Season 1: Episode 1
From Med School to CMIO to CIO to AI Leadership
with guest Stephanie Lahr, MD, CHCIO; CEO & Founder; Vital Thread Advisory
Healthcare CIO’s Journey to Technology
Dr. Stephanie Lahr, a former CIO and AI healthcare executive, shared her career journey from medical school to leading technology teams in healthcare. She discussed her experiences with digital health records during Hurricane Ike, which inspired her interest in healthcare technology, and her transition from being a hospitalist to becoming a CIO at a health system. Dr. Lahr eventually joined Artisight, where she helped grow their commercial division, and recently launched her own company, Vital Thread Advisory, to leverage her diverse experience in healthcare and technology.
AI Integration in Healthcare Workflows
Dr. Lahr discussed her transition from a medical school background to her current role as a fractional CXO advisor, highlighting her focus on reducing friction and burnout in healthcare through technology. Dr. Lahr emphasized the need for better data management and the integration of artificial intelligence to improve clinical workflows and reduce administrative burdens. Dr. Bassett and Dr. Lahr agreed on the importance of fostering partnerships between health systems and vendors to effectively leverage AI in healthcare, with both acknowledging the need for collaboration to create tailored solutions.
AI Collaboration in Healthcare Systems
Dr. Bassett and Dr. Lahr discussed the importance of collaboration between health systems and vendors in developing and implementing AI tools, emphasizing the need for health systems to take an active role in the incubation process to ensure the accuracy and effectiveness of AI algorithms. The duo agreed on the importance of ongoing partnerships and education to build trust in AI technology. Dr. Lahr suggested that vendors could help educate health system leaders about AI tools, which would facilitate better decision-making and governance structures.
AI Adoption in Healthcare: Incremental Steps
Dr. Lahr discussed the importance of starting small with AI tools in healthcare, focusing on efficiency gains and workflow optimization before moving to clinical decision support. She emphasized that health systems need to reassess their ROI expectations for AI investments, as the returns are not linear but follow a slow uptick with exponential potential. Dr. Lahr also shared her new advisory venture, which aims to provide flexible support to healthcare technology companies while leveraging her extensive experience. She highlighted the need for physician involvement in AI development and suggested that her advisory role could help companies find part-time medical officers.
About the Host and Guest
Host
Heather Bassett, MD
CMO
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
Stephanie Lahr, MD, CHCIO
CEO & Founder
Vital Thread Advisory
Dr. Stephanie Lahr is a nationally recognized leader at the intersection of clinical care, healthcare technology, and digital innovation. With over two decades of experience spanning hospital medicine, health system executive leadership, and health tech entrepreneurship, she brings a rare blend of medical expertise, operational strategy, and visionary thinking to the industry.
More on the Topic
The Ins and Outs of the Ethics of AI in Healthcare
Summary: AI is transforming healthcare, but ethical concerns continue to be top of mind. Addressing bias, transparency, patient privacy, and liability are crucial for responsible AI development. Organizations like Xsolis […] Blog
How Xsolis is Pioneering the Responsible Use of AI in Healthcare
Blog
How AI is Transforming Healthcare: 3 Cutting-Edge Examples
Healthcare is a uniquely complex industry. From the detailed regulations that govern patient information to the extensive training required of practitioners, there is so much to consider in both care […]About AI Amplified with Heather Bassett
AI is here. It’s real. And it’s making major impact. If it seems like artificial intelligence is everywhere, you’re not wrong. Physician and data scientist Dr. Heather Bassett, Chief Medical Officer at Xsolis, is at the forefront of innovation and she cuts through the noise as she speaks with industry leaders who are making a real impact in the world of healthcare AI. AI Amplified focuses on the amazing innovations in AI, challenges the industry is facing, lessons learned, and how to ensure future success to bring back the joy in medicine.
Brought to you by:
AI Amplified is brought to you by Xsolis, an AI-driven healthcare technology company transforming the payer-provider dynamic and uniting these two crucial stakeholders like never before. Since 2013, Xsolis has been breaking down silos to eliminate friction, waste, and unnecessary manual work in healthcare.
Join us in solving some of the biggest challenges in healthcare. Request a consultation to learn more about Xsolis.
Let's Chat