and took the MCAT. I had the ‘clinical bug to directly serve patients’. To go to medical school, I had to go back and take a physics class. My dad and I are pretty competitive, so we both took the evening physics class. We finished together, top of the class, although he did beat me out – my dad was number one in the class. Nonetheless, I decided to stay on the business track versus going back to medical school.

Cleveland Clinic has always been an icon. I was drawn to Cleveland Clinic because it puts patients first and holds quality to a high standard. Cleveland Clinic Innovations was an attractive opportunity to serve patients and caregivers in that I was able to combine my clinical background with business experience from Accenture’s Healthcare Consulting practice, payer, and entrepreneur at a couple of different startups. Our organization provides an environment close to the delivery of patient care, and that accelerates scientific discovery from bench to bedside.

Q: What does a typical day look like for you?

A: Being the Senior Director and Digital Health Domain Lead, the average day is very exciting and diverse. It's a constellation of intense learning, rounding with caregivers on what challenges they're trying to solve, and spending time with them firsthand. Additionally, I find the best go-to-market path to advance technologies and scientific discoveries, so we reach and impact patients and caregivers worldwide. Some days, it's finding an industry partner to license technology, and other days, it's working with our team to start a company around that technology.

Digital health is interesting in the sense that we get the opportunity to work with all caregivers across the organization because digital touches everything we do. As our CEO Dr. Tomislav Mihaljevic has said, the biggest difference between an average and an exceptional hospital will be their digital capabilities.

Q: What are you excited about in the realm of digital health right now or in the near future?

A: I am cautiously optimistic about artificial intelligence and generative AI. I think there is significant opportunity with AI as a team member. I think AI is more of an enabling technology that allows us to work at a higher performance level. Our organization is exploring these opportunities methodically, ethically, and safely, and testing them in risk-managed pilots. I respect that. For example, testing out solutions that support our caregivers in their work, such as in a non-clinical function before we would apply them in a patient-facing setting. AI as an enabling technology touches many things that we do in clinical and non-clinical settings.

Q: How can AI impact patient care and make a difference for caregivers?

A: Our digital strategy includes the use of AI in several different areas – such as ambient listening in the room to support clinical documentation and automated coding. AI can take notes during the patient visit so that the physician can focus more on the patient. We have a lot of work to do with gathering and searching for information, and AI can assist us with those kinds of tasks - - and it is fairly good at that right now. Then, we can spend our time on the critical thinking and creative part of the equation.

We are actively working to reduce the administrative burden of delivering healthcare services. A lot of attention units and caregivers are needed to operate the clinical and non-clinical delivery engine. Therefore, it is important that we assist our coders by gathering information on what occurred during the inpatient or outpatient stay so that they can focus their time on the critical thinking and follow-up related to quality documentation supporting accurate billing.

Another project we are working on is enhancing the clinical monitoring of critical and non-critical patients. We are getting real-time information about the status of a group of patients, to improve alertness and enable proactive, timely interventions when a patient’s condition changes. This enhances patient care and saves lives by making sure the patients with the most urgent needs are proactively detected and treated, balancing the number of clinicians and patients, while keeping the quality-of-care high.

Q: What first made you interested in working within Innovations?

A: We're all patients or caregivers for our family members. Healthcare impacts us directly every day. You could take the position of watching what happens or step into the ring of fire and influence what happens. Innovation is an opportunity to directly influence and change how healthcare is delivered, both on the clinical or non-clinical side. I chose to step into the ring of fire. Innovation is a rewarding way to have an impact and create positive change instead of being a passive observer.

Q: How has Innovations changed since you have been at Cleveland Clinic?

A: We're practicing our own discipline because we've gone through many iterations ourselves as a department over the years. In a positive way, we're looking at different ways to streamline and advance technologies. When you think about it, that's the essence of innovation - looking at optimal ways to do things differently. By practicing our own discipline, we can better serve our patients and caregivers to get these technologies to market faster.

Whether it's product development, new company formation, or business development - everyone can focus on their domain or area of expertise to better serve our innovators under our current business model. Our innovators have devoted many hours obsessively to finding a solution for whatever the problem is. I've been an entrepreneur. I used to get up at 3:00 a.m., and continuously wonder “How do I improve? How do I modify this? That validation test failed, why.” We have a process now to better serve innovators through each step of the inventor journey. Our Engagement Partners scout for innovative projects, Assessment scours the market for trends and potential partners, Technology Development protects the intellectual property and drives product development, Business Development team identifies the optimal go-to-market path and negotiates agreements, and the NewCo team starts Cleveland Clinic spin-off companies and manages associated funding. Our teams are here to guide innovators with our deep expertise at each step in the Innovations process.

Q: Are there any publications or people that you follow in the digital space that you recommend or that you find insightful?

A: There are several sources I follow. Forbes puts out Term Sheet which is a solid summary of not only healthcare but also of emerging technologies and deals that are in the works. CB Insights has pithy reviews, and Rock Health is a good one too. I also like some of the Venture Capital blogs that exist like A16Z and SignalFire. It is also noteworthy that these firms are promoting women on these channels and providing inspiration and direct insights into what's happening in our industry.

I also have non-work-related inspiration. I love to travel because getting outside of our day-to-day environment and comfort zone to experience other cultures is important. I recently traveled to South America and spent time with healthcare leaders in the region. Challenges are nuanced, but the leaders I spoke with are dealing with many of the same issues that we do… interoperability, how to exchange patient data, and access to care. We can learn from each other!

Q: What advice would you give someone interested in inventing but may be intimidated by the process?

A: You can watch from the sidelines or actively pursue changing healthcare for the better. Innovations is here to advocate for innovators and spend time deeply understanding what the problem is and how to solve it. That upfront time is where expertise as an innovator is most needed and then we partner on how to do the rest. To advance innovation, we need a multidisciplinary team that has diverse skills and viewpoints combined with a passionate innovator leading the way.

There's a show on Netflix called Formula 1: Drive to Survive, and it’s one of my favorite shows to binge-watch. Formula 1 racing and our work have many similarities, as we are both a team of teams. Formula 1 is a sport where success depends on teamwork. You must be very deliberate, meticulous, and precise. Mistakes can be fatal. The way that the Formula 1 industry measures and tracks data is analogous to how we monitor patients’ health. Formula 1: Drive to Survive is a good analogy for our industry, as those teams collaborate to utilize everyone's skills to achieve successful outcomes.