国产传媒

Digital Patient Podcast

TDP 198: OSF HealthCare鈥檚 Roopa Foulger: Why 80% of Healthcare AI Fails in the Real World, Inside OSF鈥檚 Three-Horizon Innovation Strategy, and When to Break the Rules of Evidence-Based Tech

November 4, 2025
By
Seamless

Subscribe on: | | | | |

On this episode of The Digital Patient, Dr. Joshua Liu, Co-founder & CEO of 国产传媒, and colleague, Alan Sardana, chat with Roopa Foulger, Vice President, Digital and Innovation Development at OSF HealthCare, about "Why 80% of Healthcare AI Fails in the Real World, Inside OSF鈥檚 Three-Horizon Innovation Strategy, When to Break the Rules of Evidence-Based Tech, and more..." Click the play button to listen or read the show notes below.

Audio:

Guest(s):

  • Roopa Foulger, Vice President, Digital and Innovation Development at OSF聽HealthCare
  • Dr. Joshua Liu, Co-founder & CEO at 国产传媒

Episode 198 - Show Notes:

[00:00:07] Episode preview

[00:05:02] Why Ms. Foulger chose technology early on鈥攍ow barrier to entry in India, passion for innovation, and excitement during the rise of Google and big tech

[00:05:51] How moving to Illinois and wanting less travel sparked her transition into healthcare鈥攁nd finding her calling at OSF, grounded in servant leadership

[00:07:08] How working in Canada shaped her mindset around diversity, multiculturalism, and continuous improvement

[00:08:18] Early exposure to data and becoming fascinated by applying mathematics and forecasting to solve complex problems

[00:09:54] The shock of joining a provider organization and realizing how complex, unstructured, and clinician-burdened healthcare data really is

[00:12:31] Growing concerns around keeping pace with AI鈥檚 data velocity and the operational burden of ML Ops and workflow changes

[00:15:24] The overlooked challenge: 80% of AI tools go unused鈥攙alue must be delivered at the right time in clinicians鈥 workflows

[00:16:46] The three-layer AI prioritization model at OSF: strategy-aligned, tactical process improvements, and market-driven innovation scanning

[00:21:41] Why every AI implementation must have a clinician or business champion to ensure adoption and real value (threshold 鈥 unchanged)

[00:22:04] Explaining Horizon 2 vs. Horizon 3 innovation and examples鈥攆rom RPA scaling to rural diabetic retinal screening and VR-based concussion assessment

[00:27:10] How OSF built a single digital health data hub over a decade to integrate >25 data sources and enable virtual monitoring and preventive care

[00:29:46] Advice to health systems: start small, solve a real business problem first, prove ROI, then expand like stacking Legos鈥攏ot 鈥渂uild it and they will come鈥

[00:31:17] Why data governance in AI is a 鈥渢eam sport鈥 requiring frontline clinicians, Gemba walks, and leadership storytelling鈥攏ot just committees

[00:35:42] Where AI drives value today: scribes reducing pajama time, outpatient escalation models, and rev-cycle automation鈥攚hile inpatient use remains mixed

[00:37:57] How compassion in healthcare and her personal cancer journey shaped her leadership鈥攂ringing experimentation and tolerance for failure to digital work

[00:40:41] Culture shift: not everything in digital requires evidence-based rigor鈥攕ome ideas should be tested quickly without endless approvals

Fast 5 Lightning Round:

  1. What is your favorite book or book you鈥檝e gifted the most?
    The Patient Will See You Now by Eric Topol
  2. If you could instantly master any skill, what would it be?
    How to be more compassionate
  3. Would you rather have Super strength, super speed, or the ability to read people鈥檚 minds?
    Mind reading
  4. What is something in healthcare you believe that others might find insane?
    The amount of waste!
  5. What is the last movie or TV show you saw?
    WE Day

The Digital Patient has been recognized as Feedspot's . Thank you to our listeners for making this happen!

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TDP 198: OSF HealthCare鈥檚 Roopa Foulger: Why 80% of Healthcare AI Fails in the Real World, Inside OSF鈥檚 Three-Horizon Innovation Strategy, and When to Break the Rules of Evidence-Based Tech

Posted by:
Seamless
on
November 4, 2025

Subscribe on: | | | | |

On this episode of The Digital Patient, Dr. Joshua Liu, Co-founder & CEO of 国产传媒, and colleague, Alan Sardana, chat with Roopa Foulger, Vice President, Digital and Innovation Development at OSF HealthCare, about "Why 80% of Healthcare AI Fails in the Real World, Inside OSF鈥檚 Three-Horizon Innovation Strategy, When to Break the Rules of Evidence-Based Tech, and more..." Click the play button to listen or read the show notes below.

Audio:

Guest(s):

  • Roopa Foulger, Vice President, Digital and Innovation Development at OSF聽HealthCare
  • Dr. Joshua Liu, Co-founder & CEO at 国产传媒

Episode 198 - Show Notes:

[00:00:07] Episode preview

[00:05:02] Why Ms. Foulger chose technology early on鈥攍ow barrier to entry in India, passion for innovation, and excitement during the rise of Google and big tech

[00:05:51] How moving to Illinois and wanting less travel sparked her transition into healthcare鈥攁nd finding her calling at OSF, grounded in servant leadership

[00:07:08] How working in Canada shaped her mindset around diversity, multiculturalism, and continuous improvement

[00:08:18] Early exposure to data and becoming fascinated by applying mathematics and forecasting to solve complex problems

[00:09:54] The shock of joining a provider organization and realizing how complex, unstructured, and clinician-burdened healthcare data really is

[00:12:31] Growing concerns around keeping pace with AI鈥檚 data velocity and the operational burden of ML Ops and workflow changes

[00:15:24] The overlooked challenge: 80% of AI tools go unused鈥攙alue must be delivered at the right time in clinicians鈥 workflows

[00:16:46] The three-layer AI prioritization model at OSF: strategy-aligned, tactical process improvements, and market-driven innovation scanning

[00:21:41] Why every AI implementation must have a clinician or business champion to ensure adoption and real value (threshold 鈥 unchanged)

[00:22:04] Explaining Horizon 2 vs. Horizon 3 innovation and examples鈥攆rom RPA scaling to rural diabetic retinal screening and VR-based concussion assessment

[00:27:10] How OSF built a single digital health data hub over a decade to integrate >25 data sources and enable virtual monitoring and preventive care

[00:29:46] Advice to health systems: start small, solve a real business problem first, prove ROI, then expand like stacking Legos鈥攏ot 鈥渂uild it and they will come鈥

[00:31:17] Why data governance in AI is a 鈥渢eam sport鈥 requiring frontline clinicians, Gemba walks, and leadership storytelling鈥攏ot just committees

[00:35:42] Where AI drives value today: scribes reducing pajama time, outpatient escalation models, and rev-cycle automation鈥攚hile inpatient use remains mixed

[00:37:57] How compassion in healthcare and her personal cancer journey shaped her leadership鈥攂ringing experimentation and tolerance for failure to digital work

[00:40:41] Culture shift: not everything in digital requires evidence-based rigor鈥攕ome ideas should be tested quickly without endless approvals

Fast 5 Lightning Round:

  1. What is your favorite book or book you鈥檝e gifted the most?
    The Patient Will See You Now by Eric Topol
  2. If you could instantly master any skill, what would it be?
    How to be more compassionate
  3. Would you rather have Super strength, super speed, or the ability to read people鈥檚 minds?
    Mind reading
  4. What is something in healthcare you believe that others might find insane?
    The amount of waste!
  5. What is the last movie or TV show you saw?
    WE Day

The Digital Patient has been recognized as Feedspot's . Thank you to our listeners for making this happen!

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