Healthcare's toughest problems, and the leaders solving them at Noteworthy 2026
Meet the health system leaders taking the stage at Noteworthy 2026 in Austin to share how they're solving access, referral, and care gap challenges with AI.
Last week we gave you a first look at our Builder session. This week, we're turning the spotlight on the health system executives and operators who will share what they've learned putting AI and automation to work. They aren't talking about what might be possible someday. They're talking about what's running in their organizations today.
Each session takes on a problem that health systems across the country are facing right now: patient access, referral leakage, care gaps, and the hard climb from pilot to production. Here's who you'll hear from, and why you'll want to be in the room.
Where is healthcare headed next?
Dr. Toby Cosgrove, Executive Advisor and Former President and CEO of the Cleveland Clinic
Opening fireside chat
We'll open Tuesday’s programming with a fireside chat with Dr. Toby Cosgrove, one of the most influential leaders in modern healthcare.
Few people have seen the industry from as many angles as Dr. Cosgrove. He'll share his perspective on where healthcare is headed, what health system leaders should be paying attention to, and what it will take to deliver better access and better care in the years ahead. It's the conversation that will set the tone for the rest of the day.
Is your call center keeping up with patient demand?
Allyson Collins, VP, Digital Strategy at Catholic Health
Case study: Setting the standard for the patient-first agentic call center
For many patients, the call center is the front door to the health system, and it's often where the experience breaks down first. Long hold times, dropped calls, and repetitive questions frustrate patients and burn out staff.
Allyson will share how Catholic Health is rethinking that experience from the ground up with AI Agents. She'll show what it looks like to design an agentic call center around the patient instead of the queue, and what Catholic Health has learned about setting a new standard for how patients reach their care teams.
Stuck in pilot mode?
Diane Maas, Chief Strategy & Digital Officer at Beacon Health
Dr. Chad Smith, Chief Population Health Officer at Marshall Health Network
Kamal Pandya, Vice President and CIO, Information Technology at San Antonio Regional Hospital
Panel: The AI-powered front door: from pilot to production at scale
Plenty of health systems have run an AI pilot. Far fewer have scaled one across the organization. The gap between a promising proof of concept and a system-wide deployment is where many initiatives stall.
Diane, Dr. Smith, and Kamal have made that leap. In this panel, they'll share how Beacon Health,Marshall Health Network, and San Antonio Regional Health took the AI-powered front door from pilot to production at scale, including how they built buy-in, what they had to get right along the way, and what they'd tell leaders using Oracle Health who are ready to move beyond the pilot.
Is automation stopping at the edge of Epic?
Michael Mainiero, SVP, Chief Digital and Information Officer at Catholic Health
Panel: Beyond the EHR: Extending Automation Across the Enterprise
Epic sits at the center of many health systems, but much of the work that keeps care moving happens around it: in phone calls, inboxes, portals, and the manual handoffs between them. When automation stops at the edge of Epic, those gaps fall back on staff.
Michael will share how Catholic Health is filling the gaps around Epic by extending agentic AI across the enterprise. He'll discuss how to connect the work that happens inside and outside Epic, and what it takes to scale automation beyond a single workflow or department.
Are referrals slipping through the cracks?
Meg Dingae, Director, Human Experience & Enterprise Delivery at Montage Health
Case study: The access gap starts with the referral: how Montage Health automates the path to care
A referral is a promise that a patient will get the care they need next. Too often, that promise gets lost between faxes, phone tag, and manual follow-up, and the patient never makes it to the appointment.
Meg will show how Montage Health is closing the access gap at its source. She'll walk through how the team automates the path to care, starting with the referral, so fewer patients fall through the cracks and staff can spend less time chasing paperwork.
Are care gaps stalling your quality goals?
Sam Hinton, Director of Practice Operations at Presbyterian Healthcare Services
Case study: The care gap is an operations problem: how Presbyterian is closing it with automation
Overdue screenings, missed wellness visits, and unmanaged chronic conditions are usually treated as clinical challenges. Sam will argue that they're really operations challenges: the outreach, scheduling, and follow-up that close a care gap are exactly the kind of work automation does well.
Sam will walk through how his team is using automation to close care gaps and move the needle on quality goals, without adding more to staff's plates.
And there's more to come
This is just the beginning of the Noteworthy 2026 lineup. Expect an opening keynote on Monday, technically focused Studio Sessions on Tuesday, and countless opportunities to connect with your peers and share challenges, ideas, and visions for a better healthcare system.
If you haven't registered yet, just a few spots remain. Save your spot at Noteworthy 2026.
We'll see you there.