From Dentistry to Health IT

In this episode of UMBC Mic'd Up, Dennise Cardona sits down with Lalitha Bikkumalla, a recent graduate of UMBC's Health Information Technology (HIT) program. 

Lalitha shares her inspiring journey from studying dentistry in India to embracing the exciting world of Health IT in the United States. Discover how Lalitha's hands-on experience with data management, health informatics, and AI in healthcare is shaping her career and helping her contribute to groundbreaking projects like Alzheimer's research. Whether you're considering a career in Health IT or interested in the role of technology in healthcare, this episode is packed with insights and inspiration. Tune in to learn more about the future of healthcare and the role of technology in enhancing patient outcomes! 

Let's Go Further! https://professionalprograms.umbc.edu/health-information-technology/

Transcript

Dennise Cardona  0:00  
Welcome to UMBC podcast. My name is Dennise Cardona from the Office of Professional Programs at UMBC, and I'm joined here today by a recent graduate of our health information technology graduate program, Lalitha. Thanks so much for being on the podcast.

Lalitha Bikkumalla  0:18  
Thank you, Dennise. Thank you so much. This is really a pleasure to be here, and thank you so much for inviting me to it. And yeah, let's do it. 

Dennise Cardona  0:27  
Let's do it. So tell us a little bit about yourself and your background before coming to UMBC, and what brought you here um

Lalitha Bikkumalla  0:36  
So before coming here to UMBC, I did my undergraduate in India, and I did graduate in dentistry. I did bachelor of Dental Surgery in India, and I graduated there in November 2022, and before joining HIT at UMBC, I worked as a healthcare management specialist at the same Dental College that I was in. And after coming to UMBC, the journey has been quite different compared to what my journey was in India.

Dennise Cardona  1:07  
Give us a little clue as to how different that is, yeah.

Lalitha Bikkumalla  1:11  
So firstly, I would like to say my journey in UMBC was really exceptional. The program that I had, the Health Information Technology, it was very well structured, and it provided me a good understanding of both theoretical and practical aspects of health information technology. So this was what I actually had in mind, even before coming here. This is what I wanted to learn in my life, how the healthcare system works, blend of healthcare and it that works together. And one of the biggest highlights of what I had in my master's was the hands on projects that really allowed me to apply to what I learned in the real world scenarios.

Dennise Cardona  1:52  
That's great. Now, had you ever been to the United States before coming to UMBC

Lalitha Bikkumalla  1:58  
This is my first time coming. This is the direct I have came to pursue a master's in H I T, and there's the first time for me to be here.

Dennise Cardona  2:07  
Oh, that must have been really quite a journey, and such an exciting and enriching opportunity. It

Lalitha Bikkumalla  2:13  
was very nice. It was very exciting, thrilling. Different cultures, different people, different types of programs, the place where I live, everything, the programs that are planned, everything is quite different than what it is here. And I'm glad I'm a part of UMBC, actually, because it really gave me good programs and good experience, absolutely.

Dennise Cardona  2:34  
So what was it about studying health? It that excited you most? What did you want to get out of the program?

Lalitha Bikkumalla  2:42  
Yeah. So like I said, my undergraduation was actually in dentistry, so I had a quite knowledge on the healthcare aspect of the healthcare systems around but I wanted to learn something related to health informatics, or health coding that is also part of health, but more of it in healthcare. So data management, health informatics, so that is what has given me the good experience from UMBC. I also developed a strong understanding of the healthcare regulations, healthcare compliances, which is quite crucial for ensuring accurate medical billing and coding in healthcare. Yeah,

Dennise Cardona  3:23  
in your opinion, how is the field of health it so somebody listening to this podcast may be wondering, is this a field I should go into? Like, how is it different from being, say, a data science major versus a health IT major? So I

Lalitha Bikkumalla  3:39  
feel health, it is one of the most upcoming things right now, upcoming careers, because in our day to day life, health is one of the major aspect that we give importance to and development in health is where health it is. It is related to the it part of healthcare which, which has everything like take billing, coding and regarding insurances and so I think that was one of the most developing streams right now.

Dennise Cardona  4:10  
What do you find the most exciting part of being in this health IT industry?

Lalitha Bikkumalla  4:16  
Um, I would say maybe I get to understand how a medic medicine, the healthcare and the it care works. So it's not just defined or constructed to one stream, but it also gives me a brief idea of both healthcare and the it. So I guess that's quite interesting.

Dennise Cardona  4:37  
Where are you right now in your career? So you've just graduated this past May. Are you working within the health IT industry at all at this point?

Lalitha Bikkumalla  4:45  
Yes, right now, I'm working as a medical billing associate at a billing company. I think the master's degree in HRD has prepared me a little pretty well for this role, so it has given me the technical skills and knowledge required for efficient and accurate medical billing and. And yeah, it also deals with coding, medical billing, insurance claims and things like that.

Dennise Cardona  5:06  
Yeah. Where do you want? Where do you see yourself in your career, say, five years from now, or 10 years from now? What do you hope to be doing to

Lalitha Bikkumalla  5:13  
some mostly the healthcare field itself, but something like data accuracy or integrity in healthcare, that is the field that I'm mostly interested in. I would move to something integrity in healthcare.

Dennise Cardona  5:26  
Yes. Now, can you share some critical skills or knowledge that you acquired while studying in the health IT program that has been maybe valuable to what you're doing right now?

Lalitha Bikkumalla  5:39  
Sure, one definite skill that I had got is data management. So data management is something related to taking a lot of tons and tons of data, putting it to definite structure and working on it. So the data management, health informatics and coding, these have been a very invaluable things skills that I've learned in HRT, so it gives a strong understanding of healthcare regulations, healthcare compliances, which is actually very gives us a accurate medical drilling processes and coding processes in day to day life. Yeah.

Dennise Cardona  6:15  
What would you say with maybe your greatest takeaway from studying health? It,

Lalitha Bikkumalla  6:20  
I think, yeah, like I said, my role, not my role at present, but health. It is something related to both healthcare and IT sectors. So I think that is one major thing that I am very interested in. So I think that's a good thing.

Dennise Cardona  6:37  
Great. Now, let's talk about your capstone experience in the program. Could you briefly explain what that was and maybe how it related to your studies in the health IT industry?

Lalitha Bikkumalla  6:50  
Yeah, sure. My capstone was related to addressing the escalating public healthcare challenges posed by Alzheimer's disease through electronic health records and machine learning. So it's typically something like decreasing Alzheimer's disease or the progression of Alzheimer's disease with the application of electronic health records and machine learning. I think the core objective of my capstone project was to develop and validate machine learning models which could identify individuals at high risk of developing Alzheimer's disease by analyzing patterns and markers in EHR data. So this is something that has given me approach and significant shift from traditional methods of determining the Alzheimer's disease to labor intensive manual records reviews. So it, it actually by automating the identification process using advanced algorithms. It my project aimed to enable large scale analysis and timely intervention for Alzheimer's disease. Wow,

that was amazing that

I know my capstone, I did that for six months maybe, yeah, that was a huge thing, and I'm really proud of it. Wow.

Dennise Cardona  8:05  
Do you have any desire to continue your research in the Alzheimer's sphere of healthcare?

Lalitha Bikkumalla  8:13  
I was actually thinking to put forward approaching some professors in order to give them this idea and let them know about it, so that I can get a little insight of how this will go, pulling forward, because this is something that I've worked really hard on, and I don't want to leave it like that.

Dennise Cardona  8:31  
It sounds like it has a great purpose in the field that. Gosh, yes, now, what were some of the challenges that you faced during doing this capstone experience

Lalitha Bikkumalla  8:43  
challenges? Yeah, one of the main challenges was analysis and integration of a large scale hospital. So what we actually did was we took data hospitals, real hospitals, so many hospitals didn't have the they couldn't give us the exact data, because they don't have all the policies and regulation for just giving out data. I guess that was one of a major issue for us, and this required sophisticated data processing techniques as well, and especially validation methods. So I had to contact number of people, I had to give them my identification and everything. But in order to overcome this challenges, I collaborated closely with data scientists and healthcare professionals to ensure models were accurate and also reliable in

Dennise Cardona  9:29  
terms of, like, your classroom experience with your peers. What was that like? Because a lot of people, when they're considering graduate school, that's one of the things that they they do consider is, what is the peer to peer, feedback and collaboration look like? Could you explain a little bit about how that worked? Yeah, sure.

Lalitha Bikkumalla  9:50  
I think one of a good thing would be to actively engage in practical projects so we don't in even in undergraduation or. Our schooling, we do have an idea of theoretical aspects, but I guess Masters is a is a good chance to engage in practical projects and have good opportunities to apply that learning in real world settings. So we do a project, we have the theoretical knowledge, but it really takes very less times that we applied in real world. So I think networking with peers and facility and faculties to improve invaluable support and guidance through the program is really essential.

Dennise Cardona  10:32  
Absolutely that hands on experience the real world application to me was when I was in my master's program at UMBC, that was the greatest aspect of it was creating these projects that have real world implications. And the Alzheimer's Project, the capstone experience that you had really can serve the community, the healthcare community, in such a wide way. And if you explore that even further, and given the tools that you were given during the program. Gosh, you could really do some major breakthroughs with that. So it sounds exciting. Yeah,

Lalitha Bikkumalla  11:07  
it was really good. It was really good. I have never, ever imagined in my life I would be doing such a big and long term project. But it was really exciting. And, yeah, it was really good. And I got a really good support from my professors as well. Say it no day, no night. The the minute I message them, they're very ready to support me. They're gonna reply me in five to 10 minutes regarding the projects, they're gonna doubts everything that I had. So I guess I had a good faculty as well.

Dennise Cardona  11:36  
Ah, so invested in their students future, which is so paramount to what UMBC is all about. Now, looking back on your time in the program, would you have, say, somebody who is considering the program, would you have any future, any advice for them into how they can make the most out of it?

Lalitha Bikkumalla  11:56  
Like I said, the only thing I would say is engaging in all practical projects, because there are many parts of times in our classes where we do not really give our full so even though there are projects, people just don't take it very seriously. So I guess engaging in all practical projects and looking into opportunities to apply that into the real time world. I guess that's the one of the best things that any person can do. And because, also, we do have a very good support from our faculty, our everybody that works in UMBC, they really give us a very good brief and they give us a very good support. So I guess that is really nice that we have. So I guess that's something we can use.

Dennise Cardona  12:42  
Yeah, definitely. Finally, do you want to share any upcoming projects or focus points that you have within the health IT, industry that you have going on right now?

Lalitha Bikkumalla  12:53  
I am actually excited to continue working in the field of health IT, I really like to aim to take on more of leadership roles. I'm also interested in further exposing the use of advanced analytics. And i ai actually, because AI is one of the biggest thing right now. So AI and healthcare to improve patient outcomes and operational efficacy.

Dennise Cardona  13:18  
Talk about AI. I would love to talk about that for a minute. What is your take on it? How do you use it in health IT? Do you feel it's a valuable resource?

Lalitha Bikkumalla  13:26  
Yeah, 100% AI gives, I guess, AI is one of the most growing thing right now. It gives us a leverage, I'm sorry. It gives us a leverage on health information technology to improve patient outcomes. And in advanced public health. That is something that I'm very excited about. So I'm particularly interested in exploring the integration of AI in personalized medicine and prevention care. This is one of other projects that I did in my third semester. It actually integration of artificial intelligence in personalized medicine and preventive care. So I think that's one good take as well, and I'm looking forward to contributing the initiatives that drive innovation and equity in healthcare.

Dennise Cardona  14:09  
That's powerful, and I experienced that just recently. I went for a mammogram, right? An annual mammogram, and they said, Do you want to have an AI component help to analyze your results? Because it, I guess the efficacy, the results are so much more powerful with that

Lalitha Bikkumalla  14:26  
astonishing, I know,

Dennise Cardona  14:28  
wow. This is very amazing. The only downfall to that is it really is socio it comes down to socioeconomics because you have to pay for that extra, that AI lens to look at it, and if you can afford it, great, yeah, you may save my life, right? But if you can't afford it, I think everybody should be able to access healthcare in that format. So

Lalitha Bikkumalla  14:50  
think maybe probably in a long aspect, say, 10 years or 15 years, it's not going to be so costly because it's because of the vast development and. In, like inventions of new AI systems into every field. I guess it's not gonna be, it's gonna be cost efficient. I probably hope so.

Dennise Cardona  15:08  
I hope so too, absolutely. Oh, it's been fantastic talking with you about this. It's such an interesting subject. It's a treat for our listeners, because it's not often that we have health it on here. So this is fantastic. I hope to do more of these health IT interviews, because I find it a fascinating topic, and I feel like our listeners are going to as well. So thanks for providing that.

Lalitha Bikkumalla  15:32  
Thank you. Thank you so much for having me.

Dennise Cardona  15:37  
Thanks everyone for listening to this episode of UMBC Mic'd Up podcast. If you'd like to learn more about our offerings, do a search for Health Information Technology at UMBC, or simply click the link in the description.