Leaders and Influencers: An Interview with Sanaz Cordes

In our continuing series on Leaders and Influencers, we talk with Dr. Sanaz Cordes, COO of healthfinch, a software company that helps physicians and their staff automate, delegate, and simplify routine inbox tasks.

Tell us about healthfinch.

Our customers are navigating the challenges of an ever-changing healthcare landscape. healthfinch is the industry leader in Care Redesign Applications that integrate seamlessly with the EMR. Our applications automate what can be automated, delegate what can be delegated, and simplify the rest. The healthfinch Nest of Solutions improves the quality and efficiency of care by using technology to empower the clinical team to work to the top of their license.

As the number of PCPs decrease and patients getting access to healthcare continues to increase, physicians are expected to care for a larger panel of patients. More and more health systems are trying to solve the problem of delivering high-quality patient care to larger populations with fewer physician resources. The team at healthfinch believes that this problem must be solved using technology that can safely automate and delegate the routine, repeatable tasks that fill a physician’s day.

Our first product, Swoop™, applies evidence-based algorithms to prescription refill requests, which typically consume at least 30 minutes of physician time per day. Using a combination of clinical protocols, best practice workflow algorithms, and technology, the healthfinch Refill solution automates and delegates the refill process, empowering the rest of the clinical team to work at the top of its license. With over 1,500 provider users, Swoop has processed over 1.5 million refills, saving over 100,000 hours of provider time. Swoop’s Care Gap Batching feature has also saved patients from missing over 25% of unrelated care requirements such as overdue labs, office visits, and procedures. The Care Gap Batching feature runs the patients entire active medication list through protocol any time a single mediation refill is requested, thus proactively catching outstanding care requirements and driving adherence to care plan.

Many of today’s clinical tools live in separate platforms outside of the EMR. Swoop does just the opposite: it is embedded into the EpicCare In Basket and does not have a separate User Interface. Swoop requires no extra clicks and minimal training since it enhances organizational efficiency while using the EMR’s existing functionality.

What’s the single most important change you’d like to see to encourage more innovation and entrepreneurship in our community?

With Epic having more than 50% of the health system market, I am happy to see they are becoming more and more receptive to opening up standard and custom interfaces for vendors to interact with to deliver innovations that improve the quality and efficiency of care for our mutual patients. A lot of health IT entrepreneurs, including our co-founders, chose Madison because of the proximity to Epic. Epic is a magnificent electronic medical record, and the ability to interact with it to bring plug and play technology to Epic customers is definitely a competitive advantage for our community.

What book do you think every aspiring entrepreneur should read and why?

Delivering Happiness by Tony Hseih. As a former Las Vegas resident, I witnessed what a “born entrepreneur” can do for a community—both inside and outside the corporate walls. To bring that type of cultural transformation to an industry, as well as share it with a community and transforming the economy of a recession-bruised city, is inspiring. I’m such a fan of his.

What do you find most interesting and rewarding in your position as COO at healthfinch?

I have spent seventeen years in healthcare as a provider, an administrator, a big-corporate entity executive, and a consumer. I feel like I’ve had a lot of opportunity to see the “waste” in process and workflow. An entrepreneur at heart (I co-own some restaurants in Los Angeles and did some real estate investments with my ex-husband), nothing frustrated me more than when an opportunity was lost because it was too outside of the big corporate box. Or when a process couldn’t be improved because it was too radical from the status quo of the health system. I longed for a world where I could bring  “best practice” to a group of equally passionate individuals who were willing to think outside of the box. I love coming to work every day and knowing, 100%, that I will not be the smartest person in the room. It’s a privilege to work with such bright, talented young people. I’m grateful that I can bring in my years of sales and corporate experience to build a “dream team” approach to inside sales, outside sales, marketing, content, and strategy. Pairing that with a product and engineering team that rivals the best in the world, I look forward to coming to work every day!

Visit Fine Point Consulting for more information about the great tools and services we use to help organizations like healthfinch succeed.

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