Thought Leadership Roundtable: Aligning Leadership, Strategy, and Governance to Drive AI Adoption in the Healthcare Sector

Aligning leadership, strategy, and governance todrive AI adoption in healthcare SUMMARY AI has become the dominant topic of conversation across the healthcareindustry, from its impact on revolutionizing clinical care to how it can help In addition to moderator RussBranzell, President and CEO ofCHIME and John Kravitz, VP, Headof Healthcare Go-to-Market at Theseconversations aren’t just theoretical and visionary:they areincreasingly rooted in a growing number of real-world successes that have Now, the goal for executive leaders is to keep this momentum going,continue to rack up wins across the clinical, administrative, and operational Uday MadasuCIOCovenant Health Dale LepperCIOGrande Ronde Hospital Tolearn more about how healthcare executives are addressing thetransition to a care experience infused with artificial intelligence from start Anuj MathurDirector ERP, Revenue Cycle &Analytics and Research Together, they explored how C-suites and boards are approaching the AItransition, what use cases are returning value already, and how to best Bill MorganAssociate CIOCHRISTUS Health Shane ThielmanCorporate Senior Vice Presidentand Chief Information and Digital TAKING THE TEMPERATURE OF THE C-SUITE: CAUTIOUS OPTIMISM OR FULLSTEAM AHEAD? With survey after survey proclaiming that healthcare organizations are all-in on AI, dumping billions of dollars into AI-enabled technologies with wild Doug LeeperChief Information & CybersecurityOfficer Panelists asserted that while the potential value of AI was not in dispute,their colleagues in the C-suite aren’t gobbling up every AI-enabled function Atul KanvindeVice President of ApplicationsPT Solutions Physical Therapy “Interest is strong across the corporate executive team around how AIcan help improve effectiveness and efficiency, but we’re balancing thatenthusiasm with caution around risk and safety, both in patient care andin terms of our brand and reputation,” said Shane Thielman, Senior VP andCIDO at Scripps Health.“Our focus isn’t on increasing the volume of AI CHIMECENTRAL.ORG1 TAKING THE TEMPERATURE OF THE C-SUITE: CAUTIOUS OPTIMISM OR FULL STEAM AHEAD? Uday Madasu, CIO at Covenant Health, agreed that “cautious optimism” is definitely the mindsetamong his peers. “Governance, evaluation, ROI, and organizational readiness are the main focus areas for us. We alsowant to stress that this is only augmenting the skills and capacity of our human team, not replacing At Kaweah Health, the primary health system serving Visalia, CA, Chief Information and CybersecurityOfficer Doug Leeper echoed similar sentiments. “My executive team is not really pushing the envelope on AI,although they do expect me to be on the forefront of what’sgoing on, because we can’t afford to make bets that don’tpan out. In this business, you see companies come and go,and with the fervor AI has right now, a lot of these vendors “We’re still pretty nascent in our AI-adoption journey. We have startedadopting new technology for certainclinical use cases, but the strategy is The shrewd, strategic, “walk before you run” approach isalso top of mind at Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare, addedAnuj Mathur, Director of ERP, Revenue Cycle & Analytics and Uday MadasuCIOCovenant Health Research.“We’re still pretty nascent in our AI-adoption journey,” hesaid.“We have started adopting new technology for certainclinical use cases, but the strategy is that we need to start DEFINING THE BIGGEST OPPORTUNITIES TO ACHIEVE MOMENTUM-BUILDING WINS Despite a quite restrained attitude at the executive layer, the same organizations have been willingto dive into areas that have already shown success among their peers, including adopting popular “We’ve got a good handle on ambient listening and documentation, which are tools that save time forproviders, nursing, case management,” said Bill Morgan, Associate CIO at CHRISTUS Health. “It’s beensuccessful so far, but there’s still a big opportunity to redesign workflows and processes so these tools Leeper agreed that ambient listening has been a big win for his clinicians and patients. “We’re in oneof the most underserved physician-shortage areas in California,” he said. “Anything we can do toreduce friction for physicians is huge. Ambient listening has been a massive win because it’s one of A THOUGHT LEADERSHIP ROUNDTABLE Aligning leadership, strategy, and governance todrive AI adoption in healthcare CHIMECENTRAL.ORG2 DEFINING THE BIGGEST OPPORTUNITIES TO ACHIEVE MOMENTUM-BUILDING WINS The back office is where the immediate opportunities lie atScripps Health, said Thielman. “Everysingle economic indicatorsays there simply will not be enoughhuman beings to do the jobs of thefuture.We will not have enoughnurses,doctors,or therapists tocare for the aging population. Wehaveto start thinking about AIagentsnot just as software,but “The people-dependent activities of the revenue cycle havesubstantial opportunity for automation,” he observed. “Laborarbitra