Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / People-First Leadership and AI in Healthcare with Praneetha Elugunti

Transcript

People-First Leadership and AI in Healthcare with Praneetha Elugunti · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  This is where health care leadership comes together.
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  Becker's sixteenth annual meeting brings more than 3,500
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  hospital and health system executives and nearly 800
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  speakers to Chicago
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  April.
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  This year's event includes keynote conversations with Dallas
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  Cowboys legend Troy Aikman and former president George
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  w Bush. For the agenda and event details,
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  visit beckershospitalreview.com
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  and click on the events tab in the
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  upper right. We're looking forward to hosting you
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  in Chicago.
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  Hello, everyone. Welcome to Becker's Healthcare Podcast. I'm
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  Scott King. Thrilled today to be joined by
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  a very special guest, Pranita Allegheny, administrator and
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  assistant professor of healthcare administration
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  over at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and
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  Science. Pranita, thank you so much for doing
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  this. Appreciate it. How are you?
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  Hi. Thanks, Scott. Thanks for the opportunity to
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  be here, and I'm really excited to to
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  chat with you.
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  Excited to have you. We have a lot
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  of big topics and and trends in in
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  health care to get to. Really gonna lean
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  on your expertise for those. But, before we
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  get to those, I was wondering if you
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  could please just tell us a little bit
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  about your your background and your experience in
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  health care.
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  Certainly. So I'm Prineetha Laginti. I work as
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  an administrator at Mayo Clinic in Arizona,
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  where my responsibilities
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  include supporting our advanced AI and innovation hub
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  as well as our Arizona
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  enablement hub.
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  My world really lives at the intersection of
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  health care operations,
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  digital transformation, and AI.
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  And as far as sort of coming into
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  this work, you know, honestly, Scott, I I
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  didn't really come into health care because of
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  technology. I came into it because of the
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  people.
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  Very early on, I was a volunteer at
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  a safety net hospital and
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  got to see some some realities of health
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  care.
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  I was able to see and witness how
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  powerful health care can be when systems work
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  for patients and
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  also how it can be painful when things
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  don't work, and that really fueled sort of
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  my experience. I initially wanted to be a
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  physician.
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  And now over a decade later at Mayo
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  Clinic as an administrator, I've had the chance
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  to work across clinical practice, so our really
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  our operational front,
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  research as well as enterprise
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  initiatives.
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  And today, I'm really proud that,
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  I get to lead the work around digital
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  health and advanced
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  AI, and I'm really proud of,
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  being able to translate those big ideas that
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  everyone has,
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  into things that actually make someone's day a
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  little bit easier, whether that's our patients or
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  our staff.
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  Well, thanks so much, Puneet. It's great to
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  hear about all that that background info you
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  shared and and great to hear about your
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  people first focus, you know, even dealing with
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  all this emerging tech we have now in
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  health care. So the the first topic I
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  I wanted to ask you about, the first
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  question I have for you is what opportunities
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  and headwinds do you have your eye on
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  right now in health care?
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  Yeah. I think one of the biggest opportunities
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  we have right now is really having
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  more honest conversations
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  about how AI should show up in health
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  care.
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  At Mayo Clinic,
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  our approach is very intentional.
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  It's decentralized,
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  staff led,
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  and clinician driven with a focus on
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  governance,
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  equity,
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  ethics, and transparency.
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  And quite honestly, we're implementing AI to enhance
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  that clinical decision making, empowering our patient outcomes,
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  and streamlining care.
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  Really emphasizing
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  how
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  AI empowers, not replaces
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  our our people,
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  but really taking the friction out of the
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  system by reducing burden,
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  improving our workflows, personalizing
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  care for our patients,
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  and expanding access,
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  to high quality care.
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  Well, let me ask you a follow-up there,
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  Pernitha. How involved should the clinician be then?
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  What what do you have them doing with
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  the the different AI uses?
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  Yeah. I think that's very dependent on the
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  use case of the technology. Right? So if
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  we're thinking about technology like ambient listening and
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  documentation,
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  which was a a huge trend last year,
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  we certainly want them to be at the
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  table,
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  because at the end of the day, it's
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  their workflow that's impacted. So you want them
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  to be engaged in both from a product
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  development design perspective, but also from an implementation,
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  and where is the right opportunity for us
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  to engage this within the workflow.
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  Absolutely.
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  And I also wanted to ask you, how
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  are you thinking about growth and adding value
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  to your organization right now?
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  So I personally,
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  think about growth, less is doing
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  more
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  and more so of doing the things better
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  and being more connected.
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  And, certainly, Mayo Clinic differentiates itself through
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  discovery, delivery, and diffusion, and my role often
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  sits right in the middle of that. Right?
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  A lot of my work is focused on
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  translation.
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  And how do you take something that's cutting
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  edge technology,
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  whether it's a care enabling
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  AI model that can predict your likelihood of
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  a disease
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  or a digital care capability
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  and make it usable, make it trusted and
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  scalable
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  within our clinical environments. Right?
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  And when that growth is done right, I
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  think, really, innovation stops feeling
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  more of a project and really starts to
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  feel about how we're shifting the paradigm
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  of care,
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  being delivered.
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  What's one risk for investment that you think
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  is worth making
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  this year in 2026
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  here?
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  So I think, certainly,
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  the investment can never be wrong when you
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  invest in new people, not just technology or
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  platform.
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  And I know it's always tempting. We we
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  love the latest technology, and we wanna focus
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  on the technology itself. But
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  you also have to make sure that your
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  workforce is ready for that, and that includes
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  things like educating your workforce, having, governance structures
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  in place,
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  and bringing your staff and care teams along
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  in that process.
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  And, certainly, I think, you know, the the
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  trend for 2026
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  is,
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  with a lot of conversation around agentic
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  AI.
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  And
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  agentic AI will only be successful
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  when the people
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  are used to help shape that solution
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  and can then grow in the adoption
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  of an agent.
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  So if I was,
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  to to comment on the investment, I think
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  the investment is people.
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  Yeah. I think that's a good point too
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  because once, you know, once you
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  you procure an agent or or use it
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  somehow, you don't just have it. There's a
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  lot more work to be done, you know,
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  to to foster these agents and set them
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  up in a way to help your system
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  or or any business. Is that is that
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  kinda what you're doing too?
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  Absolutely. I mean, agents or any technology for
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  that matter is not a one and done.
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  Right? Like, a product is a living product.
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  You have to make enhancements. You have to
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  continue to to grow and evolve as your
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  needs of your end user, your customer, your
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  organization change. So I still I I would
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  strongly say that we need to be able
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  to be nimble
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  to meet the needs of health care
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  today, but also be prepared for the health
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  care of tomorrow.
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  And where do you see the best opportunities
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  for growth in the future?
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  So I'm really,
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  excited about air delivery,
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  that's very human centric in design, and I
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  think you could probably,
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  appreciate that from my previous responses as well.
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  And we're really focused on building capabilities that
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  span our physical,
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  digital, and virtual care, but really touching everything
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  from our three shielded
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  approach of an institution
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  as practice, research, and education.
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  And, again, my personal belief is that the
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  real opportunity is
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  when we have insights that form that connective
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  tissue
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  between all of those shields and between all
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  of those capabilities.
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  And so I think a part of that
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  growth and the opportunity is really
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  learning fast,
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  on how we can personalize care better and
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  really extend our expertise beyond traditional walls,
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  while still providing
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  that
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  hug and human connection that we're so used
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  to and and desire from any health care
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  institution.
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  You know, since you mentioned that, you know,
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  that get people first
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  focus you have and investing in people, I
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  I wanted to get your take on how
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  you think you've evolved as a leader and
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  maybe any any great leadership advice that someone
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  shared with you in your career so far.
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  Yeah. No. That's a a great question. I
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  would say I started off more as that
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  frontline leader, as a a manager of a
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  clinical practice,
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  early in my career. And
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  at some point in your career journey, as
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  every leader will tell you, is
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  health care is about the people for the
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  people, and, certainly, you can have digital or
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  any other investments, but you're still serving people
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  at the end of the day.
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  But I will share a quick quote
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  from one of my wonderful mentors that I've
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  had on the leadership journey, which is hone
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  your craft.
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  And that has really rung true to who
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  I am and my leadership style is
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  irrespective of whether you're in a clinical practice,
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  whether you're leading digital, whether you're working with
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  an AI team. I think it's really important
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  to hone your craft in that moment
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  in service of those that you serve, which
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  is your patients.
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  I think that's some great advice.
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  Great quote. Thank you so much for sharing,
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  Priti, and thank you for joining us on
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  the podcast and for a great discussion. Look
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  forward to working with you again soon. Thanks,
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  Scott.