Co-Host, The Big Unlock Podcast
Healthcare has no shortage of new technologies, promising pilots, and ambitious transformation programs. The more important question is whether these innovations can move beyond experimentation to improve care reliably, responsibly, and at scale.
That is the question I will be carrying with me to the HealthIMPACT Fall Forum 2026, taking place October 6–7 in New York City.
As co-host of The Big Unlock podcast, I look forward to meeting healthcare executives, clinical leaders, and technology innovators—and hearing candid perspectives on what it takes to translate innovation into measurable improvements in care delivery.
The theme of this year’s Forum, “Champions of Care: Scaling Healthcare Everywhere,” is timely.
Across the industry, we are seeing tremendous enthusiasm for generative AI, intelligent automation, virtual care, remote monitoring, and AI-enabled clinical and administrative workflows. Yet healthcare organizations are also becoming more discerning. The conversation is shifting from what AI can do to what health systems can implement successfully, sustain operationally, and measure meaningfully.
Many organizations have launched promising pilots. Far fewer have established the data foundations, governance models, redesigned workflows, workforce capabilities, and operating structures required to scale those pilots across the enterprise.
The next phase of healthcare transformation will not be defined by the number of AI tools an organization adopts. It will be defined by whether those tools make healthcare more accessible, improve the experience of patients and clinicians, strengthen operational performance, and produce measurable outcomes.
That is why I am particularly interested in the Forum’s focus on what is actually working inside health systems.
As co-host of The Big Unlock, I have had the privilege of speaking with healthcare leaders who are navigating transformation from many different vantage points. These conversations have reinforced that meaningful innovation rarely begins with technology alone. It begins with a clearly defined problem, a deep understanding of the workflow, and alignment among the people responsible for delivering care.
At the HealthIMPACT Fall Forum, I will be listening for practical answers to several questions.
The distance between a successful proof of concept and an enterprise-wide deployment can be significant. Scaling requires integration with existing workflows, high-quality data, clinical validation, user trust, change management, and a sustainable operating model.
I want to learn how leading organizations are crossing that gap, and which lessons they have learned when early approaches did not work as expected.
Bolt-on AI will not deliver the full value that healthcare organizations need. Adding intelligence to an inefficient process may accelerate individual tasks, but it does not necessarily improve the end-to-end experience.
The larger opportunity is to redesign workflows around the combined capabilities of clinicians, operational teams, AI agents, voice agents, and automation. Doing this well requires leaders to consider roles, accountability, handoffs, exceptions, and the patient experience, not simply the technology.
Responsible AI cannot remain a set of principles documented by a committee. Governance must become part of how solutions are selected, validated, deployed, monitored, and improved.
Health systems need practical mechanisms for addressing safety, bias, transparency, privacy, cybersecurity, and accountability. They also need clarity about who owns an AI-enabled workflow after it moves into production.
I am especially interested in hearing how organizations are translating governance frameworks into everyday decisions without slowing responsible innovation.
AI is only as effective as the information and context available to it. Fragmented data, inconsistent standards, limited access, and weak integration can quickly constrain even the most sophisticated solution.
As healthcare organizations expand their AI strategies, foundational investments in data architecture, interoperability, quality, and governance become even more important. I look forward to learning how health systems are modernizing these foundations while continuing to meet immediate operational priorities.
Virtual nursing, remote monitoring, hospital-at-home programs, and distributed care models are creating new possibilities for delivering care closer to patients.
Technology is an important enabler, but successful programs also require clinical alignment, patient engagement, reimbursement strategies, logistics, and reliable escalation pathways. The real test is whether these models can improve access and outcomes while maintaining safety and continuity of care.
One reason I value gatherings such as the HealthIMPACT Fall Forum is the opportunity to move beyond polished transformation narratives.
The most valuable conversations are often about the decisions behind the results: what leaders prioritized, where they encountered resistance, what they underestimated, how they measured progress, and what they would do differently.
These stories matter because healthcare transformation is rarely linear. Progress comes through disciplined experimentation, continuous learning, and the willingness to adapt technology to the realities of care delivery.
Through The Big Unlock, our goal is to bring these perspectives to a wider audience of healthcare executives, clinical leaders, and innovators. We want to understand not only what is changing, but also how leaders are turning ideas into sustainable operating models and measurable improvements.
I am looking forward to two days of candid, peer-to-peer discussion with leaders working across AI, digital health, cybersecurity, interoperability, workforce transformation, virtual care, and new care-delivery models.
If you are attending the HealthIMPACT Fall Forum and have a compelling transformation story, an implementation lesson, or a perspective on what healthcare should scale next, I would be glad to connect. You can use the code BIGUNLOCK20 when registering to receive 20% off your registration. I hope to see you there and continue the conversation in New York.
I look forward to listening, learning, and sharing some of the most important insights emerging from the Forum with the Big Unlock community.
“HLTH brings together the brightest minds in healthcare to drive real-world transformation through AI, data, and workflow innovation. The energy, collaboration, and actionable insights here are truly reshaping the future of care at scale.”
– Rohit Mahajan, Co-host of The Big Unlock Podcast
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