Karen Feinstein Highlights Safety-First Vision for AI in Health Care at Leapfrog Annual Meeting
Type: News
Focus Area: Patient Safety
From left to right: Linda Schwimmer, Raj Ratwani, Missy Danforth, Karen Feinstein, and Kedar Mate.
As AI reshapes healthcare delivery across the country, leaders gathered at The Leapfrog Group’s Annual Meeting December 15 in National Harbor, Maryland to confront a central question: how can AI improve care without introducing new risks to patient safety?
Karen Wolk Feinstein, PhD, president and CEO of the Jewish Healthcare Foundation (JHF), brought a system-level, patient-driven perspective to the discussion during a featured panel, “AI and Patient Safety: Promise, Pitfalls and the Path Forward.” The session drew hospital and health-system executives, quality leaders, and healthcare purchasers seeking practical guidance on responsible AI adoption.
Moderated by Linda Schwimmer, president and CEO of the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute, the panel explored the promise of AI in clinical settings. Panelists discussed how technologies such as machine learning, predictive analytics, and large language models are already being used to support diagnosis, reduce administrative burden, and identify patient safety risks.
Dr. Feinstein emphasized that AI is already being used by patients everywhere, but its full potential can only be realized if health systems are intentionally designed for safety, an approach long championed by JHF through its work in quality improvement, care coordination, and regional collaboration.
She also highlighted the growing role of patient-facing technologies and direct-to-consumer tools, noting that transparency and clear communication are essential to maintaining trust.
JHF has recently commissioned a report exploring the exploding field of self-directed patient safety, has established the Coalition for Advancing Safer Healthcare (CASH), created the National Patient Safety Board Advocacy Coalition, of which The Leapfrog Group is a member, co-sponsored and co-designed three national AI and patient safety conferences, and funded competitions across the country and world to encourage innovators to solve problems related to patient safety with its Patient Safety Technology Challenge.
Other panelists, including Missy Danforth, senior vice president at The Leapfrog Group, Kedar Mate, founder and CEO of Qualified Health, and Raj Ratwani, PhD, vice president of scientific affairs for the MedStar Health Research Institute, underscored the need for guardrails as AI adoption accelerates, practical implementation challenges and realistic pacing, and about including governance and transparency standards.
