Health IT Summit 2026 Recap

The Department of Veterans Affairs is applying AI across clinical care, health operations and workforce support while establishing the data, governance and infrastructure needed to scale it. Leadership shares lessons for navigating opportunities and challenges for AI in a large enterprise and ensuring its benefit to veterans.

Featured Speaker:

• Kimberly McManus, Acting CAIO, Office of Information and Technology, Department of Veterans Affairs

AI is creating new opportunities to modernize health care delivery, streamline workflows and improve the patient and provider experience. This panel explores how government is testing emerging technology, moving successful pilots into scaled programs and building the infrastructure, governance and partnerships needed to integrate new capabilities into broader modernization efforts.

Featured Speakers:

• Joe Croghan, Associate Director of Informatics, Office of Cyber Infrastructure and Computational Biology, NIAID
• Corinna Dan, Managing Director, Federal Health, Maximus
• Chris Kinsinger, Assistant Director for Catalytic Data Resources, NIH

The health care sector is increasingly in the crosshairs of increased threats to cyberspace, medical devices and critical infrastructure, especially with ransomware. This panel explores how agencies are securing APIs and interoperability layers, adopting zero trust and protecting patient data.

Featured Speakers:

• Bob Bastani, Senior Cyber Advisor, HHS ASPR
• Nelson Carreira, Healthcare Industry Strategist, CDW
• Dr. Charles Sweat, Healthcare and Public Health Sector Liaison, CISA

Federal health leaders are continuously evaluating and advancing strategies to enhance health care delivery and drive innovation across agencies. Hear from experts about the technology programs that streamline operations and shape the future of federal health services.

Featured Speakers:

• Bonnie Barti, Simulation Technician, VA
• Tom Engels, Administrator, HRSA
• Tom Frame, Principal, Federal Advisory, KPMG
• Tommy Gardner, CTO, HP Federal
• Erika Kim, Program Manager, Resilient Systems, ARPA-H

The Flywheel Awards recognize leaders and their work in federal government.

The flywheel — a critical component in a machine to increase its momentum — is also a critical symbol representing our publication’s goal to keep federal IT decision-makers informed on technology’s impact on government. This momentum is what fuels the constant need for transformers to innovate in federal technology and communicate those strategies across the industry.

Categories include: Rising Star, Interoperability Leader, Digital Transformer, Innovation Champion and Health Advocate.

Health IT Flywheel Award Winners:

• Rising Star: Tabinda Khan, Senior Advisor, Chief Strategy Officer, CMS
• Interoperability Leader: Nick Weber, Acting Director, Office of Scientific Computing Services NIH, CIT
• Digital Transformer: Shauntia Bell, Acting Director, Enterprise Systems Solutions Group, CMS
• Innovation Champion: Capt. Heather Dimeris, Director of the Office for the Advancement of Telehealth, HRSA
• Health Advocate: Mike Tartakovsky, CIO, NIAID

Agencies are modernizing the data, infrastructure and interoperability foundations needed to support AI at scale. This includes secure APIs, cloud environments, data quality, governance and advanced computing capabilities. This panel explores how leaders are strengthening the underlying architecture that enables AI-driven modernization efforts across healthcare while improving security and accessibility in health data.

Featured Speakers:

• Chris Kinsinger, Assistant Director for Catalytic Data Resources, NIH
• Sweta Ladwa, Chief, Scientific Solutions Delivery Branch, NHLBI, NIH
• Patrick Newbold, CIO, CMS
• Christine Pacheco, Director of Federal Civilian Sales, Equinix

Federal health agencies are rethinking how innovation moves from research to real-world deployment. This panel explores how government is aligning research, partnerships and procurement models to accelerate the adoption of AI-driven tools and advanced computing.

Featured Speakers:

• Ricky Clark, NITAAC Director, NIH
• Ben Cushing, Chief Architect, Red Hat
• Quentin McCoy, Executive Director, Office of Mission Acquisition Solutions, HHS

Federal agencies are modernizing electronic health records to create a single, interoperable system that follows service members, veterans and their families across the continuum of care. This panel explores the current state of the federal EHR, key implementation challenges and how agencies are improving data sharing, clinician workflows and patient outcomes.

Featured Speakers:

• Cmdr. Scott Miller, Director, Office of Health Services, NOAA
• Katherine Hennessey, Head of US Government Strategy, Everpure
• Lance Scott, CTO, FEHRM

Breakthroughs in biomedicine and growing momentum across the public sector are expanding what’s possible in health care. This fireside chat explores the next phases of biomedicine and what it means for government priorities like accelerating discovery and preparing agencies for a more data-driven, technology-enabled future. The conversation will examine how advances in areas like genomics, diagnostics and computational biology are shaping federal health strategies, and where government and industry can better align to translate innovation into real-world impact.

Featured Speaker:

• Mike Tartakovsky, CIO and Director of the Office of Cyber Infrastructure and Computational Biology, NIAID