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Clinical and technology leaders from leading health systems compared notes and learned together at the HIMSS25 AI in Healthcare Forum.

The biggest hurdles in healthcare are rooted in how it is provided and IT is fundamental to process improvement, says University of South Carolina professor and HIMSS25 Changemaker Elizabeth Regan.

The 13-hospital network's CDS system also maintained stable patient experience scores – and data validated that cost reduction was achieved without compromising quality of care.

It has also revealed ongoing work applying AI to track medical resource utilisation in real time.

As aging infrastructure, staffing shortages and rising expectations collide with transformative tech, healthcare leaders must anchor every strategic plan in tomorrow's possibilities rather than yesterday's models, says health futurist Zayna Khayat.

Sherene Schlegel, RN, chief operating officer and chief nursing officer for virtual care and digital health at the 51-hospital health system, offers a tour of its comprehensive telemedicine offering. She explains the program's evolution and highlights big results.

Robert Slepin, chief digital officer at SE Health and an emeritus CIO adviser at Epic, describes the key aspects of digital transformation that provider organizations need to understand, the primary technologies involved and how to best organize such a comprehensive effort.

Chris Whelchel, a consultant with expertise in helping health systems with these varied challenges, shares advice that CIOs and other IT leaders at provider organizations can put into place now to help achieve results.

With nearly 25% of all cyberattacks against healthcare organizations, Intraprise Health Chief Operating Officer Scott Mattila warns that artificial intelligence is enabling more sophisticated phishing and smishing tactics.  

Artificial intelligence agents coordinating tasks across healthcare workflows were the talk of HIMSS25. In the year ahead, AI is expected to progress cautiously beyond ambient listening to effect new automation in electronic health records.