The Pediatric Innovation Playbook: How Dayton Children’s Evaluates AI, ROI and Scale
J.D.Whitlock’s path to becoming a health system CIO began in the U.S. Air Force, where he served in a variety of healthcare management roles, including a deployment to Afghanistan as Commander of the Patient Administration Division at Bagram Airfield in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in 2007. After retiring from the military, he spent three years at a federal healthcare systems integrator before becoming VP, Enterprise Intelligence at Bon Secours Mercy Health. For the past eight years, he has served as chief information officer at Dayton Children’s Hospital.
J.D.’s role at Dayton Children’s gives him a view into two corners of healthcare that are often underrepresented in digital health conversations: children’s health and smaller health systems. Dayton Children’s is an independent pediatric system with about $900 million in revenue and 4,900 employees. It runs the same core platforms and must meet many of the same expectations as far larger organizations, but without the same resources. As J.D. puts it, there is no office of transformation; it’s everybody’s job.
In this episode of Healthcare is Hard, J.D. joined Keith Figlioli to discuss the unique technology needs of children’s hospitals, and how smaller systems can participate in healthcare’s AI transformation. Some of the topics they discussed include:
- Why pediatric technology requires a different lens. Children’s hospitals have unique demands because their patients are not just smaller adults. Digital tools must account for parents and guardians, adolescent privacy, state-specific confidentiality laws, and a patient population whose families increasingly expect digital-first communication. Yet pediatric use cases often remain an afterthought for vendors and investors. He argues that vendors and health tech leaders need to think about pediatrics earlier, because the children’s hospitals that serve 25% of the population can’t just bolt on adult solutions.
- Innovating without “science experiment” money. Dayton Children’s cannot simply pilot technology because it’s interesting. J.D. describes a more disciplined approach in which pilots are treated as phase-one implementations, with the expectation that the organization has already studiedthe evidence and believes a solution can work. That also means learning from larger pediatric academic medical centers, participating in collaborative networks, and focusing internal resources on ideas that have demonstrated value elsewhere.
- A platform-first approach to AI. Despite the flood of new AI companies entering healthcare, J.D. believes much of the near-term value will come from the core systems health organizations already use. Point solutions can still earn a place, but they need mature integrations and evidence of ROI. As agents increase AI consumption and introduce more variable costs, health systems will also need to scrutinize whether each new capability is being used enough to justify its expense.
- Matching ROI to the use case. Not every technology investment has the same kind of return. Some need to showhard savings, while others are about improving the clinician experience, supporting retention, or making care delivery work better. J.D. discusses how the key is being clear about which kind of value you expect.
To hear J.D. and Keith discuss these topics and more, listen to this episode of Healthcare is Hard: A Podcast for Insiders.