Laura Cooley, PhD Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Patient Experience Chairperson, Patient Experience Symposium, Boston 2025
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming the healthcare landscape. How can we ensure a great patient experience in the age of artificial intelligence?
From predictive analytics and clinical decision support to chat-bots and personalized digital journeys, AI offers incredible promise. But for healthcare professionals and executive leaders seeking to improve care, the real challenge lies in ensuring that innovation doesn’t hinder human connection. How do we design experiences that are both efficient and empathic? How can we ensure that AI becomes a bridge to better relationships, not a barrier?
At The 9th Annual Patient Experience Symposium, Boston, October 6–8, 2025, we will explore opportunities and challenges when leveraging AI in Healthcare. As Chairperson, I’m thrilled to invite you into this critical dialogue. This year’s theme—“Orchestrating Excellent Health and Care Experiences: Composing Meaningful Connections”—asks us to imagine new harmonies between humans and machines, insight and empathy, innovation and inclusion.
For example, two featured sessions dive deeply into these timely issues.
“Digital Patient Experience – Designing for All Users”
We often talk about “digital transformation,” yet we often overlook the array of human stakeholders impacted by the transformation.
This dynamic session features Jen Magaziner, Vice President of Digital Health at Boston Children’s Hospital.
Her session calls attention to how inclusive design principles can reshape the digital patient experience—not just for tech-savvy adults, but for pediatric patients, digital natives, and under-served communities. Rather than building digital tools for patients, what happens when we build them with patients and care teams?
You’ll gain insight into co-design strategies that empower diverse voices, helping to create digital platforms that feel less like portals and more like partnerships. More than that, we’ll explore how digital platforms can become true sites of care,spaces that extend empathy, foster trust, and enhance access for all.
This session challenges us to move beyond convenience toward compassion in digital design.
“Human-Centered, Tech-Enabled: Where Human Experience Meets Intelligent Technology”
How might AI move beyond automation to become a catalyst for more meaningful, compassionate healthcare?
This powerful session will feature Alpa Vyas, VP & Chief Patient Experience & Operational Performance Officer and Aditya Bhasin, Vice President Software at Stanford Health Care.
The session spotlights how leading organizations are integrating AI and automation into care pathways while staying rooted in human-centered values. With real-world examples, we’ll explore how predictive technologies are identifying needs before they arise, how automation is freeing clinicians to focus on connection, and how AI can drive personalization at scale.
But most importantly, we’ll examine how to keep empathy at the core, how to ensure that algorithms don’t replace intuition, and data doesn’t eclipse dignity.
You’ll leave with strategies to align your innovation goals with human values,embedding empathy into operations, digital touch points, and leadership decisions.
Why This Matters Now
Healthcare is at an inflection point. We are simultaneously overwhelmed by complexity and energized by possibility. Regardless of our readiness, AI tools are advancing rapidly. .When guided by intention, we have the opportunity to ensure these innovations support both technical excellence and meaningful human connection.
We must lead with purpose. That means ensuring digital innovations enhance the human experience, not fragment it. It means designing for inclusion, not assumption. It means using data and design to understand, anticipate, and connect.
The Patient Experience Symposium offers you the opportunity to explore these tensions and solutions alongside innovators, front-line clinicians, executive leaders, and experience champions. Together, we’ll uncover what’s working, where the risks lie, and how to lead boldly and ethically in this new era.
Join Us in Boston
Whether you’re a health system executive, clinical leader, digital strategist, or patient advocate, this year’s Symposium promises not just inspiration—but actionable insight. Let’s explore how to responsibly harness AI while doubling down on what matters most: the human experience.
Mark your calendar for October 6–8, 2025, and prepare to re-imagine the future of care. Learn more and register here: https://icdevents.com/conferences/9th-annual-patient-experience-symposium/
By innovating with empathy, we can build a future where AI empowers us to connect more deeply and care more fully. Ensuring a positive patient experience in the age of artificial intelligence.
Laura Cooley, PhD, is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Patient Experience and Chairperson for the 2025 Patient Experience Symposium. She works at the intersection of communication, compassion, and leadership in healthcare.