Conversations with Dez

I had the pleasure of catching up with both Zee Hussain, Senior Vice President of Global Business, across Finance, Healthcare, Sports & Entertainment and Industry Solutions at AT&T Business and Patrick Hale Executive Vice President & Chief Information Officer at VITAS Healthcare, to talk about the launch of the AT&T and VITAS Healthcare Virtual Reality Study for Hospice Patients. Zee is responsible for leading the enterprise sales teams focused on bringing AT&T products, services and industry specific sales plays to customers in Finance and Healthcare, and in all other industries headquartered in the eastern U.S. Patrick oversees all aspects of large-scale IT operations for Vitas Healthcare, and has over two decades of experience spanning multiple business verticals, including healthcare, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, financial services, retail and government. AT&T and VITAS Healthcare, the nation’s leading provider of end-of-life care, have launched a study that intends to combine 5G with virtual reality/augmented reality (VR/AR) to test if it can help reduce chronic pain and anxiety for certain hospice patients. The study aims to assess a potential alternative therapy that is easier for caregivers to implement at a time and place that makes the patient most comfortable during this most difficult time. In this conversation we start with Zee let’s start with Zee Hussain giving us an update on how new & emerging technologies like 5G are opening up across the likes of the Financial Services Industry ( FSI ), Sports & Entertainment. We also discuss key topics around how specifically at Healthcare, and where are the biggest Digital & Mobile Transformation opportunities right now within the Healthcare industry. Patrick Hale also provides us, from his point of view as a CIO, what impact technology has had within VITAS over the last 5 years, in particular with patience experience. We're treated to some great insights from Zee around what lead to the opportunity for this collaboration, and what the actual VR Trial, it’s business & technical aims / goals etc were from the outset. Also shared, by Patric, is how the collaboration with AT&T Business came about - i.e. were VITAS already looking into VR technology prior to this collaboration with AT&T, what brought this 'match made in Heaven' about?". With his very unique position in that he literally live with his finger on the pulse every day around this space, Zee shares his views on where he sees the future of Digital Health evolving from a Service Providers point of view. I also ask Patrick what he sees as the larger potential for 5G at VITAS or in healthcare in general - for example how 5G will change the way clinicians treat patients - and does he envision 5G enabling a more mobile workforce. We wrap up with medium to long term views from my guests, regarding their views on upcoming trends, challenges, opportunities, key topics organisations should be talking about now from their Board rooms at strategy level all they way down to day to day operations, key things businesses should be actioning now, i.e. “orgs should be gearing up to have a 5G Strategy in place and be running PoC’s in 2020 and much more.