The Signal Room | AI in Healthcare: Strategy & Governance

Chris Hutchins | The Signal Room — Healthcare AI Strategy & Ethical Governance
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The Signal Room is a healthcare AI podcast hosted by Christopher (Chris) Hutchins, Founder and CEO of Hutchins Data Strategy Consultants, a healthcare AI consulting practice built for leaders implementing AI with strategy, governance, and ethical leadership. Drawing on real AI consulting work with health systems, the show goes deep on AI strategy for healthcare, ethical governance, data strategy, data readiness, and responsible adoption in real health systems. Each episode brings healthcare executives, clinicians, and technology leaders into candid conversations about the decisions, operating conditions, and accountability behind healthcare AI implementation. Listen at https://signalroompodcast.com. Subscribe to AI Health Pulse for weekly healthcare AI analysis.

  1. 1d ago

    AI in Hospitals: Building the AI-Native Hospital | David Niewolny

    Send us Fan Mail AI in hospitals is shifting from separate tools toward a coordinated layer that supports everyone delivering care, and David Niewolny of NVIDIA explains what it takes to build an AI-native hospital. David Niewolny is director of business development for healthcare and medical at NVIDIA, where he focuses on easing the adoption of AI in healthcare and medical applications. He joins Chris Hutchins, Founder and CEO of Hutchins Data Strategy Consultants, to open Season 2 of The Signal Room with a look at what changes when AI becomes part of how a hospital coordinates its work. What We Cover David defines an AI-native hospital as one that puts the intelligence it already creates from patient and operational data to work, and he traces AI's path from perception to generative, agentic and physical AI. Chris and David walk through an X-ray room that guides patient positioning and checks image quality before the patient leaves, preoperative surgical planning and rehearsal in simulation, ambient clinical documentation, and conversational agents that prepare patients before and after a procedure. They close on digital twins in healthcare, where a health system can design and test an entire hospital in simulation before construction begins. Key Takeaways David says he cannot name a role AI has made disappear, and points to radiology, where efficiency created demand for more imaging and more radiologists. He compares surgical robotics to driver assistance with warnings and automatic braking, and does not expect fully self-driving surgery. Explainability rests on being clear about the problem, the data, how it was labeled and how the model was trained, with simulation and synthetic data covering rare cases before anything reaches a patient. His advice for hospital leaders is to aim AI at the single biggest problem the organization faces and to choose partners with care, since hospitals are buyers of technology. Frameworks and Tools The conversation covers open models and open model architectures, levels of surgical autonomy borrowed from autonomous vehicles, synthetic data built with world foundation models, and testing AI applications in simulated environments before clinical trials. David also describes NVIDIA's collaborations with Abridge on clinical documentation models and with Hippocratic AI on a digital agent for post-procedure care. About David Niewolny David Niewolny has 18 years of experience building and leading healthcare-focused businesses at AWS, Real-Time Innovations, NXP and Freescale Semiconductor. He holds an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin and a B.S. in biomedical and biochemical engineering from Iowa State University. Related Resources Episode page: https://signalroompodcast.com/episodes/ai-native-hospital David Niewolny on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidniewolny/ David Niewolny on the NVIDIA Blog: https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/author/dniewolny/ Beneath the Signal, Chris's book on the human work behind trusted data and responsible AI in healthcare: Get it on Amazon The Signal Room is featured in Feedspot's Best AI in Healthcare Podcasts, 2026: https://podcast.feedspot.com/ai_health_podcasts/ Support the show About The Signal Room: The Signal Room is a podcast and communications platform exploring leadership, ethics, and innovation in healthcare and artificial intelligence. Hosted by Christopher Hutchins, Founder and CEO of Hutchins Data Strategy Consultants. Leadership, ethics, and innovation, amplified. Website: https://www.hutchinsdatastrategy.com  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chutchins-healthcare/  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChrisHutchinsAi Book Chris to speak:  https://www.chrisjhutchins.com

  2. Oct 28

    Can You Trust Clinical AI When No One Is Asking the Right Questions?

    Send us Fan Mail Clinical knowledge management decides whether clinical AI is safe at the bedside, and Dr. Declan Kelly explains why a hospital's own governed knowledge matters as much as the model. Dr. Declan Kelly is a physician, software engineer, and founder and CEO of Eolas Medical, whose platform uses AI to index a hospital's own guidelines, policies and medicines information so clinicians get answers in seconds. He practiced for about five years, mostly in emergency medicine, before building Eolas, which is now live in roughly 500 sites, including most acute NHS trusts and U.S. hospitals such as Stanford and Mass General. He joins Chris Hutchins, Founder and CEO of Hutchins Data Strategy Consultants, to talk about the knowledge layer that clinical AI keeps skipping. What We Cover Declan explains why external evidence gets a clinician only part of the way, while the last mile of a decision depends on local knowledge such as how to book a scan overnight or which drug sits on the formulary. By his estimate only about 10% of that knowledge is written down, and the rest lives in people's heads. Chris and Declan discuss why trust in clinical AI depends on context, transparency and the ability of a clinician to check where an answer came from. They also cover regulation in the U.S. and Europe, and how a physician's mindset has to change to build a company. Key Takeaways Clinical AI should be judged like any other clinical tool, with safety nets built around an imperfect test, much as a troponin result is read alongside other checks and clinical judgment. Most health systems will not need to train their own models, since retrieval built on their governed data supplies the context that makes answers safe. Managing that knowledge is harder than accessing it, because ownership spans clinical, operational, legal and governance teams. Declan argues that healthcare needs technology to lower costs and widen access, with clinical safety as the condition for that progress. Frameworks and Tools The conversation covers retrieval augmented generation versus fine-tuning, capture of tacit clinical knowledge, and connecting a knowledge layer to ambient listeners, the EHR and general AI assistants. Declan describes how Eolas has a separate answer engine review every question for clinical safety. He also notes that some European regulators classify ambient listeners as medical devices. About Dr. Declan Kelly Dr. Declan Kelly trained as a medical doctor and worked clinically for about five years, mostly in emergency medicine, while also building software for his own hospital. He founded Eolas Medical, a Belfast-based healthtech company, after living the problem of reaching approved local guidance at the point of care. Eolas announced a $12 million Series A in January 2026. Related Resources Episode page: https://signalroompodcast.com/episodes/clinical-ai-hospital-knowledge Dr. Declan Kelly on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/declan-kelly-484bb7187/ Eolas Medical: https://www.eolasmedical.com/ Beneath the Signal, Chris's book on the human work behind trusted data and responsible AI in healthcare: Get it on Amazon The Signal Room is featured in Feedspot's Best AI in Healthcare Podcasts, 2026: https://podcast.feedspot.com/ai_health_podcasts/ Support the show About The Signal Room: The Signal Room is a podcast and communications platform exploring leadership, ethics, and innovation in healthcare and artificial intelligence. Hosted by Christopher Hutchins, Founder and CEO of Hutchins Data Strategy Consultants. Leadership, ethics, and innovation, amplified. Website: https://www.hutchinsdatastrategy.com  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chutchins-healthcare/  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChrisHutchinsAi Book Chris to speak:  https://www.chrisjhutchins.com

  3. Oct 26

    AI Takes Work. What Comes Next? | Michael Johns

    Send us Fan Mail When AI takes on more work, leaders still have to decide what people do next. Michael Johns joins Chris Hutchins to discuss automation in healthcare operations, the access given to persistent AI agents and the trust employees need to suggest changes. His argument about workforce pressure leads to a practical conversation about the work people keep. IN THIS CONVERSATION - Where automation starts in healthcare finance and the back office - Michael’s view of workforce pressure and what people should do next - Least-privilege access and audit trails for persistent AI agents - Testing real data and the ways automation can quietly fail - Building an ongoing program with employee trust and useful measures CHAPTERS 00:00 The Signal Room opening and Beneath the Signal 0:19 Agentic AI and Michael Johns 1:35 Where automation starts in a health system 2:47 Why the back office comes first 3:55 Jobs, capacity and higher-value work 7:25 Aging demand and a shrinking workforce 8:59 What people do with the time freed up 11:00 What should stay with people 12:25 Defensible access and audit trails 14:54 Tenancy, embedded AI and shadow AI 16:42 When an agent looks beyond the intended dataset 18:05 How automation quietly fails 19:49 Build a program that outlasts a project 21:55 Employee trust and safe participation 24:31 Keep score and reward the people 25:41 Connect with Michael Johns GUEST RESOURCES https://lydonia.ai/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeljohns3 The Signal Room is featured in Feedspot's Best AI in Healthcare Podcasts, 2026: https://podcast.feedspot.com/ai_health_podcasts/ The Signal Room: https://signalroompodcast.com/ Support the show About The Signal Room: The Signal Room is a podcast and communications platform exploring leadership, ethics, and innovation in healthcare and artificial intelligence. Hosted by Christopher Hutchins, Founder and CEO of Hutchins Data Strategy Consultants. Leadership, ethics, and innovation, amplified. Website: https://www.hutchinsdatastrategy.com  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chutchins-healthcare/  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChrisHutchinsAi Book Chris to speak:  https://www.chrisjhutchins.com

  4. Oct 21

    Shadow AI in Healthcare: Your Staff Already Use AI. Who Owns the Risk? | Aaron Bach

    Send us Fan Mail This episode explains how health systems can govern the shadow AI healthcare staff already use, starting with the controls they have today instead of waiting for perfect ones. Aaron Bach is co-founder and CTO of Liminal, with more than 15 years across software, AI and enterprise architecture. He joins Chris Hutchins, Founder and CEO of Hutchins Data Strategy Consultants, to argue that AI should be governed at the behavior layer while it runs. Their conversation moves from unsanctioned tools to model choice, human review and accountability when something goes wrong. What We Cover Aaron shares early research Liminal ran in 2023, in which about three out of four employees said they already used AI at work. Roughly two thirds of that group admitted using generative AI tools their organization had not approved, mostly to keep up with heavy workloads. He explains why the NIST AI RMF places this work in its Manage function, which calls for ongoing action over a policy sitting on a shelf. Chris and Aaron also discuss why the best use cases often come from front office staff and clinicians, and why committee-heavy planning tends to stall. Key Takeaways Blocking and shaming users tends to push AI use further out of sight, so governance has to serve both security teams and the people doing the work. No single platform covers every AI need, since AI spans roughly 15 to 20 distinct product categories. Model output can look polished while being subtly wrong, which makes trained human reviewers more critical than ever. Unreviewed AI output sent straight to patients, such as an incorrect portal message about a cancer diagnosis, shows where review must sit. Frameworks and Tools Aaron frames active AI oversight through the Manage function of the NIST AI Risk Management Framework. He describes behavioral automation, an approach that observes how individual employees work to surface use cases specific to them. A multi-model strategy reflects his view that different models suit different problems. Claude Cowork comes up as an example of a tool built on a coding harness, well suited to some tasks and poorly matched to others. About Aaron Bach Aaron Bach co-founded Liminal in 2023 and serves as its CTO. Before Liminal, he led engineering at Fortune 500 scale, served as CTO of a pharmacy savings platform and ran engineering innovation at FIS. His work focuses on helping organizations in healthcare and other regulated industries put AI to practical use with governance in place. Related Resources Episode page: https://signalroompodcast.com/episodes/shadow-ai-governance-healthcare Liminal: https://liminal.ai/ Aaron Bach on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronbach Beneath the Signal, Chris's book on the human work behind trusted data and responsible AI in healthcare: Get it on Amazon The Signal Room is featured in Feedspot's Best AI in Healthcare Podcasts, 2026: https://podcast.feedspot.com/ai_health_podcasts/ Support the show About The Signal Room: The Signal Room is a podcast and communications platform exploring leadership, ethics, and innovation in healthcare and artificial intelligence. Hosted by Christopher Hutchins, Founder and CEO of Hutchins Data Strategy Consultants. Leadership, ethics, and innovation, amplified. Website: https://www.hutchinsdatastrategy.com  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chutchins-healthcare/  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChrisHutchinsAi Book Chris to speak:  https://www.chrisjhutchins.com

  5. Oct 21

    Medical Practice Accounting: Get a Clearer View of Your Money | Tomer and Erez Lankri

    Send us Fan Mail This episode covers medical practice accounting and why so many practice owners make daily business decisions without current, reliable numbers. Erez Lankri, co-founder and CEO, and Tomer Lankri, co-founder and CTO, lead Lucid Financials, which provides bookkeeping, tax and CFO support to medical practices. Brothers and sons of CPAs, they grew up supporting the technology in their parents' accounting office. They join Chris Hutchins, Founder and CEO of Hutchins Data Strategy Consultants, to discuss grounded AI, human accountability and the financial blind spots that hold practices back. What We Cover Erez outlines four recurring problems. Physicians are trained to treat patients rather than run a business, money sits scattered across processors, vendors, payroll and entities, and books arrive months late. As a result, owners make decisions on instinct. Tomer explains that practice revenue visibility depends on connecting patient management data to the books, including what insurers will actually pay. With that connection in place, a practice can see ahead of time whether it will make payroll. The brothers also describe a practice sale that stalled because a flawed entity structure left a large liability on the books. Key Takeaways A named professional should own the financial results, with AI preparing the groundwork for that person to review. Tomer argues that AI answers about finances should be grounded in the source record, such as the invoice behind a number, which makes them easier to trust. Multi-entity consolidated reporting is very difficult for a solo CFO working in spreadsheets, and stale forecasts need constant rework without live data. Before adding AI, a practice benefits most from a sound data architecture. Frameworks and Tools The discussion references rules-based transaction categorization, cash flow management with actuals compared against forecasts, hiring plans, scenario planning and consolidated reporting across entities. Erez and Tomer also describe R&D tax credit studies and grounding, the practice of requiring an AI system to justify each answer with a traceable source. Chris adds his own experience building budget models at Mass General, where embedding prior-year facts helped defend growth assumptions. Chapters 00:00 Welcome to The Signal Room 00:05 Beneath the Signal 00:19 Meet Tomer and Erez 00:55 Why medical practice finances? 05:02 Four financial blind spots 08:11 Connect operations to the books 11:24 A practice sale warning 12:28 Regulation and human accountability 15:15 Rules and AI in the financial workflow 17:31 Helping the finance team adopt the tools 21:42 Ground the answer in the record 26:25 Finding overlooked opportunities 31:09 People remain accountable 32:11 Data architecture and adoption 33:07 Practical next steps 34:47 Closing About Tomer and Erez Lankri Tomer and Erez Lankri are serial entrepreneurs with engineering degrees in computer science and a family background in accounting. After building financial platforms for clients across several industries, they refocused Lucid Financials on medical practices. Erez serves as CEO and Tomer as CTO. Related Resources Episode page: https://signalroompodcast.com/episodes/medical-practice-financial-visibility Lucid Financials: https://www.lucid.now/ Tomer Lankri on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomer-lankri Erez Lankri on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lankrierez Beneath the Signal, Chris's book on the human work behind trusted data and responsible AI in healthcare: Get it on Amazon The Signal Room is featured in Feedspot's Best AI in Healthcare Podcasts, 2026: https://podcast.feedspot.com/ai_health_podcasts/ Support the show About The Signal Room: The Signal Room is a podcast and communications platform exploring leadership, ethics, and innovation in healthcare and artificial intelligence. Hosted by Christopher Hutchins, Founder and CEO of Hutchins Data Strategy Consultants. Leadership, ethics, and innovation, amplified. Website: https://www.hutchinsdatastrategy.com  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chutchins-healthcare/  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChrisHutchinsAi Book Chris to speak:  https://www.chrisjhutchins.com

  6. Oct 19

    Who Gets Counted in Health Data? | Lisa Marceau | The Signal Room

    Send us Fan Mail This episode explores health data equity by asking who is missing from the research, records and models that clinical AI now depends on. Lisa Marceau is the founder and president of Alpha Millennial Health, and co-founder of the postpartum digital health company Joyuus. Her work includes more than 50 peer-reviewed publications as author or co-author. She joins Chris Hutchins, Founder and CEO of Hutchins Data Strategy Consultants, to examine the infrastructure, governance and research questions that decide whether a model rests on trustworthy foundations. What We Cover Lisa draws on decades of clinical research, including studies in which identical case presentations led to different diagnoses depending on the patient. In cardiovascular disease, women were more often diagnosed with depression than men with the same symptoms, delaying treatment. She argues that data quality and data governance questions about ownership, use and representation must come first, because equity follows when those are solved. The conversation also covers maternal care deserts and the stale or ghost data that AI tools can pull into answers. Key Takeaways Every project should begin with a clear question, followed by a check on whether the available data can actually answer it. When a population is missing, teams should decide whether to build that data before running a model. AI works best as infrastructure, added only when it makes a defined product better, faster or more efficient. Health system leaders evaluating a vendor should ask what problem it solves, what value it brings and what risk it carries for users and the organization. Frameworks and Tools Lisa describes Joyuus, an evidence-based software platform covering mental, physical, social and real-world health across the 12 months after birth. Postpartum depression was its first use case. She co-founded it with Dr. Allison Bryant of Mass General Brigham after asking mothers and providers what was missing. She also discusses the NIH Small Business Innovation Research program and HIPAA risks when AI scrapes data that should have been archived. Chapters 00:00 Welcome and meet Lisa Marceau 01:02 From clinical research to entrepreneurship 03:28 Who is represented in health data? 07:13 The research gaps behind clinical outcomes 09:45 Ask the question before collecting the data 11:30 Data quality, governance and equity 13:49 Geography, culture and access to care 16:29 Women's health across the lifespan 19:29 AI and the problem of outdated evidence 24:09 Joyuus and the postpartum care gap 27:29 Earlier support beyond the clinic 29:41 Mental health as whole-person care 34:43 Social connection and new data 36:34 NIH funding and building a viable company 39:23 When AI starts referring to AI 42:56 Treat AI as infrastructure 46:54 The cost of building without a clear purpose 48:55 Questions leaders should ask before investing 51:27 Breaking the System and connecting with Lisa About Lisa Marceau Lisa Marceau spent 23 years with a clinical research organization, serving as an executive leader for more than a decade before its acquisition by a Fortune 25 insurer. Her book is Breaking the System: How Digital Innovators Shape the Future of Health Care. Related Resources Episode page: https://signalroompodcast.com/episodes/health-data-bias-trustworthy-ai Alpha Millennial Health and Lisa Marceau: https://www.alphamhealth.com/about Joyuus: https://www.joyuus.com/ Lisa Marceau on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisamarceau Breaking the System: How Digital Innovators Shape the Future of Health Care: https://www.amazon.com/dp/163489829X NIH SEED and small business funding: https://seed.nih.gov/ Beneath the Signal, Chris's book on the human work behind trusted data and responsible AI in healthcare: Get it on Amazon The Signal Room is featured in Feedspot's Best AI in Healthcare Podcasts, 2026: https://podcast.feedspot.com/ai_health_podcasts/ Support the show About The Signal Room: The Signal Room is a podcast and communications platform exploring leadership, ethics, and innovation in healthcare and artificial intelligence. Hosted by Christopher Hutchins, Founder and CEO of Hutchins Data Strategy Consultants. Leadership, ethics, and innovation, amplified. Website: https://www.hutchinsdatastrategy.com  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chutchins-healthcare/  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChrisHutchinsAi Book Chris to speak:  https://www.chrisjhutchins.com

  7. Oct 16

    AI Leadership, Polymathy and Collective Intelligence with Dr. Angela C. Meyers

    Send us Fan Mail This episode asks what AI leadership requires when every organization can buy the same tools and the real difference lies in the people using them. Dr. Angela C. Meyers is the founder of The Polymathic Method and author of Versatile: Human Intelligence in an Artificial Age, with a doctorate in human and organizational learning focused on polymathy. She joins Chris Hutchins, Founder and CEO of Hutchins Data Strategy Consultants, to discuss how people stay capable of questioning AI as it takes on more cognitive work. What We Cover Angela explains polymathy as lifelong, life-wide learning and why habits built for an age of specialization fit poorly with AI. She and Chris discuss skill decay, using AI to remove drudgery such as charting, and the risk of adding AI duties to people who already carry full workloads. A central theme is collective intelligence: leaders gather diverse viewpoints, make it safe to disagree and learn together before settling on answers. Angela names early certainty about complex problems as a warning sign. They also cover shadow AI and why technical experts promoted into supervision need people skills. Key Takeaways Resistance to change may reflect overload or exclusion from decisions, so leaders should ask before assuming people are unwilling. Recording listening sessions and using AI to analyze what staff say can turn frontline experience into a better plan. Humans remain accountable for judgment calls, which means AI output needs verification and active critical thinking. Treating mistakes in a pilot as learning opportunities builds the trust that larger change efforts depend on. Frameworks and Tools Angela describes the Knower-Learner Assessment, her Collective Intelligence Labs and Versatile Leadership Training. She draws on organizational ambidexterity, which balances exploiting current strengths with exploring new approaches. Other references include psychological safety, analogical thinking, and the away-from and towards thinking patterns described in neurolinguistic programming. Chapters 00:00 Welcome and Beneath the Signal 00:19 Meet Dr. Angela C. Meyers 01:19 What polymathy means 03:29 When automation weakens or frees human capacity 06:27 AI should reduce the burden 08:43 Leaders who listen 10:08 Learning through AI and data uncertainty 14:52 Keeping the capacity to learn 21:37 Collective intelligence and decision making 24:21 The warning sign: early certainty 29:15 Bottlenecks, human capacity and creative thinking 38:37 Participation in organizational change 44:13 Expertise and the people skills of leadership 49:54 Premature launches and realistic expectations 53:43 Rebuilding trust 58:49 Connecting knowledge across silos 01:02:48 Resources and closing About Dr. Angela C. Meyers Dr. Angela C. Meyers holds a doctorate in human and organizational learning, with doctoral research on modern-day polymaths. She has spent more than 15 years in federal service and leadership development, studying versatility, learning agility and integrative thinking. Related Resources Episode page: https://signalroompodcast.com/episodes/ai-leadership-polymathy Books, Versatile and In Pursuit of Polymaths: https://www.drangelameyers.com/books The Polymathic Method: https://www.drangelameyers.com/ Knower-Learner Assessment: https://www.drangelameyers.com/knowerlearner Collective Intelligence Labs: https://www.drangelameyers.com/collectiveintelligencelab Versatile Leadership Training: https://www.drangelameyers.com/versatileleadershiptraining Angela on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drangelacmeyers Beneath the Signal, Chris's book on the human work behind trusted data and responsible AI in healthcare: Get it on Amazon The Signal Room is featured in Feedspot's Best AI in Healthcare Podcasts, 2026: https://podcast.feedspot.com/ai_health_podcasts/ Support the show About The Signal Room: The Signal Room is a podcast and communications platform exploring leadership, ethics, and innovation in healthcare and artificial intelligence. Hosted by Christopher Hutchins, Founder and CEO of Hutchins Data Strategy Consultants. Leadership, ethics, and innovation, amplified. Website: https://www.hutchinsdatastrategy.com  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chutchins-healthcare/  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChrisHutchinsAi Book Chris to speak:  https://www.chrisjhutchins.com

  8. Oct 15

    AI Clinical Trial Screening: Evidence, Recruitment and Workflow with Dr. AJ Blood

    Send us Fan Mail This episode looks at AI clinical trial screening through the evidence, the recruitment problem it targets and the workflow needed to make it work. Dr. AJ Blood is a cardiologist and intensivist at Brigham and Women's Hospital, where he leads a research group in implementation science, and the co-founder and CEO of AIwithCare. He joins Chris Hutchins, Founder and CEO of Hutchins Data Strategy Consultants, to discuss RECTIFIER, the tool his team built to support eligibility screening. Together they examine how a research tool was tested to the same evidence standard expected of medicine. What We Cover Trial protocols that once had five or ten inclusion and exclusion criteria now often carry forty or fifty. About nine in ten charts his study staff opened belonged to ineligible patients, making chart review the largest cost in AJ's trials. RECTIFIER reads structured and unstructured EHR data, judges eligibility against each criterion and cites its sources so trained staff can confirm or reject every determination. Chris and AJ discuss what the NEJM AI and JAMA studies measured and why careful design matters for AI in clinical trials. Their conversation also covers how the tool spread to other uses inside Mass General Brigham. Key Takeaways Every eligibility decision stays with a human, and the model surfaces evidence without making medical decisions. Both published studies looked for bias across age, sex, race, ethnicity and primary language, and AJ argues that monitoring should run continuously across sites. In the JAMA trial, enrollment rose substantially, though the primary outcome was time to eligibility determination and enrollment was exploratory. Pilots work better with discrete go or no-go metrics, short timelines and frontline staff involved in design from the start. Frameworks and Tools The conversation centers on RECTIFIER, the 2024 NEJM AI study and the 2025 JAMA randomized prescreening trial. AJ also references implementation science, the TIMI Study Group, human-in-the-loop review and a pediatric GI referral triage use at Mass General Brigham. He recommends forward-deployed engineers and user testing every few weeks across wireframe, prototype and pilot. Chapters 00:00 Welcome and episode introduction 00:19 Evidence over promises 00:41 From clinical research to implementation 03:42 Why effective care struggles to reach patients 09:04 AI-assisted chart review 12:28 Who gets access to clinical trials? 16:55 Building and testing the screening tool 23:10 What the evidence shows 27:35 Faster enrollment and shorter timelines 30:51 Monitoring bias across sites 34:57 Workflow determines adoption 42:41 Set clear measures for a pilot 47:25 Design beside the people doing the work 51:46 Connect with AJ About Dr. AJ Blood Dr. AJ Blood trained at Johns Hopkins, the National Institutes of Health, the Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine and Duke University before his fellowship at Brigham and Women's Hospital. He also earned a master's degree at the Harvard School of Public Health. Today he practices cardiology, runs an implementation science research group and leads AIwithCare, which licensed RECTIFIER from Mass General Brigham. Related Resources Episode page: https://signalroompodcast.com/episodes/ai-clinical-trial-screening AIwithCare: https://aiwithcare.com/ AJ Blood on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-blood-md-msc-facc-abom-a8654a23/ 2025 JAMA randomized prescreening study: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2830514 2024 NEJM AI study: https://ai.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/AIoa2400181 Beneath the Signal, Chris's book on the human work behind trusted data and responsible AI in healthcare: Get it on Amazon The Signal Room is featured in Feedspot's Best AI in Healthcare Podcasts, 2026: https://podcast.feedspot.com/ai_health_podcasts/ Support the show About The Signal Room: The Signal Room is a podcast and communications platform exploring leadership, ethics, and innovation in healthcare and artificial intelligence. Hosted by Christopher Hutchins, Founder and CEO of Hutchins Data Strategy Consultants. Leadership, ethics, and innovation, amplified. Website: https://www.hutchinsdatastrategy.com  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chutchins-healthcare/  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChrisHutchinsAi Book Chris to speak:  https://www.chrisjhutchins.com

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The Signal Room is a healthcare AI podcast hosted by Christopher (Chris) Hutchins, Founder and CEO of Hutchins Data Strategy Consultants, a healthcare AI consulting practice built for leaders implementing AI with strategy, governance, and ethical leadership. Drawing on real AI consulting work with health systems, the show goes deep on AI strategy for healthcare, ethical governance, data strategy, data readiness, and responsible adoption in real health systems. Each episode brings healthcare executives, clinicians, and technology leaders into candid conversations about the decisions, operating conditions, and accountability behind healthcare AI implementation. Listen at https://signalroompodcast.com. Subscribe to AI Health Pulse for weekly healthcare AI analysis.

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