Turn on the Lights Podcast

Who Guards Healthcare AI? Inside CHAI’s Push for Trust and Transparency with Dr. Brian Anderson

Trust in health care AI won’t happen by hype. It will be earned through transparent standards, independent evaluation, and real-world performance monitoring. In this episode, Dr. Brian Anderson, President & CEO and Co-Founder of the Coalition for Health AI (CHAI), discusses why health care needs a technically specific, use-case-by-use-case definition of “good” AI and how CHAI is building voluntary consensus-driven guidelines around fairness, transparency, safety, robustness, and privacy. He shares how his frustration with bloated EHR workflows pushed him into digital health innovation, then into pandemic-era public-private coordination during Operation Warp Speed, where rapid collaboration revealed what’s possible when incentives align. Brian explores CHAI’s “AI nutrition labels” (model cards), an emerging registry, and why vendors may opt into scrutiny to speed sales cycles and prove value. He also digs into ambient clinical documentation, performance metrics that matter to clinicians, cost pressure through apples-to-apples comparisons, agentic AI to expand rural access, and the alignment and biosecurity risks that demand vigilance. Tune in and learn how to build and verify AI that improves care without sacrificing safety, equity, or trust! Resources Connect with and follow Brian Anderson on LinkedIn. Learn more about the Coalition for Health AI (CHAI) on LinkedIn. Explore CHAI’s website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From Chaos to Care: Dr. Gary Kaplan on Leading with Quality

What happens when a health system decides that quality comes first? In this episode, Dr. Gary Kaplan, who retired as the longtime CEO of Virginia Mason and currently serves on the Board of Stewardship Trustees of CommonSpirit Health, discusses leading one of America’s most influential physician-led health systems through a radical transformation focused on quality, safety, and patient-centered care. He reflects on Virginia Mason’s roots as a Mayo Clinic–style group practice and why shared purpose and clinician leadership created a fundamentally different culture of care. Dr. Kaplan explains how adopting Lean management principles reshaped chaotic health care systems, reduced waste, and supported clinicians in delivering safer, more reliable care. He also discusses why fee-for-service medicine drives unsustainable costs, his advocacy for value-based and capitated payment models, and how market consolidation ultimately led to Virginia Mason's merger, despite its strong performance and independence. Tune in to explore what it truly takes to redesign health care systems around patients, clinicians, and value, rather than volume. Resources: Connect with and follow Dr. Gary Kaplan on LinkedIn. Follow CommonSpirit Health on LinkedIn and explore their website! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Patient Safety in the Age of AI: Risks, Rewards, and Reality live at the IHI Forum

The energy is electric at the IHI Forum, even before the forum officially begins. In this episode, co-hosts Kedar Mate and Don Berwick discuss how AI, patient safety, and administrative waste are shaping the future of health care. They explore the excitement and uncertainty around AI’s growing role in diagnostics, coordination, and clinical decision-making. They discuss why clinicians need real training to use AI safely and effectively, and how learning health networks are driving continuous improvement. They also delve into the persistent administrative burdens, especially in Medicaid and fee-for-service systems, that hinder true efficiency in health care. Tune in to hear how innovation, policy, and technology are colliding at this year’s IHI Forum! Resources Connect with and follow Kedar Mate on LinkedIn or reach out via email!  Connect with and follow Don Berwick on LinkedIn or reach out via email! Check out the Turn on the Lights podcast! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Cost of Not Listening: How Medical Silencing Harms Patients with Dr. Rageshri Dhairyawan

What happens when clinicians stop hearing the very people they’re trying to help? In this episode, Dr. Rageshri Dhairyawan, a Consultant Physician in Sexual Health and HIV Medicine at Barts Health NHS Trust and Deputy Director of the SHARE Collaborative at Queen Mary University of London, discusses how patients are often disbelieved or dismissed in healthcare. She shares her own experience of being ignored during a painful hospitalization, which revealed how difficult it can be for even a senior doctor to speak up when vulnerable. Dhairyawan argues that medicine has a long-standing culture of skepticism toward patient testimony, which harms trust, exacerbates inequities, and undermines care. She urges systemic and educational reforms, more time, continuity, staff wellbeing, training in true listening, and structural support for patient voices. While acknowledging resource constraints, she emphasizes that listening is both therapeutic and essential to restoring humanity in healthcare. Tune in to hear Dr. Rageshri Dhairyawan unpack why patients often feel unheard, and how listening might be healthcare’s most powerful, yet overlooked, tool. Resources Connect with and follow Dr. Rageshri Dhairyawan on LinkedIn and visit her website! Follow Barts Health NHS Trust on LinkedIn and explore their website! Follow Queen Mary University of London on LinkedIn and discover their website! Check out Dr. Dhairyawan’s book, Unheard: The Medical Practice of Silencing, here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From Bankruptcy to Rescue: Dr. Gregg Meyer on the Emergency that Transformed Massachusetts Healthcare

The collapse of a major hospital system set off one of the most complex healthcare emergencies Massachusetts has ever faced. In this episode, Dr. Gregg Meyer, Incident Manager for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, discusses how the state responded to the unprecedented Steward Health Care crisis and worked to protect patients, communities, and hospital staff. He explains how years of debt, real estate deals, and private equity extraction destabilized the system and pushed it into bankruptcy. He shares what it took to manage a months-long VUCA public health emergency, including on-site monitoring, emergency closures, and the transfer of six hospitals to new nonprofit operators. He also reflects on the human and financial toll the crisis left behind, as well as why stronger oversight and policy reform are urgently needed. Tune in to learn how Massachusetts led one of the most challenging hospital rescue operations in U.S. history! Resources Follow the Massachusetts Department of Public Health on LinkedIn and explore their website! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices