Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / From AI Enabled to AI Native in Healthcare with Sunil Dadlani

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From AI Enabled to AI Native in Healthcare with Sunil Dadlani · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  At Insight Global Health, we are dedicated to
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  the problems that we face in health care.
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  delivering them. Visit us at insightglobal.com.
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  Hello, and thank you for listening to the
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  Becker's Healthcare podcast. I'm Elizabeth Gregersen here recording
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  live from our
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  Becker's annual meeting, and I am excited to
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  welcome Sunil Devani from Atlantic Health System to
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  our podcast today. Thank you for joining me.
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  Could you give us a brief introduction of
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  yourself, your role, and and the scope of
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  your organization?
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  Sure. Thank you for having me.
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  I am Sunil Dadlani. I'm executive vice president,
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  chief information and digital transformation officer, and chief
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  cybersecurity officer at Atlantic Health System.
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  Atlantic Health System is nationally recognized one of
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  the leading integrated health care system with eight
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  hospitals and more than 500
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  sites of care
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  operating in the East Coast with, on New
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  Jersey, Pennsylvania,
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  and metropolitan areas of New York.
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  Thank you so much. To kick off our
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  conversation today, I'd love to talk about what's
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  currently commanding most of your attention as a
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  leader.
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  At present, what is command what is getting
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  my attention is the rise of agentic AI.
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  With the capacity and capability of AI rising
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  exponentially,
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  we are now at a stage where we
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  are seeing a paradigm shift
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  from AI that can predict to now
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  generating content and summarization, and here we are
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  with agentic AI,
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  which can actually take actions.
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  And in health care where you take actions,
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  that's where the maximum value is driven. At
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  the same time, you have highest risk that
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  rises up with the action, which is autonomous
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  and automated.
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  Perfect. And, you know, in a year marked
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  by such rapid change,
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  has there been a recent decision or a
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  pivot required
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  that required the most leadership conviction from you,
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  particularly when it came to aligning people, resources,
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  or capabilities?
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  That's a great question, and I'm now
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  looking and challenging the decision or or the
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  direction
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  where scale
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  leads to
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  leads to capabilities.
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  Mhmm.
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  And speed leads to capabilities.
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  And I'm really questioning that assumption
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  because speed does not lead to scalability.
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  Mhmm. What we have seen is
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  when momentum is driven by
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  driven by uncontrolled and,
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  uncontrolled pilots and AI, it creates fragmentation.
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  It creates more chaos.
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  In a in a nutshell, if I have
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  to put,
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  momentum without governance is a chaos and fragmentation,
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  whereas governance without momentum is stagnation.
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  Absolutely. And you talked about that moment kind
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  of challenging your assumptions.
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  What did it change about how you approach
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  the decision making
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  talent or maybe organizational
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  readiness of today?
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  This is part of our journey as we
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  navigate and transit
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  transition from AI
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  enabled company to to being a AI
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  native organization.
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  What it means is
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  saying no to fragmented
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  pilots which create
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  pilot paralysis, and we have seen over and
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  over again that organizations struggle with pilots and
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  they are never able to scale at the
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  enterprise level. So this is a decision that
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  we are pivoting very consciously
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  where we are forming and doubling down in
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  terms of creating a very structured,
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  strong foundation. When I say about foundation, that
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  means
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  having a strong governance,
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  having a very robust
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  digital infrastructure backbone,
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  having a single intake process,
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  prioritizing
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  use cases,
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  and data fabrics and artificial intelligence framework, which
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  is SAFE. SAFE is essentially
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  secure,
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  accountable,
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  fair, and explainable framework.
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  I can see how that directly ties to
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  kind of challenging the chaos, right, that you
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  spoke about earlier.
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  When you think about the forces that are
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  reshaping health care right now,
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  where do you believe leaders need to be
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  more decisive,
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  especially when it comes to balancing
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  speed like you talked about risk and having
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  those right teams in place?
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  So as I I as I see, there
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  are several forces that are creating disruptions in
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  the health care. Be it aging population,
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  demographic shift, cost of care going up, the
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  rising expectation from health care consumerization,
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  margin pressure,
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  then we have a workforce,
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  shortages,
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  then also reimbursement challenges.
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  So all these
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  forces are really disrupting the health care landscape.
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  Let me talk about how the health care
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  of the future will look like. Health care
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  of the future will be, first of all,
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  real time, 24 by seven, always on. What
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  does that mean? That means health care will
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  be more predictive,
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  more prescriptive,
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  more preventive, and more
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  precision based, and it can be hyper personalized.
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  And the way we are handling this change
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  and navigating and reimagining the health care and
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  realigning our workforce is, again,
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  taking a very cognitive
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  approach about
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  what matters most to the organization.
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  We are laser focused on looking at things,
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  looking at the problems,
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  and not starting with algorithm or technology or
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  or vendors. We are starting from the problems.
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  What are the problems that matters most to
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  the organization?
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  And we are taking it looking at it
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  from the system lens
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  so that we are able to drive maximum
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  impact or value to the to the organization.
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  Absolutely. And when we talk about those forces
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  kind of reshaping the industry,
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  I feel like uncertainty has become the norm.
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  So what leadership habit or mindset has been
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  most critical for you
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  in keeping your organization and your people moving
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  forward?
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  First of all, you you stated it rightly.
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  Unpredictability
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  and uncertainty
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  is a norm. It is not an exception.
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  Right. And when we operate in an environment
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  where there there is too much change,
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  last thing organization or the people want is
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  reactive leadership, which is reacting to every noise.
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  It creates more confusion, it creates more chaos.
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  More important is the leadership mindset has to
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  be more reflective
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  when where you can lead with values, principle,
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  and mission
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  driven by the clarity
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  where the organization is headed and make some
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  decisions and operate with the with the utmost
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  transparency
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  and having that conversations with the entire organization
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  and be ready to pivot. Yeah. With the
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  continuous feedback and refinement
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  and learning,
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  we are able to make the organization very
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  agile, and we are not afraid to pivot.
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  Perfect. And I couldn't have you here without
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  asking about your area of expertise. So in
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  a world of
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  cyber threats and AI acceleration,
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  what does digital and operational resilience
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  truly mean for health care organizations?
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  First of all, when we talk about digital
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  and operational resiliency for our health care system,
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  it is more than keeping the systems up
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  or keeping the performance
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  high on the system point of view.
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  Disruption is going to happen. Cyber events are
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  going to happen. They are inevitable.
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  Residency in in terms of health care is
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  capability and capacity of the organization to continue
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  delivering on its mission. That is providing
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  an an uninterrupted
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  care to the to the communities we serve.
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  That's what we call resiliency as a as
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  a health care system. Absolutely.
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  And for my last question,
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  I'd love to hear what advice you would
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  give to other health care leaders just based
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  on your experience,
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  in the industry so far. I would leave
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  you with with few nuggets. So first of
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  all, for the leaders, don't confuse
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  activity with transformation.
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  Second, transformation is not a project or a
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  onetime initiative.
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  It's a lifelong journey. It's a journey.
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  I would also say that have a continuous
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  learning mindset
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  because your
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  AI is really redefining the work.
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  When I say work, it redefines the roles.
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  When the roles get redefined, it redefines the
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  responsibility,
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  and, ultimately, it redefines the skill set.
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  So your current skill set will get obsolete
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  very fast.
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  So have upskilling,
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  continuously getting engaged in AI projects,
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  and learning, and having a curious mindset is
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  a key trait for for
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  not only surviving, but thriving in the era
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  of AI. Absolutely. And I think that ties
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  right back to when you said pivoting. Right?
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  You gotta be able to pivot with that
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  uncertainty.
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  Well, that's all the time we have for
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  today, but thank you so much for joining
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  me. Thank you so much for having me.
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  Perfect. And to all our listeners, you can
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  hear more podcasts from Beckers at beggers health
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  care dot com. Thank you.