At a time when artificial intelligence and digital healthcare systems are rapidly transforming medicine, few physicians are shaping that future as thoughtfully as Hannah Galvin.
Based in Massachusetts, Dr. Galvin serves as Chief Health Information Officer and interim Chief of Pediatrics at Cambridge Health Alliance, one of the nation’s leading public health-focused healthcare systems. She is also a practicing pediatrician, clinical informaticist, educator, and nationally recognized advocate for equitable healthcare technology. In 2026, her work earned one of the industry’s highest honors when she received the HIMSS Changemaker in Health Award for Health Equity.
What makes Dr. Galvin especially notable is that her work goes beyond innovation for innovation’s sake. She has become one of the country’s leading voices on how healthcare technology can improve patient trust, privacy, and access to care — especially for vulnerable populations.
Dr. Galvin graduated from Harvard Medical School and completed her medical training at Boston Children’s Hospital. She is dual board-certified in Pediatrics and Clinical Informatics and currently serves on faculty at both Harvard Medical School and Tufts University School of Medicine. She also serves on the federal Health Information Technology Advisory Committee, where she helps shape national healthcare technology policy.
Much of her work focuses on a concept that is becoming increasingly important in modern medicine: giving patients more control over their own health data.
As healthcare systems become more interconnected, patient records can now move instantly between hospitals, clinics, and providers. While that can improve care, Dr. Galvin has argued that it can also create unintended risks for patients who fear stigma, discrimination, or misuse of sensitive information. Her advocacy for “computable consent” and “data segmentation” aims to create systems where patients can selectively control how and when their medical information is shared.
That work is deeply personal for her.
According to Cambridge Health Alliance, Dr. Galvin’s experience working with homeless and at-risk youth helped shape her understanding of how fear and mistrust can prevent vulnerable patients from seeking medical care. She has consistently emphasized that healthcare technology should strengthen human relationships in medicine, not weaken them.
Her leadership arrives at a critical moment for American healthcare. Artificial intelligence tools are now being integrated into hospital systems nationwide, from diagnostic support software to predictive patient analytics. Dr. Galvin has emerged as an important voice advocating for responsible AI deployment that protects patient trust while improving outcomes.
At Cambridge Health Alliance, she leads enterprise strategy around AI and emerging technologies, with a special focus on equitable deployment for linguistically diverse and underserved populations. Her research includes studying how large language models can be used safely in clinical decision-making environments.
She is also the co-founder and board chair of Shift, an international collaborative working to improve healthcare interoperability standards and patient-directed data sharing.
Industry leaders have increasingly recognized her impact. In addition to the 2026 HIMSS Changemaker Award, Dr. Galvin was previously named one of Fierce Healthcare’s “Women of Influence.”
Yet despite her growing national profile, colleagues often describe her work as unusually mission-driven. Rather than focusing solely on efficiency or technology adoption, Dr. Galvin has consistently centered her efforts on improving trust between patients and healthcare systems.
That balance between innovation and compassion may ultimately define her legacy.
As healthcare enters one of the most technologically disruptive eras in its history, Dr. Hannah Galvin is helping ensure that humanity remains at the center of medicine.
