President and CEO Rod Hochman, M.D., in his 2024 predictions, announced that generative artificial intelligence will be one of the major drivers of health care transformation. It will fuel advances in clinical breakthroughs, patient outcomes, improved caregiver well-being and reduced administrative work, which are important when health care labor shortages and caregiver burnout are unsustainably high.
After investing in digital and cloud technology, building deep strategic relationships with market leaders such as Microsoft, and standardizing on key platforms including Epic and Genesis (Oracle Cloud), Providence is ready to implement generative AI solutions safely, securely, responsibly and at scale to extend the Mission to care for all.
How we’re implementing AI responsibly
Providence has signed the Rome Call to AI Ethics. This document is endorsed by the Pontifical Academy for Life, Microsoft, IBM and the Ministry of Innovation, a part of the Italian Government in Rome to promote an ethical approach to artificial intelligence. The signatories commit to request the development of an artificial intelligence that serves every person and humanity as a whole and that respects the dignity of the human person, so that every individual can benefit from the advances of technology.
AI governance structure
We invite you to watch our 6-minute video on how Providence is prioritizing governance to ensure the ethical use of AI.
We’ve set up an AI governance structure to align priorities and strategy, safeguard patient data and privacy, prevent bias and ensure access to promising innovations for all, especially underserved populations.
The Generative AI Leadership Council oversees our responsible use of AI and AI strategy. Three leadership teams contribute to this council:
- Our AI guardrails workgroup, led by Chief Data Officer Mark Premo, is collecting feedback from across the family of organizations to create AI guardrails.
- Our Data Ethics Council, led by Chief Ethicist Nick Kockler, ensures ethics and equity.
- Nick has also published guidance in the article Generating Insights from Catholic Social Teaching: Ethical Guidelines for Artificial Intelligence in Health Care Ministries in Health Care Ethics USA, a Catholic Health Association publication.
- Our Information Protection Committee, led by Chief Information Security Officer Adam Zoller, ensures that we adhere to safety, security and privacy.
Four subject matter expert groups – clinical, patient and consumer, workforce and administration, and back office – are also using the guardrails, data protection and governance structure to develop and implement AI solutions for priority use cases.
These are Providence’s AI key messages to support stakeholder conversations.
BJ Moore
EVP, Chief Information Officer
Sara Vaezy
EVP, Chief Strategy and Digital Officer