Dr. Ed Kimlin, MaineHealth

“Without AI, MaineHealth might close. That's not hyperbole; that's math.

Healthy hospital systems need at least 3% margins. We’re struggling to get there.

And every dollar counts when you're the safety net for an entire state. I've watched this play out across rural America: obstetrics departments closing, cancer patients driving hours for treatment, elderly people choosing between medication and heat. When you're facing harsh realities in Maine, which has the oldest population of any state, you need every advantage you can get. AI is one of them.

People fear AI will dehumanize healthcare. But I see AI giving humans back their humanity. MaineHealth is a story about human-AI teaming at its best. We're not trying to replace humans with AI; we're trying to save humans with AI. AI is speedy and thorough—it can find relevant details in medical records that humans might miss. But, as a human, I bring the strategic judgment, the medical interpretation, the decision-making. Together, we create better outcomes than either could achieve alone.

It’s totally revolutionized my job. AI eliminating drudgery gives me more time to re-engineer processes, improve our health system, and find better ways to bring new clinical technologies to Maine. That benefits everyone in the state, not just individual patients.

As a doctor working with AI at MaineHealth, I tell colleagues who fear this technology: if you're scared of AI, redirect that fear to the error rates and impossible challenges we face now as clinicians. The unknown might be scary, but the known is absolutely more frightening.”