Cleveland Clinic adds newly created position of Chief AI Officer

Cleveland Clinic Chief AI Officer Dr. Ben Shahshahani

Cleveland Clinic has appointed its first Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer to direct the use of AI across the health system.

Dr. Ben Shahshahani will serve as vice president, chief artificial intelligence officer starting on August 12. He will report to Chief Digital Officer Dr. Rohit Chandra.

WHY THIS MATTERS

Health systems have been signaling the importance of AI to their organizations by the recent addition of AI officers to the C-Suite.

Reportedly, Children's National Hospital in Washington D.C., Mayo Clinic Arizona, and UC Davis health in Sacramento, California have added the position to drive AI efforts.

Shahshahani is a technology executive with more than 20 years of experience in AI and machine learning, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

"In this newly created role, Dr. Shahshahani will work closely with other executives, clinical leaders and data scientists to drive Cleveland Clinic's AI vision of transforming healthcare delivery," the health system said.

Shahshahani is expected to lead the development and execution of an enterprise AI strategy focusing on patient care, caregiver experience and organizational efficiencies, while ensuring adherence to industry regulations, ethical considerations and data security best practices.

"Cleveland Clinic sees great promise for artificial intelligence in healthcare, as it has the ability to improve care for patients and streamline work for caregivers," Chandra said. "However, we need to be thoughtful about how we implement it. Ben has a track record of effectively and strategically applying new technologies to create beneficial change for organizations. We are excited to bring his expertise to Cleveland Clinic."

THE LARGER TREND

Shahshahani joins Cleveland Clinic from SiriusXM and Pandora, where he served as senior vice president of Science, Machine Learning and Product Analytics since 2021. In that role, he led teams that delivered machine learning solutions to – and analytical insights about – SiriusXM's products.

This included the development of deep learning and Generative AI techniques for spoken language processing and sequential modeling, and personalized content recommendations for users.

In previous leadership appointments, Shahshahani served at Verizon Media/Yahoo from 2014–2021 as vice president of Advertising Science, Search and Ad Targeting Engineering, and later as head of Yahoo Research. Before that, he led teams at Google focused on targeting and ad campaign optimization. 

His technology career also includes past roles at Nuance and IBM, and his expertise spans research and engineering in machine learning and AI in areas such as search, advertising, speech, natural language processing and personalization.

Shahshahani earned his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. He is credited with numerous patents, publications and speaking engagements related to speech and natural language processing, search and online advertising, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

ON THE RECORD

"I am looking forward to joining Cleveland Clinic and working collaboratively across teams to advance the understanding and use of artificial intelligence in healthcare in a way that benefits patients and caregivers," Shahshahani said.

The HIMSS AI in Healthcare Forum is scheduled to take place September 5-6 in Boston. Learn more and register.

Email the writer: SMorse@himss.org

The HIMSS AI in Healthcare Forum is scheduled to take place September 5-6 in Boston. Learn more and register.