Becker’s Healthcare Podcast Roberta Schwartz, PhD, Executive Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer at Houston Methodist
Nov 25, 2025
Roberta Schwartz, PhD, is the Executive VP and Chief Innovation Officer at Houston Methodist, with extensive experience in healthcare innovation. In the conversation, she tackles the hurdles of adopting new technologies in a world of information overload. She explores the decline of telehealth post-COVID and discusses AI's role in healthcare, particularly in triaging patients. Roberta highlights the need for transparency in tech adoption and the impact of reimbursement changes on innovation, emphasizing efforts to bridge care access gaps in underserved areas.
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Healthcare Technology Is Entering A Bullet Train
- AI and voice tech are maturing at breakneck speed and are moving healthcare from slow incremental change to rapid transformation.
- Roberta Schwartz says this surge lets clinicians document and coordinate care through voice, cameras, and predictive analytics rather than manual entry.
Resistance Often Melts After Early Pushback
- Initial pushback to virtual nursing and OR cameras lasted weeks to months but adoption followed once cognitive load fell.
- Roberta Schwartz notes clinicians often become strong advocates once workflows are sped up and simplified.
Telehealth Adoption Fell Post-COVID
- Telemedicine adoption surged during COVID but has since fallen from ~80% of visits to ~20%.
- Roberta Schwartz attributes much of the rollback to clinician preferences and policy/payment changes rather than technology limits.