Scaling virtual cardiac rehabilitation at Kaiser Permanente

Author's Biography

Columbus Batiste , MD, is a double board-certified cardiologist, interventional cardiologist and regional chief of cardiology for the Southern California Permanente Medical Group. A passionate lifestyle advocate, Dr Batiste educates and empowers his patients with long-term solutions beyond prescriptions and procedures to manage their chronic disease, such as exercise, nutrition and stress management. He led the group that developed and scaled the virtual cardiac rehabilitation programme in the Kaiser Permanente Southern California geography and serves as the Medical Director for the programme. Recognising that the health of an individual is uniquely tied to their community, Dr Batiste also collaborated on the formation of a non-profit organisation called the Healthy Heart Nation whose mission is to improve the health of the community by narrowing disparities in social determinants of health. Dr Batiste also lectures internationally on the power of plant-based nutrition and published a book, SELFish: A Cardiologist Guide to Healing a Broken Heart, in 2024.

Lisa Arellanes is a vice president in the National Clinical Services Group at Kaiser Permanente. In her role, she develops Kaiser Permanente’s (KP’s) telehealth capabilities with a focus on Quintuple Aim objectives. She also improves KP’s performance and impact in laboratory and imaging services, including COVID-19 testing capabilities. In addition, she enables the care and coordination of members who need transplants through KP’s National Transplant Services. Lisa developed a lifelong commitment to improving health equity and inclusion during service as a Peace Corps Health Volunteer in South America. She worked in rural communities with unequal availability to vital services during the cholera epidemic. Lisa obtained her master of science in international and population health from Harvard University’s School of Public Health.

Reema Shah is a senior operations leader over Telehealth at KP. In her role, she is responsible for scaling telehealth initiatives across the organisation and ensuring their successful adoption. Her role includes spreading new remote patient monitoring use cases, expanding the use of video visits and clinical chat across the enterprise and quantifying the use and value of telehealth. Prior to her role at KP, Reema was a management consultant providing strategy and business advisory services to health systems across the country. Reema has a master of public health from UCLA.

Allison Noel is a principal consultant in the National Clinical Services Group at KP. She identifies strategic opportunities and implements innovative solutions that improve patient care and affordability. Most recently, she has partnered with leaders across the organisation to develop and scale successful remote patient monitoring programmes, including virtual cardiac rehabilitation. Before joining KP, Allison worked as a management consultant for health systems, employing a data-driven approach to strategic planning, business development and hospital–physician alignment. Allison earned a master’s in business administration from UC San Diego.