When to Trust the Machine: AI Decision-Making in Healthcare with Professor Vasant Dhar

When to Trust the Machine: AI Decision-Making in Healthcare with Professor Vasant Dhar

Author: HealthIMPACT Live February 3, 2026 Duration: 58:19

As AI systems increasingly influence clinical decisions—from risk stratification to treatment recommendations—healthcare leaders face a critical question: When can we safely rely on AI, and when must human judgment remain in the loop?

Professor Vasant Dhar, NYU Stern professor, veteran AI researcher, and author of the newly released Thinking With Machines: The Brave New World of AI, joins Digital Health Talks to deliver what healthcare executives urgently need: a practical framework for evaluating AI reliability, recognizing model blind spots, and designing guardrails that actually work.

With decades of experience bringing machine learning to high-stakes environments and over one million downloads of his Brave New World podcast, Professor Dhar offers rare clarity on the mounting tension between rapidly advancing AI capabilities and our ability to evaluate their trustworthiness. Healthcare CIOs, CMIOs, and technology leaders will walk away with actionable insights for governing AI deployment—not just soundbites.

Vasant Dhar, Author, Thinking With Machines: The Brave New World of AI

Megan Antonelli, Chief Executive Officer, HealthIMPACT


Each week, Digital Health Talks-Changemakers Focused on Fixing Healthcare brings you straight to the intersection of medicine and innovation. This isn't about abstract theories; it's a grounded conversation with the clinicians, administrators, and technology leaders who are actively redesigning systems. You'll hear their firsthand accounts of implementing tools like telehealth platforms and AI-driven analytics to tackle real-world problems-from expanding access in underserved communities to personalizing patient care. The discussions cut through the hype, focusing on practical applications of cloud infrastructure, 5G, and machine learning that are making a measurable difference today. Produced by HealthIMPACT Live, the podcast digs into the nuanced questions these changemakers face: deciding where limited resources are best invested, how to ethically leverage patient data, and what it truly takes to improve clinical outcomes. If you're curious about the tangible work being done to reshape our healthcare experience, this is a place to listen in on the honest, complex, and hopeful work of building a better system.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 198

Digital Health Talks - Changemakers Focused on Fixing Healthcare
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