The buzz around artificial intelligence in healthcare isn’t slowing down, but the conversation is maturing. At HIMSS26, Artera brought together two technology leaders for a fireside chat that cut through the noise and got specific about how AI can be deployed safely and effectively in clinical environments.
Moving Beyond the Hype
Artera’s Chief Product & Strategy Officer Zach Wood joined Josh Young, VP of Technology at FDB (First Databank), on Wednesday, March 11 for a session titled MCP Explained: Model Context Protocol for the Modern Healthcare Provider. Rather than celebrating AI’s potential in broad strokes, the conversation zeroed in on a foundational — and often overlooked — piece of the puzzle: Model Context Protocol, or MCP.
So, What Is Model Context Protocol?
Think of MCP as a “universal connector” for AI systems. In a healthcare landscape defined by fragmented data, siloed systems, and complex compliance requirements, MCP offers a standardized way for AI models to access and act on the right information at the right time. The result? Smarter, more reliable AI outputs, and critically, fewer hallucinations.
For healthcare organizations, AI hallucinations aren’t just a technical inconvenience. When patient-facing automation is involved, inaccurate outputs can carry real risk. MCP addresses this directly by giving AI models better context, reducing the likelihood of fabricated or misleading responses.
Building a Safer Foundation for Agentic Healthcare
The fireside chat explored how MCP fits into the next generation of healthcare automation — what many are calling agentic AI, where systems don’t just respond to prompts but take action on behalf of users and patients. Getting this right requires more than capable models; it requires the right infrastructure, governance, and interoperability standards underneath them.
That’s exactly where MCP comes in, and where healthcare organizations need to start paying attention.
The Takeaway for Healthcare Leaders
If your organization is evaluating AI vendors or building out an automation roadmap, MCP is a framework worth understanding now, before it becomes a requirement. Artera’s session at HIMSS26 made clear that the providers who invest in the right foundational protocols today will be far better positioned to deploy safe, effective, and scalable AI tomorrow.
Missed the session? Stay tuned; we’ll be sharing more insights from the conversation in the weeks ahead.
