Artificial intelligence is changing medicine, but better technology does not automatically lead to better care. Dr. Ashish K. Jha offers a clear-eyed assessment of where AI is already improving diagnosis, drug development, and clinical decision-making, as well as where its limitations create new risks. Drawing on his experience across medicine, technology, and health policy, Dr. Jha examines the importance of data quality, algorithmic bias, and patient trust as health systems adopt increasingly powerful tools. He also explores how leaders can evaluate AI responsibly, protect the role of human judgment, and ensure innovation improves outcomes rather than deepening existing disparities. This timely keynote provides a practical roadmap for using AI safely and effectively while keeping patients at the center of healthcare. Read More >

Audiences will learn:

• Where AI is creating meaningful value across healthcare

• Why data quality, bias, and trust must guide implementation

• How health leaders can adopt AI without losing sight of patient care Read Less ^

In a crisis, leaders rarely have the luxury of complete information. They must make consequential decisions while the facts are changing, expert advice conflicts, operational systems are under strain, and public scrutiny is intense. Drawing on his experience as White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator, and on his current work as Co-Founder and CEO of BioRadar, Dr. Ashish K. Jha examines what effective leadership looks like when certainty is impossible and delay carries real costs. He explores how leaders can distinguish uncertainty from indecision, integrate competing forms of expertise, build disciplined systems for rapid decision-making, and keep their teams aligned as the evidence shifts. Crisis leadership, he argues, depends less on personal instinct than on building teams and institutions capable of learning and adapting in real time. Practical, candid, and deliberately nonpartisan, this keynote offers a framework for leading through disruption and making better decisions under pressure. Read More >

Audiences will learn:

• How to structure teams and information flows for speed and accountability

• How to keep an organization aligned when the evidence changes mid-course

• How to turn crisis experience into lasting organizational capability Read Less ^

Advances in artificial intelligence and synthetic biology are making it easier to create biological threats that existing surveillance systems will not recognize until it is too late. Dr. Ashish K. Jha, former White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator and Co-Founder and CEO of BioRadar, explains why the next major outbreak could look very different from the pandemics of the past. Drawing on his experience across medicine, government, technology, and crisis response, Dr. Jha argues that the United States has built a fire department for biological threats when what it needs is a national weather service — infrastructure that forecasts and warns rather than simply responds. He explains how smarter surveillance and stronger intelligence infrastructure can identify emerging threats earlier. He also explores the coordination, investment, and political commitment required to respond before an outbreak becomes a global emergency. Urgent but solutions-focused, this keynote shows that strengthening biological preparedness is both possible and essential. Read More >

Audiences will learn:

• How AI and synthetic biology are rapidly changing the nature of biological threats

• Why current surveillance systems will likely fail to detect engineered pathogens

• What governments and health systems can do to improve early warning and preparedness Read Less ^

America’s rising healthcare costs threaten far more than household budgets. They are placing enormous pressure on federal and state finances while crowding out investments in other national priorities. Dr. Ashish K. Jha cuts through competing claims to explain what is actually driving healthcare spending and why many proposed solutions fail to address the underlying problems. Drawing on his research on health system performance and on “Cost Cures: Fixing American Healthcare,” his multi-part Boston Globe series on healthcare affordability, Dr. Jha examines where costs can be reduced without sacrificing access, quality, or innovation. The result is a realistic, nonpartisan path toward a more affordable and sustainable health system, and a clear-eyed account of the choices and tradeoffs that meaningful reform will require. Read More >

Audiences will learn:

• What is driving the continued rise in healthcare spending

• Why common approaches to controlling costs often fall short

• Which reforms could make healthcare more affordable and sustainable Read Less ^

Public health depends not only on scientific knowledge, but on whether people trust the institutions and experts delivering it. Dr. Ashish K. Jha examines how confidence in science and medicine eroded long before COVID-19 and why the pandemic deepened that divide. Speaking as someone who delivered national public health guidance under intense scrutiny, Dr. Jha explores how inconsistent messaging, institutional failures, and an unwillingness to acknowledge uncertainty have weakened public confidence. He offers a practical agenda for rebuilding trust through greater transparency, meaningful accountability, and more honest communication about what science knows and where questions remain. The talk makes the case that restoring trust is not merely a communications challenge; it is a precondition for protecting the public and preparing society for the next crisis. Read More >

Audiences will learn:

• What has contributed to declining trust in science and medicine

• How institutions can communicate uncertainty with greater honesty

• What leaders can do to rebuild confidence before the next crisis Read Less ^