When Vivian Lee talks about how artificial intelligence (AI) may shape the future of health care, she speaks from experience. Lee has spent decades at the frontline of health care transformation, witnessing firsthand both the promise and the pitfalls of technological innovation in clinical settings.
As health systems grapple with both the rapid expansion of AI and growing questions about trust, bias, and accountability, Lee has emerged as a leading voice working at the intersection of medicine, operations, and technology. On Thursday, Feb. 5, Lee brings the conversation to Roanoke with the next Maury Strauss Distinguished Public Lecture at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC.
“Vivian Lee brings a rare combination of clinical expertise, operational leadership, and intellectual power,” said Michael Friedlander, executive director of the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute and Virginia Tech vice president for health sciences and technology. “At a moment when health care leaders are asking not just whether artificial intelligence works, but how to use it responsibly, Dr. Lee offers a well-grounded, forward-looking perspective. She has repeatedly proven her leadership and implementation acumen on the national health sciences and health care stage and is one of the most well-positioned thought leaders to help prepare the nation for the rapidly evolving landscape of health care.”
Her talk, “AI and Agentic AI: Opportunities for How We Work, Care, Discover, and Share,” will examine what these technologies can realistically deliver and what health care needs to do right to responsibly leverage them.
Following a career improving imaging technology as a magnetic resonance radiologist, Lee moved into executive health roles, with an ear to how digital health solutions could improve patient experiences and outcomes.
“The technology sector really brings, in my view, a broad range of deep expertise that is highly complementary to the rest of the health care landscape,” Lee said in an interview with the Center for Connected Medicine.
At the University of Utah, where she was dean of the medical school and chief executive officer of the health system, Lee’s tenure gained national attention for its value-driven outcomes approach. In a 2016 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Lee and her co-authors reported that the use of an analytic tool was associated with a significant decrease in costs and improvement in quality.
Under Lee, University of Utah Health became the first health system in the United States to post patient reviews on its website, a practice that is now widespread in hospitals and private practices across the country.
Later, at Google affiliate Verily, she applied similarly innovative thinking to launch companies focused on virtual care, precision risk insurance, health care analytics, and pandemic management. The work earned her recognition as one of Modern Healthcare’s 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare for four consecutive years.
Lee is an executive fellow of the Harvard Business School and a senior lecturer at the Harvard Medical School. She served on the National Institutes of Health’s Council of Councils under former director Francis S. Collins and was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2015.
Through the support of late Roanoke business leader and philanthropist Maury Strauss, the lecture is free and open to the public. The program begins with a reception at 5 p.m. followed by the lecture at 5:30 p.m. at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at 2 Riverside Circle in Roanoke. The lecture will also be livestreamed.
By Lena Ayuk
