From the ICU to IT VP: Kathleen Zaski on the human touch in healthcare technology

In this episode of Catalyst, Tammy is joined by Kathleen Zaski, Vice President of IT at Renown Health. Kathleen began her career as a cardiovascular technician and cardiac ICU nurse before pivoting into technology leadership. She’s lived the clinical experience and shadowed every hospital department, including the cafeteria (complete with hairnet!). That grounding keeps patients and providers at the heart of Kathleen’s technology decisions.

Tammy and Kathleen discuss AI adoption in healthcare: where it's helping the most, where it needs more human oversight and why internal influencers can make or break a roll out.

Highlights from the episode include:

• AI that brings humanity into digital. Renown has implemented AI tools that help draft compassionate responses to patient messages. When doctors are in a hurry, their messages can be short. These tools free clinicians to be more present and give patients the attentive communication they deserve.
• Less pajama time, more personal time. Ambient AI tools are helping providers capture notes automatically during appointments, reducing after-hours charting known as “pajama time.” Kathleen shares that clinicians have described the technology as life changing because it gives them meaningful time back in their personal lives.
• Scale your impact. In the ICU, Kathleen could only care for one or two patients per shift. In her current role, she can affect hundreds of thousands of lives at once. She wants other clinicians to know that moving into technology is not a departure from their mission. Like many providers, she got into healthcare because she wanted to help people. Technology expands her ability to do that.

Check out the full episode to hear more about Kathleen’s journey from a small town to the biggest little city in the world and how she sees AI helping to address the nursing shortage.

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Please note that the views expressed in this episode may not necessarily be those of NTT DATA.