How AI shapes healthcare for Gillette Children’s and Southwest General Health Center

Exploring AI’s potential comes with key questions: How do I choose the right use case? How do I align leadership and scale responsibly? What’s the best way to measure success? 

At Notable’s Noteworthy 2025 Summit, Jae Zayed, Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Southwest General Health Center (SGHC), and Andy Levesque, Chief Enterprise Architect at Gillette Children's, answered these AI questions and more, from early adoption challenges to where they see the technology headed next.

Here are their key learnings and advice from the frontlines of AI adoption:

See past EHR limitations to drive AI adoption 

For both organizations, AI adoption began with clear EHR pain points. Patient access topped the roadmap for Zayed and SGHC. “EMR gaps prompted the search for a vendor partner that could match the experience the organization wanted for its patients,” he explains. “We looked externally and asked, ‘Who can we partner with to deliver the best outcomes for our investment?’ That led us to Notable.”

At Gillette Children’s, that same need for efficiency became clear. Levesque and his team initially used RPA to overcome barriers in their Oracle Health EHR. “That allowed us to focus on our digital front door and patient access initiatives, improving scheduling and overall patient satisfaction,” he shares.

“Now, we’re thinking bigger with AI. For us, that means helping providers manage the huge volume of information that comes with specialty care and referrals. Also, using AI to summarize HIE data so providers can have more meaningful first conversations. All the technology is there, it’s now about how we want to implement and govern it. It’s been a really exciting journey,” Levesque adds.

Embed AI into the organization

What’s the key to moving AI beyond a traditional one-off project? 

Embedding the technology into operational and decision-making processes, all geared toward better patient outcomes and reduced costs, according to Zayed.

For Levesque, building AI literacy is just as important as the technology itself. “Don't outsource your critical thinking, enhance it,” he advises. “Make sure your leaders are aware of what AI is capable of, how they use it regularly, and show that we're all on the same journey. Then, help them scale with an AI partner like Notable.”

Team up for collaboration and trust

Even the best tools can fail without buy-in. Zayed explained the importance of involving teams early to uncover problems and friction points. “From an IT perspective, we’re good at pushing solutions, but you have to step back and listen. That’s how you build trust,” he said. 

His approach also involves including executives at the project level to make quick decisions and address on-the-ground legacy roadblocks. “When designing the voice for our outbound AI, the team helped shape the tone and sound,” Zayed adds. “We landed on Hope: Hospital Outreach and Patient Engagement. Now, the team owns that as part of their identity.”

Levesque echoed that sentiment, noting that collaboration should feel like a partnership. “This shouldn’t be the first conversation with a leader,” he adds. “You want to help drive ideas over the finish line. Identify quick wins so they return with bigger ideas. Then focus on advanced use cases that enhance critical thinking, not just automation. That’s how you get stakeholders excited.”

Identify the first AI use case

Levesque suggests leading with an organizational problem or challenge. “You need to say, ‘What problems have we accepted because the solution did not exist?’ That was important for our organization to recognize,” he says. “At Gillette Children’s, we focused our initial generative AI use case on the data we already have to help us better cohort our patients for comparative analysis. We found that our document management system isn't very good at extracting data, so we prioritized clinical notes analysis to find identifiers.

“We achieved over 99% accuracy on a sample of 500 records. Now we need to figure out how we scale and deploy that AI solution.” 

Ensure AI investments deliver sustainable value over time

Zayed stresses two must-haves: a unified infrastructure and analytics. “It’s all about integration, not isolation. It comes down to taking a platform approach, one that gives flexibility across the organization. Too often, organizations chase point solutions, which can limit scalability and create silos. Instead, focus on platforms that integrate across the enterprise and evolve as your needs change.”

“Equally important are your metrics. Establish baseline measures at the start of each initiative, monitor progress, and course-correct as you go,” Zayed adds. 

“Literacy and governance absolutely go hand-in-hand, so we all understand and mitigate the risks,” remarks Levesque. “We made sure that IT has an AI component in technology governance. We developed an AI risk assessment and made it adaptive.”

Zayed weighs in on AI ethics. “Ensuring everybody truly understands how we're going to use AI ethically in our organization, and how not to use AI, as we move forward,” he adds. “If we can all stand behind that, you'll start building an ecosystem of trust.”

Educate patients on AI in healthcare

Zayed explains the value of promoting technology and innovation to the community.  “Patients should know the organization they’re coming to for care is leading through technology, and that means better outcomes and lower costs,” he says. “We have a responsibility to inform patients, answer their questions, and reduce any anxiety or friction by explaining what’s in it for them.

“There’s also a handoff coming, not just from the organization but through tools that give patients access to their data right in the palm of their hands.”

Levesque compares AI to that of common health apps readily available to consumers. “Patient access to generative AI is not much different from WebMD,” he explains. “We need to make sure providers and care teams are having open conversations with their patients. What can we do to make accurate and safe resources more accessible? Is our education material provided at discharge?”

“We know those care pathways better than anyone else,” he adds. The same way that we want leaders to talk with their teams, we want providers and care teams to speak with patients about the appropriate use of AI.”

Looking forward: the next era of AI 

Levesque believes AI will transform the entire healthcare system, starting with healthcare’s data problem. “We're drowning in data, but we're thirsting for knowledge. AI helps us manage the massive amount of data, enhancing critical thinking, not outsourcing it,” he explains. 

“I like to associate this again with care pathways. We have a large cerebral palsy population and are trying to cohort patients, coordinate visits, and consider social determinants of health. AI helps both providers and patients have a partner to understand what to expect over time.”

The AI culture shift 

Both speakers agree that technology alone isn’t enough. Organizations need trust, teamwork, and leadership champions. 

“Importantly, it's building a team without always bringing in new FTEs to solve that problem,” shares Levesque. “Find those people who are excited about technology. Help them think about what they can accomplish with these tools. And when others start to see those results, the excitement snowballs.

“Leaders should showcase the vision and outcome rather than the AI technology or project,” he adds.

“It's in the halls, it's not on the walls,” says Zayed. “Leadership plays one of the most critical roles. Are they using the tools? Are they leading by example? 

“The humanized approach touches a cord. We’re all on this uncharted journey together.”

For more information on the intelligent automation and AI Platform powering success for Gillette Children’s and Southwest General Health Center, click here.