How to Choose a Healthcare AI Speaker for Your Conference

By Harvey Castro, MD, MBA, emergency physician and founder of Signal & Stage.

Quick answer: Choose a healthcare AI speaker by starting with the decision your audience faces, not with a famous name. Then match the speaker to who is in the room, check a recent full-length sample, pick the format first and send a written brief.

Speakers in this guide: David Rhew, Dipu Patel, Ranya Habash, Viv Babber, Richard Staynings, Karin Andrea Stephan, Robin Farmanfarmaian, Sally Ann Frank and more below.

Picture this. Your conference wrapped two weeks ago. The AI keynote had a big name, a polished deck and a standing ovation. Then the survey comes back. The CMO writes, “Inspiring, but nothing we can use.” A nurse manager writes, “Didn’t apply to my unit.” You spent the biggest line in your budget on an hour your audience has already forgotten.

That is the villain in healthcare event planning: the impressive talk that answers a question nobody in the room was asking.

So how do you find the speaker who answers the right one?

I learned the answer in the emergency department. The worst consult is not the one from a weak specialist. It is the one from a brilliant specialist who answers a question nobody asked, while the patient waits. I have spent years on stage talking about AI in medicine, and I now run Signal & Stage, a collective of healthcare, AI and leadership speakers. My goal here is simple: help you book the right speaker, even when the right speaker is not me.

Step 1: What decision does your audience need to make?

Before you open a single profile, finish this sentence: “After this session, my audience should be ready to decide ______.”

Most healthcare AI audiences are stuck on one of six decisions:

• Can we trust this tool at the bedside? The expertise you need: clinical AI, evidence and patient safety.
• Who is accountable when AI gets it wrong? The expertise you need: AI governance, cybersecurity and risk.
• Will our people and patients trust it? The expertise you need: mental health, human trust and adoption.
• Does this help every patient we serve, or only some? The expertise you need: patient access, caregivers and inclusion.
• How does AI change research, pharma or our specialty? The expertise you need: clinical research, life sciences and specialty care.
• How do we roll this out and prove value? The expertise you need: leadership, workforce readiness and strategy.

If the answer is “all of them,” you are planning a program, not a session. Give each decision its own session and its own expert.

Step 2: Who is in the room?

The same topic lands differently depending on who is sitting in the chairs.

• Clinicians want evidence, workflow and liability. They will test every claim against their own patients.
• Executives and boards want risk, cost and a decision framework.
• IT, security and compliance teams want specifics they can check after an audit.
• Researchers and life sciences teams want to know what changes in trials, data and approvals.
• HR and workforce leaders want to know what happens to people, roles and burnout.
• Patients and community audiences want honesty and plain language.

Ask every speaker one question: “Who was in the room the last time you gave this talk?” The answer tells you more than the bio.

Step 3: How do you check a speaker’s evidence?

Every bio says “thought leader.” That tells you nothing. Ask for proof instead.

1. A recent, full-length sample. Watch at least ten minutes, not the highlight reel.
2. A sample in your format. A strong keynote speaker can be a weak panelist.
3. Three proposed takeaways. If the speaker cannot name them, your audience will not find them.
4. Current work. A speaker who treated, built, advised or researched this year beats one repeating a talk from three years ago.
5. Honesty about limits. The best healthcare AI speakers tell you what AI cannot do yet.

Step 4: Which format fits: keynote, fireside chat, panel or workshop?

• Keynote: sets direction for a large, mixed audience.
• Fireside chat: shows judgment on a sensitive or fast-moving topic.
• Panel: shows tradeoffs when experts disagree. Three panelists plus a prepared moderator.
• Workshop: sends people home with a draft policy, pilot plan or checklist.

Decide the format first, then shortlist. More in Keynote, fireside chat, panel or workshop?

Step 5: What should you put in the speaker brief?

Send this, filled in, before your first call:

Audience: roles, seniority and what they already know about AI

The decision they face: one sentence

What worries them: the questions you hear in the hallway

Format and length: keynote, panel, fireside chat or workshop, and minutes

Success: what attendees should do differently afterward

Sensitive ground: recent incidents, layoffs, lawsuits or vendor ties

Logistics: date, city, in person or virtual, AV and recording rights

A brief like this turns a generic talk into your talk.

Which Signal & Stage speakers fit each decision?

Clinical AI, evidence and patient safety

• David Rhew, MD: responsible healthcare AI and clinical workflows.
• Dr. Dipu Patel: clinical reasoning, AI education and innovation leadership.
• Ranya Habash, MD: clinical AI and digital health, with an ophthalmology lens.

AI governance, cybersecurity and risk

• Viv Babber, MD: AI governance and human accountability.
• Richard Staynings: healthcare cybersecurity and medical device security.
• Erkeda DeRouen, MD: digital health risk, AI governance and patient experience.
• Gil Bashe: healthcare leadership, AI accountability and patient experience.

More in Healthcare cybersecurity and AI governance speakers.

Mental health, trust and human relationships

• Karin Andrea Stephan: AI and mental health, human trust and adoption.
• Amy Kelly, LMFT: mental health practice and clinical AI workflows.
• Lupita Almuhana: workplace wellbeing and resilience.

More in Planning a mental health and AI panel.

Patients, access and inclusion

• Robin Farmanfarmaian: healthcare AI, patient access and care delivery.
• Taz Hart: leadership communication, disability and inclusion.

Clinical research, life sciences and specialty care

• Victoria Manax Rutson, MD: oncology, clinical research and drug development.
• MaryAnne Rizk, PhD: healthcare AI, connected data and life sciences strategy.
• Reenita Das: healthcare futures, women’s health and pharma strategy.
• Marissa Fayer: women’s health and medtech.

Adoption, leadership and value

• Sally Ann Frank: healthcare innovation, enterprise adoption and startup growth.
• Tamsin Deasey-Weinstein: AI strategy and workforce readiness.
• Pascale Caron: AI strategy, entrepreneurship and organizational change.
• Malak Atut: healthcare executive and Wharton educator.
• Sandra Ximena Díaz Hoyos: human-to-human leadership and AI adoption, in Spanish, English or Portuguese.

If you want an emergency physician who works on AI tools and speaks on what changes at the bedside, here is my speaking page.

What are the red flags when booking a healthcare AI speaker?

• The talk title changed but the slides have not in two years.
• Every example comes from outside healthcare.
• The speaker cannot name one limit of AI in medicine.
• The speaker is selling a product from the stage and did not tell you.
• No sample video and no past organizer you can call.

Planner checklist

• I can name the one decision this session supports.
• I know who is in the room and what they already know.
• I chose the format before the speaker.
• I watched ten minutes of a recent sample.
• The speaker sent three proposed takeaways.
• I asked about product ties and conflicts of interest.
• The speaker has my written brief.
• Recording, slides and travel terms are agreed in writing.

Frequently asked questions

How far ahead should I book a healthcare AI speaker? For a conference keynote, three to six months gives you the widest choice. Virtual sessions and panels can come together faster.

Should a healthcare AI speaker be a clinician? For clinical audiences, a clinician earns trust faster. For governance, security or strategy audiences, the right expert may come from outside medicine. Match the speaker to the decision, not the title.

Keynote or panel for an AI topic? A keynote when you need one clear direction. A panel when reasonable experts disagree and your audience needs to hear the tradeoffs.

What should a healthcare AI talk avoid? Hype, unsupported outcome claims and patient stories used without consent.

Can Signal & Stage help build a full program? Yes. Tell me the decisions your audience faces and I will suggest a balanced lineup.

Tell me about your room

Send me your audience, your date and the decision your attendees face. I will reply with a short list of speakers who fit, and why. Have a question this guide did not answer? Send that too. I may answer it in the next update.

Discuss your event

Harvey Castro, MD, MBA is a board-certified emergency physician, 5x TEDx speaker and author of over 45 books on AI and healthcare. He founded Signal & Stage to help event planners find the right healthcare, AI and leadership speakers.

www.HarveyCastroMD.com | /HarveyCastroMD | #DRGPT