Clara Lin, Chief Medical Information Officer, Seattle Children's

Summary

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Becker’s Healthcare Podcast: Conversation with Clara Lin, Chief Medical Information Officer, Seattle Children's

Recorded live at the 2025 Health IT Digital Health and RCM Conference
Host: Grace Lynn Keller
Guest: Dr. Clara Lin, Chief Medical Information Officer, Seattle Children’s
Release Date: October 13, 2025

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Episode Overview

This episode features Dr. Clara Lin, CMIO at Seattle Children’s, who shares perspectives on the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare, strategies for effective governance and patient engagement, the impact of evolving legislation, and practical advice for leaders prioritizing innovation amid operational realities. The conversation focuses on the intersection of technology, clinical workflows, and the unique needs of pediatric healthcare.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Dr. Clara Lin’s Role and Background

[00:48]

• Dr. Lin introduces herself as an internal medicine and pediatrics-trained primary care physician and the Chief Medical Information Officer at Seattle Children’s.
• She oversees the informatics, digital health, and training teams, focusing on how health IT integrates with clinician workflows and patient engagement.

“I still see patients at Seattle Children’s, and my daytime job is our Chief Medical Information Officer. So I oversee our informatics team, our digital health team, and our training team in looking at how health IT and the clinician workflows and our patient engagement intersect with each other.”
— Dr. Clara Lin [00:48]

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2. Current and Emerging AI Use Cases in Healthcare

[01:13]

• AI adoption is in its early but rapidly expanding stages at Seattle Children’s.
• There is significant focus on “ambient AI,” especially for clinical documentation (audio space) and envisioning future use in real-time video event prediction.
• The organization prioritizes use cases that demonstrate clear clinical value, especially when resources are limited.

“Across the conference today at Becker’s, we’re going to hear a lot about ambient AI… that is ambient both in the sort of audio space where it helps you produce clinical documentation… but also ambient in a video space. I think that would be a really cool use case moving forward...”
— Dr. Clara Lin [01:35]

“Finding the use cases that are going to be the highest yield in the early years was a really big focus for us.”
— Dr. Clara Lin [02:31]

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3. Governance and Patient Engagement in AI Implementation

[03:06]

• Governance structures are essential for the ethical and responsible implementation of AI.
• At Seattle Children’s, patient experience is interwoven into AI governance—patients or their representatives sit on governance boards.
• Gathering patient feedback and facilitating active consent and opt-in/opt-out options are core practices.

“Governance for AI use cases, particularly new ones, are extremely important to ensure that you’re practicing AI ethically and responsibly… Patient engagement, patient experience and governance, should not be separate.”
— Dr. Clara Lin [03:06]

“At Seattle Children’s, we’ve interwoven those two things… patient experience representatives sit on our AI governance structure.”
— Dr. Clara Lin [03:28]

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4. Balancing Innovation and Operational Constraints

[04:07]

• AI is integrated into both strategic planning and operational budgets.
• The organization sets aside operational funds for planned AI projects and allocates a discrete “innovation bucket” for risk-taking and creative efforts.
• This dual approach allows for strategic adoption and continuing experimentation.

“We are thinking about AI as part of our strategy and as part of our operational workflow moving forward… Other than designing it directly into your OPEX budget, you also have to think about maybe investing in a distinct discrete bucket of dollars and time… just for you to take risk and for you to innovate and be creative…”
— Dr. Clara Lin [04:13]

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5. The Impact of Legislation on Healthcare IT Strategy

[05:14]

• Recent state and federal efforts aim to make AI safer, faster, and more affordable.
• There is heightened federal focus on safeguarding children and teenagers who may interface with AI.
• Dr. Lin highlights the shrinking pediatric workforce and the vulnerability of the patient population, underscoring the importance of advocacy and thoughtful technology adoption in pediatric care.

“We see that there’s been a national, at the federal level, conversation about how we make sure that AI is safe for our teens and our kids… we need to make sure that we’re advocating for our patients… especially in the evolving technology”
— Dr. Clara Lin [05:24]

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6. Advice for Healthcare Leaders on Technology Adoption

[06:49]

• Dr. Lin urges leaders to be realistic about AI’s return on investment.
• She warns against getting distracted by “shiny” new technologies, emphasizing the importance of targeting resources toward initiatives that deliver true clinical value.

“It’ll be important to resist the shininess of it and really be realistic at determining what that clinical value will be for your organization so that you could target your investment intelligently.”
— Dr. Clara Lin [06:53]

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• On Patient Governance:
  “Patient engagement… should not be separate [from governance]. Patient experience representatives sit on our AI governance structure.”
  — Dr. Clara Lin [03:28]

• On Practical Innovation:
  “You also have to think about maybe investing in a distinct discrete bucket of dollars and time and effort that is just for you to take risk and for you to innovate and be creative and do really cool things.”
  — Dr. Clara Lin [04:38]

• On Choosing AI Projects:
  “It’ll be important to resist the shininess of it and really be realistic at determining what that clinical value will be for your organization.”
  — Dr. Clara Lin [06:53]

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Timeline of Key Segments

• 00:48: Introduction to Dr. Lin’s role and responsibilities
• 01:35: Discussion of AI use cases and “ambient AI” in practice
• 03:06: Governance strategies and patient engagement integration
• 04:13: Balancing innovation and operational constraints
• 05:24: Responding to legislative trends in AI, focus on children’s safety
• 06:49: Practical advice for healthcare leaders on investing in technology

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Summary Takeaways

Dr. Clara Lin emphasizes that while AI holds promise for transforming clinical operations and improving patient care, its successful implementation depends on robust governance, patient involvement, and pragmatic investment strategies. Seattle Children’s approach blends thoughtful budgeting for proven solutions with dedicated resources for experimentation, always prioritizing ethical standards and pediatric advocacy. Her guidance to healthcare leaders: pursue technology that demonstrably improves care, and ensure patients—and especially vulnerable populations—remain at the heart of every strategic decision.

Transcript

[A]

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[B]

This is Grace Lynn Keller with the Beckers Healthcare Podcast and we are recording live at the 2025 Health IT Digital Health and RCM Conference. I'm currently joined by Clara Lynn who is the Chief Medical Information Officer at Seattle Children's. So Clara, thanks for being here and let's get started by having you share a little bit more about yourself and your work in healthcare. Sure.

[C]

Thank you for having me. My name is Clara. I am an internal medicine and pediatrics trained primary care physician. I still see patients at sea out of Seattle Children's and I'm also my daytime job is our Chief Medical Information Officer and so I oversee our informatics team, our digital health team and our training team in looking at how health IT and the clinician workflows and our patient engagement intersect with each other.

[B]

Wonderful. Well, thank you for taking the time to be here and let's start our conversation talking about AI since that is such a hot topic. So nearly half of medical practices have reported using AI in some capacity in the last year and it remains a key topic for health IT leaders. From your perspective, what are the use cases that are making a difference right now and how are you leveraging them in your organization?

[C]

Yeah, our, you know we are very early I think as is everyone in the in the broadening of our AI portfolio journey right now and we have a pretty large portfolio of AI applications at Seattle Children's. And I think across the conference today at Becker's we're going to hear a lot about ambient AI and that is ambient both in the sort of audio space where it helps you produce clinical documentation and other important clinical decision support even in your ehr, but also ambient in a video space. I think that would be a really cool use case moving forward and I think how we leverage ambient, both audio and video to then do some real time event capturing and real time event prediction. I think that would be a really great use case with that can deliver some real value in the future, in the near future. And I think what we've learned at Seattle Children's over the first two years of really doing diving and investing into AI is trying to realize the clinical value of some of our use cases and so Finding the use cases that are going to be the highest yield in the early years is. Was a really big focus for us.

[B]

Absolutely. And as virtual care expands from AI enabled tools and remote monitoring to broader digital health platforms, introducing new technology always brings challenges. So what advice do you have for leaders navigating everything from governance to patient engagement? And can you share an example of how your organization has balanced innovation with operational constraints?

[C]

Yeah, so I'm going to touch on the first point real quick that you made on the governance and the patient engagement. And I think governance for AI use cases, particularly new ones, are extremely important to ensure that you're practicing AI ethically and responsibly, and also in alignment with your organization's priorities and strategies so that you're investing accurately. But also patient experience, obviously is a really important part of that. And I don't think that those two things, patient engagement, patient experience and governance, should be separate. And in fact, at Seattle Children's, we've interwoven those two things, integrated those two things directly together. So patient experience representatives sit on our AI governance structure and we also make sure that that is called out specifically that as any AI use cases being developed as Seattle Children's, we provide the governance board, provides the advice of how to gather patient input and feedback, and also things like consent and how patients can opt in or opt out. Those types of conversations are actively happening in our governance structure for all the AI use cases. So I think that is a really important thing, I think for a lot of leaders that are trying to navigate this really complicated landscape right now. And then I think your second question was, how do we balance innovation with our operational constraints? The way that we've approached it at Seattle Children's over the years, it's kind of evolved a little bit. And I really like the way where it's at right now where we are thinking about AI as part of our strategy and as part of our operational workflow moving forward. So it's all part of the budget for budgeting for the operational team. So if they're thinking about rolling out a new feature, they would budget into it the time and the money that are needed to potentially explore AI solutions there. But at the same time, other than sort of designing it directly into your OPEX budget, you also have to think about maybe investing in a distinct discrete bucket of dollars and time and effort that is just for you to take risk and for you to innovate and be creative and do really cool things. So that way you can stay on the bleeding edge of the technology as an organization. So that's how we've chosen to do it. And I think so far it's really served us well.

[B]

And how are you seeing recent legislation, both state and federal, affect healthcare organizations and healthcare IT specifically? And have you adjusted any strategies in response?

[C]

Yeah, that's a really great question. And I really love all the focus and the effort right now that's happening in the legislative, state space, both state and federal, on making AI better and making AI safer, faster and even cheaper for us. And I think recently, for example, we see that there's been a national, at the federal level, conversation about how we make sure that AI is safe for our teens and our kids that are potentially coming in contact with this technology. I think athletes, particularly in the PD pediatric health space, we need to make sure that we're advocating for our patients and advocating for our patients, families and providers because we are both, you know, we are. It's a dwindling, unfortunately, workforce. A lot of people aren't. As physicians myself, as physician myself, we see that pediatric residency is. That workforce is shrinking and a lot of people aren't going into pediatric, especially in primary care. At the same time, this p. This patient population of the kids and their families is probably the most vulnerable patient population out there. And so as pediatric healthcare leaders, leaders and organizations, we need to make sure that we're advocating, especially in the kind of the evolving technology to make sure that our clinicians and our patients are getting what is best for them out of this.

[B]

And as we wrap up our conversation today, what is your top piece of advice for healthcare leaders as they prepare for further advancements in technology and rising demands for care?

[C]

I think in my two years of doing this, kind of, as a very big part of my job, my big lessons learned is to be very realistic about the return on investment for our artificial intelligence tools. I think there are a lot of really cool technology or really cool use cases. People are, you're gonna want to go for the shiny things, but it's, it's, it'll. It'll be important to resist the shininess of it and really be realistic at determining what that clinical value will be for your organization so that you could target your investment intelligently.

[B]

Wonderful. Well, Clara, thanks so much for joining me today on the Beckers Healthcare podcast and sharing your insights again. We are recording live at the Health IT Digital Health and RCM conference.

[C]

Thank you so much.