Tom Powell

What if we examined a healthcare organization the way a physician examines a patient? Drawing on The Diagnostician, this talk applies the clinical method—history, examination, evidence, differential diagnosis, and treatment—to uncover the operational, governance, and leadership problems behind healthcare’s technology symptoms. Leaders will learn to ask better questions, identify underlying causes, and build a treatment and follow-up plan.

Clinical AI enters a living system of people, decisions, and responsibilities. This talk examines how to integrate AI into clinical work with clear ownership, trustworthy data, appropriate oversight, and meaningful evaluation. Drawing on the book’s themes of treatment and iatrogenic harm, it asks who selects the intervention, who monitors its effects, and who has the authority to change or stop it when it fails to help.

The EHR reveals how an organization makes decisions, coordinates care, represents clinicians, and turns data into action. This talk explores what workflow friction, documentation burden, and persistent optimization requests tell us about the health system itself. It shows how an empowered CMIO and a functioning clinical informatics program connect executive priorities with the realities of care delivery.