Featuring: Dr. Ainsley MacLean, MD FACR
Hosted by: Jay Gopal and James Chhetree
The first episode of Strategic Firepower sets the foundation for a series focused on how operators, founders, clinicians, and investors are shaping the future of healthcare through artificial intelligence and strategic leadership. Hosted by Jay Gopal and James Chhetree, the episode features Dr. Ainsley MacLean, General Partner at Ainsley & Born Capital and Founding Partner of Ainsley Advisory Group, whose career spans academic medicine, radiology leadership, digital health transformation, and now early-stage investing. Her journey provides the backdrop for an in-depth conversation about creativity, problem solving, founder mindsets, healthcare system pressures, and the expanding role of AI in care delivery.
Ainsley begins by describing the early experiences that shaped her thinking about innovation. During her time at Brown University and later at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, she learned that creativity and critical thinking were central to practicing medicine at a high level. Radiology offered two things that resonated deeply with her: constant problem-solving and the ability to guide other clinicians in making the right diagnostic and treatment decisions. These early influences later informed her leadership style during her tenure at Kaiser Permanente, where she eventually oversaw a high-volume radiology department handling nearly one million exams a year.
At Kaiser, Ainsley gravitated toward large-scale challenges, from deploying new imaging technologies like 3D mammography to modernizing digital workflows. Her transition into roles that touched electronic health records and digital transformation positioned her at the forefront of healthcare’s AI adoption. The release of ChatGPT and the rapid progression of generative AI solidified for her that healthcare was entering an irreversible new era, one where clinicians would need tools that reduced administrative burden, increased diagnostic accuracy, and improved access.
The episode moves into Ainsley’s perspective on early-stage founders. Having worked with dozens of entrepreneurs across the AI and healthcare landscape, she identifies three qualities common to teams that succeed: sustained drive, flexibility in the face of changing environments, and a commitment to doing more with fewer resources. She emphasizes that health systems often vary widely in needs, constraints, and readiness levels. Founders who can adapt without losing sight of their core value proposition tend to build stronger, more resilient companies.
The conversation then shifts to AI’s role in healthcare, beginning with clinical documentation tools that have become the first large-scale success story. Generative AI scribes have alleviated burnout by allowing physicians to spend less time on electronic health records and more time connecting with patients. Ainsley references her co-authored study in the New England Journal of Medicine, which analyzed one of the largest deployments of generative AI in a major health system. She notes that AI’s true promise lies beyond documentation, extending into patient scheduling, intake workflows, triage, vitals collection, back-office functions, claim processing, and more. These areas represent an enormous opportunity to help clinicians work at the top of their license and improve efficiency across the board.
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