The AI Shift: HIMSS26 with Dr. Thomas Kelly and Denis Whelan

This episode of Healthcare NOW Radio's 'The AI Shift' explores the transformative role of artificial intelligence in healthcare, featuring two leading innovators: Dr. Thomas Kelly, CEO and co-founder of Heidi Health, and Dennis Whelan, CEO of DocuMail. Dr. Kelly discusses Heidi Health's evolution from a clinical scribe to a comprehensive 'AI care partner,' integrating three core components—real-time documentation, an evidence-based decision support system, and AI-driven patient communication—into a unified, ad-free platform. He emphasizes ethical integrity by rejecting ads and external influence, positioning Heidi as a trusted, clinician-focused tool capable of handling regulated medical workflows. The company's recent partnership with R1, the largest healthcare system integrator in the U.S., signals a strategic move toward embedded AI in clinical and revenue cycle management. Dennis Whelan addresses the persistent problem of fax-based communication in healthcare, highlighting that 70% of healthcare exchanges still rely on faxes, creating massive administrative burdens and patient safety risks. DocuMail’s solution leverages agentic AI to transform unstructured documents—like faxes and paper records—into structured, EHR-integrated data, reducing burnout and improving care coordination. The company’s HIPAA-compliant, federated AI architecture ensures patient data privacy by training models on anonymized, synthetic data unique to each health system. Together, the guests illustrate how AI is not just automating tasks but reimagining care delivery, documentation, and communication with ethical rigor and clinical precision.