Hyderabad emerges as key tech hub for Providence Health

Providence Health & Services, the 170-year-old not-for-profit US based healthcare company that manages 51 hospitals and 1,000 clinics, has sharpened its focus on software technology for solutions that provide better outcomes for employees as well as caregivers and patients.

Helping Providence in this endeavour is its global technology centre (GCC) in Hyderabad. Established in 2020, the centre has become a central hub for critical functions, including cloud, cybersecurity, clinical applications and digital solutions, data solutions, data and advanced analytics, product development, process automation, digital operations and enterprise services.

The GCC centre employs over 1,500 people and is a key pillar for Providence to deploy the digital platforms and is developing new solutions in the areas of value-based care, predictive analytics, genomics, clinical research and sustainability.

Murali Krishna, Chief Global Officer and Head, Providence India said the Hyderabad centre has the expertise in technology, operations and healthcare domain knowledge giving it a strong differentiation and further added,

“We are committed to invest further here,” he said in an interview with Enterprise Story.

Edited excerpts

Enterprise Story (ES): How would you describe the role of Providence India?

Murali Krishna (MK): We are playing an important part in the transformation of Providence and also for the larger US health systems.

We are basically building competencies and centers of excellence around data, AI, Ml, cloud, Azure. The intent is really to bring technology and innovation to transform care.

Our goal is to really do transformative work in healthcare, technology and set new standards as we define new models of care and care delivery. We also play an important part in digitally enabling our health system.

We also address two or three important aspects that the US healthcare is struggling with today. One is workforce shortage. The second is workforce burnout, when you bring technology to healthcare and digitise the ecosystem, you are also talking about helping reduce administrative burden, which in turn helps with workforce burnout. We are also focused on collaborations and partnerships with other like-minded health systems.

We are elevating experiences for our patients and caregivers. Most importantly, we are enhancing the quality and value-based care.

ES: How do you see the role of technology in healthcare?

MK: As an innovation hub we are primarily focused on digital technologies and skill sets. We are talking about cloud, cyber security, clinical engineering, digital solutions, data analytics, product development, etc.

Now there is a second aspect to it, which is really about bringing in GenAI, machine learning, big data etc. We are building proof of concepts, building prototypes, state of art products and services that actually allow us to experiment in house first before we go out there and do research in the clinical space or value-based care, or even things like predictive scheduling, which is a very important aspect in healthcare that leverages data and AI.

We are about embracing the cutting-edge potential of AI to reimagine the way we deliver care. We are talking about easing our way for our clinicians and the frontline caregivers and giving patients, anytime, anywhere, access to highly personalised care. It is about making healthcare better every day.

Now with regard to AI, we are using it very thoughtfully which is really about improving effectiveness, efficiency and predictability. In our case, improving quality care, system performances. So enhancing experience, reducing administrative burden, and elevating health system efficiencies and performance is where I would say AI will continue to play an important part in healthcare as well.

ES: How is Providence India attracting talent?

MK: We are offering our talent to not only build their healthcare domain expertise but also work with a majority of health systems to solve healthcare problems. They also work very closely on cutting edge technologies with our physicians and clinicians together to create something that is more meaningful and that is more fulfilling in some way as we come up with newer models of care or care delivery.

Even with the GenZ talent, they are equally excited about doing something new and different than following the traditional career path. When you go to campuses, people are keen to do something new, more purposeful, and that's where we come into play.

Even those talent who have been in GCCs for over five to 10 years of foreign companies, were really looking at opportunities to bring together their skill sets and their experiences to build out. There is nothing like bringing together experiences and your skill sets to solve real world challenges.

ES: How do you see the journey of Providence in India?

MK: We were very clear about what we are going to do here. Ours was not typically set up to do shared services or transition work. This clarity allowed us to really establish strong foundations.

The second part is the culture we have created where we are very keen to learn from those around us. Hyderabad has a large presence of pharmaceutical companies, GCCs, technology companies etc. So we spent a lot of time learning from the past, those who've been here for two, three decades, and what they did well, what they didn't do well.

Thirdly, we really have a purpose to bring all that experience, skill sets to build something new. We are here to leverage technology assets, talent pools to be the transformation and innovation hub.

ES: How is Providence India contributing to India’s technology ecosystem?

MK: We have seen a couple of pharma companies visit us to understand how we've set it up, the digital practices in healthcare, our cybersecurity setup, working on data, bringing in technology into healthcare.

We are sharing knowledge with other health systems and leading from the front on building new partnerships and collaborations with peers to solve real world problems in healthcare.

ES: What are the future plans of Providence India?

MK: We are looking at doubling our headcount in the next few years. We are also getting into healthcare consulting services to advance the digital agenda through partnerships with other health systems.

Our larger vision is to be the hub of US healthcare, where we come together to solve real world problems and leverage the power of disruptive technologies.