Exclusive Interview of Unmesh Srivastava: CTO of P3 Health Partners
Unmesh Srivastava is CTO of P3 Health Partners. In this interview, we learn about his journey.
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Tell us a bit about yourself. How was your journey from India to the US?
I am born and raised in India and came to the US to pursue a master's degree in engineering in 2008. In a family where everyone is in the field of medicine, I was determined to be the black sheep, so I chose engineering and technology. I guess the plan didn't work out that well, and my destiny of serving people through technology enablement of healthcare pulled me back to where I belonged in the first place.
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What do you do at P3 Health Partners? What are the challenges you are trying to solve?
I am serving as the CTO of P3 Health Partners. At P3, we are focused on improving the lives of people and the communities we serve, which at this point is approx. 85K patient. My role here is to leverage technology to drive actionable and sustainable results that enhance the patients' and providers' care delivery experience.
I live by the adage of "learn fast, learn cheap, and learn often." I firmly believe that challenges come with every territory you venture into."
We are focused on achieving the quadruple goal. Everything we do is geared towards reducing the overall cost of care while improving the quality of care and providing a top-notch care delivery experience for both the patients and the clinicians.
When times get tough, what would you say motivates you to keep going? To not hit the snooze button and to keep fighting for your goals.
When time gets tough, I go back to the basics of why we are doing what we are doing, and it frees my mind from all unwanted thoughts. Fixing healthcare is not easy, and the smallest of my and my teams' actions directly impact peoples' lives. This very thought clears all the doubts and burnouts.
I also like spending time with my family. They are my support system and keep me always motivated. These activities help me not hit the snooze button and also keep marching towards my end goals.
What five tools does every CTO in the Healthcare industry needs to use to be as productive as you are.
If I had to list my top 5 choices that I use personally, it would be -
Diagrams ( Lucid chart/Visio)
Jira for product management
Prezi for presentations
Slack for collaboration
Podcasts to keep me grounded
These Apps have been a game-changer for me. I have been super productive, mindful of my working hours, prioritizing work, and increasing the overall productivity of my day.
How does your daily work look like a CTO of a Healthcare Company?
"Culture eats strategy for lunch," and my job as the servant leader is to build the best culture with great people, all working towards one mission. My day today's work is to simply help remove impediments, draft strategy and execution plans, and ensure that my team has everything they need to drive the execution at the grassroots level.
Also, communication and expectation level set at all levels in the organization is critical in all that I do.
Who inspires you the most? What are the key takeaways from them?
My mother inspires me the most. She is an MD, and I have seen her serve people during my formation years.
Some of her traits that I try to live by are:
Compassion towards people
Discipline in life and work
Perseverance to keep pushing through tough times
If I can be half as good as her, I will consider myself successful.
Many believe that the Healthcare system is broken. Do you think the use of Technology can Revolutionize our Healthcare?
Absolutely! Technology is the only way we can make convert sick care to healthcare. I feel that advances in digital healthcare technologies, such as the internet of medical things, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, blockchain, are altering the future of healthcare and will help make healthcare more personalized and accessible.
We must keep up with current changes and developments in healthcare to influence technology rather than looking the other way round. Working hand-in-hand with technology is the future of healthcare, and healthcare workers must embrace innovative technologies to stay relevant in the coming years.
What is your opinion about the use of Blockchain in Healthcare?
Blockchain has been commended in the healthcare industry to protect the confidentiality of sensitive data and allow authorized access to electronic health records. Furthermore, with this technology in place, tampering with data or falsifying records is nearly impossible.
Blockchain if implemented right, can help us impact some of the most challenging problems of democratizing healthcare data by giving its control back to the patients' and increasing price transparency across the healthcare ecosystem.
What are the three best pieces of advice that you would give to anyone starting in a tech career role?
If I had to give three pieces of advice to anyone starting a business, it would be - staying grateful, being patient, and prioritization obsession
Staying grateful will keep you going. Each day you make progress. Whether you see it or not, you are always one step ahead of where you used to be yesterday. Realize this feeling and be grateful for every passing day. This will help you be effective and overcome any obstacle that comes your way.
When I say be patient, I want you to understand that great things take time. If you're going to build something unique, you need to put your 100% into it. This takes time, effort, and most importantly, you have to be patient. Nothing can be built overnight, and expecting such outcomes is nothing but unrealistic.
Last but not least, prioritization of what's essential is a must. It's your business, and you are the decision-maker here. You will have a thousand things always coming at you, and in constraints of time and budget, you will have to find the tasks and actions you go after. I mostly use the 80/20 rule in this scenario.
