Rich Pierle (00:06):

Hello and welcome. I'm Rich Pierle and this is the Pier Digital Podcast. This show is for technology leaders who want to discuss important topics and issues of the day, from a technology perspective. Everything from digital transformation, business continuity planning for coronavirus, legacy infrastructure re-platforming, and much, much more. I'll be helping to guide your transformational journey, navigating through tough terrain while overcoming obstacles and reducing costs and mistakes. Whether you're a CEO, CIO, or just trying to plug into the digital landscape, you need proven strategies and someone who has been there and done that. You can learn more and stay up to date at pierdigital.com.

Speaker 2 (00:50):

Rich Pierle is CEO and managing partner at Pier Digital Advisory Solutions. A boutique consultancy that supports companies on their journey from legacy technologies and to business models, to the realization of a digital operating model. Rich shares insight from the perspective as former CIO and EVP, for Global Services at Becton Dickinson. Now a leading independent consultant, helping Fortune 500 leaders, take advantage of accelerating technology change, digitally transforming their organizations and culture. All opinions expressed by Rich Pierle and Pier Digital and podcast guests, are solely their own opinions.

Rich Pierle (01:38):

Hello, this is Rich Pierle and the Pier Digital podcast. Today's topic, Getting Back to Business: Reopening Your Business Safely During COVID-19. Before we get into the podcast, one of the things that we had talked about in some of the previous episodes, is a toolkit that we've been putting together. And one of the things that we're pretty excited about, and we're going to talk about it in the podcast, and then we're going to give you some links to go to. It is the whole timeline to reopening, and some of the key phases that we're going through. Some of these phases we've already been through, disruption, and then some of the phases I think we're in now. So, a lot of companies are triaging where they are, planning on where they're going to go and really this is leading up to, a full reset of what they're doing, and we believe it's going to turn into a fifth phase, which is transformation.

Rich Pierle (02:25):

I'm extremely excited today to have a special guest. It's Dr. Shakthi Kumar, founder and CEO of Beacon Health Sciences. This is a board certified medical practice that has been on the frontline of providing COVID-19 services. Including free care to over 800 first responders in various communities across the metropolitan New York and New Jersey area. I'm proud to call Dr. Kumar a friend. I've known him since I was at Becton Dickinson and he was my partner helping me through a lot of complex technology issues. He's a great guy. I'm excited to have him here. And with that, I'd like to turn it over to Dr. Shakthi to kind of talk a little bit about himself, his organization. And then we can do some Q & A. Shakthi?

Shakthi Kumar (03:10):

Thank you, Rich. Thank you very much. Good morning, everyone. It's really very exciting to be on the podcast. When Rich reached out that he was putting together a COVID-19 toolkit for business organizations, I was very thrilled to be part of this podcast and kind of share a little bit, from a provider perspective what we're seeing out there. A little bit about Beacon Health Sciences. We are a multi-specialty board-certified practice. We started off in the early 2019, that seems like a long time ago. And we provide personalized medicine care, multimodal care to our patients in New Jersey and the surrounding tri-state areas. And over the last few months with the onset of the pandemic, we have been trusted to the midst of helping our communities deal with this crisis. And most and foremost, from all of us here at Beacon Health Sciences, our hearts and minds and prayers to all of those that have been impacted by this event.

Shakthi Kumar (04:09):

And so we started off with providing our services, various healthcare facilities. We've conducted screenings, testing, as well as feed care to many communities. And now we are extending the same to organizations, and that's how this podcast came about, working with Rich on this one. So happy to share a little bit more about it later part of this session.

Rich Pierle (04:30):

Thanks. Thanks Shakthi. And I think those of us who have either a family member that's been impacted by this, or relatives in the healthcare profession. I have a niece, who's a nurse, University of Michigan. And it's just been a tough time, I think. So can you share a little bit with us, of some of the things that you guys have been seeing and dealing with on the front line? I think it's important to kind of level set, on the whole human aspect of this as we move into the conversation and not miss that part of the conversation.

Shakthi Kumar (05:00):

Absolutely, Rich. And so I think as we look at the COVID-19, you can almost look at the different dimensions of what this has done to the society. And I think the primary observation from all of us, being in the front lines, is in a very strange way this event has brought all of us together. Today, each one of us are connected to each other in a society unlike any time before. Our actions and what we do as individuals, as families, as business owners, as corporations, impact the life of others. And so, that has been kind of like a sort of a strange revelation for us. The other aspect also has been socially, we've seen that we started off, the whole aspect of care and providing services related to COVID-19, way back in March. When there was lack of systemic sort of guidance and as well as protocols, we were all learning, we're still learning from it. And one thing that is really predictable about COVID-19 is the unpredictability of it.

Shakthi Kumar (06:06):

And what I mean by it is that we've seen people of all ages, of all demographics getting impacted by the disease. The vectorial spectrum of COVID-19. We are learning. Initially we started off saying there's only few vectors and few isolates to which we could get the disease. And now we see a whole spectrum of that, and we're still learning. We've seen patients who've been asymptomatic, fully cured and the tests, the RT-PCR, the thermal molecular becoming double negatives in about a month. And even as of last week, we have seen patients 65 days into COVID-19 and still they have not regained their sensorium, still testing positive and so on. So it's kind of interesting in one way, but at the same time, we all have to realize that this one, there is no one standard guideline. You can never say, "Everybody goes through the same phases of the disease." And it impacts individuals and patients in a different way. Especially the immunocompromised, it could be the comorbidities and so on. And so that is one aspect of it.

Shakthi Kumar (07:14):

The other one is, from what you're seeing in the frontline is that the various businesses and various organizations, what it has done to families and the economy. And I mean, one thing is very certain, right? We can never wait. We can never get cooped up in our houses, to have the disease go away. We have to learn to live with the disease. This is because barring any unforeseen positive developments and circumstances coming up in the next few months, I think we are in it for the long haul and we have to treat this like any other seasonal illnesses, like flu and strep. But perhaps what we call an epidemiology as a higher or not factor, we have to deal with it as such. So that's another observation, and Rich is that we have to learn to live with the disease. And that's kind of interesting to what you're doing, in helping business organizations kind of, how do you cope with this as you reopen.

Rich Pierle (08:07):

Yeah. Thank you, Shakthi. And I think that's one of the things that we're trying to really work through. And as we think about organizations that we've talked to and that we're working with on a daily basis, everybody's handling it a little bit differently. Some of the timelines we talk about, from people have gotten through triaging, understanding the impact of the organization, getting into planning and how do they start what I would call a phased reopen. It's really looking through that differently. So along that line, because again, the topic today is helping organizations think about, how to reopen their business. What should they be doing so that they can reopen the workplace, in a safe way while helping provide, I think employee peace of mind? Because I think that's one of the things that all of us are looking for, is how do we make sure that when we go in the workplace, that we're safe and that when we come home, we're not bringing something back to our family? So can you talk a little bit about that?

Shakthi Kumar (09:04):

Yeah, sure. I think as businesses, depending on the type of business, right? So the CDC has put out some guidelines and the state agencies have given us some roadmap, especially in New Jersey and New York area we have a roadmap for recovery, right? Has how to reopen businesses and what kind of businesses are reopening? I think the primary thing to look at it for businesses and corporations is looking at, putting together some form of controls in place. And the thing that needs to be protected is just not only the personal health and the wellbeing of their employees, the customers and clients, but also reopening is not a huge thing because once the guideline comes out, you can just reopen it with some minimal structures in place. It's about, how do you sustain it over the course of the next few months? Because various experts in the area of various infectious disease experts, including Dr. Fauci. We've gotten some guidance and saying that, "We're not really sure how this virus is going to manifest itself in late summer and early fall."

Shakthi Kumar (10:11):

So how do you sustain? How do you control the trajectory of your business, and at the same time protecting the wellbeing of employees? And one of the things that organizations should be looking into is, about putting together some, what we call as proactive and reactive controls. And one of the first things you need to be doing, is stop the disease from getting into the confines of the workplace. Which means that isolating the vectors, and who are the vectors? The vectors are the people. And then at the same time, assuming that you have cleansed your workplace, your environment, you're disinfected your workplace and environment, which needs to happen by the way, on a periodic basis as you reopen. You need to make sure that the people that are entering into the system, the vectors that are entering into the system, are virus free. Will minimize the chance of spread of infections.

Shakthi Kumar (11:05):

And one of the biggest things we can do proactively is, broad range screening and testing of your workforce. And depending on the type of businesses, for instance, lot of the physician practices and healthcare organizations have started elective procedures. And as before a patient comes into another procedure, the guidance is that the patient gets tested for COVID-19. Because especially in lot of disciplines like GI, you have very, very close intimate contact with the patient. Despite all of the PP, the aerosolization, the virus and it's impact of contamination is not predictable. So you have to stop the spread of virus by controlling the vectors. And that is, the first step would be is screen your workforce, and ensure that you screen and test your workforce. And it's not a one time event Rich. It needs to happen. It needs to be periodic and frequently. And again, there's a guidance given by health agencies, by local state, department of health and CDC on what that needs to be.

Speaker 2 (12:08):

This podcast is sponsored by Pier Digital Advisory Solutions, a boutique consultancy that supports companies on their journey from legacy technologies and business models, to the realization of a digitally operating model. If you would like to learn more about Pier Digital and see notes from today's show, visit www.pierdigital.com/podcast. Now back to the show with your host, Rich Pierle.

Rich Pierle (12:41):

Talk a little bit about what Beacon Health Sciences is doing to support some of these efforts. Because I think these are critical things for companies to contemplate and put those controls in place. So how do you fit into that system?

Shakthi Kumar (12:57):

Right. So we talked about some of the proactive things can organizations can do, in preparation for reopening their workplaces. There are some essential businesses. We work with a lot of essential businesses, that need to be open. R&D departments, distribution warehouses, the hospitality industry, the transportation industries and so on, that needs to be ongoing. And so what we do as a medical practice, is we give them the infrastructure and the support to put in the proactive controls. Meaning making sure that the employees that are coming in, on a particular periodic basis, are screened and tested for the virus. That's a very important thing you need to do. And there are the different model therapies, how you do that. Can either go with the standard RT-PCR? Or you could even do a saliva sputum tests. Different tests that are available. So we do that, and we provide that onsite for businesses and their organization so it's more convenient.

Shakthi Kumar (13:58):

Just imagine you having hundreds of thousands of employees, and having them to go in a very unorganized manner, to individual testing agencies and coming back and trying to aggregate that. It's almost an impossible task for an organization. So we coordinate the medical intake evaluation of each of the employees in organizing screening and testing. The other aspect we talked about is, making sure the workplace is safe now. And Rich, you are a big proponent of open workplaces if I remember.

Rich Pierle (14:27):

Yeah. Now we're going to have to go back and close it all off.

Shakthi Kumar (14:31):

Exactly. Right. So we are working right now with a commercial reality. And it's an interesting challenge for that, with our experts in ID and pulmonology and others. We were having conversations around, how do you really redesign the workplace of the future or the new normal, right? Because what is normal has been redefined. And as I mentioned, we have to learn to operate our economy, operate our businesses and live our lives with this being around us. So how do we do that? And so we are helping organizations with some of those consultations. How can they keep their workplace safe? So that's another aspect of it. And then we talked about some of the reactive controls. The reactive controls, some of them are obviously the hygiene they need to put in place, within the organization. So most frequently, all the usual normal ones that most of the agencies have provided.

Shakthi Kumar (15:24):

The frequently touched surfaces need to be disinfected, to all the way to cleaning your ventilation vents. There has been cases and there are studies ongoing. And the good part about this, Rich that we are seeing as providers is that, the scientific collaboration has been fantastic. There are so many studies coming out, which is very interesting to be able to get it paged on what needs to be done, to combat this virus. And so even ventilation there has been transmission of viruses as far as 25 feet.

Rich Pierle (15:53):

Wow. Yeah.

Shakthi Kumar (15:55):

And so people need to be [inaudible 00:15:55]. Yeah. So those are some of the things that we help with, and including providing guidance of the proper PPE, depending on the type of the business.

Rich Pierle (16:03):

Okay. I think we're talking a lot about the tests. And I think one of the questions that I get are, what are the tests that are out there? What are people using? How effective is the test? And so can you talk a little bit about that? I know that you have been using some of the tests developed by Rutgers. So maybe talk a little bit about that and how good are those tests from providing an accurate result?

Shakthi Kumar (16:25):

Yeah. And so our indoor has been used to extend to our patients, to our communities, to business corporations. Those tests that are... it's continuing to evolve. Every week, there is a new approval coming in or a new guidance coming in. What is out there that has scientific merit, right? And one thing that we all need to rely on, during these times is working with synthesize data, with evidence-based data that shows some level of accuracy and so on. And accuracy is a, lot of people ask us about, how accurate are the test? And without really getting into the specifics, which in itself, there is something called a sensitivity of the test and a specificity of the test. Those two are the ability of the test to detect the presence of a pathogen or the absence of one. And those are the two key metrics and that combined with a larger, positive, predictive values and so on, will determine how accurate the test is.

Shakthi Kumar (17:23):

But the two main important facets of testing, but one is you test for the act of virus. And that's the first kind. And the act of virus can be done. Well, we work with all commercial labs. The RT-PCR is the kind of the standard that most follow, which is a nasal swab. And quite recently, we're excited to actually work with organizations they know including the Rutgers Genomics lab, that is offering the FDA approved sputum test for active virus. We've seen very good correlation of results from those too. And then the other facet of that is, have the individuals or patients being exposed to the virus, in the past. And that is measured by the antibodies, the antibody test. Now that is garnered quite a bit of attention, in the media, both sides. But we do believe that there is a place for that, there are several prevalence on the larger community for that kind of analysis.

Shakthi Kumar (18:17):

And those tests have gotten better over the last few months. And there are tests that are highly accurate. While it cannot really be used to determine whether employees can return back to work or not, it gives us a good understanding of the larger prevalence in the workforce or in the community. And should be used in conjunction with the active virus test and any other clinical symptoms. And a provider can make a judgment on the further diagnosis or what needs to happen, and whether an individual can return to work or not. So those are some of the different aspects of what's going on in screening and testing. And then also the social aspect of this is that, we have helped identify so many plasma donors. Because once you have the COVID-19 and you recover from it and you have antibodies, your plasma can be very valuable. And so there is a protocol we follow to identify those individuals. And then we refer them to one of the plasma donation centers, which I think in it will help the broader community at large.

Rich Pierle (19:26):

Okay. So the king for a day question. So you've got an opportunity to connect with CEOs, CHROs, COOs. What are a couple pieces of advice that you would give them right now, to help them as they think through, back to work from your perspective, having worked with many large organizations over your career? What would you say to them?

Shakthi Kumar (19:51):

I think this is the time that we need to be, thinking about not only the economic health of the businesses, which is obviously very important to all business leaders. But also looking at the wellbeing and the longterm health of their employees. And how do you balance the two? Right? Everybody is grappling with the question. And I think there is a way to do that. There could be a way to do that in a manner that's least intrusive to the business, at least intrusive to the individual lives as well. And one piece that I think if I may pass this on, is that make sure you have a strategy for reopening your businesses. And that strategy should include employee health and wellness. And one key component, we talked about proactive controls. What you should be doing as a business to protect, the health of your employees, take it seriously. Right?

Shakthi Kumar (20:43):

And there are tools available. There are there medical methods that are available. There's cleaning methods available right now. And even with the vaccines coming on, no one really knows when. We all hope it's going to be soon. So we have seen timelines, so some hopes and promises that early fall to end of next year. But even when those coming on, we don't yet know the level of how the immunology of this whole thing works. And there are experts kind of looking into it. And until studies come out with a more definite guidance, the way to do this is that, you have to open up your business. And this is the new normal. So it's a fantastic opportunity for all business leaders to innovate and redesign their businesses. But while doing so, make sure you protect the health and wellbeing of your workforce. And use all of the screening models and the modality that's available out there. And I think that's number one thing.

Shakthi Kumar (21:40):

And the last thing which, I might want to pass this on is with so much going on, with the pandemic and it's almost civil unrest going on and everything else. One thing kind of dawned on me this morning, as I was kind of driving to work. And I think we need unifiers in the system. And I think the business leaders have a fantastic opportunity right now to become unifiers and bringing together the business cause and the purpose, in making sure the workforce are productively employed and engaged. While they actually deliver the services and keep the economy going. And how do you do that? That's the balancing act. And at least we are humbled at Beacon Health Sciences to do our part. We continue to serve the first responder community in several businesses. So that is kind of what is the message I would like to get out.

Rich Pierle (22:27):

Fantastic. So just a quick summary. I think what we heard from Dr. Kumar was, make sure that you've got a testing strategy in place. That you're actively managing it. And that you are working with the appropriate partners. Part of that cleaning, I think effective communications, we didn't necessarily touch on that. But that's a big part of this, making sure that you've got the right connections within your organization, and with people in your community. Obviously linkage to state and local government, that's going to be critical because as we know from our weekly publication, every state is in a different point on the continuum, even down to counties and municipalities. So make sure that you're plugged in accordingly to government agencies. Now's the time for us all to come together, I think Shakthi nailed it. How do we as leaders really drive this in a safe way for our employees? But also use this as an opportunity to help transform our organizations? Because I think there is a huge opportunity underneath this.

Rich Pierle (23:26):

So, we'll take a minute to thank Shakthi for his time today. This is going to be a really session. And I want to turn it back to Shakthi for the final words, Shakthi?

Shakthi Kumar (23:36):

Thank you, Rich, for having me over and thank you. Very eloquently summarized our conversation. As I mentioned earlier on, there will be a lot of connectedness in the society. And I think the pandemic, and we have to reopen, we have to keep the businesses going. Each one of us, we have a part to do, in this fight against COVID-19. And business leaders, business organizations, business owners, they have their part to do as well. And there are a whole bunch of things that you could do to keep yourself your employees, the customers and clients safe during this pandemic. Starts from, Rich alluded to it. The screening protocols, the testing protocols, but that just doesn't stop there. Because it's not a onetime event. It has to be on a recurring basis, based on the type of business you have. You have to have the right type of the PPE, that's required for your business. Please make judicious decisions on that, and that is a place that you need to look into.

Shakthi Kumar (24:38):

The third important thing, which is all of a sudden, now the emphasis has become on health. The emphasis is on health and it's on individual health. And so it's not only about making sure you prevent the infection. But there are a number of people, a number of people who [inaudible 00:24:55] recovering from COVID-19 that are still, how do you deal with that? And how do we reenergize ourselves around a better health platform? I think that is kind of where my plea to all the business leaders and everyone is, let's work together on this. I'm pretty sure we'll overcome this pandemic and we look at better times.

Rich Pierle (25:17):

Thank you, Shakthi. And we'll have links to Shakthi's website and materials and contact information, as part of what we publish in the webcast. As well as links to the materials that we talked about at the introduction of the session. So Shakthi again, thank you very much for your time today. Good luck in what you're doing, and it's critically important for us. Thank you very much for your service.

Shakthi Kumar (25:42):

Absolutely Rich. And best wishes to your model and toolkit. I do believe that what you're putting out there together as a phased approach, for organizations to consider as a process framework, as a procedural framework, I think we need that. And so good luck with you and your associates as well.