Tommy Ibrahim to share enterprise AI strategy during panel discussion
with national healthcare leaders
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – Tommy Ibrahim, M.D., MBA, MHA, executive vice president and chief transformation officer at Sanford Health, will join national healthcare and research leaders at the Newsweek AI Health Summit Sept. 23 in New York City.
As health systems move beyond individual AI pilots, the summit will bring together leaders focused on the future of care and the responsible adoption of emerging technology. Ibrahim will bring Sanford’s perspective as the nation’s largest rural health system, with an integrated care and coverage model spanning rural, urban and suburban communities.
“AI is an enabler, not the goal. At Sanford, we start with the problem we are trying to solve and the value we want to create,” said Ibrahim. “We are putting practical AI tools into the hands of employees, redesigning workflows alongside frontline teams and scaling solutions that create capacity, reduce burden, expand access and improve outcomes. The most important question is not what AI can do—it is whether it makes care meaningfully better for patients and the people who care for them.”
Sanford has saved more than 100,000 hours from the development of machine-learning models and automation workflows. The health system is also using AI to identify chronic kidney disease and colorectal cancer risk earlier, strengthen patient safety through virtual nursing and give clinicians more time with patients through ambient documentation.
Ibrahim will join a panel discussion, “Hospitals Reimagined,” moderated by Alexis Kayser, healthcare editor at Newsweek. Other panelists include Dr. Brendan Carr, CEO of Mount Sinai Health System; John Couris, president and CEO of Tampa General Hospital; and Dr. Björn Zoéga, CEO of King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre, a healthcare institution in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The panel will explore how the role of the hospital is changing as more care moves into ambulatory, virtual and home settings; where AI is delivering measurable results today; how health systems are redesigning workflows and preparing their people; and what it takes to move promising tools from pilots to responsible enterprise scale.
A board-certified hospitalist, Ibrahim received his Doctor of Medicine degree from St. Christopher’s IMD College of Medicine and completed his internal medicine residency at Greater Baltimore Medical Center, an academic affiliate of Johns Hopkins and is licensed in multiple states. He holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Columbia University and, a Master of Healthcare Administration degree from Seton Hall University. He is also a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives and a Fellow in Hospital Medicine.
For more information about Sanford Health, visit SanfordHealth.org.
About Sanford Health
Sanford Health, the largest rural health system in the United States, is dedicated to transforming the health care experience and providing access to world-class health care in America’s heartland. Headquartered in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the organization has 55,000 employees and serves more than 2 million patients and nearly 415,000 health plan members across the upper Midwest including South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wyoming, Iowa, Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The integrated nonprofit health system includes a network of 58 hospitals, 289 clinic locations, 145 senior care communities, 4,500 physicians and advanced practice providers and 1,100 active clinical trials and studies. The organization’s transformational virtual care initiative brings patients closer to care with access to nearly 80 specialties. More than 400 residents and fellows are trained each year through graduate medical education with Sanford Health fully funding and supporting 29 of the 40 available programs. Sanford Health also includes 92 retail pharmacies, including Sanford and Lewis Drug pharmacies with locations in 6 states, and more than 300 pharmacists. Learn more about Sanford Health’s commitment to shaping the future of rural health care across the lifespan at sanfordhealth.org or Sanford Health News.
