(upbeat music) - It's lunchtime, and this is Brad Anderson's Lunch Break. Here in Redmond, we're visited by some of the smartest people on the planet pretty much every day. Every chance I get, I meet up with them for lunch. In this week's episode, it's the second half of my conversation with Mark Gregory, the CIO of Premera Blue Cross. So in the next kind of three to four year horizon, if you think about healthcare in general, what do you think the biggest challenge is from a technology and digital disruption perspective you need to focus on? - From the healthcare system overall, there's a lot of fragmentation of data and information out there, and I think if we have a collective mission to make healthcare work better, and it is Premera's mission to make healthcare work better, but expand that across the whole healthcare industry. We've gotta do a better job of sharing information and sharing data, clearly, in a secure way. - Sure. - In a way that benefits, ultimately, the patient and the consumer. It comes down to how do you empower patients. Remember the four problems we talked about. How do we address those four problems, and we empower our customers to get the information they need in the most convenient way, not convenient for us, but convenient for them. Earlier this year, we brought a capability online, well it's kind of internal, but we signed a contract at the end of the year and the capability was up and running in six weeks. - Wow. - You know, when you do that stuff on premise, it's not only slower, but it carries more weight with it. - Yeah, sure. - And so we see a lot of options for us utilizing the Cloud. - I like how you describe that, weight, 'cause that weight often slows you down and it decreases your agility, and it's funny, you didn't mention once there about cost. The Cloud, really the benefits are agility, the flexibility, and speed. - So, we push costs, when we introduced Cloud to the organization, we did not introduce it as a cost play. We introduced it as a value play really. Right, so how quickly can I bring up the capabilities that move the organization forward. I don't see it as a cost play. - That's the way we look at it, too. - It's just, I wanna bring it up, lighter, quicker, faster, and then I want more options with it. I think my role is no different than any other Senior Executive role. I happen to be responsible for technology, but every other Senior Exec is responsible for driving the culture. From my standpoint, it's how do I make sure that technology is aligned to what we're doing on the business side, not only aligned, but pushing the business. You know, we like to say enabling the business, but if technology is doing its job, - It's pushing. - It's pushing the business. We're challenging business as much as business is challenging us. - Well, this has been awesome. Hey, thank you so much, Mark. - I appreciate it. - Yeah, we'll see ya, thanks again.
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