4 Observations from ViVE 2025 (So Far)

As ViVE 2025 races toward its snowy conclusion and attendees figure out whether they have to revise their travel plans, here are a few observations from the first two days of this very entertaining conference.

AI is Everywhere. That’s no surprise, really. During a CHIME panel on Monday, Aaron Miri, Baptist Health Jacksonville’s EVP and Chief Digital & Information Officer, said technology is a differentiator in attracting new clinical talent, a key pain point at a time when nearly all health systems are struggling with workforce shortages. Dangling an ambient AI tool in front of a potential hire seems to be doing the trick.

During a separate panel, Michael Pfeffer, Chief Information and Digital Officer at Stanford Health Care, noted that ambient AI is more popular than any other technology they’re used. If management introduces a new tool and then discontinues it, no one will complain, he said. But if they shut down the AI tool, he’ll be flooded with angry e-mails.

“That doesn’t happen with technology,” he said.

And it’s not just doctors and nurses that are affected by AI. Theresa Meadows, SVP and CIO of the Cook Children’s Health Care System, said during the CHIME panel that they’re investing in new community-based training programs to address the workforce shortage throughout the system. With new AI programs comes a need for IT and Rev Cycle staff that know how to use the technology.

And at a time when budgets are tight, Andy Crowder, CHCIO, CDH-E, Advocate Health’s Enterprise Chief Digital Officer and SVP and CIO for the health system’s southeast region, said they’re spend as much on technology this year as they’ve spent over the past five years.

The message is clear. AI is affecting the industry at all levels, and health systems and hospitals need to have an enterprise-wide strategy in place to make sure they’re doing all they can to make that transition easier. That doesn’t necessarily mean setting up a specific AI governance committee or policy, but understanding that tech now has a set at the strategy table.

AI is helping to redefine the CIO’s role as well. Crowder said he’s both an advisor and an educator, while Miri said CIOs are now called upon to be CFOs and CMOs to facilitate AI adoption.

Medicare may need a reboot. That’s the opinion of Sachin Jain, MD, MBA, President & CEO of the SCAN Group and Health Plan. Jain said he’s cautiously optimistic that the Trump administration—in particular, potential CMS chief Mehmet Oz—will take a good look at Medicare and lean toward Medicare Advantage.

It’s safe to say Medicare and Medicaid are on everyone’s minds, because many health systems and hospitals rely on CMS to support coverage for those populations. Several executives attending ViVE said they were hopeful that CMS waivers for telehealth and Hospital at Home would be renewed before they expire at the end of this month, but resigned to the fact that those waivers might soon end. The pressure is on the industry to prove the value of virtual care.

During the CHIME panel, Meadows pointed out that pediatric hospitals like Cook Children’s are especially sensitive to the Medicare/Medicaid discussion because so many of their patients are on those programs. Any changes to those programs will seriously affect a hospital’s bottom line.

RPM is gaining steam. Remote patient monitoring, long the potential game-changer for home-based care, is building a nice following. During a panel on the future of wearables, Sarah Pletcher, MD, MHCDS, Chief Digital Health Officer and SVP and Executive Medical Director of Strategic Innovation at Houston Methodist, said continuous patient monitoring programs using wearables in the ICU and in-patient units have done so well that they’re looking at using the technology to support patients outside the hospital.

At the same time, she and Esther Kim, ScD, RD, LDN, Head of Emerging Technologies and Solutions at Mass General Brigham, said there are still gaps between the consumer-facing wearables that the public traditionally uses, like smartwatches and activity trackers, and the clinical grade technology favored by doctors and nurses. Clinicians don’t want to see a patient’s daily step counts or event their heart rate.

“It is important to consider how you’re going to curate all that data,” Pletcher said.

Both noted that clinicians want to see data from wearables that’s meaningful to them, and that can be used to identify and act on health concerns. Two months of heart rate or blood sugar data will be overwhelming, but a program that can sift through the data and give clinicians insight into deviations, irregularities or trends will be valuable. And that’s where AI will likely come into play.

RPM programs will also require some commitment on the part of the patient.

“It’s not just about the vitals,” Kim said. These types of programs need to be developed to address a patient’s lifestyle, and to effect changes that improve health and wellness.

“It isn’t the tech or the regulatory [concerns],” added Pletcher. “It’s getting people to change their behaviors.”

The evolution of pharmacy services. Another area of innovation is medication monitoring. Health systems and hospitals are investing in their pharmacy services to improve the nation’s dismal medication adherence rate and, in doing so, boost clinical outcomes.

There are several reasons for this. As evidenced by the plight of Walgreens, CVS and Rite-Aid, community pharmacies are struggling, and many are closing. Disruptors, meanwhile, are leaning heavily into online and mail-order services. Health systems and hospitals are countering this by beefing up their own pharmacies and co-locating pharmacy services with primary care clinics.

In addition, with the advent of RPM and virtual care, hospital leaders are rethinking the role of the pharmacist. They’re including the pharmacist or pharmacy tech in care teams, and giving them the opportunity to collaborate with patients on medication management and adherence. This also takes the pressure of doctors and nurses.

And finally, will the healthcare industry start recognizing the folly of scheduling major events during the winter? So many conversations this week have started with, ‘How was your trip?’ The wintry weather disrupted many travel plans, with attendees and even some speakers delayed or even forced to cancel their plans. And with a few inches of snow expected in Nashville tonight and tomorrow morning, more than a few people are more concerned now with how they’ll get home than what they’ll see here today.

Still, this is ViVE, and the vibe has been good. Healthcare executives do relish the opportunity to get out of the office and meet in person to talk about innovation and transformation.

As for the wristbands ….