When you sit in the CEO chair of a hospital, you learn quickly that “sleep” is a generous concept. Every night, you carry the weight of patient and employee well-being, quality metrics, workforce shortages, physician alignment, community trust, financial sustainability, safety events, and the persistent fear that somewhere in your system, something important is happening that you won’t learn about until it’s too late.
In the last few years, one more item joined that list: AI.
For most leaders I’ve spoken with, AI represents both exhilarating potential and unsettling risk. It certainly does for me. As the CEO of San Ramon Medical Center in California, I experienced firsthand how AI could accelerate clinical decision-making, augment staffing, and help automate administrative burdens. I also saw how quickly it could create vulnerability ethically, operationally, and to our reputation if we deployed it without the structures to guide it.
Hospitals have always adopted technology, but AI is fundamentally different. It learns, adapts, and intersects unpredictably with patient care workflows. As CEO, I found myself asking questions I’d never had to ask before:
I had no shortage of vendors offering the “latest” algorithm. What I didn’t have was a trusted way to validate, monitor, or govern those algorithms once they entered the real world of a hospital.
For me, this was more than an IT issue. It was also a CEO issue, one impacting patient safety, quality, and risk management.
My first conversation with Vitea wasn’t just about technology. It was about responsibility.
They're not selling an algorithm. They are building an AI governance platform designed specifically for hospitals and health systems; a system that creates transparency, fairness, auditability, and accountability for every AI tool touching patient care or operations. A single pane-of-glass view into our entire AI ecosystem.
What stood out was simple but profound:
Vitea isn't trying to tell hospitals which AI to use. They are empowering us to use any AI solution responsibly.
For a CEO, that is the difference between innovation and risk exposure; between progress and unintended consequences.
As I listened, I realized:
This is the missing infrastructure I need but don't have.
Every health system executive I know is facing the same dilemma: AI is accelerating faster than our ability to govern it.
Regulatory expectations are rising. Clinical and operational teams are adopting tools independently. Data leaders are being asked to manage models they didn’t build. Meanwhile, CEOs are expected to ensure that the entire AI ecosystem is safe, equitable, and compliant without a playbook.
Vitea is that playbook.
After years inside hospitals, operating them, improving them, and advocating for the people who work in them, I didn’t expect to make a leap to the vendor side.
But this isn't a typical career pivot. This is mission alignment.
I'm joining Vitea because:
When I look at the future of healthcare, I realize I can make the biggest impact by helping build the rails that allow AI to be deployed responsibly and at scale.
This isn’t just a technology pivot for me; it’s a continuation of my commitment to patient care, clinician support, operational excellence, and health system integrity.
If you’re an executive navigating the AI landscape right now, I understand the tension you’re feeling.
You’re being asked to accelerate innovation while also protecting patients, clinicians, your brand, and your bottom line.
You’re being told or perhaps board mandated to adopt AI tools, but not always given the transparency needed to trust them.
And you’re being expected to lead on AI policy, ethics, compliance, and operations without clear frameworks or industry standards.
You’re not alone.
My decision to join Vitea came from the belief that the only sustainable path forward is one where AI innovation and governance move together. Not in conflict. Not as an afterthought. But as two essential, inseparable components of responsible transformation.
AI will reshape healthcare. The real question is whether hospital leaders will have the visibility, control, and safeguards needed to guide that transformation safely and effectively.
That’s why I’m at Vitea.
And it’s why I’m excited for what comes next.
Connect with us to learn about responsible AI in healthcare and the strategies to help transform AI across your health system.
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