Becker’s Healthcare Podcast Neil Tanna, MD, MBA, FACS, Senior Vice President of System Perioperative Services & Strategy at Northwell Health
Mar 28, 2026
Neil Tanna, MD, MBA, FACS, a practicing plastic surgeon and perioperative leader at Northwell Health. He talks about AI as a disruptive force in surgical care. He explores clinical AI uses and risks, AI for OR efficiency, and a site-of-care strategy for women's surgery. He stresses stakeholder engagement and the central role of timely, reliable data.
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AI As A Cross-Disciplinary Disruptor
- AI is a once-in-a-generation disruptive force across all medical disciplines.
- Neil Tanna highlights AI as the top trend to improve efficiency, reduce workload, and change healthcare destiny.
Ambient Listening Replaces Scribes
- Northwell uses AI-powered ambient listening to reduce clinician documentation burden and replace scribes.
- Tanna describes improved notes and lower overhead by automating encounter documentation with AI tools.
AI To Predict Surgery Lengths
- AI can bring aviation-like predictability to operating room scheduling by forecasting case length from patient factors.
- Tanna envisions AI improving OR utilization by more accurately predicting surgery durations systemwide.