Show Notes
The Big Unlock · Thomas Fuchs, Chief AI Officer, Eli Lilly and Company In this episode, Thomas Fuchs, Chief AI Officer at Eli Lilly, shares his journey from early machine learning research to spearheading transformative AI initiatives across the pharmaceutical value chain. Lilly is running over a thousand AI projects—from drug discovery and development to manufacturing and commercial operations—leveraging innovations like language models for chatbots, computer vision for quality control, and biomarker development. Thomas emphasizes trust, transparency, and collaboration as critical to AI adoption, supported by AI certification programs for all Lilly technology employees, as well as AI education resources being made available for everyone at Lilly. He also highlights the company’s unique “lab-in-the-loop” setups that generate synthetic data to accelerate innovation. Thomas shares real-world successes, including AI-assisted drug discovery and intelligent chatbots, and how AI is building confidence across the organization. With robust data infrastructure and scalable strategies for synthesizing large datasets, Lilly is driving rapid innovation. Thomas predicts faster drug design, broader access to medicines, and continuous education as defining trends for AI in healthcare. Take a listen.
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The Big Unlock · Dr. Richard Zane, Chief Medical Officer and Chief Innovation Officer, UCHealth In this episode, Dr. Richard Zane, Chief Medical Officer and Chief Innovation Officer at UCHealth, discusses how AI and emerging technologies can improve clinical decision-making, expand access to care, and enable scalable healthcare innovation. Dr. Zane emphasizes that successful innovation begins with problems identified by frontline teams, not technology looking for applications. He explains how AI’s strengths in pattern recognition and complex data analysis can support better decisions, while human judgment remains essential in clinical care. He shares an approach to partnering with technology companies, co-developing solutions, and designing for scale. He also discusses how technology can bring complex care closer to rural communities, supported by appropriate clinical safeguards. Dr. Zane advocates replacing traditional pilots with phased deployments, rapid iteration, and continuous improvement. His message to healthcare leaders is to prioritize patient needs, fear inaction rather than failure, and focus on technology that delivers meaningful value. Take a listen.
The Big Unlock · Hal Wolf, President and CEO, HIMSS
The Big Unlock · Jean-Claude Saghbini, Chief Technology Officer and President of Technology Services, Lumeris In this episode, Jean-Claude Saghbini, Chief Technology Officer and President of Technology Services at Lumeris, explores how agentic AI can help address healthcare’s primary care access challenge. He argues that incremental efficiencies are not enough; AI must enable the existing clinical workforce to serve more patients and extend care between visits. Jean-Claude discusses Tom, Lumeris’ AI-powered primary care team member and operating system, which uses patient data to identify next actions and proactively engage patients. He emphasizes that deploying Agentic AI responsibly requires clear guidelines for what AI should do and guardrails for what it cannot do. Jean-Claude argues that AI models themselves will not create competitive advantage. Differentiation will come from data, domain knowledge, applications, and redesigned workflows. He advises healthcare technology leaders to move beyond the automation, pilot, and perfection traps and make focused enterprise AI investments. Take a listen.
The Big Unlock · Ann Bilyew, President, WebMD Ignite In this episode, Ann Bilyew, President at WebMD Ignite, explores how the rise of AI-generated health information is changing the way health systems connect consumers to care. As LLMs increasingly own the information layer, she argues that the opportunity for healthcare organizations is shifting from owning search and discovery to establishing credibility and owning the handoff from a patient’s question to the right care. Ann emphasizes the importance of complete, credible, and corroborated content, alongside personalized engagement that reflects each patient’s clinical circumstances, preferences, and needs. She also calls for reducing friction and breaking down organizational and technology silos across marketing, education, engagement, and care to create a more cohesive patient journey. Ann believes healthcare organizations must focus on creating the connection point between foundational AI models and the actual provision of care. Take a listen.
The Big Unlock · Don Woodlock, President, InterSystems In this episode, Don Woodlock, President of InterSystems, discusses what it takes to make AI work effectively in healthcare. He emphasizes that organizations need to look beyond models and focus equally on use cases, ROI, change management, data, and integration. AI needs to be connected to the right data, context, procedures, and skills to deliver value within an organization. Don emphasizes that healthcare remains a human endeavor. AI can summarize complex patient information and help clinicians consider additional possibilities, but it should support human decision-making rather than replace it. He sees agentic AI helping with administrative tasks, reducing burden, and improving access, with human oversight remaining essential. Don believes AI-native healthcare requires AI to be embedded directly into products and workflows. Rather than bolting AI onto existing software, the opportunity is to rethink how users interact with systems, allowing them to state what they want accomplished while the technology handles the underlying work. Take a listen. This guest appearance was facilitated through conversations initiated at HIMSS.