Dave Newman, MD, Chief Medical Officer of Virtual Care, Sanford Health

Summary

Becker’s Healthcare Podcast – Episode Summary

Guest: Dr. Dave Newman, Chief Medical Officer of Virtual Care, Sanford Health
Host: Will Riley, Becker’s Healthcare
Date: February 4, 2026
Duration: ~6 minutes

---

Overview:

This episode spotlights Dr. Dave Newman’s work as Chief Medical Officer of Virtual Care at Sanford Health, with a focus on innovation in rural healthcare delivery. The discussion centers around how virtual care and AI-driven technologies are transforming patient access and the implementation hurdles and opportunities in deploying these solutions in underserved communities.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Reimagining Rural Healthcare

• Dr. Newman’s Role

  • Leads interdisciplinary teams (clinicians, educators, technologists) to redesign care delivery (00:55).
  • Key projects include AI-assisted workflows, advanced virtual care, and establishing one of the nation’s first virtual hospitals.

• Bridging Access Gaps for Rural Patients

  • Meeting expectations shaped by other industries: “People want things to be easy. When I'm ordering something online, if it takes me more than three or four clicks, I get frustrated... Healthcare needs to be the same way.” — Dr. Newman (01:34)
  • Example: Pediatric pulmonology via virtual care.
    • Dr. James Wallace provides virtual specialty care (including digital stethoscopy and multidisciplinary clinics) eliminating patient burdens of travel and logistics (01:40–02:50).

Embracing Technology & AI in Healthcare

• Shifting the Pace of Innovation

  • Healthcare is accelerating its adoption of new technologies, “kind of out of necessity.” (03:04)
  • Every AI tool is evaluated with the same rigor as new medications: focus on trust and safety for both patients and providers (03:10).

• Operationalizing AI: Lessons and Challenges

  • Building trust is essential: direct communication with specialists, involving them in evaluation (03:20).
  • Chronic kidney disease predictive modeling case study:
    • Difficulty was not in building models but “figuring out what our doctors wanted and getting the right people in the room.” (04:27)
    • Real breakthrough: integrating tools into the EMR and focusing on prevention upstream, particularly for rural patients who struggle with access to dialysis.

Recommendations for Executives Implementing New Tech

• Key Takeaways from Dr. Newman:
  • “Have a champion and the champion should be somebody that is trusted in the clinical space... if you don’t have somebody that can vouch for the product, they’re not going to follow along with it.” (04:54)
  • Use peer-reviewed evidence as with any vetted medical therapy or procedure.
  • Establish appropriate governance: Separate clinical and operational AI/data governance, as each requires different guardrails (05:20).
  • “Collaboration has to be your catalyst for progress. You can't do this alone... it’s got to be incorporated into almost every single area of healthcare.” (05:43)

Final Thoughts

• Technology and AI are essential for healthcare’s future; standing still is not an option.
  • “If you’re not innovating, you’re going to be left behind.” — Dr. Newman (06:00)

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Consumer Expectations:

  • “Healthcare needs to be the same way. We need to be able to make an appointment with a mental healthcare provider from your phone.” — Dr. Newman (01:40)

• On Building Trust with AI:

  • “There is a huge, huge trust component. ...We have to vet this. We have AI governance, we have data governance to make sure these are safe and effective.” — Dr. Newman (03:10)

• On Lessons Learned:

  • “The hardest part was figuring out what our doctors wanted and getting the right people in the room.” — Dr. Newman (04:27)
  • “Collaboration has to be your catalyst for progress. You can’t do this alone.” — Dr. Newman (05:43)

---

Important Timestamps

• 00:55 — Dr. Newman explains his role and Sanford Health’s communities
• 01:34 — Expectations for convenient care and real-world virtual care example
• 03:04 — Speed of tech innovation and building trust in AI
• 04:27 — Operationalizing predictive tools and engaging stakeholders
• 04:54 — Key considerations for healthcare executives deploying new tech
• 06:00 — Concluding advice: Innovate, or be left behind

---

Takeaways

Dr. Dave Newman’s insights emphasize that virtual care and AI hold enormous promise in addressing rural healthcare’s greatest challenges, but success hinges on trust, collaboration, evidence, and deeply understanding clinical needs. Change is accelerating—organizations must adapt to keep pace or risk obsolescence.

Transcript

[A]

R1 is the leader in healthcare revenue management, helping providers achieve new levels of performance through smart orchestration. With more than 20 years of experience, R1 partners with 1,000 providers, including 95 of the top 100 US health systems and handles over 270 million payer transactions annually. If you want to learn more about how you can transform your revenue cycle operations, Visit us at www. R1RCM.

[B]

Hello and welcome to the Becker's Healthcare Podcast. My name is Will Riley from R1. I'm joined today by Dr. Dave Newman. Dave is Chief Medical Officer of Virtual Care at Sanford Health. Welcome to the podcast, Dave.

[C]

Thanks for having me.

[B]

You bet, Dave. Start us off. Share with us a little bit about your role and the communities that you serve at Sanford.

[C]

Yeah, I truly think, well, I've got the best job in the world. So as the Chief Medical Officer of Virtual Care, I get to reimagine the future of care delivery in rural America. I get to bring together clinicians and educators and technologists to discover cool new health care modalities, from AI assisted workflows to virtual care to building the first virtual hospital, one of the first virtual hospitals in the country.

[B]

Awesome. Davis. As consumers grow accustomed to real time experiences in industries like banking and retail, how can healthcare rise to meet those expectations? And where do you see opportunities?

[C]

Yeah, it's a super important question. As I've seen in my life, people want things to be easy. When I'm ordering something online, if it takes me more than three or four clicks, I get frustrated. I'm not going to do it. If I'm trying to make a reservation for a hotel, I need to be able to do it online. I don't want to call somebody. Healthcare needs to be the same way. We need to be able to make an appointment with a mental healthcare provider from your phone. We need to be able to serve those communities from your phone or from your computer. A good example of this is one of our pediatric doctors. In rural America, we struggle to recruit and retain some specialties. Dr. James Wallace is a pediatric pulmonologist, which is like a unicorn find. It is very hard to find a pediatric pulmonologist to be in the Dakotas. His patients come from all over the place so they have to take time off of work. They have their parents need to find childcare for the other kids. They've got to board their dog, they've got to pay gas money, they've got to do all these things to have one clinic appointment. So we decided that that is not acceptable. And he does Virtual care now, virtual care to multiple different states. He is able to use a digital stethoscope to listen to their heart and lungs. He's able to run a very complicated cystic fibrosis clinic all through the virtual hospital with pharmacists, with social workers, with doctors, all of these things from the comfort of the patient's own home.

[B]

Got it. It's interesting because healthcare has historically moved quite cautiously with technology, but is that still true and is that changing with the advent of AI technologies and new innovations?

[C]

Yeah. So we are moving quicker than we have in the past. Kind of out of necessity is right now we are evaluating every single AI product that comes in the same way you do evaluate, like a new medication. There has to be trust by not only the patients, but also providers that these work the same way that if a new medication comes out, we have to vet this. We have AI governance, we have data governance to make sure these are safe and effective. There is a huge, huge trust component. And before we're enacting any sort of AI product, I will make phone calls. I will. If it is a cardiology program, I will talk with the cardiologist. If it is an AI agentic agent that is making phone calls to do population health. So example for congestive heart failure, diabetes, to make the phone calls to make sure the patients aren't ill. I'm going to talk with the primary care providers if they think this is a good idea. We have struggled in the past with operationalizing some of our AI products and that has been our fault. We have to be have learned to have everyone at the table. For example, chronic kidney disease, big problem in the United States. Big problem in rural America. Dialysis is a huge issue because patients can't get to their dialysis appointments because sometimes they've got to drive several hundreds of miles. And in the wintertime in the Dakotas, it's impossible. So now we're focusing upstream. How do we prevent chronic kidney disease? We have a predictive model, but for years we couldn't operationalize it. Now we've got it directly front and center in our EMR to get the appropriate labs done and to treat earlier stages so they don't move on to dialysis. The hardest part was figuring out what our doctors wanted and getting the right people in the room.

[B]

Got it? Yeah. Okay. That's an amazing experience. With that in mind, what are some key considerations that you would recommend to execs trying to establish initiatives with new technology or AI?

[C]

Yes.

[B]

Did you learn?

[C]

Yeah. Have a champion and the champion should be somebody that is trusted in the clinical space, that if you don't have somebody that can vouch for the product, they're not going to follow along with it. Having peer reviewed evidence really, really helps now too. There are several large journals that are focusing on AI. And in the same way, like I use the medication example or procedure, we want to make sure it's safe and effective and lead with the evidence, lead with the trusted voice. The next thing I would say that you've got to have the appropriate infrastructure to operate. Realize this. When you're looking at your data governance or your AI governance, I would suggest separating into clinical and operational. There are different guardrails for both those. And while they're equally important, especially in the clinical side, you want to know that it's going to be safe and effective. And third, collaboration has to be your catalyst for progress. You can't do this alone. That there's no way that one person can just be your AI strategist is. It's got to be incorporated into almost every single area of healthcare.

[B]

Got it. Fantastic. Dave, thank you so much. Are there any other thoughts that you'd like to leave us with?

[C]

No, I don't think so. I think that if you're listening to this podcast, you know how important AI is going to be and how important technology is going to be, and if you're not innovating, you're going to be left behind.

[B]

Yeah, okay. Super. Thank you.

[C]

Thank you.

[B]

Appreciate it, Dave. Thank you.