Kiran Mysore, Chief Data & Analytics Officer at Sutter Health

Summary

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Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

Guest: Kiran Mysore, Chief Data & Analytics Officer at Sutter Health
Date: August 23, 2025
Host: Laura Deardle

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Episode Overview

This episode features an insightful conversation with Kiran Mysore, Chief Data & Analytics Officer at Sutter Health, focusing on how Sutter is leveraging data, artificial intelligence (AI), and digital innovation to improve patient care, enhance clinician experience, and drive organizational growth. Kiran shares real-world examples from Sutter, discusses future growth strategies, and offers advice for other healthcare organizations navigating tight operating margins while seeking transformation.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Kiran Mysore’s Background and Sutter Health Overview

• [01:12] Kiran introduces his role, emphasizing 25+ years’ experience in data and AI, spanning multiple industries, and how that breadth shapes Sutter’s innovation strategy.
• Sutter Health serves over 3.5 million patients across California and aims “to be the most comprehensive, integrated and coordinated health system in California.”
• Quote:

  “At Sutter, we're using data and AI to tackle some of healthcare's toughest challenges, whether it's improving patient access, clinician productivity, and so on.”
  — Kiran Mysore, [01:59]

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2. Data and AI Initiatives at Sutter Health

• Diagnosis & Early Detection:
  • Sutter uses AI as a “second set of eyes” for diagnoses, like CT lung scans, leading to 60% of Sutter patients with lung cancer receiving early-stage diagnoses — more than double the national average of 27%.
• Acute Condition Detection:
  • AI platforms aid in fast detection of critical events (e.g., stroke, cardiac arrest, C. Diff infections), allowing timely clinical response.
• Patient Access Enhancement:
  • AI-driven retinal cameras in primary care offices enable near-instant diabetic eye screenings, critical for preventing blindness.
  • “AI can actually detect even the earliest warning signs in less than a minute just through a picture.” — Kiran Mysore, [04:36]
• Reducing Physician Burden:
  • AI draft responses to patient emails and auto-generates EHR clinical notes, subject to physician approval.
  • Over a million notes have been auto-drafted since program launch, reducing physician cognitive burden and mental fatigue by up to 30%.
• Quote:

  “We've seen almost a million notes written in the system since our program launched. This is actually helping our physicians reduce their cognitive burden and their mental fatigue of even up to 30%. This is a win for our physicians and our patients.”
  — Kiran Mysore, [05:32]

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3. Growth and Value Strategies

• Focus on Mission:
  “The best way to think about growth and value is through the lens of our mission, which is patients first and people always.” — Kiran Mysore, [06:15]
• Expanding Access:
  • Efforts to improve digital scheduling allowed Sutter to serve 100,000+ new patients last year and increase online appointment scheduling by 27%.
• Workforce Wellbeing:
  • Over 1,000 clinicians hired last year, with special emphasis on reducing burnout.
  • Digital efficiencies saved roughly a million staff hours last year.
• Quote:

  “A good example is the fact that last year we saved a million hours of our workforce time through efficiencies in our digital tools. And this is amazing.”
  — Kiran Mysore, [07:41]

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4. Investment Priorities Amid Tight Margins

• Ambulatory Growth:

  • Sutter is investing $1 billion in ambulatory expansion, building 76 new care sites and 160+ hospital beds.
  • Over 500 physicians hired just this year.

• Training and Workforce Development:

  • Sutter aims to become Northern California's largest community-based healthcare training institution, expanding residencies and academic partnerships.

• Sutter Sync:

  • Launch of an integrated digital care delivery model for chronic disease management, allowing patients to monitor conditions like hypertension and diabetes at home, supported by care teams.

• Quote:

  “We're rolling out a new fully integrated digital care delivery model and we call that Sutter Sync … Our investments in ambulatory expansion, coupled with our digital tools like Sutter Sync, are really helping care for more patients in more places.”
  — Kiran Mysore, [09:18]

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5. Vision for the Future and Personal Growth

• Defining Growth:

  • Growth is not just increasing volume, but expanding access and transforming care delivery with technology and AI.
  • Sutter seeks “transformational opportunities” by rethinking workflows, personalized treatments, and leveraging data at scale.

• Healthcare’s Opportunity:

  • Kiran believes that Sutter’s journey exemplifies how technology and data can elevate care quality industry-wide.

• Quote:

  “These are not just incremental opportunities, these are transformational opportunities. And in some ways we're changing the way things are done. Entirely.”
  — Kiran Mysore, [11:20]

  “Personally I'm excited about the opportunities for growth in the future. I truly think not just Sutter but just healthcare as a whole has a unique opportunity to serve our patients with better technology, with AI, with data to elevate the scale to improve the quality of care and I think our growth journey is a great example of this.”
  — Kiran Mysore, [12:22]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• AI in Early Diagnosis:
  “When you're reviewing a CT lung scan ... 60% of these Sutter patients actually received an early stage diagnosis. Now that is significantly better than the national average which is just at 27%. We're really proud of that.” — Kiran Mysore, [03:10]

• On Physician Support:
  “This is a win for our physicians and our patients.” — Kiran Mysore, [05:37]

• The Mission:
  “Patients first and people always.” — Kiran Mysore, [06:16]

• Future Outlook:
  “Growth is taking on new forms beyond just the traditional ways. This is where I think digital health AI innovations play such a big, big role.” — Kiran Mysore, [11:11]

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Important Timestamps

• [01:12] – Kiran’s introduction and Sutter Health overview
• [02:43] – Examples of AI and data innovation at Sutter (diagnosis, acute event detection, access, workforce support)
• [06:15] – Sutter’s approach to growth and adding value
• [08:41] – Investment strategy amid tight margins, ambulatory program, physician hiring, Sutter Sync
• [11:01] – Kiran’s personal perspective on growth and transformation
• [12:22] – Broader vision for healthcare’s tech-enabled future

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Tone and Takeaways

The conversation is pragmatic yet optimistic, showcasing bold, results-driven innovation and a patient- and clinician-centered ethos. Kiran Mysore’s leadership is grounded in leveraging technology to create real impact, not just incremental change, with a strong focus on reducing clinician strain, improving access, and scaling effective care delivery models. The episode offers actionable inspiration for healthcare leaders seeking to balance investment, innovation, and mission.

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Transcript

[A]

Exciting things are happening at Beckers Healthcare Stay ahead of industry trends with the new Beckers CFO plus Revenue Cycle Podcast your go to source for insights from top healthcare finance leaders Tune in wherever you get your podcasts and don't miss the 10th annual Health IT Digital Health RCM Conference happening September 30 to October 3, 2025 in Chicago. Join thousands of executives, engage with industry leaders and explore the future of healthcare innov. Learn more about our upcoming [e-mail] See you there.

[B]

This is Laura Deardle with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by Kiran Mysore, Chief Data Analytics Officer at Sutter Health. Kiran, it's a pleasure to have you on the podcast today.

[C]

Thanks for having me, Laura.

[B]

Absolutely. Now I'm really excited for this discussion because I know Sutter is doing a lot of innovative things. It's a really unique time in healthcare right now where innovation is moving so quickly and technology is transforming the way healthcare is delivered. So I'm looking forward to talking more about what you're doing at Sutter and then how you're thinking about the future. But before we dive in, I'm wondering, can you introduce yourself and tell us just a little bit about your background?

[C]

Sure, Laura. I'm Kiran Mysore. I serve as the Chief Data and Analytics Officer at Sutter Health. I lead our enterprise efforts in data strategy, artificial intelligence, analytics and our collective team's focus is really to deliver better care for our patients, reducing clinician burden and improving our overall organizational performance. Now I've spent more than 25 years working in data and AI across multiple industries and that also includes health care. And that cross sector experience gives me a broad lens. But what I'm really excited about is how we can bring some of these ideas to the provider, the healthcare space where we can really turn insights into real impact. At Sutter, we're using data and AI to tackle some of healthcare's toughest challenges, whether it's improving patient access, clinician productivity, and so on. I also wanted to give a quick background on Sutter Health. We are one of the leading not for profit integrated health systems. We serve more than three and a half million patients in California. Our vision is to be the most comprehensive, integrated and coordinated health system in California.

[B]

That's amazing to hear and what great work that you do in serving such an important patient population. Now, what are some of the big opportunities as well as headwinds that you have your eye on?

[C]

Sure, we are working on some exciting initiatives using Data and AI. I'm going to focus a couple of, maybe give you a couple of examples. One example is we are working to improve speed and accuracy of diagnosis and flagging patients at risk for serious health events. We use AI for example, to act as a second set of eyes for physicians. For example, when you're reviewing a CT lung scan where we're trying to understand early stage lung cancer diagnosis and provide the diagnosis with AI's help, 60% of these Sutter patients actually received an early stage diagnosis. Now that is significantly better than the national average which is just at 27%. We're really proud of that. When you think about stroke care, AI based platforms provide an additional review. They help our specialists identify large blood vessel clots within minutes. This allows for faster treatment decisions as well. Now AI risk models also proactively flag patients in the hospital who are at high risk for in hospital cardiac arrest, which is one of the things that could happen. It's an leading cause of in hospital death and C. Diff infections as well. By predicting earlier, we're able to take care of our patients much earlier. Those are some examples. Now one of the other things we're also working on is to improve access to care by making it more readily available. One example there is more than half of those with diabetes. They don't get a recommended eye exam each year and that places them at a higher risk for blindness. Now AI can actually detect even the earliest warning signs in less than a minute just through a picture and by placing these retinal cameras. With FDA cleared AI in primary care offices, screening for more setup health patients is really possible. I'm going to maybe end with one other example which is all about our physicians. Our physician satisfaction is really important. Productivity is really important. We use AI to assist them generating responses to patient emails or to listen during a patient visit to take notes and generate a summary that directly flows into the electronic health record for the patient. Of course, the physicians do review and approve all of this content before it reaches the patients. We've seen almost a million notes written in the system since our program launched. This is actually helping our physicians be overall reduce their cognitive burden and their mental fatigue of even up to 30%. This is a win for our physicians and our patients.

[B]

That's amazing to hear and it makes a really big difference when you think about the clinical workforce and how much the last few years has really put a strain on it to incorporate technology that can do a variety of those administrative tasks and really add value to their workday. I think is critical. And I appreciate you talking through a lot of the work that you've done there and how you're gauging those results is fascinating. Now, I'm curious, when you look into the future, what are some of the ways that you are thinking about growth and developing and continuing to add value to Sutter overall?

[C]

Sure. The best way to think about growth and value is through the lens of our mission, which is patients first and people always. Now, there are several areas of focus to help with this. The first thing is we think about how we improve access to care. The problem we face is that too many people experience too many hurdles in getting the care they need. And Sutter is leading the way in removing as many barriers to access as possible. This is where our digital tools, our innovations play a crucial role in this work. I'll give you one example. Our work actually helps us serve more than 100,000 new patients across our system last year. That's 100,000 new patients last year. We're doing that by improving our online scheduling capabilities. For example, last year we saw an increase of 27% in online appointment scheduling. This is really great. The second thing we think about is workforce well being. Now we are growing our workforce, especially our physicians. We hired more than 1,000 physicians and clinicians last year while keeping turnover really low. Now, burnout is a key factor in all of the work that they do. Our digital tools, like I mentioned, are really helping our workforce and essentially making their life easier. A good example is the fact that last year we saved a million hours of our workforce time through efficiencies in our digital tools. And this is amazing. So these are just two examples of how our work in action really drives our collective organization and really advance that mission of patients first and people always, I love that.

[B]

Really tying it back into what healthcare is all about. Now, I know there's so many hospitals and systems across the country that have that vision, that are trying to serve patients well and figuring out what technology is going to do that the best. And that is, you know, easier said than done. And so when you think about many of these institutions having tight margins or looking ahead and seeing continued belt tightening, what investments should they still make this year? Especially thinking about technology, you know, that can make sure they're set up for success.

[C]

It's a great question, Laura. I think again, taking a lens of how Sutter is really thinking about this will maybe stick with the same theme of growth and expansion. Right? We are actually making some big investments in our ambulatory growth. We have A very ambitious program in ambulatory expansions. This is a billion dollar program. This includes 76 new care sites, more than 160 hospital beds. I already talked about our physician hiring, which is also a growth area for us. We actually hired like 500 physicians this year alone. We're also on our way to becoming Northern California's largest community based health care training institution. This is great. We're growing our medical residency programs, our academic partnerships and workforce development investments to really help our future generations of caregivers be even more efficient. One other thing I'm really excited about to complement the ambulatory expansion is that we're rolling out a new fully integrated digital care delivery model and we call that Sutter sync. This program actually allows our patients to track and manage chronic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes at home. They can do this on their schedule, in their house, and in concert with a dedicated care team that can really provide timely support and treatment adjustments. So our investments in ambulatory expansion, coupled with our digital tools like Sutro sync, are really helping care for more patients in more places.

[B]

That's fascinating to hear. And really, truly embracing that tech enablement, it makes a big difference. Those are huge problems. Trying to expand capacity and increase the number of patients you're seeing while also dealing with, as we have talked a little bit about here, just some of the challenges with staffing and all those kinds of things. So that's, that's amazing to hear. I'm curious before we wrap up here and looking ahead and looking at, you know, growth for yourself in particular, what does that look like over the next two to three years? I know right now things are changing very quickly and it likely will continue that way. So how do you see yourself and your teams evolving?

[C]

I'm excited for the future. I reflect on this all the time. You know, one of the things we think about, and I tell my team to think about growth, is to really define what growth really means. Right. It's not just growth for the growth's sake, but it's about creating greater access to care, meeting the demand where we need to. And like I said, I've given some examples of already how we do this. I think growth is taking on new forms beyond just the traditional ways. This is where I think digital health AI innovations play such a big, big role. I just think some of the work that my team is doing and enabling, especially around AI, these are not just incremental opportunities, these are transformational opportunities. And in some ways we're changing the way things are done. Entirely whether it's workflows, whether it's treatment plan care mechanisms and such and our clinical areas, our operational areas have tremendous opportunities for growth and so as we transform all of this easy work we are actually going to go deeper maybe towards personalized treatments that will actually truly change our patients well being. Personally I'm excited about the opportunities for growth in the future. I truly think not just sutter but just healthcare as a whole has a unique opportunity to serve our patients with better technology, with AI with data to elevate the scale to improve the quality of care and I think our growth journey is a great example of this.

[B]

That's fascinating to hear. Well Karen thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today. This has been a really fun conversation and I look forward to connecting with you again soon.

[C]

Thanks Laura thanks for having me. It was great to talk to you and I hope that our conversation sparks some new ideas for the listeners to accelerate their own journeys. Thank you.