Greater Orlando’s healthcare and aviation leaders address technology integration
November 2024 — As Orlando’s business leaders focus on adopting greater innovation and integration of new transformative technologies, there are great challenges that come with staying ahead of the curve.
At the Invest: Greater Orlando 2023-2024 Launch Conference, the first panel “How Florida’s leaders are harnessing technology to propel growth, and the challenges associated with staying ahead of the curve,” delved into the role of innovation and the use of emerging technologies in the aviation sector as well as the healthcare industry. Moderated by Jarrod Dillon, president of business operations of Orlando City & Orlando Pride Soccer, the panel included Stephen Fussell, vice president and chief strategy officer of Orlando Sanford Airport, and Andrew Molosky, president and CEO of Chapters Health System.
Dillon opened the discussion by asking both panelists about the greatest changes that have placed organizations and businesses on a trajectory toward greater innovation within the wider economy in Florida.
“Educational institutions and corporations are leveraging the term ‘Personal Learning Clouds,’ where learning has become very individualized and accessible,” said Fussell. “I love the idea that if you want to understand something, you’ve got to talk about it. The thing that we got wrong years ago was the incredible value of learning from as well as training professional employees,” he noted.
Supporting Fussell’s sentiment, Molosky also jumped in and added to the importance of taking care of employees. “Our mission is to take exceptional care of our employees so they can take exceptional care of our patients. There is an aging population increasingly in need of medical care, and this will only continue to rise. We will need a strong workforce to take care of this rising population. We choose to solve this conundrum by investing heavily in our people,” he expressed.
The conversation followed when Dillon brought up the challenges of leadership when it comes to integrating innovation and adopting new technologies.
Molosky expressed that the main challenge of applying leadership in this case is to lay down the groundwork well before teams realize that an internal change is taking place. “There are many steps ahead of taking the latest and greatest piece of technology and saying that this is our way forward. I think that the runway of a well-positioned leadership is to recognize every gallery that needs some sort of radical dimension for radical innovation and setting it as a first priority,” he pointed out.
Fussell highlighted safety as an utmost concern as well as the importance of identifying potential disruptors. “At the airport we need to be early adopters of technology in order to ensure robust security standards for our clients, guests and travelers. Making plans and processes is key for us in order to identify potential issues and disruptors early on,” he said.
The conversation continued to focus on Sanford Airport, as the airport continues to expand its role as a key transportation hub in Central Florida. Dillon asked Fussell about the airport meeting the increasing demands of both passenger growth and evolving logistics, as well as the biggest challenges that come with modernizing the facilities’ infrastructure in order to guarantee operational efficiency in the competitive market of modern aviation and air transportation.
Fussell addressed the matter by expressing the importance of accommodating an increasing amount of passenger volume, expanding the airport’s terminal, opening new restaurants, and improving cargo transportation.
“This year we’ll take just under three million passengers. In order to do so, we invested $72 million on infrastructure and expanded our terminal. We rescanned the passenger experience in the shuttle and are opening two new restaurants. In terms of cargo, we’ve worked with the Central Florida Transportation authority in order to provide exit cards into the airport. We are also working towards relieving congestion in the airspace over the space coast,” he explained.
In covering tech’s involvement in healthcare, Dillon asked Molosky about the shift towards value-based care. The subject matter focused on reimagining the patient experience beyond traditional hospice and palliative care models.
Molosky delved on the importance of addressing the growing demand for more holistic community-centered approaches to end-of-life care. “The definition of a successful healthcare organization is if you are truly taking better care of your patients and families or not. The notion of simply transacting medical services for certain fees is a longstanding staple that needs to evolve. We are moving away from just providing patients with a test, a bill, a service and then a claim. The reality is that we are moving towards a direction where the quality of care matters. It’s all about the end consumer and providing something better than just a transaction. We are about giving quality care and not just a transactional service,” he stressed.
Approaching the end of the panel, Dillon asked Fussell about what emerging technologies will have the most significant impacts in the aviation industry over the next five years.
“We have a lot of disruptors taking place in aviation. Even though we have technology, I think that the way forward is to think more in terms of strategic planning as a process as well as project management in order to manage cost, scope, budget, quality and risk. There are ways to do this that have been proven to work over and over again because of structure and planning. Sometimes it’s not so much about technology solutions, but more so figuring out what needs to be done. Technology can create a really good way to push this forward if reliable data is used,” he clarified.
To close the discussion, Dillon asked Molosky about how leaders need to be cognisant of how to grow their business in this seemingly new era of technology, and what could potentially hold them back.
“If a machine can replace a human’s experience, then maybe it should. If a computer can outwork a human in performing tasks, then maybe it should. What a machine can’t do is replace human compassion, empathy, connectedness and the art form that only a person can do. The notion of technological adaptation and innovation should be about making a diagram. The key is to figure out whether these shiny new technologies can upgrade the human experience. We need to keep in mind that technology is only useful as long as it makes our lives better, not more difficult,” he stated.
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