By Stephanie Paulmeno, Dr. Stephanie R. Paulmeno, Co-Chair, The Patient is U Foundation
The Patient Is U Foundation’s breakfast panel drew 86 attendees and honored two Greenwich residents, including the late Claudio Pannunzio, who first envisioned the event.
Will artificial intelligence help us, influence us — or crowd out the human connection patients need most?
Jonathan Goldberg Accepts TPIU Award for Claudio Pannunzio.
Robin Kanarek. TPIU Awardee.
That question drew 86 healthcare professionals, community leaders and residents to Fairfield University on Wednesday, Oct. 14, for “Compassionate Care in the Age of AI: Exploring the Opportunities, Responsibilities and Risks,” a breakfast panel organized by The Patient is U Foundation (TPIU).
The Connecticut-based nonprofit works to restore, teach and reinforce compassion at every point of a patient’s healthcare experience; from a medical practice website and front-desk staff, to clinicians paraprofessionals, support staff, and even parking attendants.
Its message for the morning, shared by the event’s nine sponsoring organizations, was; as technology advances, it must enhance, not replace, compassionate care, results must always be checked for accuracy and intended impact, and there must always be a person in the loop.
The Panel
TPIU Co-Chair Joanne Palmer, Information Technology Portfolio Manager at Yale University, skillfully moderated a panel that brought together medicine, nursing, law, technology and state government:
• Rohit Bhalla, MD, MPH, Chief Clinical & Quality Officer, Stamford Health
• Patricia Boyce, PhD, RN, Dean of Nursing, Fairfield University
• Jennifer Cox, Healthcare Attorney, Cox & Osowiecki
• Brian Lacey, Technology Developer and CEO, ScribeBrain
• Sumit Sajnani, Health Information Technology Officer, State of Connecticut
The discussion covered ways AI is already reshaping healthcare –; through clinical documentation, workflow, diagnosing, job restructuring and availability, and in structuring parameters for quality of care and quality of life; and then there is the harder question of how to preserve veracity and trust between patients and providers, along with the human expressions of empathy and compassion, as those tools spread and expand.
Panelists also took up another growing concern; in an age of AI-generated images, voices, and data compilations, how can patients and clinicians be sure that what they are seeing or hearing is real. Are AI interpretations correctly deciphered as intended? Who is overseeing the outputs?
“We each create our understanding of AI through our own filters of experience, education and beliefs, as well as through what others, including AI, tell us is or isn’t true,” said Dr. Stephanie Paulmeno, TPIU Co-Chair and a longtime Greenwich healthcare leader.
“We needed to explore what compassionate care looks like in this new landscape, and why that matters, to patients and families, to clinicians and other staff, to quality of care and quality of life, and to the bottom lines of healthcare practices and organizations; because scientific evidence supports this.” That is exactly what happened at this Fairfield event.”
Closing remarks were provided by Rev. Kevin O’Brien who linked them to Pope Leo’s Magnifica Humanitas encyclical, written 5-25-26, and the compassionate care the Pope was currently receiving following his surgery.
Why It Matters in Greenwich
Greenwich residents rely on a broad local healthcare and social services network: Greenwich and Stamford Hospitals; The Nathaniel Witherell, the town-owned nursing and rehabilitation center; Stamford Health, with more than 40 locations across Fairfield County; the town’s Department of Health and Department of Human Services; our adult day services at River House; as well as the federally qualified community health centers, embodied in Family Centers’ Health Center in Greenwich and through Optimus Health Care in Stamford and beyond. Other agencies such as Jewish Family Services, urgent care centers, dental and vision practices, mental health and substance abuse programs, radiology offices, and lab draw stations all add to this network of health-focused services. As AI tools reach into all healthcare settings, the questions raised on Wednesday will shape the care local families receive.
Honoring Two Greenwich Residents
The program was dedicated to the late Claudio Pannunzio, a Greenwich resident for decades. He succeeded Dr. Paulmeno as TPIU’s board chair. Pannunzio built his career in business and finance and served as a State Chaplain and was also a Greenwich Hospital volunteer. He conceived the breakfast panel and initiated conversations that led Fairfield University to host the event, but he died less than a year into his term. Dr. Paulmeno, then Vice-Chair, became Board co-chair with our Moderator, Joanne Palmer. They convened a planning team comprised of the two co-chairs, Robin Kanarek, Kathy Moniello, our indispensable primary organizer, and marketer, Melissa LoParco, another in-kind sponsor, to continue Claudio’s dream. TPIU presented a posthumous award in Claudio’s honor at this event. Jonathan Goldberg, a neighbor of Claudio and Gabriella Pannunzio for more than 35 years, offered moving remarks and accepted the award.
Greenwich resident Dr. Robin Bennett Kanarek received the TPIU Founders Award for her longtime support of the TPIU foundation and for her work on the event’s planning committee. Kanarek and her husband, Joe Kanarek, through the Kanarek Family Foundation, provided financial support for the program, and Robin provided board guidance and support.
A full list of sponsors is here.
The Patient is U Foundation, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) public charity led by a Connecticut-based board that also includes international members. While organizations such as the Schwartz Center for Compassionate Healthcare focus on hospital-based care, TPIU focuses on compassion in community-based healthcare.