LAS VEGAS – At the Smart Health Transformation Forum at HIMSS25 here, leaders discussed various ways health systems and clinics implement innovations, pitfalls during the piloting or implementation process, analyzing the validity and use cases of AI, machine learning, big data, ambient listening, robotics and other technologies.
"Every part of our industry is broken. Every single part. There is not one part that operates perfectly. Whether it's access, whether it's physician templates, whether it's not enough providers, whether it's our administrative burden," Roberta Schwartz, executive vice president at Houston Methodist Hospital, said as keynote speaker of the Forum. "Meeting those needs with technology is really very important."
Healthcare is transforming through the use of data, AI, analytics, and various other forms of digital innovation, but vetting the technology is crucial to ensure a positive use case.
"Any solution we look at, my team does a quick vetting of, Is this solving a problem that our organization has stated is a priority and is something that they want us to be looking out for and/or do we think it could solve a problem that we may not even be aware of?" Kali Arduini Ihde, director of innovation at Northwestern Medicine, said during a panel portion of the Forum.
Experts also noted the importance of working with providers to ensure platform implementation results in the highest possible success rate.
"We have every executive leader and clinical champion on the discussion because they have to be the ones who are supporting where we're going with that," said panelist Joey Seliski, director of strategy and operations at Allegheny Health Network.
"Our strategy is based on what every executive is trying to move toward and how technology can enable that," he said.
Additionally, hospitals must adopt ethical frameworks to enhance data interoperability while ensuring those adoptions are done responsibly and with a thorough evaluation of the validity of the digital offerings.
The Forum also highlighted how technologies can have downsides and how positionality must be taken into consideration – both from the perspective of why these technologies are being implemented and who, as far as patients, trusts the use of these innovations during their healthcare journey.