In the nearly three years since ChatGPT was introduced, artificial intelligence (AI) has been touted as transformative, revolutionary, and innovative – and understandably so.
GenAI has been shown to increase efficiency, reduce burnout, and improve patient experience by automating routine tasks and facilitating data entry.
One thing it’s not? Magic, according to Deepti Pandita, MD, CMIO and VP of Clinical Informatics, UCI Health. “AI is math, not magic,” she said during a recent interview. “The math has existed for decades.” What has changed is the way it’s being leveraged.
“People have so many different conceptual thought processes when it comes to AI,” she noted. And while it has shown significant potential in easing the administrative burden, the clinical world is a different animal. “That’s where I have some concerns. And it’s where governance and strategy comes into play.”
A big part of that strategy is providing the right education for users. During the interview, Pandita talked about the approach her team has adopted at UCI Health, their development work in LLMs, and how AI can serve as a uniter.
Deepti Pandita, MD
Many of the concerns that Pandita – and other leaders – harbor are rooted in the dramatic changes that algorithms have endured in the recent years. “Twenty years ago, people were doing their due diligence,” she said. “There was a process that you would run in the background for a period of time, and then turn it on and do a side-by-side comparison. You would do outcome analysis, look at papers published.”
The AI race, however, has changed all of that. And as the technology continues to evolve at a rapid rate, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to ensure users understand the importance of transparency and guardrails around data, along with how algorithms are being developed. “Educating the clinical workforce is the biggest challenge we have,” Pandita said.
To that end, her team has developed a multifaceted approach that starts with an AI readiness assessment. Tailored specifically toward the audience – whether that’s healthcare workers, faculty or undergrad students – the 60-question survey aims to create a baseline from which learnings are developed. The objective is to “get to the core of AI knowledge” by asking questions such as, ‘do you understand the difference between a query and a prompt?’
What they’ve found is that although residents and medical schools have more experience using AI, “they don’t know the guardrails. They don’t know the governance piece,” she stated. “They may use it very proficiently in their personal lives, but they don’t understand that if it’s being used on patients, it can cause harm down the road.”
That’s where education comes in. And not just the ‘what,’ but the ‘how,’ Pandita stated. “We know that the attention span and time availability for the average clinician is no more than 5 to 10 minutes.”
The solution her team has proposed? A series of microlearnings that are constantly being updated based on new information. “We know that we can’t just deliver information through a learning management system and sign off,” she said. “We have to constantly update the content so that it’s an iterative process.”
And it has to be one that caters to the unique needs of clinicians – something Pandita understands well. “We know that they won’t learn if it’s offered during patient care hours,” she said. She also knows that “if you present it in a didactic manner, they’ll disengage. You have to engage clinicians where they are, when they’re available, and in a manner in which they like to learn.”
They’re even looking at gamification and reward systems, she said.
It’s that innovative spirit that led UCI Health to develop its own LLM agent – which interestingly “wasn’t a huge lift,” according to Pandita. And it addressed a critical need. “We have a very lean team of trainers, and we couldn’t get to people fast enough to provide at-the-elbow support.”
And so, they decided to leverage their “huge repository,” and create an agent embedded in the EMR that enables users to ask questions. “It has branching logic where the bot leads you to a knowledge document,” she said. If it can’t reach a resolution, a live agent gets involved.
That way, “there’s still a human in the loop. But it has taken a huge burden off by not having someone monitor the chat 24-7, and the physicians are getting support in a more timely manner,” she said. “It’s a win-win.”
Another key victory has come in AI’s ability to break down barriers by generating notes in the patient’s preferred language. This way, “they’re more engaged with their care, because we’re able to have a conversation with them or their interpreter, and the note is still in English, which is needed for regulatory purposes,” she added. “From this lens, AI doesn’t have to be a divider. It can be a great uniter.”
And it can lead to better long-term outcomes, which is the ultimate goal with any tool. The add-on benefit is the potential that solutions like ambient listening have already shown in alleviating some of the cognitive load. “It’s always increasing, so if we can make a dent in that and offset one thing from everything else they have to remember, that’s huge.”
Technology is critical, but it’s not what will get a healthcare organization through a storm – or any disastrous event, for that matter. In fact, it is becoming clear that the best way to prepare for, or manage through, an emergency situation is to learn how to survive without technology.
“You have to be ready for the worst-case scenario,” said Will Landry, SVP & CIO, Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System. “If there’s a massive outage, what are you going to do?”
Leaders are learning that being prepared for a disaster – whether natural or technical in nature – requires hands-on knowledge of how to operate the systems in place and executive backup plans.
“We have to adapt to everything around us because at the end of the day, it’s not just about technology; it’s about protecting patients,” said Pam Austin, CIO, Ballad Health. “Our hospitals are the heartbeat of the community, so it’s our responsibility to make sure that heartbeat never stops.”
Both Austin and Landry have experienced heart-stopping scenarios and have come out with a more firm grasp on how to prepare their teams and organizations. Recently, both leaders shared their stories and offered advice for others on how to weather the storms.
Pam Austin
For a geographically dispersed organization like Ballad, one of the most significant challenges is ensuring patients have access to care, regardless of location. Not surprisingly, the 20-hospital IDN, which provides coverage in multiple states, has “areas that are hard to reach,” according to Austin. “Sometimes the provider is the only lifeline for patients.”
For that reason, her team has made care continuity a core focus, and has established a multifaceted strategy to help prevent and manage disasters.
The ‘people’ component proved particularly pertinent last September, when Unicoi County Hospital, located in Erwin, Tenn., was destroyed by Hurricane Helene. All staff and patients had to be evacuated – several via airlift – due to flooding, and were transferred either to clinics or to the local high school that served as a shelter.
Among the many lessons learned? “Our staff is resilient,” Austin stated. “We can care for patients even outside of the four walls. Another is the value of preparation. “We know now, more than ever, that tabletop exercises are vital. It can be time-consuming, but it’s very clear to use considering what we’ve been through. We know the ‘why.’”
They also now understand that it isn’t just the physical toll that can affect individuals. For leaders, that means “you have to plan for a catastrophe and make sure your teams know what to do, because it is emotional,” she said. “All of a sudden, the infrastructure that’s in place to care for patients is gone, and you have to be ready to stand up care, whether it’s in a high school gym or a tent.
And it needs to be known and understand how that is going to happen. “Here’s how we can keep you connected. Here’s how we can deliver the EMR and all the technology you need to take care of the patient,” she added.
Beyond creating a business continuity plan, it’s ensuring that it is documented and rehearsed, and the community – including clinicians – is prepared. “This is not an IT exercise. It’s an operations exercise that is vital to the people caring for patients,” noted Austin. “At the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about.”
Will Landry
Having spent several years in the Louisiana area – including his tenures with Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System (FMOL Health), which began in January 2020 – Landry is no stranger to storms.
But when Hurricane Ida ripped through Louisiana in 2021, it introduced a new disaster scenario for his team when its major carrier, AT&T experienced a hard wireless outage. “The local equipment and local exchanges were out,” he recalled. “There was no landline, no fiber – no phones in or out.”
When the emergency abated, his team decided to split corporate cell phone service between two vendors: AT&T and Verizon. “We had some tough conversations and decided that we can’t be totally dependent on one carrier from a wireless perspective.” In fact, they added some T-Mobile devices as well, as their towers are located in different areas.
Another critical move was to establish backup satellite communications, which are tested frequently to ensure providers can contact regional medical centers, trauma centers, helicopters, or emergency services to help transfer patients to other facilities. The move paid off during the storms of 2024, when Franciscan brought in FirstNet and AT&T trucks to enable satellite communications.
Similarly, they host virtual desktop infrastructures to avoid dependence on data centers. “All of our tier zero, one, and two systems are hosted virtually,” he said. That way, “from a critical infrastructure perspective, if we have a physical network failure at one facility, we’re not dependent on a data center based in Baton Rouge, for example. We’re able to burst those desktops in the cloud if needed.”
As many leaders have learned, operating in isolation is never a good idea – particularly in a disaster situation. “From a technology perspective, we’ve recently started having more conversations with our peers in the area,” Landry said, including LCMC Health and Ochsner Health. And while they haven’t yet begun actively coordinating efforts, they’re still taking critical steps by laying the groundwork.
“The most important thing is that we know each other so that if there is an incident or issue, we know what’s happening and can assist, because a lot of our patients cross between these health systems,” he noted. “Five years ago, these conversations weren’t happening. We want to make sure we’re protected, and so, we believe it’s in our best interests to share intel.”
Another event that helped educate his team was the Change Healthcare breach of 2024, which prompted his team to question their procedures. “At the time, we thought, what happens if we can’t do real-time eligibility checking? Who do we call?” And importantly, if systems are offline, how can providers retrieve and document information?
“We’ve had business units come back and say, we’ll just wait for the system to come back online,’ and we’ve said, ‘what if it’s a month? And so, we’ve started talking through those options.”
Even something as simple as placing orders can become difficult during downtime, Landry noted. “We’ve made everything so electronic and easy, but what’s our process to do an order? Those are the things we walk through in our disaster preparation exercises.”
And as someone who has been through countless events, he knows the criticality of being prepared and ensuring teams are educated on what steps to take. “That’s what it’s all about.”
Any career transition can be scary, but when you throw in a physical move, it can be even more daunting. So much so that it can deter leaders from making potentially career-defining decisions, according to Susan Goodson, who turned down many upward opportunities during her tenure at University of Chicago Medicine as relocation was a requirement.
“I was constrained by geography,” she recalled. “When you have kids, friends, a spouse with a demanding career, and aging parents – your whole support system right there, it’s really hard to think about giving that up.”
What’s just as difficult, however, is living with regret. Recently, Goodson – who now serves as SVP and Chief Digital Information Officer at Ann & Robert Lurie Children’s Hospital – spoke with This Week Health about her interesting career journey and offered advice on how she has learned to navigate difficult situations and trust her gut.
Susan Goodson
One of those situations? Learning how to manage and prioritize your family while climbing the leadership ranks. It’s particularly challenging when both partners have demanding jobs, as was the case for Goodson and her husband. “We quickly realized that one of us needed to be more present at home because we wanted to put our fingerprints on our children,” she said. “I love my career and being a working mom, but my most important role is at home.”
Ultimately, she opted for a position that enabled her to remain “intellectually engaged and challenged” while still being “a steady presence” for their daughters.
Looking back, her role at Children’s Hospital Colorado expanded to include more responsibility, with project management, data warehousing and analytics, web development, and business applications falling under her purview. Her husband had an opportunity presented which led to the difficult decision to move to Chicago. Through connections, she found herself a leadership role in the IT department at the University of Chicago Medical Center. Similar to Children’s Colorado she slowly increased her responsibility, continued to deliver, and in time was moved into the Deputy CIO role. Goodson felt she – and her family – were ready to take the additional demands of this role.
As Chief of Staff to the CIO, she led several major initiatives, including ERP selection and implementation. During her tenure, she was exposed to the academic environment, which she believed helped broaden her perspective. “Being around that mindset was a great way for me to get my sea legs and build my leadership skills,” Goodson said.
After 12 years of continuing to hone her skills at UChicago Medicine, she made another change, accepting the role of VP and Associate CIO at Lurie Children’s Hospital. And although it was initially a lateral move, it quickly became a stepping stone, as Goodson was promoted to SVP and Chief Digital Information Officer earlier this year.
Of course, the path that proved successful for one individual won’t always be applicable to all, but there are strategies that can be adopted across the board. Below are some pieces of advice Goodson offered based on her own experience.
Years ago, however, it wouldn’t have been. But with two of her daughters now in college and one in high school, it has freed up some bandwidth to pursue a more time-intensive role.
Being a parent, however, has also affected her career in other ways, Goodson said, noting that “there are a lot of parallels between leadership and parenthood,” especially when it comes to empowering individuals to take ownership. “As my kids got older, I had to learn how to step back and let them figure things out,” she said. “I think that definitely bled into other parts of my life.”
It also helped her develop a greater sense of empathy. “As a young leader, I was perhaps less tolerant of people who had family commitments. Part of maturing as a leader is recognizing that and learning to be more flexible,” which in turn can help cultivate more effective teams.
Her final piece of advice is for individuals to make decisions based on what’s right for themselves and their families, and not based on expectations.
“Timing was really important to me because I had a strong desire to be present with my family,” she said. At the same time, it was critical to be able to continue to make her mark in healthcare. “I stayed in roles that kept me active in the industry, and when my family moved into a different stage, I was ready to hit the gas again.”
And not just at any organization, but one in which she feels “challenged and motivated,” said Goodson, urging colleagues to “make sure you’re making changes for the right reasons.”
Lastly, don’t be afraid to “take the leap. It’s easy to get comfortable at a place where you’ve been for a long time. But I think throwing yourself into a zone where you don’t know everything is how you grow and learn. When I reflect back, I know that’s when I’ve learned the most about myself and grown most as a leader.”
A career transition isn’t something to be taken lightly – particularly when a physical move is involved. Fortunately, taking things lightly isn’t Julie Eastman’s style.
And so, when she was weighing the decision to leave Orange County for an opportunity to take on the CIO role at PeaceHealth, a large health system based in Vancouver, Wash., Eastman admitted to being “overly cautious” during the recruiting process.
“When you’re talking about relocating your loved ones, it puts a little extra pressure on you,” she said. Not to mention the fact that PeaceHealth didn’t have a CIO in place, which meant she would have to jump into the decision-making fray quicker than usual.
Her situation, however, isn’t unusual. And as more leaders contemplate job changes – spurred largely by rising M&A numbers and budget cuts – they’re learning that each instance needs to be navigated individually, and thoughtfully. Recently, Eastman spoke with This Week Health about her recent transition, offering valuable nuggets about how to approach the recruiting and onboarding processes and how she has leveraged her clinical background.
Julie Eastman
As Eastman started to weigh the pros and cons of the opportunity at PeaceHealth, several points stood out, including the faith-based element (which played a significant role) and the organization’s dedication to transformation. The true tipping point, however, was the overall philosophy that “technology underpins everything we do,” she noted.
“When I met with the executives, it was clear that they understand the value not just of technology, but a technology delivery team. That type of language is very different from what I was used to.”
This impression, however, didn’t come from a single conversation, but rather, an entire campaign, during which Eastman leveraged every opportunity to obtain feedback about the organization. “I leveraged my network to learn everything I could,” she stated, including those who were familiar with PeaceHealth, either as employees or consultants. “I went in with eyes wide open.”
Similarly, PeaceHealth was also “a little apprehensive” to fill a role that had been vacant for a significant time period. “They were careful too,” she said. But because priorities had been put on hold, Eastman had to be ready to hit the ground running. “They were really hungry for somebody to come in and make decisions. I had to get up to speed quickly.”
It was a departure from her usual approach of “listening before leading” – a critical component of her onboarding playbook. “Having been through a number of transitions, I tend to focus on making sure I understand what’s working, what’s not working, what’s possible, what’s the culture, and where are the service gaps,” Eastman said. Doing so requires spending time with teams in both group and one-on-one settings to get a feel for how they interact and manage challenges.
And while it’s not ideal to do that in a truncated timeframe, it is possible, she said, noting that adaptability has become an essential aspect of leadership. It’s one she learned firsthand during the 15 years spent in consulting, “where you get dropped into an organization and have to figure things out pretty quickly.”
The other experiences that helped prepare for the CIO role? Her time as both a critical care nurse and clinical services manager, during which she cut her teeth as an implementation specialist. Having that knowledge, she noted, has given her a tremendous edge.
“I speak the language. I understand the impact,” Eastman said. “If you’ve spent time as a critical care nurse, not much will surprise you. You need to be able to think on your feet, and so I think it’s a great foundation for any career.”
For those who eventually move into IT roles, having a background as a nurse or physician can also help gain admittance into exclusive meetings with CMOs, CNOs, and other key leaders – as has been the case for Eastman. “I feel like I’m a very active part of the clinical cabinet. It feeds my soul.”
But while she knows firsthand the implications of changing a workflow or introducing “one more tool to a clinician,” she also realizes the importance of possessing strong technological skills. As such, “I tend to surround myself with technologists. My job is to provide the connection to healthcare operations through my leadership.”
That function is becoming increasingly vital as PeaceHealth approaches an “inflection point in its journey,” according to Eastman. “We’re looking to do a lot of transformation across the system in terms of how we’re structured, and we operate so that we’re continuing to evolve.”
At the foundation of those plans is a “basic technology modernization” that includes pulling more strategic functions in-house and creating a modern operating model. “We’re looking at what’s the future model for IT, and how we can evolve our maturity so it’s not the tail wagging the dog.”
Although she’s only a few months into the new role, Eastman feels her team is on the right track, and feels validated that the work she did prior to day one has paid off. “I went into it so carefully. I had so many great conversations, but the reality is that sometimes you end up in an environment that’s very different” than advertised, she said.
Luckily, that hasn’t been the case. “They were looking for a leader to transform the IT function, and they really have an understanding of how best to do it. It’s about organizational change – that’s the kind of work I love to do.”
For healthcare CIOs and CDIOs, career transitions have become commonplace. Whether it stems from M&A activity – and the resultant corporate restructuring – or a desire for advancement, leaders are increasingly pursuing new roles. Doing so, however, requires “a great amount of energy,” and therefore must be approached thoughtfully and strategically.
“Career transitions need to align with where you are in your personal life,” said Clara Guixa, Chief Digital Information Officer at Baystate Health. “It’s not just about the job itself. Is it the right timing?” And just as important, “How do I leave an impact?”
Clara Guixa
Recently, Guixa opened up about how she sought answers to these critical questions before taking on her current role this past June. She also talked about what drew her to the organization, and provided guidance on how to navigate a major transition.
One thing Guixa, a lifelong city resident, didn’t expect was to move to a rural part of Massachusetts. But the opportunity to apply the knowledge gained from her time at Boston Children’s Hospital and UChicago Medicine to improve care access was too good to pass up. At Baystate, “we’re looking at how to drive excellence so that we’re a destination – not only from a quality and clinical outcome perspective, but also from an experience perspective,” she noted.
A significant part of that, she knew, would involve developing a digital framework for the organization, which includes four hospitals and a large multi-specialty group spread out across a wide geographic area.
“We’re going through a lot of transition,” Guixa said. “Not just from a digital or IT perspective, but as a multidisciplinary team putting our heads together to build this membrane across Western Massachusetts.”
Not an easy feat, but one she felt prepared for after investing significant time upfront engaging in listening tours, attending town halls, and conducting interviews with clinical and administrative leaders.
The foundation for building a strong business case, however, started during the recruitment process, where Guixa made it a point to show up prepared. “You need to ask the right questions, and be very thoughtful about how you ask those questions,” she said. Guixa’s key concern? Ensuring she would have “latitude to bring recommendations forward, to elevate the position of IT, and to create a cohesive strategy,” she recalled. “To me, that’s really important.”
Also critical for new leaders? Setting the right tone and getting an accurate read of the organizational culture. For Guixa, the timing of her start couldn’t have been better, as Baystate had just conducted an engagement survey that encouraged – and received – honest feedback. “I was really lucky,” she noted. “From a service delivery standpoint, we’re only as good as the value we provide. We need to be very aligned with our teams and with the business to make sure needs are being met. And for that to happen, we need engaged employees.”
As it turned out, Baystate’s IT team garnered high scores, which Guixa hopes to build upon while addressing the challenges that were identified. “I’m learning a lot.”
And not just about what employees need to successfully do their jobs, but also about what makes them tick. “This is a close community. People tend to come here and build families. There’s a lot of history,” she said, adding that the surveys also shed light on “how people are connected, which is so important.”
Another key lesson Guixa has learned is that how leaders finish their tenures with an organization is just as important as how they start the next role. As she wrapped up her time with Boston Children’s, “it was very important for me to complete a few initiatives that we were working on, and get the team to a point where I felt they could successfully carry the work we had started,” she said.
In her case, that meant giving 30 days notice. “I appreciated the opportunity to do that,” she noted. “It also helped me to start strong.”
There’s an old saying that goes: ‘If you love something, set it free.’
Similarly, if an organization wants an innovation to thrive and make a true impact on healthcare, the same approach must be applied, according to Hank Capps, MD.
“Setting it free helps it to evolve faster,” he said. “The overriding purpose isn’t to create solutions for WellStar. We’re certainly intent on solving problems, but the purpose is to create value beyond that.”
Hank Capps, MD
It’s one of the core philosophies that has enabled Catalyst by Wellstar, the innovation arm of Georgia-based Wellstar Health System, to achieve success. Since its launch in 2021, Catalyst has initiated more than 20 pilots and continues to seek out “real-world, revolutionary ideas from across industries” to address common challenges.
Recently, Capps – who serves as both Chief Information and Digital Officer at Wellstar and President and Co-Founder of Catalyst – spoke with This Week Health about how and why the innovation company and venture firm originated; the results it has seen so far; and what sets it apart from other innovation hubs.
The impetus for Catalyst actually came several years back when Wellstar leaders sat down to revamp Wellstar’s strategic plan – and innovation was identified as a key pillar. “As we developed that approach, we developed two very basic theses,” he recalled. The first is that not all healthcare problems are solved by healthcare solutions. The second? Those closest to the patient should be shaping the problem.
That was precisely the case with Catalyst’s first spinout company. The idea for vflok, a workforce optimization solution, came from nurses who expressed dissatisfaction with the scheduling process – specifically the lack of flexibility and transparency.
“It started with a problem statement from our nurses around their schedules and ultimately evolved into an AI-powered tool that helps build connections between groups of nurses and gives them more autonomy over their schedules,” he said. And by having nurses participate in the design process, Catalyst helped ensure it was addressing their biggest pain points.
“We built technology to match the needs on the ground. We’ve already seen great feedback,” Capps said, noting that plans are in place to expand it further. “This isn’t a shiny toy. It’s not even about a scheduling platform. It’s about connecting nurses together and building that broader community.”
Beyond having an ear to the ground, another key to his team’s success is their atypical approach to the incubation process.
Most of the time, venture funds have a very specific focus,” he said, and tend not to keep an innovation inside of its own walls from the idea phase to the final product. “We took that same concept and said, ‘how do you apply that inside a corporate venture?’” The answer, he found, is to “select early-stage innovations and spin them out at the beginning – not once they’re fully developed,” and configure a way to allow information to flow into the health system.
By housing all of that under a single roof, as opposed to venture funds sitting in different locations, Catalyst has access to “a view of how it all interacts together and is integrated,” Capps said. “We believe that’s significant. It’s part of the secret sauce.”
Another important piece of Catalyst’s strategy is not limiting the scope to healthcare companies. From the beginning, the emphasis has been on six strategic focus areas – including Care of Tomorrow and Customer Experience – that “reflect the most urgent needs of communities, healthcare, and long-term value,” the website stated.
Through its initial research, Catalyst amassed a “giant repository of the biggest problems that we as a health system have identified,” leaning heavily on the many subject matter experts who lend their time and expertise along various stages of innovation.
One of those challenges was the lack of resources around breast cancer screening. To that end, Catalyst partnered with WellStar’s Center for Breast Health to launch Gabbi, an early detection screening platform. Developed by Kaitlin Christine, a breast cancer survivor who lost her mother to the disease, Gabbi has already helped identify a number of patients who otherwise wouldn’t have been flagged as high-risk, said Capps.
“We’ve had hundreds of patients leverage the service,” he noted, adding that the partnership itself has been innovative. “The traditional way that a startup like Gabbi would enter a market would be to compete with the health system instead of working with it. That’s the kind of magic that happens when you bring together visionary founders like Kaitlin with our clinical leadership, and have the machinery to introduce that into the ecosystem here in Georgia.”
The success of both Gabbi and vflok lend further credence to the idea of setting innovations free and enabling them to experience “the full force of the market,” rather than the full force of one health system, Capps said. As a result, “they’re able to move faster,” and more importantly, touch more lives.
What really gives Catalyst a competitive advantage, he believes, is its structure. “Within our technology organization, we have the traditional core technology, clinical platforms, and business platforms. We also have data, AI, enterprise architecture, biomedical devices, and digital health,” he said. In that sense, “we are constructed very much like a technology company that is serving the needs of both the community and our team members.”
That community, of course, includes patients, which means the “technology engine has to work every single time,” Capps stated. As a result, “a lot of the work we’ve done has been in shoring up. We’ve worked really hard over the last few years to ensure we have a technology infrastructure that’s strong enough to support all of these activities,” and do so in a way that’s “invisible.”
As emerging technologies become table stakes, that dedication to having a solid foundation will become increasingly important.
“That’s what we keep coming back to: it’s not about solutions, it’s about problems,” Capps said. “If you’re identifying problems and then you're working with people to solve those problems, there’s something really special that comes from it. This is exciting work.”
Anna Schoenbaum’s career didn’t start on the IT side. But it didn’t take long for her to feel the pull – particularly when it became clear that technology’s role in healthcare was only going to grow. “I was enticed by the idea of improving processes from paper to automation,” she said. And even more so, the opportunity to “make a difference. Not just in one department, but across the enterprise.”
The transition, however, wasn’t an easy one. It needs to be approached thoughtfully, according to Schoenbaum, now VP of Applications and Digital Health at Penn Medicine, an $11.9 billion enterprise consisting of The University of Pennsylvania Health System and the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine. During an interview with This Week Health, she shared advice for those looking to make the leap, drawing from her own career experience, and discussed how she has benefited from her involvement with HIMSS.
Anna Schoenbaum
It’s no secret that healthcare has a workforce problem. By 2030, the global healthcare worker shortage is expected to reach 10 million, which could lead to $1.1 trillion in costs (McKinsey). And that’s just on the clinical side.
According to a Security Magazine survey, 47 percent ranked IT staff shortages as a top-three challenge. Around two-thirds said routine IT tasks take longer to complete due to limited staff, and 74 percent cited IT staffing shortages as a deployment barrier.
For leaders, this isn’t exactly news. Neither is the fact that as adoption of digital technologies continues to climb, the demand for skilled IT professionals will only grow. And that means organizations need a solid strategy not just for recruiting and retaining talent, but also for helping existing employees transition to IT-based roles.
That’s where Schoenbaum comes in. As both a faculty member at the University of Maryland School of Nursing and a visiting professor at Chamberlain University, she has a great deal of experience mentoring both students and staff, and offered these bits of wisdom for those looking to break into IT.
This advice, however, isn’t just for those who are seeking a new role, or those who are early in their careers. Particularly the piece about networking. “You learn so much when you’re surrounded by colleagues and industry experts,” she noted. Being at events like HIMSS helps to shed light on common problems and provide forums for discussion and learning. “It’s connecting people to share experiences and say, ‘can we implement the same solution at our organization? If not, why?’ Or ‘what do we need to put into place to make it successful?’”
And for leaders, the objective is to take that knowledge – and that spirit of collaboration – back to the organization to help push forward key initiatives. “Technology is evolving very quickly,” she said. “We have to keep in mind that at the end of the day, technology doesn’t transform healthcare. People do. My job is to equip, empower, and elevate those people who can help drive change.”
When that happens, Schoenbaum concluded, “We’re all successful.”
Artificial intelligence itself isn’t new to healthcare – not by a long shot. But in the last few years – starting with the introduction of ChatGPT – a more advanced version of AI has swept across healthcare, prompting organizations of varying sizes and scopes to pilot tools in hopes of improving care experience and outcomes and alleviating the burden on providers.
But, as with any novel idea, AI has been met with resistance for myriad reasons, from cybersecurity and privacy concerns to costs to fear of change. Sameer Sethi likened it to the introduction of the Internet in the early 1990s. “At first, the world hadn’t figured out how to use it. I see AI as the next revolution, but I think we’ll get there faster this time because we have that foundation.”
And because of the risks involved with AI, healthcare leaders are approaching it deliberately. Still, a number of organizations have already seen positive results, including Hackensack Meridian Health, where Sethi serves as Chief AI Officer. Recently, he and Scott Waters, Chief Information and Technology Officer at Overlake Medical Center and Clinics discussed their strategies and shared how their teams are managing the biggest hurdles.
“How can we help clinicians function at the top of their license?” One way, according to Sethi, is by leveraging GenAI to summarize “thousands of data points” to provide the insights and intelligence needed to more effectively care for patients. “There’s so much data being generated. Your watch is generating data. Your computer is generating data,” he noted. “And humans don’t have the capacity to process it all,” let alone do it accurately and quickly.
Sameer Sethi
That’s where the AI platform from Google Cloud comes in, creating a summarized clinical note that can help with disease detection or prediction, while enabling providers to spend more time with patients.
“We’ve done a lot of automation so that a clinician can be a clinician, a nurse can be a nurse, and a therapist can be a therapist,” Sethi noted. Meanwhile, AI listens to the conversation between clinician and patient and generates a note that the clinician can then read and edit as needed. “That’s exciting.”
And that’s not all. Recently Hackensack Meridian Health, an 18-hospital system based in New Jersey, also launched HMH 24/7, a platform that connects patients with virtual providers. Developed in partnership with K Health, the solution performs triage, using an AI chatbot for intake and data entry, and then matching the patient with a provider. “The intent is to expedite the process, while also increasing access to services,” he noted.
The next use case for AI, interestingly, will focus on the other end of the spectrum, noted Sethi, whose team is training bots to assist with post-discharge follow-up. Although it would be ideal to have humans make the call to ensure patients are filling and taking medications, for example, the reality is that “there aren’t enough humans,” he said.
Through this capability, HMH can ensure every patient is asked critical follow-up questions, whether it’s by a bot or human, and a plan of action is created. “We might ask, ‘how are you doing? Do you need help? Have you been taking your medication? If not, why?’ If it’s because they forgot, the bot can be programmed to schedule reminder calls or even set up another appointment. Ultimately, “we want to keep patients at home,” he noted, and prevent unnecessary readmissions.
And while it may seem that Hackensack is going full bore into the AI world, that’s far from the truth, according to Sethi, whose team has been “very careful” in their approach. “I think deciding what it should do versus what it shouldn’t do is a very philosophical conversation,” he said. “But it’s also an operational conversation that needs to happen. What type of care do we stand behind? What type of care are our patients ready for? Just because we have AI capability, it doesn’t mean we should always offer it.”
Acceptance and adoption, he believes, can serve as obstacles to AI – but not in a bad way. In fact, he believes they are “great barriers” because “they challenge us to see things from the patient’s eyes.”
Therefore, it’s critical to offer ongoing education on how to most effectively use AI, and to communicate the incentives in a clear way. “We spend a lot of time educating people, running pilots, and collecting feedback, and it’s helped us quite a bit,” Sethi said.
Overlake Medical has taken a similar approach to generative AI by focusing heavily in the ambient listening space. “That’s where we see the most staying power,” said Waters.
Scott Waters
To that end, his team recently deployed a voice agent that can help troubleshoot MyChart issues. The objective is to resolve calls – which have been directed through a phone tree – without having to escalate to a live person. Although it started as a “simple use case to test the waters,” the early results have been “super promising,” noted Waters. “We’re seeing about a 50 percent call resolution rate, which is probably double what we hoped for.”
Importantly, “we now have proof that it’s getting value for our patients along with cost-savings on the backend, which is the perfect marriage. And so, even though Overlake is still “in the crawl phase of crawl, walk, run,” leadership is encouraged by the potential upside, and is looking to expand. “We’re implementing a platform that allows us to build out virtual agents to interact with patients or providers through a number of different channels, whether it’s SMS messaging, text-based interactions, or chatting,” he said.
Of course, anytime a change of this magnitude is introduced, it’s going to have a ripple effect into other areas, including workforce management. There’s no getting around the fact that voice agents “change the way we work,” according to Waters, particularly when it comes to things like training and coaching.
“It sets the stage for a future where I see us having two types of human resources,” he said – one dedicated to human assets, and the other to autonomous agents. Managing the latter is going to require a different approach. “You’re not looking at annual reviews with non-human employees,” he said. “If it’s not doing what you want, you would just terminate that employee and spin up a new one, or maybe tune it a little bit. It’s a lot of quality checks. It’s interesting.”
At the same time, however, “we’re just scratching the surface,” and given the vast potential of AI, he believes it’s critical for leaders to tread carefully. “I don’t think biologically that we’re set up to take on this much change, this quickly. These are conversations we need to be having.”
Part of the conversation for a growing number of organizations, including Hackensack Meridian, includes having a designated AI leader at the C-suite level. “I think it’s a must-have,” said Sethi, whose title changed from Chief Data and Analytics Officer to Chief AI Officer in November 2024. “Otherwise, you’ll be left behind, or you’ll overspend because people will sell you vaporware.”
At the end of the day, “AI is a technology first. You need a technologist who understands the capability to provide advice on whether it’s a good or bad technology, and whether it will deliver the best insights,” he said. “You need an AI officer to develop those workflows and educate the organization.”
Waters concurred, noting that the role “makes sense,” particularly given GenAI’s growing presence in healthcare. The question is how governance will be affected. His guess? “I anticipate that AI functions are going to roll back into a standard leadership model instead of having a separate AI structure.”
With an organization like Overlake, which includes a 349-bed hospital and a growing network of clinics, a dedicated Chief AI Officer most likely isn’t in the cards, which means most of it falls on the IT team. Fortunately Waters, whose role expanded recently from CTO to CTIO to reflect the organization’s strategic objectives around innovation and digital transformation, it’s all part of the growth process.
“That role evolved with the move to the cloud, and when you bring in AI, it starts to evolve even more,” he said, particularly as the technology becomes increasingly embedded in healthcare – and in the everyday lives of patients and clinicians.
Sethi shared the same sentiment.
“We can make a difference,” he said. “And honestly, that’s my north star–how do I make sure my doctor is smarter? That's what I work for every day.”
Picture the scenario: an organization is in the midst of rapid expansion while also taking steps toward digital transformation. To ensure growth happens in a sustainable way, more talent must be hired – unfortunately, the talent pipeline seems to have dried up.
Not exactly a unique situation in today’s healthcare landscape. What is unique, however, is the approach that Eisenhower Health has taken to address this issue. Their answer, according to CIO Ken Buechele, was to construct a new pipeline by establishing an IT apprenticeship program.
“The landscape of the technology skillset and the market in our community has changed,” he said during a recent interview with This Week Health. In addition to a 437-bed hospital, Eisenhower offers dozens of outpatient locations scattered throughout the Coachella Valley region of Southeastern California. Although the area, which is “somewhat isolated” due to nearby mountain ranges,” has never had a problem attracting visitors, filling onsite IT positions started to become increasingly challenging in the post-Covid world. “We need to think about how to grow and retain talent in a way that allows us to meet the organization’s needs.”
Ken Buechele
Compounding the issue is the fact that Eisenhower is “doing everything that most of the bigger players are doing; we’re just doing it on a much smaller scale” – and with fewer FTEs.
That’s where the apprenticeship came into play. Shortly after taking on the CIO role in January 2022, Buechele rolled out an initiative that he hoped would help fill key positions while also strengthening the workforce as a whole.
“It’s basically an internship on steroids,” he said. “They start with us in the summer and work full-time. But instead of going back to school after three months, we expect them to stay on part-time.” Indeed, most interns continue to work 1 or 2 days per week, and some have remained on for as long as three years.
As part of the program, apprentices rotate through departments, which exposes them to different tasks. “That gives them not only just the baseline of the complexity of the IT aspects, but also an orientation to Eisenhower as an organization,” he noted. “It’s important, regardless of where you are, to get a sense of the calls that we get, the technologies that are used, and what happens in that role.” And in doing so, learn that calls coming in from the ED or OR must be prioritized. “These are the customer service skills that make a good service desk technician.”
And, like many CIOs, he believes those skills are best learned onsite – the problem is that potential hires don’t feel the same way.
“Before Covid, we would see people with 3, 4 and 5 years of healthcare IT experience applying even for entry-level roles,” said Buechele. Now, “we’re really struggling to align helpdesk and network technician-type roles with locals.”
As a result, Buechele’s team had to restructure job descriptions and reset expectations by targeting a completely new audience. Instead of trying to squeeze more out of a shallow pool of applicants, Eisenhower partnered with local colleges and high schools to identify possibilities for partnerships.
What they learned was quite interesting: the technical education curriculum in high school has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years. “They’re basically getting their security-plus by the time they’re out of high school,” Buechele said. “And so, there’s an amazing opportunity to capture students right out of high school and introduce them to our program.”
The other compelling learning? Colleges are behind the eight-ball when it comes to career preparation. “We get a lot of applications from recent grads that don’t have any hands-on experience,” he noted. The apprentice program has “helped build the skills and the talent that we’re looking for.”
Importantly, it goes “beyond the nuts and bolts of how to image a computer and replace equipment, and how to be a desktop technician,” he added. By having trainees go through various rotations, “They get a better sense of who we are as an organization.”
And it’s not limited to desktop help – although that is critical. “We’re creating security analysts, network engineers, telecom engineers and ultimately, Epic analytics,” he said, adding that Eisenhower also plans to offer help with classes and certifications. “That’s the skin we’re putting into this. The goal isn’t just to fill seats.”
As with any initiative, it’s critical to ensure proper governance structures are in place. At Eisenhower, apprentices report directly to Buechele and his team facilitates onboarding; however, there are supervisors in place to provide more focused guidance. “I make it a point to be part of the process and make sure everyone understands how important it is,” he said, which helps ensure the program doesn’t “fall by the wayside” when things get busy.
“You have to continue to nurture it,” noted Buechele, who emphasized the value of both executive support and departmental champions. “The key is to find somebody who will take it on as a passion project and believe in it.”
It’s also important to note that onboarding practices for apprentices may differ substantially from those of traditional IT hires. “They may have to shadow and observe longer than those with previous experience,” he said. And while that might take more time, it’s important to ensure individuals are developing skills, and not just taking on tasks that others don’t want. “Every organization has projects like Windows 11 upgrades or lifecycle replacements that are the right mix of task and repetitive work, but we also have things that are meaningful from a knowledge and growth perspective,” Buechele noted.
“That’s one of the things that I've stressed with my team: I don’t want them just doing spreadsheets and cleanup work,” or in a desktop context, wiping hard drives. “I want them to learn, and they can’t do that if they’re just imaging computers all day or pressing buttons all day. We try to make it meaningful.”
What they’re not trying to do is expand too quickly. The program has had about 3 participants each year, about a third of whom have been hired full-time. And while it’s not making waves on a national scale, Buechele believes it has the potential to become a game-changer, particularly for organizations that aren’t partnered with large universities.
“We need to find a way to capture what colleges and high schools are doing right and provide experience in a way that’s meaningful,” he noted. Through their innovative program, Eisenhower has found a way to “source talent in the community.” And it’s a method that can work across the board, as long as organizations are willing to put in the work to develop partnerships, establish a solid foundation, and invest in people.
There’s no shortage of challenges facing healthcare CIOs, particularly in the current landscape. But perhaps the most significant, according to Brian Lancaster, is a lack of comprehension – not of the technology itself, but rather, everything required to make it work.
“People need and want technology, but they don’t know the cost. They don’t know the cybersecurity risks. They don’t know what a major incident looks like,” he said. “It’s our burden as leaders and technologists to make sure they understand all those factors, and at the end of the day, empower them.”
Brian Lancaster
That’s where the CIO comes in, according to Lancaster, who took on the role at Children’s Mercy Kansas City in 2022. In addition to guiding the IT strategy, leaders must be able to build and maintain relationships, instill confidence in teams, and create momentum for major initiatives – which is precisely what Lancaster is doing as he prepares to lead a migration from Cerner to Epic’s EHR.
In fact, that opportunity is what attracted him to Children’s Mercy, and it was his unique background – which includes 17 years with Cerner, largely in product management, as well as more than 7 years as CIO at Nebraska Medicine – that helped land him the position.
“I thought it would be beneficial from a career standpoint to have pretty deep vendor expertise with Cerner and then start to learn the provider side in an Epic shop,” he noted. Indeed, that experience set him apart during the recruitment process at Children’s Mercy, as the organization ultimately chose Epic, and relied on Lancaster to lead the migration.
As Children’s progresses toward its go-live, scheduled for March 2026, he shared some of the lessons learned and offered best practices for leading teams through periods of dramatic change.
When organizations transition to Epic – which has become a common trend in recent years – the onus often falls on CIOs not just to help sell it to the board, but also to the staff. One way to do that? By educating teams on the benefits of Epic – and of adopting its doctrine.
Because while that strategy of “here are our standards, here is your grade against those standards” may seem rigid, he believes it’s necessary. “It creates a better implementation and a stronger foundation for innovation,” Lancaster noted. “You can do new things because the basics are in place and that comes from a combination of technology, but also people and processes.”
Part of that philosophy is ensuring that individuals from a variety of areas, including informatics, business, and clinical, among others, are actively engaged in the process. “That’s the way it should work in healthcare – we should understand what their needs are and provide solutions to them. We should not be doing technology to them,” he said. “It’s a fundamental difference in how Epic operates. They get operations and clinicians engaged, and that helps with buy-in.”
Where it can get “sticky” with Epic, however, is when a suggested practice doesn’t work. In these cases, teams need to be able to ask questions. “We beat this drum that we’re going to follow Epic’s Foundation and leverage what our friends at places like Boston Children’s are doing,” Lancaster said. As a result, “our team wasn’t feeling empowered to say, ‘that’s strange. Maybe we shouldn’t do it that way.’ We have to strike a balance.”
That, interestingly, was one of the most critical lessons he learned. “It wasn’t necessarily how to run a work group or how to make the operational decisions we need to make; it was empowering the team to push back.”
And not in an aggressive way, but in a way that generates a productive conversation, while also helping analysts and informaticists develop new skillsets that will pay dividends in the future. “It’s helping us adopt some modern approaches in how we think about technology and how we continue to empower the frontlines,” he added.
With an implementation of this magnitude, it can be easy to focus mainly on the clinical and business aspects, but it also creates an opportunity to transform the infrastructure, which is part of Lancaster’s vision.
In parallel to the EMR modernization effort, Children’s is also developing a more robust data archive and conversation strategy that he believes will yield benefits in the future. “The consistent thing across any healthcare IT department, whether it’s an academic medical center or a children’s hospital, is that people want and need new technology to continue to be relevant. So how do you automate and consolidate to meet those demands?” By modernizing the infrastructure, organizations can “set the stage for a solid foundation to meet all of those demands,” he noted.
As part of that strategy of thinking ahead, his team is deliberately considering platforms that have built-in AI capabilities. “Our current plan is to have a selected ambient documentation vendor at go-live and do a pilot and enterprise rollout as a fast-follow so that we can stage it appropriately,” he said. “One of the compelling parts of Epic is all of the options they have for AI – both what they’re building as well as integrations with partners.”
Introducing ambient tools, however, represents a significant change in the workflow, as do other major initiatives like EHR migrations. CIOs, therefore, need to invest time and energy into creating “meaningful relationships.” And that, according to Lancaster, entails “spending time listening to peers and understanding them so that you can build the foundation to inform them of decisions that need to be made.”
That also means being bold enough to speak up when something doesn’t seem right – or when, for example, a leader is being influenced by a vendor to make a recommendation. “You need to have the confidence and the knowledge to go to them and explain, ‘I know why you want to do system X, but that will create this type of outcome. I think we could also get those outcomes by using this system we already have,’” he explained. “Walk through it from a business case standpoint, but in a very simple manner where it’s time, effort, outcome based.”
Having these types of uncomfortable conversations, Lancaster said, can play an enormous role in helping leaders shift from being an order take to a strategic partner.
Another aspect in that shift comes in how leaders measure key performance indicators. For example, an order taker will focus primarily on turnaround times, satisfaction scores, and availability, while strategic partners ask questions such as, ‘how do I transition to be value-based? How do we enable growth? How do we increase physician satisfaction? By doing so, “we’re creating value for the organization through technology,” he said. “That, to me, is an awesome aspect of change management.”
On the other hand, one of the more difficult aspects is ensuring the message not only reaches the intended audience, but sinks in. Sometimes it’s as simple as getting what he calls the ‘wait… what?’ response, which happens once individuals have had a chance to absorb the information.
“If you don’t hear that ‘wait… what?’ chances are you’re not going to get adoption. You have to keep communicating and make sure it’s clear,” he said. “Now they get it and understand why we’re no longer allowing you to use personal email, or why we can’t buy a system. And then, you get alignment.”
It’s one of the harsh realities of the CIO role, according to Lancaster. “Sometimes we’re there to enable opportunities and strategy. We're using technology to do something amazing,” he said, citing ambient documentation as an example. “But sometimes it’s explaining that we can’t do that because of the cybersecurity concern, or that you now have to use multi-factor authentication.”
The key is in finding the right way to communicate with different teams and individuals, he noted, citing advice he received years ago from a mentor to “consult like the CEO,” which entails laying out the options and cataloging the pros and cons. “It’s saying, ‘I strongly recommend option A. You can do option B and C, but anticipate that we’re going to have to hire a team, or we won’t get the results.’ And make sure they understand it.”
Another way to think about it? “You can’t cross a 10-foot chasm with two 5-feet jumps,” Lancaster said. “You have to have the ability to jump the whole chasm, or you’re going to break a leg.”
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