In the words of Ardent Chief Consumer Officer Reed Smith, what our industry refers to as “digital health” today will be “healthcare” in a few years. We’re at the intersection of healthcare and technology, adopting a high-tech, high-touch approach to caring for people throughout their health journeys. And many of you have been involved with innovation pilots from remote patient monitoring to virtual nursing, for example. What you are learning as we further integrate technology and AI-driven data into our processes will lead to improved patient care and better support our caregivers. Thank you for being trailblazers within Ardent!

This week, I joined other leaders in our space, including Amazon, at the Digital Health Transformation Summit in Chicago. Along with Mike Roberts, chief technology officer at VillageMD, and Paul Casey, MD, chief medical officer at Rush University Medical Center, I spoke about the importance of leaders embracing technology focused on the consumer at the center of everything. Our industry has been historically slow to change, but we can no longer afford to do so – for the health of the communities we serve, and the administrative strain placed on caregivers today. 

To Tonya Kirkpatrick, executive assistant for UT East Texas EMS/Air 1, it didn’t seem right that a little girl was sitting alone at her son’s baseball game. When Tonya asked her why, the girl said, “I’m a foster kid, I’m not allowed to play.” As a mother of two young boys at the time, Tonya knew she had to make a difference and decided to become a foster parent. 
 

That was 20 years ago. In that time, Tonya and her husband fostered 20 children, including a nearly two-year-old girl named Shyann. In honor of National Foster Care Month and Shyann’s high school graduation, Tonya shared her story as a reminder of the powerful impact we can have on others’ lives – another way of fulfilling our Purpose. Thank you, Tonya and congratulations to Shyann!
 

Having begun my career as an EMT, I have a personal appreciation for those who answer the call under all circumstances. We celebrate EMS Week across our markets – recognizing our own Ardent team members and EMS professionals in the communities we serve. Thank you for the countless lives you impact by being the first to respond and getting people the emergency care they need quickly. 
 

This Memorial Day, I encourage you to take some time to remember the men and women who lost their lives protecting our freedom. In next month’s Purpose Matters, team members share tributes of family members and friends who died serving our country, including Specialist Carter Gamble with the U.S. Army – a friend of Portneuf Medical Center’s Julia Sanders. If you would like to share, please click here.