The 73 executives featured in this article are all speaking at the Becker’s Healthcare 15th Annual Meeting on April 28 – May 1, 2025, at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago.
To learn more about this event, click here.
If you would like to join as a speaker or a reviewer, contact Mariah Muhammad at mmuhammad@beckershealthcare.com or agendateam@beckershealthcare.com.
For more information on sponsorship opportunities or vendor access-only badges, contact Jessica Cole at jcole@beckershealthcare.com.
As part of an ongoing series, Becker’s is talking to healthcare leaders who will speak at our conference. The following are answers from our speakers at the event.
Question: What is the most impactful way you’re leveraging AI, and how is it transforming your operations or decision-making processes?
Saurabh Tripathi. CFO of Ascension (St. Louis): We are leveraging AI to automate most of our repeatable, data-heavy processes such as nursing / operating room scheduling, financial reporting (MD&A), investments advisory, clinical decision making etc. to assist our management teams in making quick and prompt decisions.
Wendy Horton, PharmD. CEO of UVA Health University Medical Center (Charlottesville, Va.): UVA Health is strategically implementing AI to enhance operational efficiency, improve clinician workflows, and support patient care. Key areas of technology adoption include ambient listening, revenue cycle enhancements, patient throughput and scheduling, and the homegrown Continuous Monitoring of Event Trajectories system, which uses continuous monitoring and algorithms to assess a patient’s risk of experiencing a serious event within the next 12 hours. Currently, AI governance operates as a standalone process, with plans to integrate it into the standard IT governance framework.
To support this transformation, UVA Health is investing in AI training programs for leaders through the UVA Health Leadership Institute, fostering a culture of adaptability as new skills are needed and roles evolve. The organization emphasizes a strategic and measured approach to AI deployment, balancing innovation with patient safety, ensuring a return on investment, preventing the accumulation of non-integrated tools, and focusing on effective problem-solving to maximize AI’s impact. UVA Health is excited about AI’s potential and remains committed to enhancing team productivity and efficiency while ensuring the safe delivery of patient care.
Pete November, CEO of Ochsner Health (New Orleans): Ochsner Health is embracing AI-enabled technology, such as ambient listening and patient triage programs, to improve both clinician and provider experience. A physician recently sent me a note about the real-life impact of AI that highlights ‘the why’ we must make these changes. He said in part, ‘Since we implemented virtual tools, especially the e-visits, I have finally felt like technology has helped my busy practice be more efficient and rewarding. My patients absolutely love the access. I can honestly say I’m in a Golden Age of my practice because of these tools!’ Transitioning to AI and other technology solutions isn’t a ‘nice to have’ feature, it’s a must have in healthcare today. It’s about providing the tools needed to free up time, improve work-life balance, create ease of access and help us transform in the rapidly changing environment of healthcare, today and in the future.
Nick Olson. Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Sanford Health (Sioux Falls, S.D.): At Sanford Health, we have embraced this idea that we cannot fear innovation. We need to be open to reimagining how we deliver care and how we get our work done if we truly want to solve some of the most pressing issues facing healthcare today including access, quality and sustainability. We’re still in the relatively early phases of AI adoption but we’re excited about the potential impact, especially in rural America where workforce challenges are more acute.
As one example, in 2024, we implemented technology that allowed us to automate 80% of our radiology coding. We had a team of 30 people whose sole focus was on coding radiology visits. This automation allowed us to redeploy those roles to other high need areas across the organization. We remain committed to fully leveraging the promise of technology to better serve our patients, communities and people.
Cliff A. Megerian, MD. CEO of University Hospitals (Cleveland): AI is a powerful tool that augments – but never replaces – our capabilities as caregivers. We at University Hospitals are leveraging this groundbreaking technology in a forward-looking, but thoughtful way, with the goal of always being more responsive, accurate, effective and timely in the care we provide to our patients. For example, we use AI to more precisely identify which patients with high heart disease risk will most benefit from preventive therapies, such as statins and aspirin – enhancing our clinical decision-making process. For cancer patients, we’re part of a groundbreaking study using AI-based MRI to visualize how rectal tumors respond to therapy. And we use our new Varian Ethos system, which employs AI-assisted organ mapping and treatment planning, to get the safest and most precise targets for patients undergoing radiation therapy. Tumors change shape and size through radiation treatments – even daily, and we can now adapt the treatment plan each day to exactly match the patient’s current anatomy. We’re also proud that in 2024, our radiology department earned designation as an American College of Radiology® Recognized Center for Healthcare-AI – distinguishing it as a leader in the field.
AI systems are also helping us work faster and more efficiently. We use AI tools to track hospitalized patients’ vital signs to warn medical staff when a patient is at risk of sepsis – which as we know can occur and worsen incredibly fast. This prompts timely fluids and antibiotics to save lives. AI is also a vital component of our Intelligent Hospital Room, launched in 2024 with support from the Veale Initiative for Health Care Innovation. The AI feature helps nurses monitoring patients remotely anticipate a potential fall, allowing bedside nurses to intervene. It’s trained to detect when a patient might be getting out of bed or has a risky bed configuration, like all rails down.
We also use AI to help our patients book appointments more quickly and to secure more timely pre-certification for the healthcare services they need. At the same time, our revenue cycle department uses AI tools to anticipate payers’ needs for additional information on claims and to expedite the process of generating responses when claims are denied. The tool gives our professionals a place to start, which they review and customize.
As AI expands at UH, all our caregivers will continue to harness its powerful capabilities, while always maintaining a human touch. We are committed to providing personalized, patient-centered care, assisted and facilitated by AI.
Luis Taveras, PhD. Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer of Jefferson Health (Philadelphia): We are strategically integrating AI to enhance efficiency and accuracy in diagnostic processes, particularly in radiology, cardiology, neurology, and pathology. The most impactful way AI is transforming operations in these areas is by acting as an advanced decision-support tool — improving early detection, reducing clinician workload, and optimizing workflows.
For example, in radiology, AI can rapidly analyze imaging data, flagging abnormalities for further review, which helps prioritize cases and potentially speed up diagnoses. Similarly, in cardiology, AI-driven ECG and imaging analysis can assist in identifying early signs of heart disease. In pathology, AI algorithms can enhance pattern recognition for more precise cancer detection.
Kevin Smith. CFO of SSM Health (St. Louis): We have recently launched our “Project One” at SSM Health. This is a complex and multi-year initiative, co-chaired by our Chief Digital and Information Officer and our Chief Clinical Officer, to do two things in parallel: renovate and strengthen our foundations with our core systems, while ensuring a modern approach to governance and standardized workflows across our health system to avail of new technologies. We believe that without a strong foundation below us, with our core systems like the EHR in an optimal and modern state, we will never be able to avail of new tech like Gen-AI and Intelligent Automation. Think of it this way: you can’t effectively leverage AI to improve workflows, clinical or otherwise, if your systems are not configured in an optimal way or the same standards do not carry through the enterprise and have major regional variations. That being said, we also believe such a massive undertaking cannot be the only thing we focus on for multiple years. To that end we have already begun rolling out certain AI tools under the ‘intelligent automation’ umbrella across our health system. An example of this would be ambient clinical documentation, where we are partnering with Microsoft Nuance to give time back to our clinicians. This is leading to not just happier clinical staff, but more meaningful interactions between our physicians and patients with the added benefit of more accurate and timely notes.
Ramin Davidoff, MD. Executive Medical Director and Board Chair for the Southern California Permanente Medical Group, Board Chair and CEO of the Southeast Permanente Medical Group and of the Hawaii Permanente Medical Group and Co-CEO of the Permanente Federation (Oakland, Calif.): One of the most impactful ways we’re leveraging AI is the introduction of ambient listening to all 24,000 physicians across the Permanente Medical Groups. With patients’ permission, this tool automatically documents the clinical note during the patient encounter. That synthesized note can be reviewed later for accuracy. Patients have reported an increased therapeutic connection and experience with their physicians. Physicians have reported a renewed joy in practicing medicine rather focusing on the administrative burden of note taking. It’s been a gamechanger.
Steve Smith. Assistant Vice President of Enterprise Contact Center and Access at Inova Health System (Fairfax, Va.): Currently, our new phone system has an AI digital assistant that provides smart call routing, the ability to cancel / reschedule appointments and speech to text where we can text patients’ instructions, etc. The goal is to increase self-service by reducing call transfer rates and deflecting phone calls from agents. Later this year, we will add chat bots to our website to further our digital utilization approach.
Michelle Stansbury. Associate Chief Innovation Officer and Vice President of IT Applications at Houston Methodist: At Houston Methodist, we are using AI across the hospital system from in-patient cameras to create more efficient workflows and patient monitoring to ambient sensor technology and AI in the operating rooms to enhance efficiency and documentation.
In every instance, we leverage AI in a way that is not only safe, but also to empower our patients, clinicians and employees. Whether AI technology aids us in reducing the cognitive burden for our clinicians so they can focus on direct patient care or helps filter through data to see the likelihood of developing medical conditions that could cause readmittance or hospice care, AI is always used with the patient top-of-mind.
Amy E. Lee. President and Chief Operating Officer of Nantucket (Mass.) Cottage Hospital: To augment our provider practices, NCH is participating in the implementation of AI-powered ambient documentation technology (Nuance DAX Copilot and Abridge) for all interested clinicians (MD/DO/APPs) that began with primary care practitioners. The goal is to reduce note-writing time and decrease burnout by significant percentages along with helping our team rediscover the joy in practice by increasing engagement with their peers, patients and teams as opposed to being tethered to the computer is the ultimate goal.
Pooja Vyas, DO. Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Christian Hospital BJC Health System (St. Louis): Leveraging AI in an underserved area can significantly enhance healthcare delivery and decision-making processes. Predictive analytics for patient care are always helpful. AI algorithms analyze patient data to predict health outcomes and identify high-risk patients. This allows for proactive interventions, reducing hospital readmissions and improving overall patient outcomes. When we think of RCM, some AI-powered tools automate routine administrative tasks such as scheduling, billing, and documentation. Another we focus on is enhanced diagnostics. AI assists in interpreting complex medical images and data, leading to more accurate and faster diagnoses. This is especially helpful when we consider our time critical diagnosis such as strokes and STEMIs. By integrating these AI-driven solutions, hospitals in underserved areas can improve efficiency, enhance patient care, and make more informed decisions.
Elissa Charbonneau, DO. Chief Medical Officer of Encompass Health (Birmingham, Ala.): We have worked with our electronic health record vendor and their data scientists to design several predictive analytical models to improve quality outcomes for our patients. These models enhance clinical decision making and provide support to our clinicians to help reduce the risk of adverse medical events for our patients. We continually re-assess our models to ensure they are statistically accurate.
Lynne Lee, Esq, RN. Vice President of Risk Management at Encompass Health (Birmingham, Ala.): We use predictive analytics to provide our clinicians with real time data to improve clinical outcomes. These tools do not replace clinical judgement, but provide our clinicians with additional information on patients to keep them safe and avoid medical complications during and after their rehabilitation. We are fortunate to have collaborated with data scientists to ensure these analytics are statistically valid and are face-up in the medical record.
D. Richelle Heldwein. Chief Risk and Compliance Officer of St Johns Health (Jackson, Wyo.): We are so excited to have partnered with our EMR vendor to be a beta site for new technology for electronic documentation. The application allows for the provider to use an application to record the patient visit and have the recording formatted into the full office visit notes. This has proven to be more accurate documentation with less data input required by the providers allowing them to have their documentation done at the end of the visit and this allows them to be able to leave the clinic at the end of the day without having to spend additional hours on documentation. This has also allowed them to see more patients in a day and actually direct their attention to the patient and not the computer during the visit. We are currently trialing this in our hospitalist program as well. We have very busy clinics and a very busy hospitalist service and this is a huge time saver and more accurate documentation. We have had very positive evaluations from providers and look forward to maximizing the use of the tool in other areas moving forward.
JohnRich R. Levine, DNP, DPA, MSN. Director of Perioperative Services at Reeves Regional Health (Pecos, Texas): AI is fast becoming a game-changer in our surgical operations, particularly in optimizing OR efficiency and patient outcomes. We intend to leverage AI-driven scheduling tools to streamline case assignments, predict surgical durations, and minimize delays — essentially turning the chaotic ballet of an OR into a well-orchestrated symphony. Additionally, AI-assisted analytics help us track supply usage and anticipate needs, reducing waste and ensuring critical resources are always at hand.
But the real magic is that AI doesn’t replace human decision-making — it enhances it. By removing the guesswork from logistics and providing real-time insights, our team can focus on what truly matters: delivering exceptional patient care. And in a field where seconds count, that’s a transformation worth embracing.
Nicholas Nussbaum, MD. Director of Medical Affairs and Community Services, Adams Medical Group at Adams Health Network (Decatur, Ind.): So far, we have been actively evaluating new products and functionalities, but we have not made any major investments or commitments. That is simply due to the fact that we have yet to find a product or service that we felt represented sufficient benefit to justify the cost. To be frank, most of what is being marketed as “AI” is either just an enhanced version of a search engine (ChatGPT) or machine learning (DAX), neither of which remotely justify the term “intelligence.” I’m certain we will get to that point, but we aren’t there yet. When the technology reaches that point, we want to be ready to move. Until then, we are keeping our powder dry and letting everyone else spend their money underwriting the R&D for the software companies.
Leverage always works in both directions, meaning that the same lever that you are using to lift something can also swing back and crush you. Overspending on a product that does not/cannot deliver at the level promised may prove to be exactly that kind of crushing leverage — especially if the funding for that product/project was in the form of borrowed money.
Tabitha Hapeman, DNP, RN. Enterprise Director of Utilization Management and Clinical Appeals at WVU Medicine (Morgantown, W.Va.): This is an exciting time for healthcare, as we leverage automation, AI, and technology to improve processes. There seems to be a never ending amount of work to do in healthcare, which is why it’s critical to ensure our people are doing only things people can do. We’re looking at automation and AI across the revenue division, but particularly within our clinical revenue cycle. Leveraging automation and AI in our utilization review, physician advisor, and clinical appeals departments will help us build sustainable processes that prevent revenue leakage and maximize reimbursement. The concepts of using generative AI for clinical reviews, automated triaging and acuity scoring, and automated follow up are transformative for the clinical revenue division.
Omar Hasan, MD. Chief Quality Officer of MaineHealth (Portland): We are focusing on AI efforts on enabling our physicians to spend more face time with their patients and less time documenting in the medical record. We are also exploring ways to leverage AI to improve our revenue cycle processes. We have discussed using AI to support translation of patient-facing documents.
Athena Minor, MSN, RN. Chief Nursing and Clinical Officer of Ohio County Healthcare (Hartford, Ky.): There are a lot of exciting possibilities in healthcare surrounding AI capabilities…and there are many concerns as well. AI utilization in healthcare has been widely debated and we have seen both positive and negative examples of how AI has been utilized. Our organization is implementing AI cautiously, but we are keeping up with current news, studies, and recommendations. AI can be a powerful tool if used reasonably and appropriately.
One area that we quickly adopted, and that is working well for us, is AI charting assistance for our providers. For those providers that are currently utilizing this option we have seen an increase in patient volume capacity, decreased time for chart completion, and an increase in provider satisfaction. We will continue to explore ways that AI can work in tandem with our providers and staff to decrease tasks that are necessary, but time consuming, allowing for better patient interaction and quality care — and keep an eye on what innovations and challenges 2025 may bring.
Elizabeth Wako, MD. President and CEO of Swedish Health Services (Seattle): Our commitment to AI includes developing and deploying tools in ways that benefit caregivers, patients, and communities, while ensuring safety, privacy, and ethical use. This year we’re laser-focused on continuing to implement several AI-powered projects to reduce clinician burnout. As leaders, we need to digitize anything not part of the sacred patient encounter. Generative AI is not a replacement, it’s an augmentation to help with administrative work to free up time for direct patient care.
We must ease the way for our physicians and clinicians. Examples include: (1) ProvARIA – a tool to manage clinician messages by classifying patient inquiries and pre-drafting responses;
(2) Computer-Assisted Physician Documentation and Ambient Technology: Physician-patient conversations are automatically transcribed and uploaded directly to our EHR through tools such as Nuance’s DAX;
(3) MedPearl: Our clinician education and referral platform designed by clinicians for clinicians, gives primary care providers advice on whether — and where — to send patients for specialty care;
(4) ProvidenceChat: A secure alternative to other general-purpose chatbots, such as ChatGPT, available on the internet;
(5) Grace: Conversational navigation platform to support patients in finding information they need and navigating them to the proper workflow to self-serve (appointment scheduling, EHR password resets, medication refills, etc.).
Darrell Bodnar. Chief Information Officer of North Country Healthcare (Whitefield, N.H.): At North Country Healthcare, we have leveraged AI and machine learning in our imaging department for years, and we continue to expand its impact. We are utilizing ambient voice technology in primary care, specialty care, and the emergency department to reduce provider burden and enhance documentation efficiency. In behavioral health and our substance use programs, we are piloting AI-driven documentation templates to improve accuracy and streamline workflows. Additionally, AI is helping us drive administrative efficiencies, optimizing operations while keeping our focus on high-quality patient care.
Stephen DelRossi. CEO of Northern Inyo Healthcare District (Bishop, Calif.): NIHD is dedicated to providing an outstanding patient experience, which encompasses everything from arrival to final billing. Like many facilities across the country, we have invested considerable resources to enhance this experience, particularly through revenue cycle management. When I first joined the organization as CFO, I found the RCM processes to be inefficient and ineffective. Our top priority was to evaluate all accounts and bring in a consultant to address the setup failures in the EHR.
In the winter of 2023, the IT and Services department and I began assessing artificial intelligence vendors. We approached this process deliberately, scrutinizing every aspect of various vendor solutions, as we understood the market is constantly evolving. On February 1, 2025, we commenced the implementation of the system we selected.
To ensure a successful rollout, I chose a vendor that operates hospitals, as they possess firsthand knowledge of the RCM and the typical challenges faced throughout the cycle. Additionally, the selected company needed to effectively manage the revenue cycle during both ramp-up periods and emergencies. I am pleased to report that they are on track to complete the project ahead of schedule.
The vendor will manage all necessary processes to guide patients through the entire cycle, including registration demographics, insurance validation, authorizations and referrals, coding, billing, denial review (including peer-to-peer reviews), cash posting, and reconciliations. The total implementation time is expected to take up to eight months; however, this extended timeline is due to my low margin for error, requiring continuous reviews and audits.
It is exciting to anticipate the opportunity to redeploy staff to value-added tasks while reducing the overall workforce.
Heather Resseger, DNP, RN. Senior Vice President, Chief Hospital Operations Officer and Chief Nursing Officer at NorthBay Health (Fairfield, Calif.): At NorthBay Health, we are working with a 3rd party vendor to improve our operating room productivity and efficiencies through AI technology. Our leadership team and physicians can not only see when patients enter our ORs, universal time outs, first cut, close, and patient out of the room to improve care delivery in the OR but also analyze data that is driven from the AI. We use this technology to understand the time needed to schedule cases in the ORs based on surgeon specific historical data and complexity. Although this is new AI technology, it has already supported the OR team as they design block utilization for future cases. This technology produces accurate data that both leadership and clinicians can rely on for operational and patient care decisions.
Lakshmi Halasyamani, MD. Chief Clinical Officer of Endeavor Health (Evanston, Ill.): AI in healthcare has the potential to be transformative by tackling challenges that impair clinicians’ abilities to connect with and care for patients. AI that is seamlessly integrated into clinical workflows can reduce friction and fragmentation and accelerate meaningful clinical impact. Guided by these principles of human connection, Endeavor Health is leveraging AI to free providers to forge deeper relationships with patients and more effectively identify patients who could benefit most from specific interventions. At its core, healthcare is a human-centered experience—people seek care to be seen, heard and, most importantly, cared for.
John Goodnow. CEO of Benefis Health System (Great Falls, Mont.): Benefis Health System has a payer mix that is over 75% governmental payors, primarily Medicare and Medicaid, which makes finances challenging, all the more so recently with rapidly rising costs, reimbursement increases that don’t keep up, and staff shortages. A good way to think of it is as a catch 22 situation:
Navigating a Healthcare Catch-22 (navigating an impossible situation because you cannot do one thing until you do another thing, but you cannot do the second thing until you do the first thing). Specifically:
- If we don’t have the required staffing (particularly inpatient – whether hospital or senior services) we have to close beds and divert patients, as we particularly had to do in 2023 at BHS (and closing beds and diverting patients has negative financial implications – along with other important reasons one doesn’t want to divert, the primary being patient and family inconvenience).
- Given national staffing shortages (particularly in nursing, but not just in nursing), to have enough staff/providers to not close beds/divert patients one has to partially rely on more costly staffing measures (such as travelers and locums), which also have negative financial implications.
Therefore, BHS Strategies 1 and 2 (and the order of the two is debatable) for 2025 are:
#1: Assure adequate workforce system-wide (prioritizing recruitment and retention).
#2: Achieve a viable/positive overall operating margin for BHS (continuing our 2003-2023 tradition of positive operating margins).
That being the case our initial and 2025 AI focus is that which improves productivity and thereby reduces staffing shortages, including in our employed medical group of course, such as ambiance listening/documental assistance for physicians and nurses.
Ben Goodstein. Vice President and Chief Ambulatory Officer of Dayton Children’s Hospital; President of Dayton Children’s Specialty Physicians Inc. (Ohio): At Dayton Children’s, we are integrating AI to support provider workflows and improve patient care. One of our key initiatives is rolling out Abridge Generative AI to all providers.
Abridge helps reduce the administrative burden by generating structured clinical notes from patient-provider conversations. This allows providers to spend less time on documentation and more time with their patients. Additionally, the AI organizes key medical insights to support decision-making and streamline workflow processes.
Our goal is to use AI as a tool to improve efficiency and provider well-being while maintaining high-quality care. As we continue expanding its use, we look forward to seeing how it further enhances daily clinical operations.
Quanna Batiste-Brown, DNP, RN. Vice President of Patient Care Services and Chief Nursing Officer at Touro Infirmary, LCMC Health (New Orleans): As a chief nursing officer, leveraging AI has been instrumental in enhancing our decision-making processes and operational efficiency. I use AI to quickly source and synthesize the latest clinical research, best practices, and regulatory updates, ensuring that our policies and protocols are evidence-informed and aligned with the highest standards of patient care.
AI also enables real-time data analysis, helping us identify trends in patient outcomes, workforce efficiency, and resource allocation. This allows me to make proactive, informed decisions that enhance patient safety, improve staff workflows, and optimize hospital operations.
By integrating AI into our decision-making framework, we’re not only driving innovation but also fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement—ultimately leading to better patient care and a more resilient healthcare system.
Dani Hackner, MD. Chief Clinical Officer of Southcoast Health System (New Bedford, Mass.): At Southcoast Health, a CHIME Digital Health Most Wired Level 10 system, we are advancing clinical analytics, artificial intelligence, and robust process improvement to optimize clinical quality, throughput and event detection. In our imaging services, we have experienced strong detection rates and faster positive finding results with AI-assisted technology. With broad physician and digital health professional engagement, we have built an AI Center of Excellence, recognized by the ACR. We are meeting the challenge of the spread of machine learning and large language models in healthcare with a deliberate and structured approach to governance, management, operations, and safety oversight related to emerging AI technologies offering great promise and posing equally great risk.
David Allen, DNP, RN. Division Chief Nursing Officer of Adult Services at OU Health (Oklahoma City): We leverage AI in multiple ways from business analytics to enhanced patient care. All leaders acknowledge there is the art and science to the jobs that are performed in healthcare. AI allows leaders to make more informed data-driven decisions, “the science,” while also better informing the “gut,” the art. Rather it is a more robust understanding of patient experience or introducing virtual components to care, AI streamlining operations and allows for better understanding of market conditions.
David Verinder. President and CEO of Sarasota (Fla.) Memorial Health Care System: Artificial intelligence is transforming our world in countless ways, with groundbreaking advances in every industry, especially healthcare. At Sarasota Memorial Health Care System, we began using AI’s predictive modeling years ago to help forecast medical and surgical volumes and plan for the staffing, space and supplies we would need to meet the needs of incoming patients. (It became a critical tool in predicting and preparing for the surges seen during the COVID-19 pandemic.) Over the years, SMH has continued to invest in life-altering AI tools and technology yielding faster, more accurate diagnostics, more effective, targeted treatments and rapid advances in medical research.
Recently, SMH earned national recognition for its efforts to diagnose lung cancer at its earliest stages. Our comprehensive screening program has a traditional component that educates and screens high-risk patients, but we also leverage AI software to help identify suspicious nodules in scans and X-rays patients complete at SMH for separate reasons. Those ‘incidental’ findings are helping us diagnose nearly 60% of our lung cancer patients in the most treatable Stage I or II stage, more than double the rates achieved in most health systems across the nation.
Ebrahim Barkoudah, MD. System Chief and Regional Chief Medical Officer of Baystate Health (Springfield, Mass.): I would say, definitely operations. AI-driven hospital workflow optimization through predictive analytics has revolutionized patient flow management and resource allocation. By analyzing admission patterns and length of stay data, AI enables dynamic bed management and staff scheduling that adapts in real-time to changing demands. This intelligent system ensures optimal resource distribution while maintaining exceptional care standards.
The impact of AI-powered workflow optimization is demonstrated through:
- Predictive patient flow analysis: AI algorithms process historical admission data, seasonal patterns, and real-time metrics to forecast patient volumes and resource needs across departments, enabling proactive capacity management
- Dynamic resource allocation: The system automatically adjusts staffing schedules and bed assignments based on predicted demand patterns, optimizing workforce utilization and reducing wait times
- Real-time performance monitoring: Continuous analysis of key performance indicators allows for immediate operational adjustments, ensuring efficient patient flow and resource distribution
- Operational risk management: AI models identify potential bottlenecks and capacity constraints before they occur, enabling preemptive interventions that maintain smooth hospital operations
Administrative process automation has transformed healthcare operations by eliminating manual tasks and reducing documentation burden. This shift has allowed healthcare professionals to focus more time on direct patient care while improving accuracy in critical administrative functions. The comprehensive integration of these AI systems creates an adaptive operational framework that consistently optimizes resource utilization and enhances care delivery efficiency. AI automation in healthcare administration has transformed operations by implementing robotic process automation for routine digital tasks like prior authorizations and billing while leveraging machine learning for enhanced data processing in claims management and clinical documentation. This comprehensive automation system extends to financial operations through AI-optimized revenue cycle management and medical records systems, creating an efficient workflow that reduces manual administrative burden, improves accuracy, and allows healthcare staff to dedicate more time to patient care while maintaining streamlined information organization and retrieval processes.
Lewis W. Marshall Jr., MD, JD. Chief Medical Officer; Affiliate Dean; Assistant Professor, Clinical Medicine of Weill Cornell Medicine at Lincoln Hospital (Bronx, N.Y.): As a member of our AI Council, we evaluate AI that has been recommended for piloting or implementation in various areas including, health information management, medical record abstraction, generative AI and clinical treatment recommendations. Many providers including myself look at the technology and imagine how it might be utilized in the clinical arenas and push to implement immediately. That however is not realistic. We need to consider what transformation to AI tools will look like. There are more questions today than answers. What does the AI do? How will it benefit the patients and providers? Have other organizations implemented the tools? What were the successes or failures? In today’s technological environment we need to be acutely cognizant of the potential information security issues with this new transformative technology. How great would it be to reduce strain on providers, while improving patient outcomes! We just have to be thoughtful about our approach.
Wayne Gillis. President and CEO of Rehoboth McKinley Christian Health Care Services (Gallup, N.M.): The healthcare industry is undergoing a seismic shift, and at the heart of this transformation is artificial intelligence. While AI has been making waves across industries, its impact on healthcare is particularly profound — streamlining operations, enhancing decision-making, and ultimately improving patient outcomes.
AI as a Catalyst for Operational Efficiency
One of the most significant ways AI is being leveraged in healthcare is in optimizing hospital operations. From predictive staffing models to intelligent scheduling, AI helps mitigate resource shortages while ensuring the right providers are available at the right time. By analyzing historical patient data and real-time trends, hospitals can forecast patient volume fluctuations, reducing wait times and improving care delivery.
Additionally, AI-driven automation is reshaping administrative workflows. Tasks such as medical coding, billing, and patient documentation can now be streamlined using natural language processing algorithms, allowing healthcare staff to focus more on patient care rather than paperwork. This not only reduces burnout but also enhances overall efficiency and accuracy.
AI-Driven Decision-Making: A CEO’s Perspective
From a CEO’s perspective, AI is a game-changer in strategic decision-making. The ability to leverage predictive analytics enables leaders to make data-driven decisions with greater confidence. AI provides real-time insights into hospital performance, financial health, patient outcomes, and workforce management, allowing CEOs to identify inefficiencies, allocate resources effectively, and drive operational excellence.
Risk management is another critical area where AI is making an impact. AI-powered tools can predict patient deterioration, reduce preventable medical errors, and flag compliance risks, helping executives maintain quality standards and regulatory compliance.
Moreover, AI can enhance financial sustainability by optimizing revenue cycle management, reducing waste, and identifying cost-saving opportunities. By integrating AI into financial forecasting and budget planning, hospital CEOs can make proactive, informed decisions that align with long-term organizational goals.
Enhancing Patient Experience and Engagement
AI is also redefining patient engagement. Virtual health assistants and chatbots provide patients with 24/7 access to medical information, appointment scheduling, and symptom checkers, improving accessibility and convenience. Moreover, AI-driven remote monitoring solutions enable proactive care management for chronic disease patients, reducing unnecessary hospital visits and enabling early intervention.
Overcoming Challenges and Ethical Considerations
Despite its promise, integrating AI into healthcare comes with challenges. Concerns around data privacy, algorithm bias, and the need for regulatory oversight must be addressed to ensure ethical AI deployment. Additionally, while AI can enhance decision-making, it should complement — not replace — human expertise. A balanced approach that prioritizes transparency, accountability, and continuous learning is key.
The Future of AI in Healthcare
As AI continues to evolve, its role in healthcare will only expand. From AI-assisted surgeries to drug discovery, the possibilities are endless. For healthcare leaders, embracing AI is no longer optional — it is a necessity for driving efficiency, improving care delivery, and staying ahead in an increasingly complex industry.
The question is no longer if AI should be leveraged in healthcare, but rather how organizations can harness its full potential to drive meaningful change. How is your healthcare organization embracing AI to transform operations and decision-making? The time to act is now.
Michael Prokopis. Vice President of Supply Chain at MD Anderson Cancer Center (Houston): MD Anderson’s supply chain is actively involved in several key AI projects designed to drive costs down and improve overall efficacy to support patient care. While applications of Generative AI continue to garner a great deal of attention, machine learning still has an important role. Whether through computer vision combined with machine learning and/or demand planning, machine learning enables our team to predict supply chain volumes 12-18 months into the future. By activating these approaches today, we can yield ROIs recognized within one year.
Chad Konchak. System Assistant Vice President of Data Analytics at Endeavor Health (Evanston, Ill.): AI is changing the way we address health disparities by uncovering social drivers of health that offer a deeper understanding of our patients’ needs. Important details about a patient’s circumstances are often spread across multiple healthcare encounters, making it challenging for clinicians to know who is in need of extra support. With AI-enabled natural language processing, we can identify at-risk patients in our emergency departments — such as those facing housing instability or food insecurity — allowing our social workers to intervene sooner and more effectively. By unlocking this critical SDOH data, we’ve not only improved patient care but also freed up our social workers to focus less on chart review and more on delivering real, meaningful impact.
Scott Ulrich. Vice President of Finance at Houston Methodist Hospital: Houston Methodist has deployed several AI solutions aimed at helping to manage the patient’s care at the bedside. Virtual ICU provides algorithms to allow remote staff to assist with the management of very complex patients in intensive care. Similarly patient bio buttons allow remote staff to monitor even small changes or trends with patient vital signs to facilitate early intervention.
We are leveraging computer vision, a subset of AI, to help improve our understanding of time stamps, case durations, scheduling behaviors, and in turn drive operational changes resulting in better OR utilization, capacity management and reduction of overtime. This project will move us from traditional ways of managing the OR schedules to do AI enhanced operations.
Richard O. Davis, PhD. CEO of Rochester (N.Y.) Regional Health: As the healthcare workforce declines and our population ages, we face a critical challenge — there aren’t enough caregivers to meet growing needs. However, we’ve made promising strides with AI-assisted technologies like virtual nursing for 24/7 monitoring to provide more personalized, patient-centered care and ambient listening to streamline real-time transcription for physicians.
Our goal is to facilitate quicker discharges, improve patient-centered care, and enhance both the patient and physician experience. Digital initiatives to streamline workflows and reduce administrative burdens saved clinicians over 86,000 hours in 2024 — time redirected to patient care. These efforts are already making a significant impact, and we’re excited to expand further to support both patients and providers in the year ahead.
Lauralyn Brown, DNP, MSN, RN. Quality Director of Methodist Mansfield (Texas) Medical Center: We are highly engaged with RAPID AI, a company that helps us identify potential Large Vessel Occlusive Strokes. The AI technology provides our physicians clinical decision support within a few minutes and allows the care team to coordinate patient care. Our radiologist receives real-time feedback from CT results that help to determine whether or not a patient would benefit from a thrombectomy procedure. This AI technology is helping to improve patient outcomes and save lives from the devastating results from stroke.
Darryl Elmouchi, MD. COO of Providence (Renton, Wash.): With our industry experiencing nationwide staffing shortages and high rates of burnout, Providence has been integrating AI into our daily work to enhance the patient experience, reduce clinician burnout and elevate care.
Operationally, we’ve experienced real progress with developing innovations that are helping caregivers and patients. Two good examples of this are AI-powered tools to manage the provider inbasket: Grace and ProvARIA. These tools focus on answering patients’ questions before they send a message to their provider. And when patients do send a message to their provider, AI classifies the patient messages, directs the messages to the appropriate caregiver and pre-drafts responses, reducing physician and clinician workloads.
Another example is ambient listening, which assists clinicians in charting and documentation during patient interactions. Physician-patient conversations are automatically transcribed and uploaded directly to Epic and Providence’s EHR through tools such as Nuance’s DAX, removing the technological barrier that typically inhibits personal connection in exam rooms.
Overall, Providence is excited by the potential for AI to help physicians, caregivers and partners deliver the best possible care to those we serve.
Zahra “Nasim” Eftekhari. Executive Director of Applied AI and Data Science at City of Hope (Duarte, Calif.): Approximately 20% of cancer clinical trials fail to reach completion due to insufficient patient enrollment, highlighting a critical bottleneck in advancing cancer research. Moreover, only about 7% of cancer patients participate in trials, limiting their access to potentially beneficial therapies and hindering the development of new treatments. A major obstacle lies in effectively matching patients with eligible clinical trials. This difficulty stems from the complexity of patients’ clinical histories, often documented in lengthy and unstructured text formats, and the extensive list of eligibility criteria that define each trial.
We have developed AI solutions which leverage advanced analytics and large language model technology to improve the efficiency and accuracy of research operations by automating the consent process and the screening of patient records and determining their match to relevant clinical trials. Our aim is to enhance patient participation and recruitment for clinical trials, ultimately accelerating the discovery and validation of new cancer therapeutics and improving patient outcomes.
Ryan Younger. Vice President of Marketing at Virtua Health (Marlton, N.J.): AI is transforming marketing in so many specialized disciplines. We continue to see perhaps the largest impact for marketing in analytics, identifying risk-based propensity audiences. For the past five years, we have developed a successful program, connecting people to services they need by targeting the right content, to the right person, at the right time.
Christine Larson, RN, BSN. Vice President of Medical Group Operations, North Wisconsin Area at Advocate Health (Charlotte, N.C.): The single most impactful way Advocate Health is leveraging AI in our medical group is through maximizing clinician efficiency with clinical documentation. Using AI assisted documentation tools to memorialize clinical information in the electronic medical record is literally saving time and eliminating inefficiencies associated with time spent on documentation, which allows our clinicians more time at the bedside or in the exam rooms to focus their complete attention on their patients. It’s also having a positive impact on clinician well-being and work/life balance!
Alina Moran. President of Dignity Health (San Francisco), California Hospital Medical Center: At California Hospital Medical Center, we are leveraging ERAdvisor, an AI-powered platform, to transform our emergency department, improving patient care and operational efficiency while promoting health equity. As a safety-net hospital serving a diverse population, we prioritize equitable access to information. ERAdvisor addresses this by providing real-time updates, wayfinding, and discharge instructions in patients’ preferred languages, regardless of literacy or language barriers. This reduces patient anxiety and empowers them in their health care journey.
Operationally, ERAdvisor’s AI-driven insights optimize patient flow, reduce wait times, and alleviate staff communication burdens. It provides real-time data on patient volume, staffing needs, and common issues, enabling proactive resource allocation and bottleneck mitigation. This data-driven approach ensures equitable access to care and improves overall department efficiency. Ultimately, ERAdvisor serves as an AI tool that helps us deliver high-quality, respectful care to every patient, regardless of their background, ensuring no one is left behind.
David Marcozzi, MD. Chief Clinical Officer of University of Maryland Medical Center; Associate Dean of Clinical Affairs at University of Maryland School of Medicine (Baltimore): The University of Maryland Medical Center, the academic flagship of the University of Maryland Medical System, is committed to the thoughtful adoption of artificial intelligence tools. Our adoption of AI encompasses various levels of healthcare delivery, impacting both direct patient care and hospital operations. Key areas of implementation include:
- AI for clinical decision support: We are utilizing AI technologies to enhance clinical knowledge and decision-making. For instance, tools designed for early sepsis detection and readmission risk assessment empower healthcare providers to make timely and informed decisions, ultimately improving patient safety and outcomes.
- AI for clinical efficiency: Innovations like DAX Copilot leverage ambient listening and note summarization to streamline physician workflows. By reducing the administrative burden on clinicians, we enable them to focus more on patient interactions and care, enhancing the overall patient experience.
- AI for operational efficiency: We are also implementing AI solutions to optimize various operational aspects of our hospitals. This includes improving operating room scheduling to maximize resource utilization and enhance surgical throughput.
Greg Mazanek, MD. Chief Medical Officer and Physician Director of Cardiovascular Service Line Central and Northern Indiana at Ascension Saint Vincent’s Heart Center (Carmel, Ind.): Unfortunately, our system is just crawling out from a cyberattack mid 2024, and this has put many new initiatives on hold. Personally I’ve found ChatGPT to be a very helpful resource for information regarding healthcare in general. It helps me find useful information when prompted precisely, and is valuable for literature searches. I’m looking forward to the Annual Becker’s meeting to see what progress has been made in AI products in the last 12 months. Like so many other systems our challenge is which horse to choose, and when to jump on.
David Rahija. President of Endeavor Medical Group Operations (Evanston, Ill.): Healthcare will always be dependent on skilled caregivers providing expert, compassionate care. However, AI has the ability to augment the care our providers and team members provide to elevate outcomes and make work easier. We are looking to leverage AI to ease documentation burdens of our care teams. This will quickly become table stakes for healthcare organizations. As a truly integrated health system, at Endeavor Health we are looking at going beyond daily work and differentiating ourselves in the seamless delivery of care, along the continuum of care, for our patients, families, and providers. AI will be transformational to facilitate connecting all of the care points as a patient moves through an episode of care or longitudinally through a chronic illness or a lifespan. AI has the ability to be transformative to achieve our vision of providing safe, seamless, and personal care — every person, every time.
Kathy Bereston. Vice President of Revenue Cycle Performance Improvement and Employed Clinical Network at Ascension Health (St. Louis): There is ongoing discussion about the most impactful applications of artificial intelligence in healthcare delivery. Within revenue cycle and patient access, much of the focus has been on authorization and ways to streamlining workflows. A key priority is leveraging AI to create seamless access to care while maintaining the essential human interactions and empathy that define the patient experience. While AI holds great promise in optimizing resources, lowering costs, reducing burnout, and improving access, its implementation also presents potential challenges that must be carefully considered.
Rick L. Stevens. President of Christian Hospital and Northwest HealthCare (St. Louis): Our clinicians continue to experiment with emerging AI-powered tools that further our vision of being a place where people want to work, physicians want to practice and patients want to come for their care. We are seeing promising results from timesaving technology that allows physicians to dedicate more time to face-to-face connection with patients. While many AI programs are in their infancy, we look forward to evaluating other diagnostic and administrative tools as they develop so our patients can continue to benefit from excellent personal care assisted with the latest technology.
Mark Coticchia. Corporate Vice President of Innovation at Baptist Health South Florida (Coral Gables, Fla.): Our hospital system has a very deep store of patient data regarding a broad variety of ethnic populations. We are engaged in deidentifying and marrying that data with a patient’s deidentified treatment images to enable an evaluation of various treatment options based upon prior results of treatment of similar disease states. This will benefit a healthcare provider’s decision-making process as well as commercial collaborators seeking such data.
Jerome B. Myers, MD, PhD. Chief Medical Officer of Mercy Medical Center Redding (Calif.): The use of a commercial artificial intelligence platform that allows for rapid detection of a large vessel occlusion in stroke patients has significantly impacted patient care. This allows for rapid identification of the LVO, review of the study within a matter of minutes, rapid transfer of patients when needed, and activation of the stroke team; all of which improves patient outcomes. We also are seeing the use of AI within care coordination / case management where the program provides recommendations of post-discharge needs early on in the hospitalization.
Bess Wildman. Vice Dean of Academic Administration and Finance at UChicago Medicine: One of the biggest challenges we hear from our clinicians is the administrative burdens of care. We are trying to leverage AI to help us ease those burdens and we are also trying to use it in administrative spaces like revenue cycle. I recently read Co-Intelligence which repeatedly reminded readers that the AI we are working with today will be the worst AI we will ever encounter. Another other point the book makes is to remind readers that AI is very capable, but it is not human. Therefore, at UChicago we are inviting AI in and helping direct its use as a tool to help our patients, our learners, our providers and our staff and shape their work to be more meaningful and value added. We don’t see a place where AI will replace our clinicians, scientists and administrative staff but we do see a time, in the not too distant future where AI will be an accelerator for our people so they can spend more time in the most value-added activities.
Marschall Runge, MD, PhD. Dean of University of Michigan Medical School; Executive Vice President of Medical Affairs at the University of Michigan; CEO of Michigan Medicine (Ann Arbor): At Michigan Medicine, we are actively exploring AI across multiple domains. A top priority is leveraging AI for decision support and diagnostics, starting at the initial patient contact through our contact center. We are also advancing AI-driven solutions in revenue cycle management, including prior authorization, billing, and coding. While we have yet to implement AI for denial management, many insurers already use it — and now, in Michigan, a major payer is threatening to invoke penalties for health systems appealing denials. AI holds immense potential in this space, and we are committed to harnessing its power to improve efficiency and patient care.
Nariman Heshmati, MD. Chief Physician and Operations Executive at Lee Physician Group (Fort Myers, FL): I think the most impactful way we are leveraging AI is identifying common healthcare challenges and then identifying AI solutions that can offer practical solutions. This has to be less about taking AI solutions and searching for places to use them and more about finding pain points and asking if AI is ready to be implemented right now to solve the problem at hand. As an example, we have rolled out AI scribes which has significantly cut back the documentation burdens for our clinicians and can do so in perpetuity with minimal additional resource expenditure.
Rawle “Tony” Seupaul, MD. Executive Vice President and Chief Physician Executive of Carilion Clinic (Roanoke, Va.): We’ve used artificial intelligence at Carilion for years, and it continues to transform the way we work by improving patient outcomes, productivity and efficiency. Most impactful of late has been the integration of a range of AI-enabled tools in our electronic health record. For example, we’re now using AI to draft responses to medical questions patients submit via MyChart and AI voice transcription technology to summarize and enter conversations between clinicians and patients directly into the medical record. Other tools help proactively identify patients in need of palliative care or at risk of hospital admission, developing sepsis or other adverse events.
Dan Shields. CEO of Digital Medicine at Ochsner Health (New Orleans): We are currently leveraging AI to reduce the burden on our providers and to assist in accurate documentation as well as a number of other ways to improve efficiency. However, moving forward, we anticipate looking at ways to bring AI technologies to bear to improve the patient experience and help drive outcomes within our clinics and interactive programs.
James E. Moore, MD, PhD. President of Connecticut Children’s Specialty Group and Chief Clinical Network Development Officer at Connecticut Children’s (Hartford): Connecticut Children’s is leveraging AI in a number of ways already. We are using natural language processing to improve provider notes, reduce the time on documentation, and improve care coordination. AI is also utilized in robotic Assisted surgery helping to increase precision and decrease clinical risk with fetal and other surgeries.
Danielle Scheurer, MD. Chief Quality Officer of MUSC Health System: We recently implemented ambient listening technology for our providers. After a lengthy pilot, we found high satisfaction and efficiency with the technology and are now opening up to providers across the health system. This will help our providers focus on the patient, improve their efficiency, and reduce the likelihood of after-hour documentation burdens.
Sidney H. Raymond, MD. Chief Medical Officer of Ochsner Health Network (New Orleans): One of the most impactful uses of AI currently would be ambient listening. At Ochsner the majority of primary care encounters were completed with assistance from the technology and we are extending it to specialty areas currently. We have seen a reduction of over 20 minutes of pajama time for those that were spending at least 90 minutes in the chart after hours. This has been a significant satisfier as we attempt to increase the joy of practice throughout the organization.
Denzil Ross. President of South Region at Indiana University Health: One impactful way AI can be a game changer is using it to build and promoting strong and resilient teams which comes from fostering highly effective and collaborative work spaces. Using AI powered tools like ‘Align With Me’ helps to optimize my team’s efficiency through detailed personal user guides that can be shared and used as a framework in how we manage conflict and support each other.
Align is an executive coaching agent, trained on your style, to support and develop your team’s effectiveness.
Samantha Yang. Project Manager of Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute at Northwestern Medicine: At the Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute at Northwestern Medicine, AI is playing an exciting role in both patient care and operational efficiency. While much of AI’s impact is seen in the technology we provide for staff and patients, such as BioDigital display boards in patient rooms and advanced patient tracking systems that will optimize rooming and workflow in the future, it also has a growing presence in project management.
In my role, I leverage AI primarily for dashboards and design visualization. AI-driven dashboards help streamline project tracking, providing real-time insights that allow for more efficient decision-making. Additionally, AI-powered design tools enable us to create 3D mock-ups and visualizations, helping bridge the gap between concept and reality. It’s incredible to see AI-generated designs evolve into physical spaces that ultimately enhance patient care.
As an early careerist, it’s been exciting to witness how AI is shaping healthcare construction and operations. While we’re still in the early stages of fully integrating AI into project workflows, its ability to improve visualizations, streamline processes, and enhance the patient experience is already making a tangible impact.
Lynly Jeanlouis. Senior Director of Quality at Episcopal Health Services (Far Rockaway, N.Y.): AI is revolutionizing our approach to quality improvement by identifying care gaps more efficiently and proactively. We leverage AI to scrub patient charts, pinpointing gaps in care related to HEDIS measures, which allows us to reach out to patients in need of screenings, follow-ups, or preventive care. This targeted outreach not only helps close those gaps but also improves patient outcomes and ensures compliance with quality standards. By integrating AI into our workflow, we’re enhancing efficiency, driving better health outcomes, and strengthening overall care coordination.
Jill Wiedemann-West. CEO of People Incorporated Mental Health Services (Eagan, Minn.): At People Incorporated, we are taking a thoughtful and careful approach to implementing AI to enhance our EHR system, financial data management, and customer relationship platform.
As we continue identifying ways to leverage AI, it will help our organization enhance service delivery, improve data-driven decision-making, and streamline administrative processes. By integrating AI-powered analytics, we gain deeper insights into client needs and internal data, allowing us to allocate resources more effectively and personalize mental health care.
AI also supports our workforce by automating routine tasks, reducing administrative burdens, and enabling our clinicians to focus more on direct client care. As we explore AI’s potential, our goal remains the same: to improve access to quality mental health services and drive better outcomes for the individuals we serve.
T.Y. Alvin Liu, MD. Endowed Professor of AI Oversight Team and Inaugural Director, James P. Gills Jr. MD and Heather Gills Artificial Intelligence Innovation Center at Johns Hopkins Medicine (Baltimore): Autonomous AI for diabetic retinopathy screening in primary care clinics. DR is the leading cause of blindness in the working-age population around the world, and its burden is expected to increase exponentially. Autonomous AI for DR screening was the first fully autonomous AI system in any medical field to be approved by the FDA in 2018, and to date, it is the 2nd most commonly deployed medical AI product in the real world across the U.S. Since 2020, Johns Hopkins Medicine has deployed this technology across primary care clinics, and is the first to comprehensively evaluate the impact of this technology on the entire adult diabetic population (>17,000) in an U.S. integrated health system. We demonstrated that autonomous AI was associated with improved adherence to annual DR screening (a HEDIS measure) and access on a population level. The improvement was particularly pronounced in historically disadvantaged populations, such as patients under Medicaid coverage and Black/African Americans.
Edward S. Kim, MD. Vice Physician-in-Chief, City of Hope National Medical Center (Duarte, Calif.); Physician-in-Chief, City of Hope Orange County: As one of the largest and most advanced cancer organizations in the United States, City of Hope offers an extensive range of clinical cancer trials that truly set us apart. Now, we are harnessing artificial intelligence to build on this legacy of innovation. For example, City of Hope has developed an oncology-specific large language model trained on more than 8 billion words from clinical, radiology, and pathology notes. This model is enhancing clinical trial matching and data structuring. Additionally, AI algorithms are optimizing patient selection for trials and procedures, helping to advance precision medicine.
Recognizing AI’s growing role in cancer research, we are proactively mitigating the potential for bias. Our approach includes ensuring diverse data representation, rigorous testing across populations, and maintaining transparency in AI decision-making. This effort spans multiple research teams, with continuous monitoring and refinement to uphold fairness and accuracy. We have no doubt that AI will accelerate groundbreaking treatments and cures. Equally important, we are committed to ensuring these advancements improve outcomes for all — regardless of race, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status.
Irene Bolis. Administrative Clinic Director of Neurosciences Institute at Atrium Health (Charlotte, N.C.): AI is being utilized in various ways to enhance our operations and decision-making capabilities. One significant application is within our patient rooms, where AI is used for dictation. This technology allows our providers to be relieved of the task of note-taking during appointments, enabling them to focus more on the patient. As a result, the patient’s experience is significantly improved. Additionally, we prioritize ensuring that our AI solutions are equitable, valid, reliable, and transparent.
Ngozi Ezike, MD. President and CEO of Sinai Chicago: As a safety net, we lack financial resources to invest in AI the way others might even as we recognize the cost-saving opportunities it can provide over time. We’re using AI to support and enhance predictive analytics and address repetitive actions and activities. This includes things like call center technology to ease patient scheduling and self-service options, helping reduce no shows and cancellations. We’re also looking at AI options to support clinical note taking and documentation, freeing up more time for physicians to spend on patient care and engagement.
Thomas W. Scott. President and CEO of CentraState Healthcare System (Freehold, N.J.): As part of Atlantic Health System, CentraState has a great many AI solutions that we are able to leverage, most notably in the field of imaging. AI applications automate the first steps in our image analysis process, which means critical findings are recognized and prioritized faster. Our cardiovascular team is using AI technology to combine 3D cardiac imaging with AI to improve artery visualization and inform treatment decisions. The scope and capabilities of AI continue to mature in a way that supports our physicians as they continue to provide exceptional care at CentraState.
Tiffany Lawrence. President and CEO of Sanford Health Fargo Region (N.D.): At Sanford Health, we are looking at AI from three perspectives: How can new emerging AI technologies improve the patient experience for the rural populations we serve? How can AI bring joy back to medicine and strengthen clinician retention in rural areas? How can AI help us streamline operations, make workflows more efficient and reduce overall costs?
North Dakota has one of the highest rates of colon cancer in the country. Our GI physicians approached our enterprise data analytics team wanting to better understand factors driving an increase in colon cancer diagnoses, and ultimately developed a comprehensive AI-based model which identifies genetic, environmental and lifestyle factors that could put patients at an increased risk for colon cancer. The algorithm is embedded in the electronic medical record and designed to support clinicians in their decision-making when it comes to recommending colorectal cancer screenings for patients. We are also using new AI technology to perform colonoscopies at Sanford Fargo Medical Center to increase detection of pre-cancerous polyps, which can lead to colorectal cancer. Our goal is to ensure every patient receives world-class care, including essential screenings for colorectal cancer, to improve early detection.
As another example, we have deployed virtual nursing which uses ‘ambient intelligence’ technology to support our nurses and patients. Our nurses have embraced this new way of delivering care. The ability to rotate between roles, working remotely for part of their shifts, has improved job satisfaction and helped to prevent burnout. We have also been able to adjust staffing based on the busiest times in our hospital – a win-win for our nurses and patients.
About six months ago, we launched a pilot for our clinicians to use AI-enabled software that securely records their conversation with a patient during a visit using ‘ambient listening.’ The tool transcribes notes from the visit in the electronic medical record in real-time. We have already seen significant improvements in physician satisfaction and the patient experience, and we look forward to expanding the pilot.
We remain committed to embracing new innovative technologies to strengthen access, quality and sustainability in rural America.
Christopher Douglas, EdD. Houston Market CEO of River Oaks Hospital & Clinics and East Houston Hospital & Clinics: As a CEO in healthcare, the most impactful way we’re leveraging AI is by integrating it into both clinical and operational processes to enhance efficiency, improve patient outcomes, and drive data-driven decision-making. However, it’s important to emphasize that AI is not replacing human expertise — it’s augmenting it. Our healthcare professionals remain at the heart of patient care, and AI serves as a powerful tool to support and enhance their work, not replace it.
On the clinical side, AI is revolutionizing diagnostics and personalized treatment plans. We utilize AI-powered imaging analysis for faster and more accurate disease detection, predictive analytics to identify at-risk patients, and natural language processing (NLP) to streamline clinical documentation. These applications reduce physician burnout and enhance patient care by enabling earlier interventions.
Operationally, AI is transforming how we optimize resource allocation, reduce administrative burdens, and improve patient flow. By leveraging machine learning algorithms, we’re enhancing supply chain management, predicting patient admission trends, and automating routine administrative tasks like billing and claims processing. AI-driven chatbots and virtual assistants are also improving patient engagement by providing timely information and scheduling support.
From a strategic perspective, AI-driven analytics allow us to make more informed decisions by identifying patterns in vast amounts of healthcare data. Whether it’s optimizing workforce deployment, enhancing financial forecasting, or ensuring regulatory compliance, AI enables us to act proactively rather than reactively.
Ultimately, AI is not just a tool but a fundamental driver of transformation in our healthcare organization, allowing us to deliver higher-quality, more accessible, and cost-effective care — while ensuring that human expertise remains at the core of everything we do.
Alex Barkan, MD. Vice Chairman and Surgery Director of Bariatrics at Richmond University Hospital (Staten Island, N.Y.): AI has not hit our practices just yet but it is definitely on the horizon, particularly in the office setting during patient visits. Recording all spoken conversations and then sorting it into a soap note format will help keep all the discussions on file and help plan care.
Brandon Dickey, RN. Executive Vice President, Chief Quality Officer and Chief of Hospital Operations at T.J. Regional Health (Glasgow, Ky.): We are looking at ways to leverage AI in many areas…but only where it makes sense and where it is safe. It will never replace a clinician’s judgement but should rather be used to make the clinician more efficient or for them to have easier access to data. We use Cerner Community Works as our EMR and they are looking at many ways AI can assist in that space. We also use AI to help with data gathering, analytics, and in our strategic decision making process. AI can be a wonderful tool when it is used appropriately, but expectations should continue to remain that it will not take the place of a clinician’s judgement with our patients.
Pranavi Sreeramoju, MD. Former Vice President and Chief Quality Officer: AI has been transformational in healthcare and there are visible and prominent changes occurring all around us at a rapid pace. The obvious transformational benefit is large scale data analyses and summarizing. However, I am most excited about charting physician patient interactions. Some tools listen to the visit and generate a summary that the physician can edit in the end, some create draft notes based on chart reviews and voice dictations during the rounds. They have amazing potential to reduce physician pajama time for writing notes. AI is also amazing for summarizing large numbers of articles and literature reviews. They also help with mundane things like copy editing and paraphrasing. They are very helpful for case management and transitions of care, helping keep up with frequent updates to care events and clinical conditions. The limitations are confabulations and some comical exaggerations. They are also limited by when the AI tool itself is upgraded as unlike humans, they don’t learn in real time. They learn when their knowledge modules are updated. Another limitation is what the inputting parameters are and what’s in the algorithms, which could introduce significant biases and perpetuate errors of the past.
Andrew Chang, Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer at UChicago Medicine (Chicago): We’ve leveraged AI in ways that unite in service of a single goal: reducing friction for our patients. In marketing, you have to be disciplined to see yourself and your team as advocates for your patients. For us at UChicago Medicine, we look at the patient and provider journey from an empathic view, and use that perspective to identify pain points and create potential solutions.
AI has been an incredibly powerful tool in this respect. It helps us gather and analyze data much more efficiently, and allows us to turn that information into actionable insights across multiple channels.
We’ve implemented both generative AI and agentic AI as part of our continued efforts to transform how we make and execute our strategy to serve patients. For example, UChicago Medicine was one of the first health systems to use GenAI to automate and optimize physician bios on our website, which helps more people find doctors who best fit their care needs. AI also helps our team refine email marketing campaigns and tailor them for specific audiences. Patients will see other benefits too. Agentic AI enables systems to perform tasks independently and can automate a number of simple processes, like parking suggestions and appointment check-ins. We have also launched an ambitious omnichannel patient engagement strategy, joining forces with our ambulatory operations, IT, clinical leads and other colleagues to bust down the antiquated notion of a digital front door. Together, we’re using AI to deliver healthcare on our patients’ terms, not ours.
In every area, AI can be a tool that complements and amplifies the skills and talents of our team, and helps us devote more effort to high-impact priorities that increase efficiency, improve revenue, and ultimately serve our patients in a more meaningful way.
