PulsePoint Path

Mitchell Fong

Digital Health Visionary

Mitchell Fong is an Advisory Board Member at PulsePoint Path and Founder and CEO of Innovise Consulting. Drawing on experience across health system operations, startup advising and digital health strategy, he focuses on translating technology investment into sustainable outcomes for patients and providers.

My career has put me between the people building healthcare technology and the people responsible for making it work. Having spent time on the health system side prior to working with healthcare technology vendors, I have seen how differently the same problem looks depending on the point of view. In many cases, that gap between perspectives is where healthcare initiatives start to run into barriers, and a lot of what I do is figure out how to remove barriers by creating alignment.

A big part of that, for me, is reflection. After every meeting and every conversation, I step back and ask whether I am being the leader I want to be and how I could be a better version of myself. It is not about living in the past. It is about leveraging experience for growth and adjusting to ensure all stakeholders are engaged. Being the right leader for your people requires continuous growth to meet evolving needs.

This style of management shapes how I view leadership. People do not follow you just because you are the boss or because you sign their paychecks; that is formal leadership. The leaders I have seen build real results have built credibility, where people follow because they are inspired and aligned around what you are trying to achieve together. For me, part of building that credibility is studying every leader I encounter, not just my direct boss. What do I like? What do I not like? Afterward, I strive to incorporate those positive qualities into the person I aim to be, ensuring I remain truthful and avoid repeating actions I found unfavorable. It also means being willing to empower your best people to move on, even when the next role they deserve is not on your team anymore. That may be hard to accept, but helping someone reach the next phase of their career is a sign of success as a servant leader.

"We don’t want to leave any communities behind. Everyone deserves access to high-quality care at the right time and in the right place, and we have a lot of work to do to get there."

Sorting Signal from Noise

Everything with AI right now is extremely high hype, and there is some real value there, but the challenge is figuring out what is fluff and what is real. Even when you have a strong value proposition and good technology, the question is whether it is actually going to have a meaningful impact on patients, communities and providers that you serve. That value proposition is not always clear and quantifiable with ROI analysis. Some AI models are being released too quickly, without the clinical guidance, privacy governance or oversight frameworks to match.

Part of the structural problem is that many early AI solutions in healthcare are not interoperable, so providers end up juggling disconnected tools just to get a complete view, creating burnout and inefficiencies. What is missing is the underlying layer; the system has to act like the highway, with data flowing through it, and the AI models are the cars on top. Without that, you are not really building an ecosystem; you are just adding more tools.

Sustainability is the other pressure point. Reimbursement rates for technology-enabled services are decreasing in some cases, while many newer solutions aren’t yet FDA-cleared or reimbursable. Organizations are being asked to invest in these tools without a clear path to financial sustainability, and that tension is real, especially when you are simultaneously trying to improve access for underserved populations while hitting growth targets.

The Language Gap 

There is also a literacy problem in this field that does not get enough attention. More technologists are entering healthcare, and more healthcare professionals are engaging with technology, but they are often using technical language, administrative language and clinical language in ways that sound aligned but are not. That gap tends to surface during implementation, when teams realize they were working toward different expectations.

This is also where the workforce burden compounds. Change is happening faster than ever across clinical guidelines, workflows, data usage and performance measurement, yet teams are expected to adapt while maintaining standards of care. Old and new systems often run in parallel for a stretch, creating duplicate work and a real dip in productivity before you see the gains. The organizations that navigate this well get the right stakeholders involved early, lay out a clear value proposition and plan honestly for that transition period. When that groundwork is not in place, even sound technology runs into adoption problems.

Building in This Environment

For those building careers in healthcare technology, start with a clear sense of the impact you want to have and how your work connects to it. When you know what you want to impact and what you are passionate about, more opportunities come your way, and you get better at spotting the gaps worth solving.

Do not say no to new experiences. Be comfortable in uncomfortable situations, because that is where growth happens. Find mentors inside your sector and outside it. Someone with no stake in your industry’s assumptions will often give you the most honest read. And do not forget the people who helped you get there. For me, mentorship is something I actively participate in and find real value in, because it goes both ways. I learn as much from the people I am mentoring as they do from me (hopefully).

A Challenge to the Field 

I want to leave healthcare readers with a challenge. 

It is great that we are pushing innovation forward in the healthcare technology space, but we do not want to leave behind rural communities, underserved communities or those without private insurance. Everyone deserves access to high-quality care at the right time and in the right place. We have a serious healthcare deficit in America, and we are not close to solving it. That requires us coming together from different backgrounds and really focusing on meaningful impact and delivering real value.

The work ahead is still substantial, but together we can achieve great things! ​ ​​