Healthcare CIOs say AI adoption and platform-first strategies are forcing a deep rethink of IT team structures. Across leading health systems, roles are shifting away from infrastructure maintenance and support functions. Instead, teams now focus on data, product management, and governance. This transformation is reshaping not just job titles, but the entire operating model of healthcare IT.
Why Healthcare IT Structures Are Changing
For years, IT organizations in healthcare centered on maintaining infrastructure, managing help desk tickets, and supporting siloed systems. That model worked in a slower era. Today, however, it cannot keep pace with rapid digital transformation.
Leaders at Endeavor Health (Evanston, Ill.) and Lee Health (Fort Myers, Fla.) confirm that their organizations are moving decisively away from those legacy approaches. Furthermore, they emphasize that the shift is not cosmetic. It is structural and strategic.
“From my perspective, healthcare IT leadership is being fundamentally redefined — from managing technology to creating enterprise value and enabling care transformation at scale,” said Deb Anderson, CIO of Endeavor Health.
This framing captures the scope of what is changing. IT is no longer a back-office function. Consequently, its leaders must operate at the enterprise level.
Moving Away From Legacy IT Models
What Is Being Phased Out
At Endeavor Health, the shift starts with identifying what no longer serves the organization. Specifically, roles centered on on-premise infrastructure, ticket-based support, and non-scalable custom development are being phased out.
In their place, Anderson’s team is building capabilities in cloud computing, enterprise platforms, data management, AI, and cybersecurity. Additionally, new roles connect technology directly to care delivery. These include product leaders, clinical informaticists, and IT business partners.
Self-Service and Governed Platforms
Another key element of Endeavor’s strategy involves shifting capability into the hands of business units. Anderson describes this as enabling self-service through governed platforms. Rather than creating dependency on IT for every task, teams can configure and manage tools within a controlled framework.
This approach reduces bottlenecks. Moreover, it empowers clinical and operational teams to move faster without bypassing security or compliance standards.
Platform-Centric Models Take Center Stage
Lee Health’s Structural Shift
At Lee Health, CIO Chris Akeroyd describes a parallel transition. His team is moving away from a highly siloed environment toward a more platform-centric one. That shift, he explains, fundamentally changes how roles are defined.
“The future of IT is less about managing tools and more about simplifying the environment to create agility and drive adoption,” Akeroyd told Becker’s.
Why Platforms Change Everything
Platform strategies reduce redundancy. They also standardize workflows across departments, which makes governance and optimization far more achievable. As health systems consolidate vendors and migrate to enterprise platforms, IT staff must develop new competencies — not just maintain existing systems.
Therefore, the skills demanded from IT teams are evolving in real time. Generalist support roles are giving way to specialized platform expertise.
AI Drives New Hiring Priorities
Both CIOs point to AI as a defining force in reshaping their workforce strategies. At Lee Health, Akeroyd’s team has actively hired for machine learning and large language model development. Beyond technical roles, the organization has also invested in AI governance positions focused on ethics and oversight.
Equally important are the educators and change managers who support adoption. New technology creates new workflows. Without thoughtful change management, even the best tools fail to deliver value.
“Gen AI is a core component of our strategy,” Akeroyd said. “That’s driving demand for skills across data, analytics platforms, cloud operating environments, and cybersecurity.”
AI as a Workforce Catalyst
AI is not simply automating tasks. Rather, it is creating entirely new categories of work. Health systems now need professionals who can build, govern, deploy, and explain AI tools — all within the highly regulated context of healthcare. This makes AI a workforce catalyst, not just a productivity tool.
Leadership Expectations Are Shifting Too
From Technical Expert to Enterprise Strategist
Technical skills alone no longer define a successful IT leader. At Endeavor Health, Anderson says today’s IT leaders must translate technology into measurable outcomes — across patient care, clinician experience, operational performance, and risk management.
“Technical expertise alone is now table stakes,” she said. “Today’s leaders must operate at the enterprise level, simplify complexity, and lead through transformation.”
This is a fundamentally different leadership model. It requires comfort across clinical, operational, and digital domains — simultaneously.
Bridging Technology and Care Delivery
The modern healthcare CIO must speak the language of clinicians, finance officers, and digital strategists alike. Accordingly, communication and strategic thinking are now just as critical as understanding systems architecture or cybersecurity protocols.
Retaining Talent Through Reskilling and Transparency
Building Trust During Transition
Organizational change creates uncertainty for employees. Akeroyd at Lee Health emphasizes that building trust through transparency is essential. This means being clear about where the organization is headed and why changes are taking place.
Employees who understand the direction are more likely to engage with reskilling opportunities. Moreover, they are less likely to feel threatened by the changes underway.
Investing in Career Development
At Endeavor Health, Anderson’s retention strategy centers on reskilling at scale and creating new career pathways. These pathways align with platform-based and product-based work — the new architecture of healthcare IT.
“We invest in reskilling at scale, create new career pathways aligned to platforms and products, and ensure our teams are working on the most meaningful initiatives in healthcare,” she said.
Crucially, Anderson frames this not as replacement, but as elevation. The goal is to develop existing talent for a transformed operating environment — not simply hire new people and move on.
The CIO Role in the New IT Era
Finally, both leaders agree that the CIO role itself is being redefined. Akeroyd describes a shift away from technology delivery toward shaping the broader operating model.
“The CIO role has become less about delivering the technology and more about shaping the operating model,” he said. “Our responsibility is to build a technology organization that creates trust — with employees, clinicians, and patients.”
Anderson offers a complementary view. She sees IT evolving from owner to enabler — and now to orchestrator.
“IT is becoming the orchestrator of a complex ecosystem, ensuring platforms, data, and capabilities operate in alignment,” she said.
Together, these perspectives signal a durable shift. Healthcare IT leaders are no longer stewards of systems. Instead, they are architects of enterprise value, workforce capability, and organizational trust.
