Using Digital to Keep Our Troops Healthy (ft. Lt. Col. Chani Cordero)

Thanks for tuning to Digital Voices podcast, where we chat digital transformation, challenges, and opportunities across healthcare and life sciences. And now, your host, Ed Marx.

Welcome to this special drop for Digital Voices. This is our annual July 4th drop. I love to have guests that are from our military for our special drop. You know, as we celebrate our country's freedom, certainly our military has a great deal to not only enable that freedom, but keep us free as well. So today we have an excellent leader of healthcare technology, but a leader in general. And her name is Lieutenant Colonel Chani Cordero. Chani, welcome to Digital Voices.

Hi, thank you. Appreciate you having me on.

Yeah, it's so great to have you. You know, we've been friends for a while and on social media and, and at various times when we see each other at HIMS or, or CHIME. And so it's great to have you as a guest. But before we jump right in, I want to hear from our producer and DJ Megan. Did you ever consider a military career? And if not, do you know military people?

I have not considered a career in the military, but I do live in a military town. with Langley Air Force Base right down the street. I mean, because there are so many military families, I've made lots of friends over the years who have moved away, some as far as Japan, with 2 small children at that. I have an extreme respect for those who serve or have served our country and their families.

Well, you're gonna love then, I'll just say Lieutenant Colonel Chani. She pretty amazing. I'm not sure exactly when the first time we met, But we travel in the same circles with healthcare leadership and technology and the military. So we have a lot of friends in common. I think that's how we first met a few years ago at CHIME. And so ever since then, I've been looking for this opportunity. So thank you for being with us. And Chani, the first question we always ask all of our guests is, what's on your playlist? What kind of music do you like to listen to when you have downtime?

Oh, absolutely. Good question. And so I always want to throw a disclaimer out there, a military disclaimer out there, that these views are my own, especially when comes to my playlist. And that is not a reflection of the military or the Defense Health Agency or the Department of Defense. But, you know, interesting, and then you will hear a little bit about my story, is that I'm extremely well-rounded. And so I have pretty much everything on my playlist. I don't know if you've ever seen a movie called Heartbreak Kid. Started— I mean, it was a couple of years ago, but in the movie, she's like singing every song. And at first, he, you know, the actor next to her was excited. And then after a while, he starts getting really annoyed.

I'm her.

That is me right there. And so just when you think you can turn on a station and shut me up, nope. I'm like, hey, I think I know that song. But I will share that my favorite song, or one of my favorite songs, and I call it my hype song, is by Survivor, Eye of the Tiger. Who doesn't get pumped up when they hear that?

Yeah, that's a classic for sure. You and I would probably be really good partners. There's a game called Songverse, which is kind of like Trivial Pursuit, but it's all around music. And I get the feeling that both you and I have this very extensive songbook in our brain and would be pretty good at that. What about your life passion or your mantra? Is there sort of words that you live by that guide you?

No, absolutely. I discovered probably about maybe 10 years ago how much my work has to have meaning. And that for me, whatever I do, I want to make sure that I'm making a difference. You know, it's kind of like that story about the starfish on the beach and you're throwing them in the river, you know, in the ocean. It's like, can you make a difference for one? And so when I— anything I do in my, my career or my children, and when I'm helping people volunteering, I'm hopefully like to think I'm making a difference.

You're a lieutenant colonel. For those in our audience that don't understand the gravity of that, that is like a pretty amazing position in our military. It's Getting up there to be a senior officer, pretty close to, you know, obviously colonel and general. And so to get there, you've got to be a pretty special individual. And obviously you are. Can you tell us a little bit about your story, you know, personal or professional, however you want to share, just sort of how you got to this place and this esteemed position in our military?

Definitely. So my parents are actually military. I came from a very large military family. So both my parents served. My mom was in the Air Force. My father later on join the Army. So you can imagine that, you know, how fun Thanksgiving was for us in our family, which service I was going to join.

Right.

And so I end up, of course, joining the Army. But, you know, before that, following my mom career along, career around, I really enjoyed the military community. I mean, my friends, you know, from the 3rd grade, just like Megan, you know, that lived all over the world with the high schools all over the world. And so I really enjoyed the culture and that family that the military brings. And so when it was time for me to pick a career and profession, it was no— a no-brainer to me to continue my parents' footsteps, especially my mom, because my mom joined in 1978, which is not a time that a lot of women served in the armed forces. And so I was pretty proud to watch my mom grow up being a member of our armed forces.

Yeah, that's cool. So obviously you then wanted to sort of follow in your parents' footsteps with the examples that they gave. to you. What are some unique examples of how the Army develops leaders? Because I— and I think most of my audience knows— I'm also a former Army officer, a combat medic first. And the Army is very intentional around leadership. I think people would be surprised. So can you share a little bit about some of the things the Army does to prepare you to advance in your career?

Absolutely. So as you know, there's different types of leadership. Theories, you know, are you born a leader? Can you be developed to be a leader? And I believe the Army's theory is that you can develop leaders. At the very minimum, you can develop very high-functioning managers. And so regardless of what career field you're in, if you're in the enlisted side or the officer side, the Army takes an approach that at every couple of years, at every grade, your potential and your influence expands. And because of that, they have to give you the tools or ensure you have the tools to be able to accept that level of responsibility. So we have what's called professional military education. And every year when you first join the military, you have to go into some type of basic course, right? Either basic training or basic officer course. And, every couple of years, you continue on advancing your education. And, with that is the leadership competencies that we would hope our officers to have. Yeah.

And, you get this practical experience. I remember I was enlisted first in ROTC, so I was both enlisted and ROTC in a special program. And, I was 19 years old and I was a platoon leader. And, it's just crazy. The awesome experiences the Army gives you and then the support. And I think it'd be surprising to our listeners that some of the education— and I was pleasantly surprised but disappointed because I didn't know I was going to have to work that hard— but is graduate-level type stuff. Like, as an officer, when I went to— I don't know if you still call it CAS Cube or not, but I went to some advanced training that you had to have as a leader in order to get to, I think, to major. You have to have this series of courses. It was like grad school. And of course, as a lieutenant colonel, as a colonel, right, don't you have to go through some general staff college? I don't know what they call it anymore, but the education is pretty intense, right?

That's correct. And yes, CASCCUB. And now they, of course, they re— re-termed it, but it's the same concept. And that is a course that you go before you, you know, you become a major.

And then yes, you also go through the course, the, the War College, essentially Combined General Staff College is also where you go when you And so for you, I just want to brag about you a little bit first, and then we'll get into some of these other things around healthcare, military digital. So your next step is you would apply. They have a program, right, like you would in the civilian world. Not everyone's going to become a VP or executive vice president or CEO. So the field really narrows. But for you, the next field would be as a colonel.

Yes, yes. So very happy that the Army betold special trust in my abilities and allowed— and selected me selected me for the grade of colonel that was released a couple of months ago. I have not yet pinned on the rank, but was selected. And so after I served that, after I served that rank and enjoyed that time, I think my next step is what we call Fort Living Room.

I know you're very, very young, and I know that if you did leave the Army, that there's Many, many firms, civilian firms that would be trying to recruit you into their C-suite directly. And that's pretty amazing. You know, I'm very— you should be very proud of yourself and I'm sure you are. And I'm proud to just know you to attain that. That was always a dream of mine that unfortunately I had to end my sort of reserve career as my civilian career was, was really ratcheting up. And so I never attained that rank, but it was something that I'd always dreamed about. So it'll be fun. At least I can say I know someone. He's a friend of mine. But let's talk about digital a little bit. You talked a little bit already about why the military, but why Medical Service Corps or healthcare specifically? So was there anything, a catalyst that led you down that road?

So I think 2 things that led me down that road. First off was my father. My father was an IT nerd geek or whatever you want to call it. He always brought like the latest gadgets and toys. You could just think of the early '80s with a guy with the camcorder or the guy with like, hey guys, look Look at this tool or whatnot. And that was my dad. We always had some type of technology around the house. And so we got our first computer probably in the early '90s, probably around '92 or so. I think I was 14 or 15 years old at the time. And I went in, it was a Windows, a Windows computer. And, you know, I wanted to learn everything about it. So I used to take it apart and figure it out. But no, that's what I did on my off time. That wasn't my— My passion at the time was just, you know, something kind of cool I want to learn about. But my passion was actually healthcare. And I was a med school hopeful. So I have a degree in chemistry. And the idea was to join to go to medical school. Well, just like you, I joined the Army in the enlisted ranks first and then in the reserves. And I was an operating room technician. The Army trained me well at Fort Bragg. And when I was going to college, I said to myself, you know, I had a job at the mall. I was an ear piercing specialist at a store called Claire's. And I said, you know, instead of like making this, you know, salary at Claire's, I should work in my profession and get some experience. And so I went to a hospital here in San Antonio, and the head nurse says, hey, if you can handle the day, I will hire you. Well, the experience wasn't exactly what I thought it would be. There was some very, very sick people that I was exposed to that made me realize Maybe medicine is not my calling. So at this point, I'm already a junior in college. And I said, you know, I think I'm just going to graduate for a degree in chemistry. And then somewhere around that time is when I started thinking about marrying up what I did at night at home on my parents' computer with what I wanted to do, which is to go into healthcare. And that's when I discovered the career of healthcare IT.

That's great. And then you were able to parlay that with your— with the military that you— relationship you had already started with. And today, so you've come full circle in terms of San Antonio, right? Because today you serve as the Chief Information Officer at Brooke Army Medical Center.

That's correct. I went to college here in San Antonio. I came through basic— well, not basic training, excuse me, officer basic as a Medical Service Corps officer. And now I'm back here.

Yeah. Did you ever think in your wildest dreams, like when you were like working in the mall or— or in high school that someday you're going to come back and you're going to be like the chief information officer, the lieutenant colonel that's in charge of the tech in that magnificent healthcare facility?

Not at all. We actually used to do our reserve training here. And so I would come and as a— or tech, as you probably know, your listeners know, in healthcare is that you also, as a surgical tech, you fold towels and sometimes you fold a lot of towels. So I used to be in the basement folding towels. 20 years ago. And so it's kind of interesting. And the mall that I used to work at is no longer here. It's now Rackspace, which is an IT company. So who knows, maybe the stars were already aligned for me to pursue this field.

That's cool. What are some things— and I know that you, you might be limited in what you can share— but what are some cool things that the Army is doing with healthcare tech, you know, that, that may or may not surprise, uh, listeners? But I, I know you're pretty forward-thinking.

Absolutely. So the one kind of basic thing that a lot of people are surprised is the fact that we use pretty much commercial off-the-shelf software, medical devices, applications. We attend, you know, HIMSS and CHIME and these other forward-leaning healthcare conferences so that we know what's out there, what's, you know, what is industry doing, what are we doing, and how we can partner with that. I used to have people walk up to me in uniform and say like, why are you here? And don't get me wrong, I like a pin just like anybody else, but we actually have a purpose to be there. And so we do have a lot of COTS products and I just wanted to bring that up. But I think what's interesting for us and that probably might not be that surprising, but in the how we get to use the data that we produce. So if you think of, you know, the Iraq conflict campaign, You know, there was lots of service members in the early part that were getting injured, and they were getting injured from the IUDs that were exploding, and it wasn't necessarily— the body armor wasn't necessarily protecting some vital parts or organs, excuse me. So that allowed our researchers to gather that data that we had with our legacy electronic health record and make recommendations to manufacturers and suppliers of our body armor to reinforce certain parts so that we had a higher survival rate. And so that may seem like common sense, but let's think about that. If, you know, the makers— if GM was able to take data from EHRs when it came to vehicle accidents, perhaps then that data would be used to make vehicles a little bit more safer and the way crashes occur. And so we have access to that data. We are able to look at trends and to see how can we make the force healthier.

That's a great example and very forward-thinking. And I think, you know, I was a combat medic before I was an officer, and I know that telemedicine in the field, I mean, was pioneered think in the military. My friend— some of my friends who were actually saw combat, you know, they were telling me stories how they would be doing the telemedicine consult with the doctor, showing the wounds of the soldier and doing some pretty high-end procedures out there in the battlefield, you know, with telemedicine.

Absolutely. One of my mentors was actually in Somalia when they had that incident and was actually taking video images of some of the wounded service members and sending it back to here, Brooke Army Medical Center, so that those surgeons could assist the surgeons on ground.

Yeah, I think what may surprise listeners is that a lot of times, it's things that happen in the military, including healthcare and tech, that then get to the civilian side. Like the example you were giving on the data, it's like the military was doing this first, actually. And then learning from that experience, the civilian world sort of copied that or utilized the same Same technology. Let's shift a little bit into leadership. I love talking about leadership. This is Digital Voices. A lot of leaders listen to this. And obviously, you're a woman, and I think you're an inspiration to both men and women. But certainly, when it comes to women in leadership, do you have any advice that you might share to emerging leaders that might be— maybe it's not specific, so I don't want to direct your answer too much. So you can decide, but is there any special advice that you might give to someone early in their career, whether it's a man or a woman or maybe a woman specifically?

I think that's what served me well in my career is learning my craft outside of the workplace. I believe that by understanding the mission and understanding the organizational culture, And then using the tools that you learn in your craft is how you get to success. There are some leaders that can absolutely make it by their charisma or by leading others to do, you know, certain tasks because they know how to tap into that type of talent. But that's a skill that not everyone has. But what everyone can do is to be very knowledgeable in the field that they're in.

That is sage, sage advice. I know that's served me well. You know, I know that when, like, when I was a young officer, I didn't have the, the charisma, as you said, or the height or the look of some of my, my peers. And so I knew that I wasn't going to win the image game, you know, right off the bat. So I just doubled down on my on my skills and on the things I could control, the way my uniform was prepared, my boots were shiny, simple things, but they all add up, and knew my craft much better. And as a result, I also had a fair amount of success. That's what it really comes down to. That's just sage advice for anyone to really do those things. So the other question I had around leadership is, what do you do— you already mentioned Hymns and Chimes. But is there anything else that you do to sharpen your saw? You know, to stay— you know, you're going to about, you know, next year or so prepare to take colonel, maybe general someday. That's my words, not yours. And, you know, what sort of things do you do to just kind of stay sharp and on top of that game?

Very good question. The things that I like to do is to stay involved and stay active. And so not only my participation into my professional organizations, but even in The teaching arena. And so I enjoy teaching. I teach for several universities and colleges throughout the last couple of years. And what I enjoy about teaching is, one, is there's nothing more satisfying than seeing a student with that aha moment. Nothing more satisfying than that. And so teaching and being able to explain my craft, what I really enjoy teaching about, teaching grad is because a lot of times you'll have professionals and you'll have individuals that are terminal degrees. And being able to show them from the CIO's perspective of how healthcare IT works and the tools that it can help them bringing down costs and increasing access and quality to care, that is to me is how I am able to go to the boardroom or our equivalent, what we call that, the command or leadership and say, let me tell you that what technology can do for us or it can't do for us. Maybe this is not a technology issue or concern. Maybe it's a process or a different type of issue. But the teaching allows me to give me the knowledge and expertness to be able to articulate that to my leadership.

Yeah, again, great advice. That's what I love about the podcast, having guests like yourself. There's There's so many words of wisdom that you're dropping on Megan and I and our entire audience. And it just reminded me that that was one of my surprises and learnings when I was in the civilian world is the lack of people who had that initiative to always be in a learning mode. And teaching, like you said, is like icing on the cake. And so I was able to gain a lot of traction in my career and pass up a lot of people, not because I was particularly smarter than them, but I was always learning and where they had graduated and stopped learning for whatever reason. It was just the oddest phenomenon. If you are out there always learning, you will run your competition, not that you're competing, but in a way, for career positions, sometimes we are competing. That's definitely a way to differentiate yourself and add value to your organization and ultimately to help save lives or improve the quality of care. So really good stuff. But it just reminded me, when you were talking about the Army boardroom, do you still use the word BLUF? B-L-U-F?

Yes. Yes, we do.

I just had all these flashbacks when you were talking because I still use a lot of what I learned in the Army in my civilian career. So I'm always talking to people at work, hey, bottom line up front, tell me, you know, that's how we learn, right? To to give presentations to generals, they said, you can't sit there and show them 30 slides. You got to give them the first sentence right up front. You know, what's the bluff? Bottom line up front. And then if they're interested, then you can go in more detail. But that's all you might need is the bluff. So that's funny. So it is July 4th as we drop. Your thoughts on our country, on the Army, anything you want to say about— obviously you're a patriot. Anything you want to say?

Sure. So right now I'm going to actually do a shameless Yes. Plug on the Army. We're hiring. Lots of opportunities. The Army needs to make their mission. And so if there's something that you're thinking about and you're toiling around with it, do it, do it. You know, all jokes aside, I never thought that I would do a 20-year career. I'm at 22 years now. I could easily, easily transition out and probably make a little bit more money than I'm making now. Probably won't have to worry about deploying to another country and probably would be able to get to spend more time with my children. In the end, it's a calling. And I think there's some of your listeners probably have that calling and they need to act on it.

Yeah, I know. I love it. And I, I'll double down with you. People always ask, right? What's the secret to your career? Or how did you become successful and all this stuff? And one of the first things I go back to is the Army, man. I was, I was 17 years old and they shaved my head. Now I'm shaved head because I can't help it. Back then, I had a lot of hair and they shaved my head. I was in Fort Dix, New Jersey and went to basic training. Then, I went to San Antonio to my combat medic training. It changed my life and I learned so many skills. I mean, literal skills, combat medicine, which I then parlayed into anesthesia, which then led to my entire career. Along the way, as a young officer, as a cadet, like I already talked about, I was given these opportunities to serve and opportunities to lead. When my friends were at McDonald's, you know, nothing wrong with McDonald's, but, you know, working fast food. And so then you get a chance to serve your country. So you said it best already. I'm going to stop talking about it because I want people to focus on the words that you said. But yeah, it's awesome. Join the Army. Absolutely. Okay. We talked about music. We talked about yourself and sort of how you came to be and into your career in the Army. We talked about leadership. We talked about What the Army's doing is really leading in healthcare. Digital, we talked about leadership again, more from, you know, what can you do? You know, what are some great ideas to enhance your skills? And then we talked about July 4th. Is there something we missed or something that we said that you wanna double down on as we end our time together?

Just the fact that military medicine has millions of beneficiaries along with the Veterans Administration. And so, you know, sometimes we're forgotten about for career choices. I have 200 people on my team. I'm the one of two military. And so federal contracting, federal employees, we are a viable career option. So don't forget about us. And you have the ability to still serve your country by serving with the service members.

Yeah, no, that's awesome. And yeah, what a privilege to work with service members in the military and to help. And yeah, I didn't even think about that angle. You're right, from a federal employment opportunity, definitely you can serve in military healthcare and maybe get a chance to serve with Lieutenant Colonel Chani Cordero. So, Chani, thank you so much for spending time with us today, and, and happy July 4th.

Thanks, Meagan. Happy July 4th. Thank you.

That wraps up our July 4th Drop. Thank you for being with us.

Thank you for listening to Digital Voices Podcast with Ed Marx. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe on your preferred streaming service and leave a rating and review. And most importantly, thanks again for listening.

Thank you.