Medical leadership and artificial intelligence: Hope or hype?

Author's Biography

Jim Austin , MPA, MURP, a former senior executive at Baxter Healthcare, combines business strategy and organisational development theory with extensive industry experience. Jim is a Faculty Consultant at the Aresty Institute of Executive Education, Wharton Business School, where he tailors senior-level seminars for leading entities, including SIFMA, CUES, Boston Scientific, Coca-Cola, Lincoln Financial, GE, GlaxoSmithKline and Hitachi. Specifically, he leads seminars at Wharton on Finding New Growth Opportunities; Building a Vision; Execution and Leading Strategic Change; Improving Strategic Decision-Making; Scenario Planning and Strategic Agility. In 2013, Brown University appointed Jim a Senior Lecturer of Healthcare Leadership in their Master of Science in Healthcare Leadership (MHL). He is currently Adjunct Assistant Professor of Health Services, Policy and Practice, where he heads a graduate Leadership & Workforce Development course. From 1996 to 2016, Jim was a Business Management Professor at the Lake Forest Graduate School of Management, where he received the ‘Most Distinguished Corporate Education Faculty Member’ (2009–2010) and the ‘Learning Excellence’ (2015) awards. From 2013 to 2016, he was an Adjunct Faculty in the Department of Health Systems Management, College of Health Sciences, Rush University, where he taught a graduate seminar on Healthcare Ethics. Jim’s book, Transformative Planning: How Your Healthcare Organization Can Strategize for an Uncertain Future (Health Administration Press, 2018), helps healthcare leaders drive transformational change. From 2005 to 2016, Jim worked at Decision Strategies International, leaving as a Senior Principal. Prior to that, Jim spent 12 years at Baxter Healthcare, the last four as vice president of strategy development for the Renal Division. At Baxter, Jim identified new business opportunities, facilitated annual strategy planning processes and worked with senior management on organisational development for this rapidly growing, nearly $2B division. Jim holds a BA in Economics and Politics from Yale University. He was a Special Student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the Urban Studies Department; he received a joint Master of Public Affairs (MPA) and Master of Urban and Regional Planning (MURP) from the Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University.

Anthony Napoli , MD, FACEP, MHL, is the Academic Director for the School of Professional Studies’ Master in Healthcare Leadership. He also serves as the Vice Chair of Clinical Affairs for the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. He is Professor of Emergency Medicine in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and Professor of Health Service, Policy, and Practice at the School of Public Health. Dr Napoli previously graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania with a BSE in Bioengineering and is a graduate of Georgetown University Medical School. He subsequently trained in Emergency Medicine Brown University Medical School/Lifespan Hospitals. On completing his residency in Emergency Medicine, Dr Napoli developed extensive research expertise, publishing over 50 manuscripts in such areas as non-invasive measures of fluid responsiveness in sepsis patients, management of the post-cardiac arrest patient, chest pain and acute cardiovascular disease, disparities in healthcare resource utilisation, emergency department clinical decision units and clinical operations. He subsequently went on to run the Rhode Island Hospital Emergency Department Observation Unit before taking over as Chair and Medical Director at the Van Beuren Emergency Department of Newport Hospital. He remains active in his academic endeavours, continuing to publish widely and speak nationally on emergency department operations and opportunities for leadership within healthcare operations. He currently also serves as co-director of the Brown Emergency Medicine fellowship in Emergency Medicine Healthcare Leadership and Administration. Dr Napoli graduated from the Brown Executive Master of Healthcare Leadership programme in 2015. He has since served as a student adviser before coming on as Academic Director.

Alan O’Neil , MBA, has been in Healthcare Administration for over 30 years. Alan has been the CEO of Unity Medical Center in Grafton North Dakota for the past nine years. Unity Medical Center is an independent rural hospital that has received several awards over the past several years, including recognition on Modern Healthcare’s Best Places to Work list for the second consecutive year. Alan has frequently served as a ‘Change Agent’ for organisations that need to be redirected in order to improve operations. His passion is to be part of a team that provides quality care to patients through organisational excellence. His focus is on improving operations and care delivery through recruitment and retention of important team members, increasing services and volumes, changing the culture, improvements in customer service, increased focus on quality and patient experience initiatives and structural renovations regarding the physical plant. Alan is a member of the Board of Directors (past Chair) of the North Dakota Hospital Association and is on the AHA Regional Policy Board. He received the AHA Grass Roots Award in 2021. He has also served on statewide task forces and is very involved with legislative activities regarding healthcare issues. Alan has written or been quoted in healthcare publications and has been a guest speaker at regional and national events on topics including hospital finance and operations.