Workforce

Cedars-Sinai Chief Data and AI Officer Mouneer Odeh offers some of the best ways the Chief AI Officer can work with the C-suite to get AI done right and gives some tips to health IT executives seeking the chief AI officer position.

Chief Data and AI Officer Mouneer Odeh says work on artificial intelligence is like a snowball going downhill – over the next five to 10 years it will build and build until the scale of the impact meets what healthcare requires.

Dr. Tamara Sunbul, digital health transformation and innovation strategic advisor in Saudi Arabia and a HIMSS25 Changemaker, says clinicians can blend clinical and IT expertise to help patients improve their wellness.

The mass layoffs have severely undercut essential IT, policy and contracting functions, and sources say they fear critical expertise has been lost. The government could hire contractors to fill the gaps, putting ousted employees in an ethical bind.

Healthcare needs its workforce to be skilled in AI, says Bob Dichter, founder and career coach at Phoenix Rising Career Services, who encourages IT professionals to use artificial intelligence tools to help solve their organizations' challenges.

CIOs and other healthcare technology decision-makers polled by Stoltenberg Consulting say reimbursement and workforce challenges are also top of mind as they continue to invest in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and more.

With its Nursing Research and Innovation Council fostering the use of digital tools and the hospital training staff in employing artificial intelligence, it is improving tech adoption, says Debra Beauregard of Rady Children's Health.

A digital health literacy maturity model could aid in training and inspiring staff to adopt new tools and cybersecurity practices, says Tjasa Zajc, special advisor for HIMSS and moderator for the HIMSS25 Global Leaders Exchange panel.

Now entering its second academic year, this pioneering dual degree program is designed to equip future physicians with the AI expertise needed to revolutionize patient care.

Also, the Australian government awarded $4 million in funding to a project building the country's first registry of atrial fibrillation ablations.