How Eastern Health’s CIO is Leading Responsible AI Adoption

For Suma Shivalingaiah, CIO at Eastern Health and Governing Body Member of the Melbourne CIO Community, technology has always been a passion – one that has taken her from her early days coding in Pascal as a child to now leading complex digital transformation initiatives across Australia’s healthcare sector. 

After earning her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in IT, Suma’s career began 25 years ago as an application engineer in the healthcare industry. Her career progressed from hands-on coding and project management to leadership positions across multiple industries, ultimately bringing her back to healthcare five years ago in her current role at Eastern Health. Reflecting on her career, Suma shares, “I’ve always been passionate about innovation, building new things, and driving teams forward to be high performing when delivering technology solutions.”

Today, Suma is particularly focused on the responsible adoption and operationalization of AI in healthcare – a priority she sees as critical to improving efficiency, supporting clinicians, and safeguarding patient outcomes. With AI governance, practical use cases, and workforce upskilling at the forefront of her strategy, Suma is helping shape the future of work at Eastern Health.

Given that operationalizing AI is a top priority for CIOs in our annual Leadership Perspective Survey, Suma’s approach offers timely insights into implementing AI solutions, developing practical use cases, and guiding CIO peers through rapid technological change.
 

Focus on AI Governance First

Suma’s approach to AI at Eastern Health has been both deliberate and governance-driven. “In healthcare, AI governance is very important. That comes first before we work on any other aspects,” she explains. Recognizing the need for a strong foundation, Suma established an AI governance committee about 16 months ago to ensure all AI initiatives align with Department of Health guidelines and principles for safe use of AI.
 

In my role, we need to be aware of cybersecurity, manage the incidents, and make sure we are protected.

Beyond establishing governance, Suma emphasizes the importance of robust mechanisms for monitoring AI tools across the organization. This focus led her team to design and implement monitoring tools from a cybersecurity perspective. “We need to ensure that there are no data breaches happening and that people are not sharing any private information openly,” Suma adds. “That was a data governance and cybersecurity lens that we had to quickly adopt so that we can protect our systems.”

Upskilling Through Practical AI Use Cases

With a strong governance framework in place, Suma’s next priority was to identify high-value yet “simple” AI use cases that could quickly demonstrate value to the organization while also serving as hands-on training opportunities to upskill her team. “We identified some really high-value use cases across the organization as prototypes, but they’re also simple so that we can upskill our team in delivering that particular technology,” Suma explains.

Collaboration across the business – including both clinical and non-clinical stakeholders – was essential to selecting use cases that would improve efficiency and help address staff burnout, a persistent challenge in public health. Suma emphasized that their AI solutions are designed to support, not replace, staff.

Suma and her team leverage the Gartner fusion teams model, bringing together business leaders, IT, and project managers to create cross-functional teams that co-lead projects and ensure solutions are developed in close partnership with the business. Through this collaborative approach, Suma’s team delivered three notable use cases that provided quick wins and meaningful development opportunities:

1. AI-Driven Policy Management: Leveraging Copilot Studio, the team built a cost-effective solution to streamline policy management across the organization.
2. Digital Assistants for IT Helpdesk: An AI-powered helpdesk tool that answers common questions, such as password resets, and supports staff around the clock, which is essential for a 24/7 hospital environment.
3. AI Triage for General Practitioner (GP) Referrals: An AI-enabled triage capability that analyses some of the GP referrals using triaging guidelines, flags or recommends urgent cases for prioritised appointment scheduling within one specialty (with the potential to scale across additional clinical domains), supporting both staff and patients while preserving existing clinical workflows and ensuring no displacement of staff members.

Gaining Buy-In and Overcoming Challenges

For Suma, one of the greatest challenges has not been the technology itself, but user adoption – an obstacle she finds especially pronounced in healthcare compared to other industries she has worked in. “You need to get buy-in from the business before you embark on any use case,” she explains. “Some staff really embrace technology, but others just want to do their job as they always have.” She also notes that staff time constraints can make it difficult for them to participate in supporting use cases, requiring careful balancing and planning.

Fortunately, the recent buzz around AI has helped generate greater interest and buy-in, particularly among senior staff members who are eager to explore new AI-driven solutions. To further drive adoption, Suma introduced the concept of ‘Digital Champions,’ where business staff participate in technical sessions, embrace technology in their workflows, and train their teams on new tools. This program is complemented by a broader digital literacy initiative, including online training modules and AI literacy sessions where staff share their own AI learnings and successes. Together, these efforts have fostered a culture of innovation and continuous learning.
 

I can see a transformational change in people really asking questions about using AI.

Suma also highlights that limited budgets and resources remain an ongoing challenge in public health. “You have to work with what you have, and you have to train your existing team,” she says, emphasizing the importance of upskilling current staff and focusing on talent retention. To address these constraints, Suma recommends implementing a skills and training matrix to identify key strengths and skill gaps: “This helps you understand whether the people on your team can be trained to implement what you want in the future and in your roadmap.” She also underscores the value of partnering with quality vendors and strategically integrating industry partners with internal teams to facilitate effective knowledge transfer.

Additionally, Suma introduced a graduate program to bring in new talent and foster AI skills from the ground up. This initiative not only supports resourcing needs but also builds a pipeline of future-ready professionals equipped to drive innovation within Eastern Health.

Advice for Today’s CIOs

Drawing on these experiences, Suma offers the following advice for technology leaders seeking to thrive in today’s rapidly evolving AI landscape:

1. Be Patient and Listen: Take time to listen to your stakeholders, peers, and team members. Understand their pain points and perspectives before making decisions.
2. Develop a Clear Strategy: Even if it takes time, invest in building a proper strategic plan. A clear strategy will help align your team and drive the organization toward its goals.
3. Don’t Get Overwhelmed: The public health sector, and technology leadership in general, can be complex. Accept that you won’t always have all the answers right away. Focus on finding the right solutions as you go. You can still move your team forward with small steps and quick wins.
4. Prioritize Work-Life Balance: Managing stress is essential. Find healthy distractions – whether it’s running, walking, or practicing meditation. Make time for your well-being, especially when work demands are high.
5. Seek Out a Mentor: Having a mentor to guide and support you is invaluable. Don’t hesitate to reach out for advice and perspective.

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Special thanks to Suma Shivalingaiah and Eastern Health.