TDP 190: KUMC’s former CMIO Dr. Greg Ator: Why AI Chart Summarization is the Next Dominant Use Case, Having a CMIO in Every Clinical Department, and Could a Startup Disrupt the Major EHR Incumbents?

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On this episode of The Digital Patient, Dr. Joshua Liu, Co-founder & CEO of SeamlessMD, and colleague, Alan Sardana, chat with Dr. Greg Ator, former, longtime CMIO at Kansas University Health System, about "Why AI Chart Summarization is the Next Dominant Use Case, Having a CMIO in Every Clinical Department, Could a Startup Disrupt the Major EHR Incumbents? And more..." Click the play button to listen or read the show notes below.
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Audio:

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Guest(s):

• Dr. Greg Ator, former longtime Chief Medical Information Officer at Kansus University Health System
• Dr. Joshua Liu, Co-founder & CEO at SeamlessMD

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‍Episode 190 - Show Notes:

[00:00:07] Episode preview

[00:04:35] How Dr. Ator's engineering background led to medicine and informatics

[00:06:53] How a medical error during his father's chemotherapy shaped his human-factors perspective

[00:09:04] Why AI needs supervision

[00:11:21] The importance of active clinicians in AI product development

[00:12:28] Lessons from rolling out AI scribes at KU

[00:15:47] Why chart summarization is the next big use case

[00:17:23] Dr. Ator's 2026 prediction for healthcare

[00:21:53] Cutting through AI hype by assessing company culture and humility

[00:24:39] On whether startups can disrupt the major EHR incumbents

[00:26:38] Why training clinical informatics fellows matters

[00:32:14] Dr. Ator's take on patient message overload

[00:35:19] What keeps Dr. Ator up at night: workforce shortages

[00:39:00] How clinicians may react to AI nudges

[00:41:39] Why peer-to-peer change management is essential

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Fast 5 Lightning Round:

1. What is your favorite book or book you’ve gifted the most?
   Sketch Your Mind Nurture, a Playful and Creative Brain by Zol Vian
2. If you could instantly master any skill, what would it be?
   The ability to combine knowledge graphs and create a mind map of medicine
3. Would you rather have Super strength, super speed, or the ability to read people’s minds?
   Mind reading.
4. What is something in healthcare you believe that others might find insane?
   “Billing… and then the pharmacy situation... hard to pick which is more insane.”
5. What is the last movie or TV show you saw?
   Outlander – “It kind of makes me think about our technical experience and how it really started… when you look at the pace of change, we are very blessed."

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