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Global Summit 2024
Author
Everton Santos
Author
Jonathan Christensen
In June 2024, KLAS hosted our annual Global Summit on the shores of Lago Maggiore in northern Italy. At this summit, 128 industry executives—including 70 healthcare representatives from 18 countries and 58 healthcare IT (HIT) vendor and consultant attendees—came together to discuss industry trends. Over the two-day conference, these leaders discussed significant barriers that hinder progress in the healthcare industry as well as areas of potential growth and innovation. This summit overview highlights findings from tabletop discussions that explored how the healthcare industry can better navigate challenges related to artificial intelligence (AI), clinician burnout, and customization.
Pre-Summit Survey
To supplement group discussions during the summit, KLAS administered a pre-summit survey to learn about healthcare organizations’ current status with and strategies for AI, clinician burnout, and customization within their IT environment.
Artificial Intelligence
Through the pre-summit survey, 43 healthcare representatives shared the current status of AI within their organizations. While nearly three-quarters of these representatives have invested in at least one AI use case, only 16% have a formal AI strategy in place.
During the summit, attendees held discussions focused on four questions related to AI. The following takeaways are organized according to those questions.
What Does Effective AI Governance Need to Look Like in Healthcare Organizations?
- Implement a multi-committee approach: Different AI applications and use cases require their own specialized committees. However, to ensure cohesive governance, these individual committees require oversight from a broader AI committee (which itself could be a subset of an existing governance committee, such as for EHR governance). This multi-committee approach enables tailored management of AI initiatives while maintaining alignment across groups.
- Have diverse stakeholder representation in AI governance committees: AI governance committees should have diverse representation from key stakeholders (e.g., CIOs, CMIOs, chief safety/risk officers, academics, and end users). This ensures all perspectives are considered, fostering a comprehensive governance framework.
- Focus on accuracy, reliability, and explainability to build user confidence in AI: Clinicians should be able to trust AI without necessarily understanding the technical details. Governance committees should ensure AI outputs are accurate, reliable, and explainable by conducting proof-of-concept work, continuously monitoring AI performance, and holding AI systems to established standards.
- Address compliance and ethical issues: AI governance must address regulatory compliance and ethical issues (e.g., data privacy, security, and patient consent and safety). Establishing clear guidelines and accountability measures helps mitigate risks and ensures AI implementations align with legal and ethical standards.
- Provide some degree of AI training to all healthcare employees: As AI adoption increases, providing AI training to all staff is crucial to building common understanding, digital maturity, and trust across the organization. Training should be tailored to each employee’s level of AI interaction.
How Should Organizations Decide Where to Invest in AI & Which Solutions to Purchase?
- Focus on impactful AI use cases (e.g., improving efficiency): Organizations should focus on AI use cases that are beneficial and scalable and can drive efficiency. Workflow and productivity improvements should be prioritized over diagnostics (though diagnostic AI is already well defined for imaging and radiology).
- Implement strong integration between AI and core systems: For AI to be sustainable, it must be integrated with core systems like the EHR or PACS. In the case of curated vendor marketplaces, vendors should negotiate costs and perform evaluations to select the AI solutions best suited to their customers.
- Healthcare organizations and HIT vendors should collaboratively tackle experimental AI: Healthcare organizations should not be expected to invest in experimental AI alone. Vendors need to be transparent about AI that is in the early stages of development, and healthcare organizations and vendors should collaborate to develop and refine new AI solutions.
- Consider time savings, safety, and burnout when evaluating ROI: Healthcare organizations should focus on outcomes such as time savings, improved safety, and reduced burnout when evaluating the ROI of AI. These key outcomes, as well as effective governance, help justify AI investments.
- Evaluate AI algorithms prior to adoption: Healthcare organizations and vendors both emphasize the need for robust evaluation of AI algorithms, including site visits and resource assessments, to ensure scalability and integration across departments. Effective governance and validation, such as through the NHS or MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency), are crucial for user confidence in AI.
How Can Organizations Effectively Monitor AI Algorithms to Ensure Accuracy and Reliability?
- Share responsibility for effective AI monitoring: Healthcare organizations’ governance committees (or other dedicated individuals) should audit AI outputs to ensure quality. Additionally, technology vendors should provide an audit trail and demonstrate the efficacy of their algorithms.
- Help customers understand AI performance through benchmarking: Vendors should benchmark their AI algorithms against those of other vendors to demonstrate to customers how well those algorithms are performing. This includes providing dashboards and continuously improving existing models.
- Be transparent about algorithm outputs: In addition to being transparent about the base output, vendors should regularly check for biases and be transparent about ongoing changes and upgrades.
- Involve from both healthcare organizations and vendors in AI education: Both groups should understand an AI model’s complexities and ensure clinicians aren’t solely reliant on AI for decision-making.
- Stay on top of local regulations: Different countries have different regulations, but compliance with standards is crucial. Vendors should ensure that AI is compliant with local regulations and that mechanisms are in place for regular audits and updates.
How Can Organizations Protect Themselves in a Legal/Regulatory Sense as They Adopt AI?
- Governance is the first line of defense: Establishing a robust governance framework is crucial. Healthcare organizations must implement ongoing regulatory reviews; comply with local, regulatory, and industry standards; set clear policies; and use closed systems to protect data.
- Clinicians need training to avoid bias and spot inaccuracies: As mentioned before, clinicians need to have confidence in AI systems. Proper onboarding and training ensure clinicians can identify and address inaccuracies from AI, thereby improving documentation quality and clinical experience.
- Patient consent is essential: Patients need to understand what they are consenting to (e.g., training algorithms, diagnostic AI, treatment by AI). Ensuring anonymity and clarity in the consent process is vital.
- Protect patient data through trusted data environments: Protecting patient data, especially when using generative AI, requires strict adherence to data privacy regulations (e.g., GDPR). Organizations must ensure data residency and use trusted data environments to safeguard data.
- Healthcare organizations, vendors, and regulatory bodies should be aligned: To successfully navigate the evolving AI environment, healthcare organizations and vendors need to collaborate with regulatory bodies and stay up to date on potential changes.
Clinician Burnout
Clinician burnout is a global challenge—among the respondents to the pre-summit survey, over half report that at least 20% of the clinicians at their organization experience symptoms of burnout. Additionally, almost half of these organizations report that the EHR is a moderate or major contributor to clinician burnout.
Clinician Burnout Discussion Takeaways
- Clinician burnout is increasing; healthcare organization attendees noted that many of their clinicians have progressed from experiencing general stress to more severe levels of burnout.
- Clinicians often lack time to take advantage of well-being opportunities due to heavy workloads and inefficiencies tied to repetitive data entry or security measures.
- Change resistance and change fatigue contribute to clinician burnout.
- Healthcare organizations need dedicated personnel to monitor and address burnout; these personnel should implement strategies (see list below) aimed at reducing burnout contributors and creating an organizational culture that supports employee well-being.
Strategies That Can Reduce Clinician Burnout
Involve clinicians in workflow and data-collection decisions to ensure relevance and efficiency
Allocate an appropriate amount of time for training and change management during normal work hours
Implement technologies that reduce inefficiencies/duplicate documentation (e.g., smart reports, generative notes, automated administrative tasks, and ambient speech technology)
Create quiet spaces in the facility for downtime during shifts
Cultivate a healthy, collaborative relationship between clinician and IT teams
Provide access to counseling and well-being programs
Customization
Across the world, the majority of healthcare organizations report having a moderately to heavily customized technology environment, and many are looking to minimize these customizations. Of the 41% of pre-summit survey respondents who have a heavily customized environment, almost half also report that upgrades are challenging.
Key Recommendations for Minimizing Customization & Staying Current with Software
For Healthcare Organizations
- Find a balance between customization and standardization: While customization may be needed to meet local regulations, it should be managed carefully to avoid long-term complications. Generally, foundational workflows should be prioritized.
- Implement a robust governance process/committee: A governance committee can review customization requests and vet them against established guidelines.
- Emphasize personal configurations: Using personal configurations instead of code changes can help maintain system integrity and facilitate smoother upgrades.
- Stay current with and provide training for updates: Organizations should plan for continual upgrades. Ideally, upgrades should be smaller and happen often as opposed to having less-frequent, large-scale upgrades, which are more disruptive. Clinicians should be trained on workflow changes or new functionality.
- Focus on change management: Change management should be a continuous process, not a single event.
For HIT Vendors
- Incorporate common requirements into the core system: This can minimize user need for extensive customizations, thus enabling smoother upgrades and better system stability.
- Be flexible with changing requirements: Customers should be able to easily incorporate new local requirements into the system.
- Send smaller, more frequent updates: These are easier for customers to manage than major, disruptive upgrades.
- Make staying current easier: Ongoing upgrades should be provided free to customers or covered in their contract. Where possible, require and help clients stay current with software versions.
- Clearly outline which updates need more workflow training: Vendors should provide the required resources to ensure customers get the training they need.
Global Summit 2025
KLAS’ next annual Global Summit will occur in Athens, Greece, on June 2–4, 2025. Healthcare leaders who are interested in attending can learn more about and register for the summit here.
2024 Summit AttendeesÂ
Healthcare Organizations
Adrian Harris, Chief Medical Officer, Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, England
Adrian Jimenez, SM, SOIN, Costa Rica
Ahmad Yahya, Chief Information Officer, Dubai Insurance, UAE
Alec Price-Forbes, Consultant Rheumatologist and CCIO, NHS England, England
Amrita Kumar, Consultant Radiologist and Clinical AI Lead, Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust, England
Andrew Blanch, Clinical Director—Digital Health Branch, Queensland Health, Australia
Andrew Kelly, Chief Digital Officer, Scarborough Health Network, Canada
Anna Hawksley, Deputy Director of Cyber Improvement, NHS England, England
Annie Howitt, Chief Nursing and Midwifery Information Officer, Royal Women’s Hospital, Australia
Atif Albreiki, Chief Digital Officer, Dubai Health, UAE
Augustine Amusu, CIO, Mediclinic Middle East, UAE
Aviv Gladman, CMIO, Mackenzie Health, Canada
Ayesha Rahim, Clinical Lead for Digital Mental Health, NHS England, England
Benita Butler, Acting EMR Director, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Australia
Beverley Bryant, Chief Digital Information Officer, Guy’s and St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, England
Bruno Campos, DSTI, Luz Saude, Portugal
Dalia Mominkhan, CEO, National Health Command Center, Saudi Arabia
Deborah Pinter, Clinical Operations Informatics Officer, Alberta Health Services, Canada
Drew Wesley, CIO/VP of Business & Technology, Women’s College Hospital, Canada
Elyse Adam, Director of Clinical Information Systems, Bendigo Health, Australia
Erik Sköldenberg, COO/CMO, Danderyds Hospital, Sweden
Fabio Lario, CMIO, SÃrio-Libanês, Brazil
Fahad Bindayel, Director of Applications & Health Informatics Services, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre, Saudi Arabia
Gina Naughton, RIS/PACS Systems Manager, Saolta HealthCare Group, Ireland
Glenn Barton, Director of Clinical Education, Professional Practice, Research, The Ottawa Hospital, Canada
Gürhan Zincircioglu, CMIO/COO, Tire State Hospital, Türkiye
H.E. Mubaraka Ibrahim, CIO, Emirates Health Services, UAE
Harri Karjalainen, CIO, Helsinki University Hospital, Finland
Helen Balsdon, National Chief Nursing Information Officer (Interim), NHS England, England
Helen Crowther, National Digital Primary Care Nurse Lead/CNIO Office, NHS England, England
Henry Morriss, CMIO, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, England
Ian Hogan, CIO, Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, England
Ilan Lenga, CIO/CMIO, Lakeridge Health, Central East Hospitals, Canada
Jacques Rossler, CIO, Hôpital Universitaire de Bruxelles, Belgium
Jason Bradley, Chief Digital and Data Officer, Countess of Chester Hospital, England
John Llewellyn, Chief Digital and Information Officer, NHS Cheshire and Merseyside (ICB), England
Julian Gully, CIO, Integral Diagnostics (IDX), Australia
Karim Jessa, CMIO, The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and University Health Network, Canada
Kath Feely, Chief Allied Health Information Officer, Parkville Precinct, Australia
Linus Tham, Group Chief Information Officer, IHH Healthcare, Singapore
Luke Readman, Director of Digital Transformation, NHS England, England
Mahmood Adil, National Healthcare Advisor for Ministry of Public Health (Qatar) and Clinical Data & Digital Lead for Royal College of Physicians (UK), Qatar
Mansour Swaidan, Deputy CIO, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre, Saudi Arabia
Marco Foracchia, CIO, Azienda USL di Reggio Emilia, IRCCS, Italy
Mark Hutchinson, CIO Advisor, North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Trust, England
Marwah Younis, Strategy and Innovation Advisor, Canada’s Drug Agency (CADTH), Canada
Matt Connor, Chief Digital Information Officer, Liverpool University Hospitals, England
Natasha Phillips, Professor of Nursing & Digital Healthcare, Future Nurse, England
Nathaniel Alexander, Chief Nursing & Midwifery Information Officer, NSW Health - South Western Sydney LHD, Australia
Neeraja Valmiki, Project Manager—PMO, Emirates Health Services, UAE
Peter Gocke, Chief Digital Officer, Charité, Germany
Philippa Kirkpatrick, Chief Digital Information Officer, NHS South East London, England
Rebecca Broadbent, Clinical Informatics Officer Bendigo Health, Australia
Richard Corbridge, Director General— Digital, Department of Work & Pensions, England
Rizwan Malik, Consultant Radiologist, Bolton NHS Foundation Trust, England
Rob Lee, VP of Digital Health/CIO, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Canada
Rosanna Intelisano, Management Engineer, A.O.U. Policlinico G.Martino, Italy
Rui Gomes, CIO, Coimbra University Hospital Centre, Portugal
Sabrina Cristofano, Chief Information Security Officer and Data Protection Officer, CHU Brugmann, Belgium
Sarah Barr, CIO, The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre, England
Sarah Muttitt, VP & CIO, The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and University Health Network, Canada
Sridhar Redla, Consultant Radiologist and Clinical Lead, AI & Innovations Board, Princess Alexandra Hospital, England
Stephanie Chau, Director of EMR Optimisation, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Australia
Stephen Dobson, CIO, Lancashire Teaching Hospitals, England
Tamara Sunbul, Medical Director of Clinical Informatics, Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare, Saudi Arabia
Ulla Kuukka, Chief Experience Officer, Apotti, Finland
Victoria Chan, Deputy CMIO, Enterprise Analytics, Physician Lead EMR, Mackenzie Health, Canada
Yaron Denekamp, Chief Medical Informatics Officer, Clalit Health Services, Israel
Vendors/Consultants/Investors
Ahmad Alisa, CFO, Lean Business Services
Alexander Ryan, Director, Hyland Healthcare
Alison MacDonald, Senior Vice President & Global Lead of EHR Implementation, Nordic Global
Andrea Fiumicelli, Chairman, Dedalus
Andrea Sowitch, Global Director of Customer Engagement, Sectra
Arron Edwards, UK Managing Director, Intelerad
Bree Bush, CEO - GM, Command Center & Digital Pharma Solutions, GE HealthCare
Brianna Zink, Senior Director of Global Strategy, WFM, Infor
Carlos Cardoso, Regional Manager, Sectra
Chad Holmes, Security Evangelist, Cynerio
Christian Quimby, President of Healthcare IT Services, ROI International
Christopher Brice, EMEA Healthcare Director, Hyland Healthcare
Daniel Prescott, VP of EPR Transformation Service (Europe & Middle East), Nordic Global
Danilo Fraga, Clinical Digital Transformation Lead, Roche
Dario Arfelli, Global Senior Director, Philips
Darrell Bailey, VP of International Sales, Cynerio
Dimitrios Kakoulis, Strategy Healthcare & Industry Leader EMEA/APAC, Infor
Femi Ladega, Chief Digital Officer, Dedalus
Filipe Ganhão, Associate Partner, Deloitte
Giulia Poletti, Senior Associate, Hg
Guillaume Pascal, Directeur Général (GM), Softway Medical
Harm Mescher, SVP Sales EMEA & APAC, uPerform
Hongxia Huang, VP of Marketing, iMEDWAY
Ingrid Wistrand, Chief Product Officer, Cambio Healthcare Systems
Jacques Baudin, Head GTM & Customer Success EMEA/LATAM, Roche
Jason Jones, Executive in Residence, Rackspace
Jean-Baptiste Franceschini, Co-Founder & CMCO, Softway Medical
Jesse Hodes, VP of Sales and Product, Softek Solutions
Joerg Schwarz, Senior Director of Healthcare Data Solutions and Strategy, Infor
Judy Smith, COO, Ethical Healthcare
Kathleen Aller, Director of Healthcare Market Strategy, InterSystems
Kieran Bamber, Healthcare Director, Tanium
Leon Lerman, CEO & Co-Founder, Cynerio
Leslie Selby, VP & Sales, Epic
Luke Stockdale, CTO, Ethical Healthcare
Marco Giunta, Global Marketing Lead for Healthcare Insights, Roche
Martijn Antonius, Executive Director, Epic
Matt Heath, VP of Business Development, Softek Solutions
Mercedes McCoy, VP, Epic
Michael Lampron, CEO, Mach7 Technologies
Michael Ristau, VP of Global Marketing and International Business, Solventum
Michel Amous, Regional Managing Director EMEA, InterSystems
Nasser Shehata, CEO, Health Insights
Paul Bonnet, General Manager, Vidal Vademecum
Pier Messineo, VP of M&A, Alliances & Partnerships, Danaher
Roberto Anello, Regional President of Northern Europe, AGFA HealthCare
Sara Luisa Mintrone, Group Chief Marketing Officer, Dedalus
Sarah Corbridge, Healthcare Director, Credera
Scott Andrew, Healthcare Industry Director, Dell Technologies
Sherley Brothier, CTO, Softway Medical
Simon Philip Rost, Chief Marketing & Strategy Officer, GE HealthCare
Sriram Venkatasubramaniam, Enterprise Informatics—Europe and ROW, Philips
Stephanie Berry, Customer Advocate, Philips
Sunita Dash, Director of Product Management, GE HealthCare
Terri LeFort, Nordic International President, Nordic Global
Thor Hvidbak, Healthcare Senior Manager & Client Executive, Deloitte
Tracey Watson, Director of Consulting, Ethical Healthcare
Ubirajara Oliveira, VP of Technology and Products, Bionexo
Velescu Catalin, Director, Solventum
Véronique Lessens, Global Head of Strategy, Marketing & Communication, AGFA HealthCare
Writer
Natalie Hopkins
Designer
Natalie Jamison
Project Manager
Sydney Toomer
This material is copyrighted. Any organization gaining unauthorized access to this report will be liable to compensate KLAS for the full retail price. Please see the KLAS DATA USE POLICY for information regarding use of this report. © 2024 KLAS Research, LLC. All Rights Reserved. NOTE: Performance scores may change significantly when including newly interviewed provider organizations, especially when added to a smaller sample size like in emerging markets with a small number of live clients. The findings presented are not meant to be conclusive data for an entire client base.