How AI is Transforming Healthcare Quality and Safety

01 Sep 2025

Report from the International Forum on Quality and Safety in Healthcare, Singapore

Earlier this month I was fortunate enough to be a part of this year’s International Forum, where Dr Steve Davis, President and CEO of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, delivered a keynote that brought the future of healthcare into sharp focus: artificial intelligence is not just a technology story—it’s a healthcare story.

Why AI Matters for Healthcare

Dr Davis reminded delegates that while AI has decades of history, what matters now is its potential to reshape the delivery of care. In healthcare, AI is not simply about automation or efficiency—it is about achieving better outcomes for patients while supporting the professionals who deliver care every day.

Drawing on Dr Michael Matheny’s landmark text Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare, Dr Davis highlighted the importance of aligning AI with the quintuple aim:

Better health for patients and populations
Improved care experience for individuals and families
Clinical well-being, reducing burden and burnout
Lower costs through efficiency and smarter use of resources
Equity, ensuring care reaches those most in need

Practical Impact Already Emerging

At Cincinnati Children’s, AI is already proving its worth:

Note summarisation tools are reducing clinician documentation load, giving doctors and nurses more time with patients.
Medical imaging AI is enhancing diagnostic accuracy, reducing variation, and supporting earlier intervention.
Predictive models are helping identify high-risk patients sooner, allowing proactive care and fewer hospital readmissions.

These examples illustrate AI’s promise to improve safety, quality, and efficiency at the frontline of care—not just in theory, but in practice.

The Next Leap: Smarter, More Connected Care

The most exciting frontier is multi-agent, multi-modal AI—systems that can interpret diverse data sources, act autonomously, and coordinate complex care. Dr Davis shared a case in diabetes management, where AI analysed glucose data, recommended treatment adjustments, and scheduled follow-up—tasks that currently consume significant clinician time.

For patients, this means faster, safer, more personalised care. For clinicians, it means more support and less administrative burden. For health systems, it means scalability and sustainability in an era of rising demand and constrained resources.

The Leadership Imperative

Dr Davis challenged healthcare leaders to see AI not as an optional tool but as a core enabler of healthcare transformation. Success requires:

Ambition—AI should help health systems deliver high-quality care at scale.
Thoughtfulness—deployment must safeguard safety, ethics, and equity.
Strategy—AI needs to be built into performance, quality, and workforce planning, not left on the margins.

Done well, AI is not about replacing clinicians or eroding trust—it is about enhancing quality, supporting staff, and improving outcomes for every patient.

Key Takeaways

More time with patients: AI-driven documentation tools reduce admin burden, freeing clinicians for direct care.
Safer, faster diagnoses: imaging and predictive AI improve accuracy and allow earlier interventions.
Better patient outcomes: proactive identification of risks lowers readmissions and enhances safety.
Sustainable health systems: smarter use of resources supports quality care at scale, even under pressure.
Equity matters: AI must be designed and implemented to reduce, not widen, healthcare disparities

Rhodie Miller is Principal Search Consultant at HardyGroup, with over a decade of experience in health recruitment. Rhodie has conducted executive searches across all jurisdictions of Australia and New Zealand. With a key focus on sustainable outcomes, Rhodie strives to ensure a match between client and candidate.