Nancy Beale PhD, RN, NI-BC, FAMIA, Chief Nursing Information Officer, VP of Clinical Informatics, Catholic Health

Summary

Podcast Summary: Becker’s Healthcare Podcast – Dr. Nancy Beale, Catholic Health
Date: December 19, 2025
Host: Gracelyn Keller
Guest: Dr. Nancy Beale, PhD, RN, NI-BC, FAMIA – Chief Nursing Information Officer, VP of Clinical Informatics, Catholic Health
Event: 10th Annual Health IT, Digital Health, and RCM Meeting

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Episode Overview

This episode centers on the current state and future of health IT, with a particular emphasis on artificial intelligence (AI), digital health platforms, and the evolving regulatory environment. Dr. Nancy Beale draws on four decades of experience to discuss AI’s practical use cases, balancing innovation with operational realities, and the crucial role of legislative support for telehealth.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Dr. Beale’s Healthcare Journey

[00:51–01:51]

• Dr. Beale recaps her 40+ years in healthcare: from bedside nursing and leadership at various levels, to nearly a decade at Epic, and later Vice President roles at NYU Langone and Catholic Health.
• She highlights deep hands-on experience in both clinical and informatics settings.

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2. AI in Healthcare: Current Use Cases

[01:51–03:04]

• AI as a Multi-Faceted Tool:
  “AI is multiple things...it’s an umbrella over different technologies.” – Dr. Beale [02:14]
• Immediate Impactful Use Cases:
  • Automated Responses to Patient Messages: This has improved satisfaction for both patients and providers.
  • Generative AI: Increasing facetime between providers and patients by reducing administrative burdens, improving efficiency.
• Provider and Patient Satisfaction:
  “It has been a real patient and provider satisfier to allow providers to have more facetime with patients and be more efficient in the care that they do.” – Dr. Beale [02:40]

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3. Innovation vs. Operational Challenges: Virtual Care and Governance

[03:04–04:55]

• Strategic Focus Over Shiny Solutions:
  “Oftentimes people will bring a tool to the table looking for a problem. And so, really having an identified strategy...will help you navigate what your progress and plan should be...” – Dr. Beale [03:33]
• Virtual Care Expansion at Catholic Health:
  • Past: Homegrown virtual nursing for admission documentation; virtual observation via a vendor.
  • Present/Future: New platform being implemented to broaden use cases—includes patient education, virtual rounding, discharge planning, and remote provider consultations.
• Advice for Leaders:
  • Emphasize strategy and stakeholder engagement (especially frontline staff).
  • Use a “crawl, walk, run” approach to phased adoption.

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4. Impact of Evolving Legislation on Health IT

[04:55–06:14]

• Federal & State Policy Changes:
  Noted cessation of telehealth legislative provisions as of September 30th.
• COVID-Driven Progress:
  Expanded access during the pandemic enabled care for remote and at-risk populations.
• Concerns:
  Rolling back support, particularly reimbursement, puts vulnerable and remote patients’ access at risk.
• Call to Action:
  “I think it is imperative that both a provider and the vendor communities come together to lobby for this important permanent support of this kind of care, because this is where the future needs to go to support our patients.” – Dr. Beale [05:54]

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5. Advice to Healthcare Leaders on Technology & Future Preparedness

[06:14–07:01]

• Stay Informed & Adaptive:
  “There are so many things that are changing day to day...so understand what’s out there and what’s coming so that when you do make an investment in a technology, it doesn’t become quickly antiquated.” – Dr. Beale [06:27]
• Strategic Planning:
  • Have clear goals and evaluation criteria.
  • Ensure technology investments align with actual organizational problems.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Oftentimes people will bring a tool to the table looking for a problem. And so really having an identified strategy...” – Dr. Nancy Beale [03:33]
• “Both provider and vendor communities must come together to lobby for permanent telehealth policy support...this is where the future needs to go to support our patients.” – Dr. Nancy Beale [05:54]
• “Understand what’s out there and what’s coming so...technology doesn’t become quickly antiquated.” – Dr. Nancy Beale [06:27]

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Important Timestamps

• 00:51 – Dr. Beale’s professional background
• 01:51 – AI use cases making a tangible difference in healthcare now
• 03:24 – Balancing technology adoption with strategy and operations
• 04:55 – How recent (and expiring) telehealth legislation is impacting care access
• 06:24 – Final advice to health IT leaders about preparing for ongoing and future advancements

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Tone and Language

The episode maintains a pragmatic, insightful tone, balancing optimism about technology’s potential with a realist’s perspective on regulatory constraints and the importance of clear strategy. Dr. Beale’s responses reflect clinical expertise, deep health IT experience, and a commitment to patient-centered care.

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Summary prepared for listeners seeking a concise yet comprehensive view into the episode’s substance and actionable insights.

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 Gracelyn Keller with the Becker's Healthcare podcast and we are recording live at the 10th annual Health IT Digital Health and RCM Meeting. I'm currently joined by Dr. Nancy Beal, who is the Chief Nursing information officer and VP of clinical informatics at Catholic Health. Dr. Beale, thanks for being here. Let's have you start off by sharing a little bit more about yourself and your work in healthcare.

[C]

Great. Thanks for having me. I've been in healthcare for over 40 years. I spent the first couple decades in my career for working at the bedside, in clinical practice, everything from staff nurse to director, and then I moved into healthcare IT when I went to work for epic. I worked at EPIC for close to a decade, about nine years, and worked with health systems across the country implementing healthcare it. Many, many new adventures in that work went from there. I did some consulting which landed me in New York City. Started initially as a consultant and then took on the role of Vice President of Clinical Systems and Integration at NYU Langone Health and I was there for about six years. From there I went to finish my PhD and now I'm back in New York working at Catholic Health in Long island for about the last year and a half.

[B]

Wonderful. Well again thanks for being here and let's start our conversation talking about AI as that is such a large topic right now in the health space and nearly half of medical practices reported using AI in some capacity in the past 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 when people think about AI, oftentimes people who are not as close to IT as those of us in technology think of it as one thing. As we know AI is multiple things, right? It's an umbrella over different technologies. And I think that some of the early use cases that have been very beneficial are things like automated responses to patient messages. That's been a huge gain and satisfier for both patients and providers. In addition to that, now getting closer to the generative AI phase of things. I think that has been a real patient and provider satisfier to allow providers to have more facetime with patients and be more efficient in the care that they do.

[B]

And as virtual care expands from AI enabled tools to remote monitoring to broader digital health platforms, introducing new technology can 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 constraint?

[C]

Yes. I think some of the biggest challenges, aside from financial challenges, right. To afford some of these advanced tools are really understanding what your strategy is, what's the problem you're trying to solve. Oftentimes people will bring a tool to the table looking for a problem. And so really having an identified strategy that will help you navigate what your progress and plan should be to use those tools. So an example of that is we are expanding the use of virtual care and virtual nursing at our organization. In the past we have done some homegrown virtual nursing to do admission documentation. We've also done virtual observation with a vendor and we're now bringing a new platform to bear and plan to expand that use case to include other workflows such as patient education, virtual rounding, discharge planning, and even get into the provider workspace where you have a remote provider who needs to consult with somebody who is on site with the patient. So understanding what the strategy is, what I call the crawl walk, run strategy, and make sure that you have the right engagement and buy in from the people who are engaged at the most basic level on the front line.

[B]

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

[C]

Really good question given that it is October 2nd and provisions ended September 30th that afforded a lot of the telehealth support. If you think back, a lot has evolved and changed since COVID and that has been a lot of positive engagement, positive progress to creating access to care and serving patients in a way that we haven't been able to serve them in the past. I think about this impact of rolling back some of that legislation and not supporting reimbursement is going to impact our patients access to care, in particularly those patients who are perhaps most at risk and in the most remote areas will no longer have access to care. I think it is imperative that both a provider and the vendor communities come together to lobby for this important permanent support of this kind of care, because this is where the future needs to go to support our patients.

[B]

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

[C]

Well, I think you have to keep your finger on the pulse of the changes. There are so many things that are changing day to day, week to week, month to month in the industry. So understand what's out there and what's coming so that when you do make an investment in a technology, it doesn't become quickly antiquated. I think also from a strategy perspective, again, really having an outline of what your goals are and how you're going to measure if you're successful with this tool or set of tools and whether or not they're going to solve the problems that you're trying to solve. Wonderful.

[B]

Well, thank you so much for joining me today on the Beckers Healthcare Podcast and sharing your insights on these topics. Again, we are recording live at the 10th annual Health IT Digital Health and RCM meeting.

[C]

Thank you.