Closing the operational gap: how Mount Sinai builds digital health that scales with Dr. Nicholas Gavin & Dr. Robbie Freeman

In this episode of QuickHITs, Tyler Smith sits down with Dr. Nicholas Gavin, Chief Clinical Innovation Officer at Mount Sinai, and Dr. Robbie Freeman, Mount Sinai's Chief Digital Transformation Officer. Nicholas and Robbie unpack what it actually takes to move a digital health tool from a small pilot to system-wide scale, including the operational gap, the Hawthorne effect, and why Mount Sinai builds for scale from day one rather than treating pilots as an endpoint. They share how a culture of bottom-up idea submission, paired with rigorous co-design with patients and clinicians, has led to products like an AI tool that predicts pressure injury risk and a digital triage platform shaped directly by patient focus groups. The conversation also covers interoperability, standardizing on a single EMR across seven hospital campuses and 400-plus ambulatory locations, and where Nicholas and Robbie see the next wave of healthcare technology heading, including agentic AI and computer vision. They close with a candid take on healthcare's long struggle with administrative burden, and why current tools may finally offer a real path forward for clinicians and patients alike.