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In this episode, Charles E. Christian, VP of Technology and CTO at Franciscan Health, shares reflections from his five-decade journey in healthcare IT and how Franciscan is blending mission, compassion, and innovation to transform patient care.
Chuck explains how the health system is approaching AI adoption through strong governance and a clear focus on solving real problems, from reducing clinician burden to enhancing care delivery. He highlights several key initiatives, including voice agent pilots that help physicians reclaim after-hours time, a Tech Innovation Lab that allows teams to safely experiment and “fail fast,” and a virtual nurse mentoring program that connects senior nurses with new graduates for real-time guidance.
Chuck states that technology should serve, not distract, and the true goal of digital transformation is to enable better care for people. Take a listen.
About Our Guest
Mr. Christian is the Vice President of Technology and CTO for Franciscan Alliance, a thirteen (13) hospital system serving Indiana and Illinois.
Prior to joining Franciscan Alliance, Mr. Christian served as the Vice President of Technology and Engagement at the Indiana Health Information Exchange, the largest and oldest HIE in the country. Mr. Christian also served as the Vice President / Chief Information Officer of St. Francis Hospital, a free-standing, acute care, community hospital in west Georgia, a position he held for 2.5 years. Before his role at St. Francis, Mr. Christian served as the Vice President / Chief Information Officer for Good Samaritan Hospital, in Vincennes, Indiana. A position he held for almost 24 years. Before joining Good Samaritan Hospital, Mr. Christian worked in healthcare IT for Compucare and Baxter Travenol, in both management and implementation roles. Mr. Christian started his career in healthcare as a Registered Radiologic Technologist, serving in various Radiology roles for 14 years. Mr. Christian holds a degree in Radiology Technology from Gadsden Community College and studied natural sciences at the University of Alabama in Birmingham.
Mr. Christian has delivered presentations on wide range of healthcare technology topics and is frequently quoted and published in national trade publications. He and co-authors, Judy Kirby and Steve Bennett published “Make I.T. Known-Marketing Strategies and Cases Studies in the Healthcare Environment.” Mr. Christian is also a frequent author in Modern Healthcare. Mr. Christian is also the author of the Irreverent-CIO health care blog. Mr. Christian has also authored chapters in multiple published management and college level textbooks.
Mr. Christian is a Life Fellow of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) and is a Past Chair of the HIMSS Board of Directors, and past Chair of the HIMSS BOD Executive Committee. Mr. Christian was previously a member of the HIMSS Analytics Board of Directors. Mr. Christian is a Life Fellow and charter member of College of Health Information Management Executives (CHIME) and served on the CHIME BOD from 2003 through 2004 during which time he chaired the Membership Committee of the CHIME BOD. Mr. Christian is credentialed by CHIME as a Certified Healthcare CIO (CHCIO) and a Certified Digital Health Executive. Mr. Christian is a charter member of the re-established Indiana Chapter of HIMSS and served as a BOD member from 2000 - 2009. Mr. Christian served as a member of the Executive Advisory Board for Advance for Health Information Executives magazine. Mr. Christian served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Indiana Health Informatics Corporation by appointment of Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels. Governor Daniels also appointed Mr. Christian the Indiana Healthcare Information Technology Board of Directors.
Mr. Christian served as the CHIME Foundation Board of Directors as Chair and is the Past-Chair of the CHIME Board of Directors. Mr. Christian has served as the Chair of the CHIME Policy Steering Committee and continues to serve as a contributing member and is the Past-Chair of the SHIEC Advocacy Committee and is a past member of the Indiana HIMSS Chapter Board of Directors. Mr. Christian served on the Georgia HIMSS Board of Directors from 2013-2015, the KLAS Advisory Group from 2009-2013, and the CDW-Healthcare CIO Advisory Council from 2005-2010. Mr. Christian served the AHA Strategic Development Advisory Committee as a charter member. Mr. Christian is a past member of the Symantec Healthcare Advisory Group, and several other industry advisory groups/councils. Mr. Christian currently serves on the Virtustream Customer Advisory Board, the Hyland Executive Advisory Council, the Fortinet Advisory Board, HealthsystemCIO Board of Advisors and a member of the Indiana Hospital Association Information Management Council.
About the Hosts
Rohit Mahajan is an entrepreneur and a leader in the information technology and software industry. His focus lies in the field of artificial intelligence and digital transformation. He has also written a book on Quantum Care, A Deep Dive into AI for Health Delivery and Research that has been published and has been trending #1 in several categories on Amazon.
Rohit is skilled in business and IT strategy, M&A, Sales & Marketing and Global Delivery. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering, is a Wharton School Fellow and a graduate from the Harvard Business School.
Rohit is the CEO of Damo, Managing Partner and CEO of BigRio, the President at Citadel Discovery, Advisor at CarTwin, Managing Partner at C2R Tech, and Founder at BetterLungs. He has previously also worked with IBM and Wipro. He completed his executive education programs in AI in Business and Healthcare from MIT Sloan, MIT CSAIL and Harvard School of Public Health. He has completed the Global Healthcare Leaders Program from Harvard Medical School.
Ritu M. Uberoy has over twenty-five years of experience in the software and information technology industry in the United States and in India. She established Saviance Technologies in India and has been involved in the delivery of several successful software projects and products to clients in various industry segments.
Ritu completed AI for Health Care: Concepts and Applications from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Applied Generative AI for Digital Transformation from MIT Professional Education. She has successfully taught Gen AI concepts in a classroom setting in Houston and in workshop settings to C-Suite leaders in Boston and Cleveland. She attended HIMSS in March 2024 at Orlando and the Imagination in Action AI Summit at MIT in April 2024. She is also responsible for the GenAI Center of Excellence at BigRio and DigiMTM Digital Maturity Model and Assessment at Damo.
Ritu earned her Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Delhi Institute of Technology (now NSIT) and a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Santa Clara University in California. She has participated in the Fellow’s program at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
About the Legend
Paddy was the co-author of Healthcare Digital Transformation – How Consumerism, Technology and Pandemic are Accelerating the Future (Taylor & Francis, Aug 2020), along with Edward W. Marx. Paddy was also the author of the best-selling book The Big Unlock – Harnessing Data and Growing Digital Health Businesses in a Value-based Care Era (Archway Publishing, 2017). He was the host of the highly subscribed The Big Unlock podcast on digital transformation in healthcare featuring C-level executives from the healthcare and technology sectors. He was widely published and had a by-lined column in CIO Magazine and other respected industry publications.