Tina Freese

With all of the challenges facing health care — a shrinking workforce population, reduced funding, new technologies and pharmaceuticals — it's no longer an option to change, but an imperative. In order to keep caring for our communities well into the future, we need to transform how we provide care to people. Technology, artificial intelligence and digital transformation can not only help us mitigate these trends but truly innovate and find new ways of making health better.

Although hospitals and health systems are facing many pressures and challenges, now is the time to truly transform how we care for our patients and communities. Artificial intelligence and other technological innovations are an increasingly important way that we can improve our care outcomes and make it easier to provide care.

This week brings the fourth week of the federal government shutdown as Congress has yet to pass legislation to fund the government. This shutdown is a bit different in that health care priorities are front and center as both parties look for resolution.

When I began my year as AHA Board Chair, my goal was for us to be all in. In a year that was full of many tests — OBBBA, executive orders and an ongoing, steady state of disruption — my aspiration in stewarding this organization was to strengthen our ability not just to survive, but to thrive.

Originally reported and written in July 2023, this story has been republished as part of our archival content.Trigger warning: This story contains mentions of depression and anxiety. The fondest memory that Portia Putatunda has of her departed father...