Robert (Bob) M. Wachter, MD
Professor and Chair, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco

Wachter is author of 300 articles and six books. He coined the term “hospitalist” in 1996 and is often considered the “father” of the hospitalist field, the fastest growing specialty in the history of modern medicine. He is past president of the Society of Hospital Medicine and past chair of the American Board of Internal Medicine. In 2015, Modern Healthcare magazine ranked him as the most influential physician-executive in the U.S. His 2015 book, The Digital Doctor: Hope, Hype and Harm at the Dawn of Medicine’s Computer Age, was a New York Times science bestseller. In 2020-22, his tweets on COVID-19 were viewed more than 400 million times by 250,000 followers and served as a trusted source of information on the clinical, public health, and policy issues surrounding the pandemic.

Keynote address: “AI in Health Care: Separating the Promise from the Hype”

In this session, we’ll briefly describe the history of healthcare’s bumpy digital transformation, and why we are on the cusp of moving from an EHR-dominated era to a post-EHR era. We’ll then look at the impact of COVID on healthcare’s digital revolution, and discuss how and why the pandemic has accelerated the adoption of AI – and its implications for diagnosis, prediction, operational efficiency, and clinical decision support.

Jodyn Platt, PhD, MPH
Assistant Professor of Learning Health Sciences, Michigan Medicine

Platt trained in medical sociology and health policy at the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on issues at the intersection of informatics and ethics. She is interested in understanding what makes data-driven health trusted and the pathways for earning, achieving, and sustaining trust across stakeholders.

Lionel P. Robert, Jr., PhD
Associate Professor, U-M School of Information

Robert is core faculty at the University of Michigan Robotics Institute. His research focuses broadly on collective action through technology and human collaboration with autonomous systems. He is an AIS Distinguished Member Cum Laude, IEEE Senior Member and former BAT Fellow and KPMG Scholar. His research has been sponsored by the U.S. Army, Toyota Research Institute, MCity, Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies, AAA Foundation, and National Science Foundation. He has appeared in print, radio, and/or television for such outlets as ABC, CNN, CNBC, Michigan Radio, Inc., Washington Examiner, Detroit News, Yahoo News, The New York Times, and the Associated Press.

Akbar K. Waljee, MD, MSc, AGAF
Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, Michigan Medicine

Waljee serves as the faculty lead for the Data and Methods Hub and Co-director of the Michigan Integrated Center for Health Analytics and Medical Prediction (MiCHAMP). He also serves as the Director of the VA CCMR Prediction Modeling Unit (PMU) and, clinically, he is the Director of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease clinic at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System.