Leading Digital Applications Through Growth, Innovation, and Change with Sacheen Mallette

On this episode of QuickHITs, HDM CEO Tyler Smith and guest co-host Abby Polich sit down with Sacheen Mallette, Vice President of Digital Applications at Emory Healthcare.

After nearly fifteen years at WakeMed, Sacheen stepped into a VP role at one of the country's leading academic health systems. She shares what surprised her most about the transition, and why she sees digital applications as an essential part of delivering patient care.

The conversation covers how Emory scales Epic applications through acquisitions, why learning the "why" behind a community hospital's workflows comes before changing the "how," and what a strong consulting partnership looks like when the goal is knowledge transfer rather than dependence.

Sacheen also explains how governance and a solid Epic foundation helped Emory nearly double its sepsis bundle compliance, and how Emory became the first Epic organization to roll out AI summaries for radiology. As she puts it, governance doesn't limit innovation; it gives teams the guardrails to move forward with confidence.

She also shares how she protects her application teams from burnout by replacing "no" with "here's when, and here's why," along with her advice for any leader heading into a merger: listen, observe, plan early, and overcommunicate.

Plus, find out the unexpected superpower Sacheen found that builds relationships.