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HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | MARCH 18, 2024 21 FOCUS | HEALTH CARE WED, APRIL 17, 2024 — 7:30PM Being Human in an Age of AI Debating Advances and Ethics LIVE and unscripted at The Bushnell. LIFETIME PATRONS: Connecticut Public The Hartford Financial Services Group Lincoln Financial Foundation Raytheon Technologies The Rosalyn Group Travelers The lines are getting blurred. Kevin Roose New York Times Tech Columnist, Author Nita Farahany AI Ethicist, Neuroscientist Kate Crawford Leading AI Scholar, Author John Dankosky Moderator ctforum.org technique, in terms of the diagnostic, surgical and rehabilitative equip- ment," Menchel said. OAH has invested in the high-tech equipment that helps make surgeries less invasive, Memmo said, citing MAKOplasty — robotics used for full or partial knee replacement or for hip replacement surgery — and Mazor, a robotics guidance system used for spinal surgery. "The precision that is now offered by these robotics … cuts the amount of time it takes to do these cases," and reduces the amount of pain control required after the procedure, Memmo said. OAH also invested last year in an Epic electronic medical records system, which he calls a "game-changer." "I never realized how much infor- mation and data we were missing," Memmo said. "Now I have a 360-degree view of my patients. I had nothing close to that last year." Epic also has made providing care — from coordinating prescriptions and scheduling procedures to billing and receiving payments — more efficient, saving administrative costs. All of this, he added, has gained the attention of health systems looking to switch to value-based care, which favors the quality of care over the quantity of patients treated while seeking to reduce costs. "We've been approached and we are doing some of that with health systems like ProHealth, … Optum, and UnitedHealth," Memmo said. One-stop shopping He added that OAH has been focused on investing in its facilities because it anticipated the change to outpatient treatment, as well as the growth of out-of-state companies entering the market. In addition to the South Windsor facility, OAH has orthopedic urgent care locations in Farmington and Glastonbury. He cited private equity firm Spire Capital, HOPCo (Healthcare Outcomes Performance Co.), Summit Health, and Walgreens-backed VillageMD as orga- nizations that have acquired or opened orthopedic care facilities in the state. OAH invested in its facilities, Memmo said, "knowing that if we want to sustain and compete with all these entities, we have to be vertically integrated, where we have a place like this where we offer one-stop shopping." "We've been in practice for 50 years," he added. "I'm committing to you that we're going to make the investments to stay in business another 50 years." Orthopedic Associates of Hartford's new South Windsor clinic is located in a shopping center. PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED