Parallel Career Journeys in Medicine and Tech

Host Dr. Heather Bassett and guest Dr. Erin Palm discussed their career paths, focusing on how they each found their respective fields in medicine and technology. Erin shared her journey from Spanish interpreter in a trauma center to becoming a trauma surgeon, while Heather described her transition from a computer science background to internal medicine and eventually to a role in AI. They both emphasized the importance of finding the right “tribe” or community in their careers and how their educational backgrounds, including Erin’s MBA from Stanford, influenced their paths into technology and healthcare.

AI Transforming Healthcare Patient Interactions

Erin discussed her career journey, particularly her transition to Infinitus, where she focuses on voice AI platforms in healthcare. Erin shared her experience with AI adoption in healthcare, highlighting how it has lived up to its hype and transformed patient interactions. She explained that Infinitus, which initially focused on administrative tasks, has evolved to provide natural and empathetic patient interactions 24/7, enhancing patient care and increasing the capacity of healthcare providers.

AI Safety in Healthcare Integration

Heather and Erin discussed the challenges of improving patient care and provider workflows through technology, particularly focusing on AI and its integration into clinical settings. Erin highlighted her role at Infinitus, emphasizing clinical safety and patient experience, and explained the importance of AI governance in ensuring safe deployment of agentic AI in healthcare. She stressed the need for safety-by-design technology and validation processes to protect patients and enhance user experience.

AI Empathy in Clinical Interactions

Erin discussed the importance of clinician input in developing technology, emphasizing the need for both technical expertise and empathy in patient interactions. She highlighted their team’s approach to evaluating professionalism and empathy attributes in patient calls to improve product experience. Heather raised questions about the consistency of empathy in AI systems versus human clinicians, noting the challenges of maintaining empathy throughout a long day. Both agreed on the potential benefits of AI in offloading routine tasks to allow clinicians more focus on critical patient interactions.

AI Safety in Healthcare Innovation

Heather and Erin discussed the balance between innovation and safety in AI, particularly in healthcare. Erin explained how Infinitus serves enterprise customers by offering flexible AI solutions with strong guardrails, including discrete action spaces and approved response systems. They also talked about the importance of trust and maintaining high standards for AI deployment. Heather encouraged young physicians to stay curious and try new technologies, while emphasizing the value of finding a supportive tribe in their professional journey.

Dr. Erin Palm on LinkedIn

Infinitus Systems, Inc.

https://erinpalm.com/

Host
Heather Bassett, MD
Chief Medical Officer
Xsolis

Dr. Heather Bassett continues to drive AI innovation in healthcare to address operational challenges for health systems and plans, guiding them toward positive operational and patient outcomes. Rare among Chief Medical Officers at healthcare technology companies, she leads both the clinical services and data science teams. She architected Xsolis’ Care Level Score™, which integrates clinical expertise and data science to provide a numerical representation of the appropriate care status for each patient. This score and Xsolis’ AI-driven platform, Dragonfly, are uniting payers and providers during concurrent authorization processes to improve utilization management, patient outcomes, and reduce costs. Dragonfly is in use at hundreds of hospitals, health systems and health plans across America.

Dr. Bassett is passionate about advancing responsible AI in healthcare and is actively leading Xsolis’ involvement with the Coalition for Health AI (CHAI), an organization advancing the responsible development, deployment, and oversight of AI in healthcare, which Xsolis joined as an Early Member. Dr. Bassett was recognized by Nashville Business Journal’s Health Care Innovation Awards as Chief Medical Officer of the Year 2021 and by Becker’s Hospital Review’s Women in Health IT to Know 2023-2025. She has contributed articles or been featured in Newsweek, Forbes, AARP Magazine, InformationWeek, Becker’s, Fierce Healthcare, Medical Economics, MedCity News, Physicians Practice, and Patient Safety Quality Healthcare.

She earned a B.S. in biological sciences from Carnegie Mellon University and her Doctor of Medicine from the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, where she worked as a research associate in the field of DNA repair. She undertook her residency in internal medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and worked as a hospitalist at Centennial Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., for eight years. She is board-certified in internal medicine.

Guest
Erin Palm, MD
Medical Lead
Infinitus

Erin Palm, MD FACS is the Medical Lead at Infinitus, with a focus on ensuring the highest standards of clinical quality and safety. She is also a trauma surgeon practicing at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, and serves as affiliated teaching faculty for the Stanford Department of Surgery.

Previously, Erin was a founding team member at Suki AI, where she led first product management and then clinical operations and research. Erin has always been at the intersection of medicine and technology with hands-on understanding of both bedside medicine and the software product development lifecycle.

She completed her residency at Stanford Hospital and Clinics and fellowship in surgical critical care at LA County and USC Medical Center.