John Gachago, Vice President, Digital Innovation, Parrish Healthcare

Summary

Becker’s Healthcare Podcast: John Gachago, VP Digital Innovation, Parrish Healthcare

Date: November 20, 2025
Host: Grace Lynn Keller
Guest: John W. Gachago, Vice President of Digital Innovation, Parrish Healthcare
Event: 10th Annual Health IT Digital Health and RCM Meeting

---

Episode Overview

This episode focuses on the evolving landscape of digital health innovation in the U.S., particularly how health systems are navigating AI integration, digital transformation, and healthcare policy shifts. John W. Gachago, VP of Digital Innovation at Parrish Healthcare, shares insights from his career working with digital transformation in healthcare, the importance of responsible AI adoption, governance strategies, and how policy and funding are shaping technological progress, especially for vulnerable populations.

---

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Background and Digital Transformation at Parrish Healthcare

[00:48–02:23]

• John Gachago’s Role: VP of Digital Innovation, focusing on delivering digital care strategies, especially for elderly, rural, and underserved populations.
• Mission-Driven Work: “Primary to that is the patients. That is why we do what we do.” (C, 00:53)
• Experience: Advises global healthcare organizations and governments on digital transformation, emphasizing telehealth, AI, equity, access, and sustainability.
• Publication: Author of two books—Digital Health: The How To and The Impact of AI on the Maturity of Hospitals.

---

2. Responsible AI Adoption in Healthcare

[02:23–03:55]

• Developing AI Policy: Under CEO George Mikitarian’s leadership, Parrish Healthcare has prioritized “redesign[ing] our healthcare AI policy…to use AI in a responsible fashion.” (C, 02:45)
• Core Tenets for AI Use:
  • Compliance with regulations.
  • Auditable and explainable AI.
  • Non-maleficence (“making sure it does not cause any harm”).
• Key AI Applications in the Pipeline:
  • Ambient clinical solutions.
  • Federated learning and privacy-preserving AI.
  • Digital twins for precision medicine.
  • Edge computing for remote monitoring and acute care at home.
  • Healthcare-specific large language models (LLMs).

---

3. Navigating Innovation: Governance and Patient Engagement

[03:55–05:35]

• Balancing Innovation & Reality: “Innovation is very exciting…But at the same time, I think it has to be grounded in reality…” (C, 04:18)
• Advice to Leaders:
  • Start with governance and build trust early.
  • Involve clinical leaders, IT, and community members in design—“so they have equity in it.”
• Example – Remote Patient Monitoring:
  • Success is not just device provision: “There’s training, there is engagement…helping the patient and the providers understand…what’s in it for all of them.” (C, 05:05)

---

4. Impact of State and Federal Legislation

[05:35–07:03]

• Policy as a Driver:
  • Local and state funding (e.g., Florida House Appropriations Project) is critical to rural digital infrastructure.
  • Federal changes to “interoperability and reimbursement models impact everything we do.”
• Adaptive Strategies:
  • Digital transformation strategies shift based on available funding.
  • “Funding is always a balancing act…But it’s also an opportunity to align innovation with policy.” (C, 06:35)

---

5. Final Advice for Healthcare Leaders

[07:03–08:03]

• Core Message: “Stay focused on value and people. That’s what I would say.” (C, 07:14)
• Technology as a Means, Not the End: “Technology is a tool. It’s not the goal.”
• Actionable Recommendations:
  • Invest in digital literacy across the organization.
  • Build flexible teams capable of evolving.
  • Keep patient experience central.
• “High Tech, High Touch”: “The future of health care is not just high tech. It’s definitely going to be high touch.” (C, 07:40)
  • Leaders must balance both to deliver quality care.

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Primary to that is the patients. That is why we do what we do.” — John Gachago [00:53]
• “We looked at the entire organization [and] thought first thing we have to do is redesign our healthcare AI policy, right, so that we can actually begin to use AI, but certainly use AI in a responsible fashion.” — John Gachago [02:45]
• “Start with governance and build trust, and build it early. Build that trust early because you will need it down the road.” — John Gachago [04:22]
• “It’s about really helping the patient and the providers understand on both sides what’s in it for all of them.” — John Gachago [05:10]
• “Funding is always a balancing act, any which way you look at it. But it’s also an opportunity to align innovation with policy.” — John Gachago [06:35]
• “Stay focused on value and people…We all have to keep in mind that technology is a tool. It’s not the goal.” — John Gachago [07:14–07:21]
• “The future of health care is not just high tech. It’s definitely going to be high touch.” — John Gachago [07:40]

---

Key Timestamps

• 00:48–02:23: Gachago’s background and mission at Parrish Healthcare
• 02:43–03:55: Responsible AI adoption and strategic priorities
• 04:17–05:35: Governance, trust-building, and remote patient monitoring
• 05:47–07:03: Legislative impacts and adaptive strategy
• 07:13–08:03: Final advice for leaders—balancing technology, flexibility, and patient-centeredness

---

Tone:
Professional, mission-driven, pragmatic, and people-focused. John Gachago emphasizes balancing technological innovation with practical, humane care delivery and policy realities.

---

This summary highlights the episode’s main insights and practical takeaways on digital health innovation, AI, patient engagement, and the regulatory and funding environment, providing an actionable synthesis for those exploring the future of healthcare leadership.

Transcript

[A]

Philips is a health tech leader focused on innovation that improves the health and well being of people. Our healthcare technology and informatics solutions help care teams diagnose, treat and manage more patients with greater precision, speed and confidence. Across the care journey with Philips, clinicians are empowered with streamlined insights in the moments that matter for every patient. Better care for more people. Philips.

[B]

This is Grace Lynn Keller with the Beckers Healthcare Podcast and we are recording live at the 10th annual Health IT Digital Health and RCM meeting. I'm currently joined by John W. Gachago who is the Vice President of Digital Innovation at Parrish Healthcare. John, thanks for being here. Let's start off by having you share a little bit more about yourself and your work in healthcare.

[C]

So as you mentioned, I am the VP of Digital Innovation at Parrish Healthcare and really my work focuses on really how we deliver care digitally. And I want to say first and foremost, primary to that is the patients. That is why we do what we do. So essentially in our area, we particularly have a large population of elderly patients, rural patients, underserved patients. So everything we do digitally is about serving them. I spent the last few years helping healthcare organizations basically rethink or redesign their digital transformation strategies. That includes governments in various parts of the world and just really advising them on how to begin that process of digital transformation for their healthcare systems. And by that I mean we're talking about things like from telehealth expansion to AI integration, always with a focus on building basically equity, access and sustainability at the same time. I'm also the author of two books. One is Digital Health the How to and the other is the the Impact of AI on the Maturity of hospitals. So I love to write, love to do research as well as certainly develop those digital transformation plans. Right now, like I said, I'm leading basically the effort to modernize parish healthcare through smarter infrastructure, better data use and certainly more patient centered digital tools.

[B]

Wonderful. Well, thank you for being here. Excited to talk to you today. And let's start our conversation with AI. Nearly half of medical practices reported using AI in some capacity in the last year and it remains a key topic for health IT leaders. So 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]

So first of all, I'll say one of the things we've done with the excellent leadership of our CEO George McHitarian is we looked at the entire organization thought first thing we have to do is redesign our healthcare AI policy, right, so that we can actually begin to use AI, but certainly use AI in a responsible fashion. Now what does that mean? That means making sure the AI we use certainly meets regulations, federal, you know, government regulations, making sure it's auditable, making sure it is explainable, and certainly making sure that it does not cause any harm. Right. So that's where we are starting right now. But where we are going in terms of leveraging the technology itself is we're going to be looking at so many tools. I'm talking about ambient clinical solutions. Okay. Federated learning and privacy preserving AI, digital twins for precision medicine, edge computing for remote monitoring and acute care at home, and Even healthcare specific LLMs for us, that is going to be the trajectory.

[B]

Absolutely. And going off of that as virtual care expands from AI enabled tools to remote monitoring to broader digital health platforms, Introducing these new technologies does bring 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]

So one thing we can say is innovation is very exciting. It's a great thing to be doing and certainly that's one of the reasons I'm doing it. But at the same time, I think it has to be grounded in reality, which I think leaders, particularly in this field need to be very conscious of at all times. My advice is start with governance and build trust and build it early. Build that trust early because you will need it down the road. The earlier you can build a trust, the better off you are down the road. And that obviously means involving clinical leaders, involving it, involving local leaders in the community. Right. Who you otherwise may not think of, but really just getting everybody involved, involved in the design process so they have equity in it. Right. At the same time, when I think of the example of how we are rolling out things like remote patient monitoring, it's not just giving patients devices. Here you go. Monitor your weight. Here you go. Monitor your diabetes. Here you go. Monitor your asthma. No, this training there is engagement that takes place. It's about really helping the patient and the providers understand on both sides what's in it for all of them.

[B]

100%. And shifting gears slightly, how are you seeing recent legislation, both state and federal, affect healthcare organizations and health IT specifically. And have you adjusted strategies in response?

[C]

So certainly legislation is shaping our roadmap in a big way. Local funding is very important to us from the Florida legislation as well as certainly funding that's coming from the big beautiful bill, so to speak. There's a lot of funding there that we're looking to certainly be a recipient of so that we can do the things I just talked about at the state level. Funding opportunities like the Florida House Appropriations Project are driving our decisions in certainly big ways and they will help us invest in the rural infrastructure we need to develop. Certainly federal changes around interoperability and reimbursement models impact everything we do on a day to day basis. I mean, how would we do what we want to do if we don't get paid for it? Right. So it's certainly pushing us to be more agile and we've certainly adjusted prioritizing our digital transformation strategy around that funding, which is very critical to certainly the goals we expect to attain. Now, on the other hand, I will also say it's a balancing act. Funding is always a balancing act, any which way you look at it. But it's also an opportunity to align innovation with policy.

[B]

And as we wrap up our conversation, I'd love to know what your top piece of advice for healthcare leaders is as they prepare for further advancements in technology and rising demands for care.

[C]

Yeah, well, I think probably the most important thing I can say is stay focused on value and people. That's what I would say. Stay focused on value on people. We all have to keep in mind that technology is a tools. It is actually a tool. It's not the goal. So that's very important for us to keep in mind. And so my advice is to invest in digital literacy across your health service organization, build flexible teams that can evolve and always keep the patient experience front and center. I think the future of health care is not just high tech. It's definitely going to be high touch. So we need leaders that can balance both high tech and high touch to actually deliver the quality care that we expect to deliver.

[B]

Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for joining me today, John, on the Beckers Healthcare Podcast and sharing these insights and thoughts again. We are recording live at the 10th annual Health IT Digital Health and RCM meeting. Thanks so much.

[C]

Thank you.