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Aidoc Staff

How to Know Your Health System Is Ready for AI

Adoption, C-Suite, Care Coordination, System Integration
Table of Contents

Health systems are increasingly embracing the transformative potential of AI, recognizing its game-changing benefits. However, ensuring your organization is truly ready for AI adoption requires careful and deliberate planning. This article serves as a step-by-step guide, featuring expert insights to help assess your readiness and set your organization on the path to successful AI implementation.

1. You Recognize What Is Needed for Scale

Jeffrey Sturman, SVP, CDO at Memorial Health System, emphasizes the importance of viewing AI not merely as a standalone solution, but as a strategic platform. He says to not see AI as a “black box that only serves one purpose,” instead seeing it as a platform. “I think we all need to look at these solutions as platforms that can evolve from where we are today to over time” while bringing a level of governance to these sorts of initiatives.

Action Step: Shift your perspective to view AI as a holistic platform that integrates across your entire organization, rather than just focusing on individual service lines. By adopting this broader approach, you can position AI as a foundational element that evolves with your organization and supports easier scaling over time.

2. You Secured Executive Sponsorship

For AI initiatives to succeed, they must have strong leadership backing across different service lines and/or facilities. Sturman further highlighted, “we always look for that right level of executive sponsorship and ownership to help facilitate these sorts of [projects].”

Action Step: Garner commitment from executive leadership to champion AI projects, providing the necessary support and resources for successful implementation.

3. Your Clinical and Financial Goals Are Aligned

Sarah Kramer, MD, Clinical Associate Professor, Clinical Informatics at University of Nevada Reno School of Medicine, points out the critical alignment of AI initiatives with clinical and financial objectives. “The whole point of AI is that it should be delivering on that. AI does promise that idea that we can deliver great care quicker and at a lower cost.”

Action Step: Evaluate AI solutions based on their ability to enhance patient care, improve patient experiences and reduce costs. Ensure the technology aligns with your organization’s clinical and financial goals.

4. You Have Prioritized Understanding and Value Add

Bill Hudson, Executive AI Strategist at Aidoc, stresses the importance of understanding your organization’s needs when readying for AI. “A partner stops to understand these things. And then they understand how their tools can add value, and focus on the ability to add value, both to the clinical workflow and financial elements of an organization.


Action Step: Work with AI partners who take the time to understand your specific challenges and objectives. Choose solutions that add tangible value to your workflows and financial outcomes. 

5. You’re Ready to Embrace Collaboration and Flexibility

Jason Hill, MD, Clinical Innovation Officer at Ochsner Health advocates for collaboration and flexibility in AI partnerships. “If you want to work with us to suss out the use cases that we think are important within Ochsner, will likely generalize out to other organizations and are willing to get down in the trenches with us and work through those changes, that’s going to be an organization that we’re going to partner with.”


Action Step: Seek AI partners who are willing to collaborate closely and adapt to your unique use cases. Flexibility in development and execution is key to addressing real-world challenges effectively.

6. You Have an AI Governance Approach Outlined

Jeffrey Sturman also highlights the necessity of a robust governance framework for AI initiatives. “We always bring a level of governance to these initiatives. These are not just IT or digital initiatives; they are operational, clinical, business, and process improvement initiatives.”


Action Step: Establish a well-defined AI governance approach that encompasses roles, responsibilities, and processes across various domains. This framework will ensure effective management of AI projects, align them with organizational objectives, and facilitate adaptability to ongoing changes.

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Aidoc Staff

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