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May 1, 2025
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Video:
In this episode of the Ƶ Podcast, Dr. Joshua Liu, Co-founder & CEO at Ƶ, and marketing colleague, Alan Sardana, chat with Ms. Meherazade Sumariwalla, MHA, Director of Customer Success at Ƶ, about how a client reduced cardiac readmissions by 45% with Ƶ. See the full show notes below for details.
Guest(s): Ms. Meherazade Sumariwalla MHA, Director of Customer Success at Ƶ
Dr. Joshua Liu (), Co-founder & CEO at Ƶ
Episode 20 – Show notes:
[0:00] Q: If you could have a gigantic billboard anywhere, with anything on it, what would it say and why?
A: Vote!
[00:41] Introducing Ms. Meherazade Sumariwalla, MHA, Director of Customer Success at Ƶ, and her clients’ success in using digital patient engagement for cardiac care;
[02:13]Introducing St Francis Hospital, part of the Catholic Health Services of LongIsland (CHSLI), a 300-bed high volume center and leader in cardiac care;
[02:45] WhySt. Francis Hospital’s President, Dr. Charles Lucore, advocated for Ƶwhen he joined St. Francis Hospital because of his previous positive experiences;
[02:55] How Ƶ is the standard of care for Cardiac surgery and TAVR, and how it helped reduce open-heart case readmission rates by 45% in just 7 months;
[04:16] How the daily health check helps patients be more mindful by capturing daily patient symptoms at home, such as blood pressure, signs of dehydration, and wound images;
[05:31] How St. Francis Hospital providers can monitor patient responses to the health check in real-time and receive alerts for patients falling off-track, and how the platform will automatically instruct patients on who to contact if the survey was completed outside standard business hours, thus debunking the misconception that providers receive alerts 24/7;
[07:41] WhySt. Francis Hospital integrated Ƶ with Epic and MyChart from the beginningto improve patient and provider accessibility and engagement;
[12:20] Ms.Sumariwalla shares initial implementation challenges such as a kickoff meetingthat had too many attendees, and how Ƶ solved these challenges;
[14:23] HowSt. Francis Hospital achieves a 96% patient adoption rate with their 60-90 yearold population by making the platform accessible, dedicating time to explainthe program to patients, and by implementing an opt-out strategy as opposed toopt-in;
[20:06] HowƵ adapts to support both elective and emergent Cardiac cases and how Ƶpatients benefit at every stage of the journey (e.g. Pre-op optimization andPost-op symptom management);
[23:08] HowƵ supports St. Francis Hospital’s Enhanced Recovery After Surgery(ERAS) program by reminding patients to follow the ERAS protocols, trackingcompliance, and collecting ERAS-related Patient-Reported Outcomes (PROs);
[25:18] How St. Francis Hospital providers use Ƶ in their day-to-day workflow and how spending more time explaining Ƶ to patients leads to a significant decrease in time spent on patient complications downstream such as readmission;
[28:09] Whypatients say Ƶ is even more useful during the pandemic because itanswers their questions remotely and reduces the number of clinic visitsnecessary;
[30:41] HowƵ also reduces the number of virtual visits needed by the patientbecause providers get insights into a patient’s recovery via the automatedhealth checks;
[33:09] HowSt. Francis Hospital’s Cardiac program reduced readmissions by 45% in 7 months;
[36:02] Lightning Round / Fast 5 Questions:
Q: What is something you believe that others inhealthcare might find insane?
A: I am a fan of the idea of eating whatever you want!
Q: How has a failure / apparent failure set you up for later success? Do you have a favorite failure of yours?
A: Many years ago, I was at the New Orleans Jazz festival and missed myflight home because I forgot about the time zone difference, haven’t made that mistakeagain.
Q: Would you rather have invisibility or superstrength?
A: Invisibility!
Q: What is your favorite movie?
A: I enjoy “Life is beautiful” (1997 film starring Roberto Benigni) and alsoa variety of dance movies!
Q: If you could have a gigantic billboard,anywhere, to get a message out to millions of people, what would it be and why?
A: Vote!
