Navigating Clarity in the Digital Transformation of Healthcare at HIMSS25
Most healthcare organizations are diving deep into digital transformation, refining their electronic health record systems, and building patient-facing mobile apps. Lately, this includes figuring out how artificial intelligence (AI) fits into the mix.
Whether there's an overall AI strategy in place or not, it's likely that the workforce and even the patients relying on these services have already encountered some form of AI - such as ChatGPT, as a 2024 Pew Research survey found that 43% of adults ages 18 to 29 have used it.
So what's the next step for providers? Is a complete ban on using commercial generative AI tools the solution? Should data governance and AI governance merge together? How can organizations communicate effectively with employees worried about the impact of AI on their roles?
Industry leaders at the 2025 HIMSS Global Conference and Expo shared their thoughts, aiming to guide their peers through this burgeoning tech era.
Thoughtful AI Deployments Demand Governance and Education
During a session about building a solid foundation for AI governance and the uncertain regulatory landscape, Dr. Adam Landman, CIO and senior vice president of digital at Massachusetts General Brigham, highlighted that organizations don't have to reinvent the wheel. There are existing strategies that can be adapted for AI.
"AI does introduce some new themes that need to be considered: Understanding the validity, accuracy, and addressing bias and equity issues," he said. Organization-wide education is crucial, with clear communication of definitions like AI, machine learning, automation, AI drift, and more throughout the system. Everybody should work towards understanding the organization's gold standard of AI.
Mass General Brigham has multiple layers of AI governance, from high-level, industrywide perspectives to granular, tactical AI application solutions. Multidisciplinary participation is crucial. Consider how data scientists, administrative staff, and others collaborate with AI and how to create safe environments for working with these tools. Prohibiting AI outright just won't work.
These AI Data Governance Strategies Set Up Your Healthcare Organization for Success
But that means organizations should also have a robust monitoring program in place as AI tools continue to evolve. During another discussion at the AI Pavilion on the expo floor, Charity Darnell, vice president and chief clinical information officer at Texas-based Cook Children's Health Care System, offered her perspective as a nurse and nursing leader. When nurses were hesitant about adopting Artisight for virtual nursing, Cook Children's addressed their concerns by creating an innovation space for testing the solution themselves. The organization also chose a partner who worked closely with the nurses.
"Give your nurses a voice and give them an opportunity to speak up," she said.
Jeff Sturman, senior vice president and chief digital information officer at Florida-based Memorial Healthcare System, shared his thoughts at the pavilion, speaking with Artisight Chief Experience Officer Dr. Stephanie Lahr about how Memorial Healthcare System refined its vision for AI. "We're very specific in our goals around using AI and thinking about it from a platform standpoint," he said.
He emphasized the importance of clinician education, building governance via existing structures, and leveraging the data governance steering committee initially for AI. After some restructuring and planning, Memorial Healthcare System closely aligned data governance and AI governance. He also wants to work with partners because he doesn't want the health system to be in the data center business, which is why it continues to move into the cloud.
Evolving Mindsets to Solve New Problems
One of the sessions during the final day of the conference emphasized once more the need for human communication as newer technologies are adopted. "The challenge I see in health systems is having old-school thinking in the IT teams that doesn't allow them to scale or look at a problem in a different way," said Dr. Zafar Chaudry, senior vice president, chief digital officer, and chief AI and information officer at Seattle Children's.
Seattle Children's has been able to realize a paradigm shift in infrastructure and data by embracing cloud-based infrastructure. This allows the health system to implement changes that have had a real impact on patient outcomes, such as adjusting the approach to pain medication for pediatric surgery patients and making clinical pathways more accessible for clinicians.
With new capabilities, comes the need for updated skill sets and training. Kalimuthu Chithambaram, North Americas field CTO for healthcare at CDW, shared that partners can work closely together with healthcare organizations for on-the-job training if they're looking to implement platform engineering or other DevOps approaches.
Adopting more automation allows IT teams to focus on meaningful projects. "Embrace automation. You're the gatekeeper, and you're building repeatable models that help you do your job effectively so that you can focus on something that's coming up next," he said.
- To ensure successful deployment of AI in healthcare, it's essential to establish governance strategies that tackle issues like validity, accuracy, bias, and equity.
- Organizations should invest in education and clear communication about AI, machine learning, automation, AI drift, and other related terms to promote understanding across the entire system.
- Collaboration among data scientists, administrative staff, and other stakeholders is vital for creating safe environments and effective AI application solutions.
- A robust monitoring program should be implemented as AI tools continue to evolve, allowing organizations to address any changes or concerns that arise.
- Healthcare organizations can improve AI adoption by working closely with employees and giving them a voice, addressing their concerns, and creating innovative spaces for testing new solutions.
- To solve new problems and adapt to evolving technologies, healthcare institutions must evolve their mindsets, embrace cloud-based infrastructure, and invest in on-the-job training and skills development for their IT teams.
