Welcome to Health-e Law, Sheppard’s podcast exploring the fascinating health tech topics and trends of the day. In this episode, Sheppard partner and host Michael Orlando welcomes associate Michael Sutton to discuss their experience at ViVE 2026, one of the premier conferences for digital health innovators and leaders.
What we discuss in this episode:
- The current prevalence and role of AI in healthcare
- How limited interoperability of legacy systems hinders AI adoption
- How AI has changed the way data is treated
- Potential healthcare use cases for agentic AI
- Challenges when using AI in the healthcare setting
- Why the concept of a “Human-in-the-Loop” is particularly important in healthcare
- The quality metrics providers should measure when evaluating AI
- The factors that ultimately determine whether an AI tool succeeds or fails in healthcare settings
About Michael Sutton
An associate in the Corporate practice group at Sheppard’s Dallas office, Michael Sutton specializes in cutting-edge and disruptive areas of practice, blending healthcare, technology and legal compliance. In particular, he focuses on HIPAA and privacy regulations, considering their relationship with technological advancements in both healthcare and consumer sectors. He is skilled in negotiations regarding data usage and ownership rights, guiding clients on marketing or integrating technological innovations while navigating emerging regulations in digital healthcare, including artificial intelligence, web tracking, information blocking, offshoring and de-identification.
Michael has managed investigations, worked to resolve active breach incidents and advised clients on healthcare privacy and technology matters. He supports clients navigating HIPAA and other privacy laws to ensure their objectives are achieved within all legal and regulatory requirements. Michael also provides comprehensive regulatory services to a range of healthcare participants, including investors, managed care organizations, health plans and medical groups. In particular, he has tackled operational and contractual negotiations, licensing, compliance, and fraud considerations and conducted regulatory due diligence for transactions, including mergers and acquisitions.
Michael also supports transactions involving tech companies and healthcare providers, guiding negotiations related to software and service relationships while identifying vulnerabilities in targets and devising creative solutions to address them.
About Michael Orlando
Michael Orlando is a partner in Sheppard’s San Diego (Del Mar) office. He is team leader of the firm’s Technology Transactions team, a member of the Life Sciences, Healthcare and Artificial Intelligence teams, and co-leader of the firm’s Digital Health & Innovation team. Michael has more than 20 years of experience advising health technology companies, insurers, healthcare systems and providers, academic medical centers and research institutions, medical device manufacturers, pharmaceutical and wellness companies on intellectual property and business transactions in key strategic areas, including EHR systems procurement and integration, telehealth, mobile health applications, clinical decision support technologies, artificial intelligence, data use, wearable devices, remote patient monitoring, medical devices and equipment, research and collaborations, patent licenses, software licenses, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, revenue cycle management, and other outsourcing transactions.
Michael founded a software-as-a-service company before entering private practice and completed an in-house secondment at a publicly traded biotechnology company, an experience that informs his practical and business-focused approach to client engagements.
Resource: ViVE
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This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not to be construed as legal advice specific to your circumstances. If you need help with any legal matter, be sure to consult with an attorney regarding your specific needs.