UT Southwestern Appoints First Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer to Drive Responsible AI Adoption in Academic Medicine

Warren D’Souza, Ph.D., M.B.A., a renowned expert in artificial intelligence (AI), data science, and digital transformation, has joined UT Southwestern as its first Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer. Dr. D’Souza brings with him a clear vision to establish UTSW as a national leader for the responsible use of AI in academic medicine. He aims to integrate AI into all aspects of the institution’s mission-driven work, from clinical care and research to education and administrative functions.

In his new role, Dr. D’Souza will oversee the development and implementation of AI strategies that prioritize patient safety, data security, and transparency. His goal is to make UT Southwestern a model for other academic medical centers to follow in using AI responsibly. According to Dr. D’Souza, ‘My hope is that UT Southwestern will become a national model for how an academic medical center can use AI responsibly – not as a standalone technology initiative but deeply embedded as a mission-driven capability that advances excellence, innovation, and trust.’

Dr. D’Souza comes from the University of Maryland Medical System, where he served as Senior Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer. He was also co-Director of the University of Maryland Institute for Health Computing and founded a center dedicated to digital health and AI innovation and incubation. In this role, Dr. D’Souza oversaw the integration of AI-enabled tools into clinical and operational workflows, resulting in measurable impact.

Dr. D’Souza’s background is rooted in medical physics, having earned his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin – Madison and an M.B.A. from Duke University. He has written over 100 peer-reviewed articles and holds multiple patents related to novel computational approaches in radiation therapy delivery. His extensive experience in AI, data science, and digital transformation makes him an ideal candidate for this position.

Center Times Plus asked Dr. D’Souza about his vision for the future of AI at UT Southwestern and how it will impact the institution’s mission to educate, discover, and heal. When discussing what guided him to a career focused on AI, data science, and digital transformation, Dr. D’Souza explained that he has always been drawn to the wonders of science and technology. He said, ‘That passion led me to be curious about their incredible impact on humans.’

Early in his career as a medical physicist, Dr. D’Souza saw how data, computation approaches, and complex modeling could directly improve patient care and clinical decision-making. Over time, this interest expanded from individual tools and models to broader questions of how digital transformation can help healthcare organizations harness these technologies to become more precise, efficient, and learning-oriented. He was particularly drawn to the opportunity to translate complex technology into practical solutions that could benefit patients, clinicians, researchers, educators, and technical and administrative teams.

Dr. D’Souza acknowledged that he did not fully anticipate how quickly AI would become transformative. ‘I knew AI had extraordinary potential,’ he said, ‘but I do not think many of us fully anticipated how quickly it would become transformative.’ He noted the significant impact of generative AI models, which have made these tools accessible to a broader audience, including students, clinicians, scientists, administrators, and the public.

The pace of adoption has been remarkable, with AI no longer being an abstract future concept but rather powerful technology that can help solve real-world problems. Dr. D’Souza emphasized the importance of human judgment and institutional values in guiding the responsible use of AI. He stated, ‘The greatest challenges are ensuring that AI is deployed responsibly, safely, and equitably while still allowing innovation to flourish.’

In healthcare, decisions made using AI can have a significant impact on clinical decision-making, patient outcomes, trust, and privacy. Dr. D’Souza emphasized the need for strong governance, transparency, evaluation, and commitment to mission in institutions that succeed with AI adoption. He believes that pairing technical excellence with these essential components will be crucial for success.

Dr. D’Souza highlighted some of the most fascinating uses of AI in healthcare, including its ability to help clinicians detect patterns earlier, make better decisions, and reduce daily workloads. AI is already being used to interpret medical images (e.g., CT and MRI), identify patients at risk due to their health issues, support earlier disease diagnosis, evaluate biomedical learner/trainee competency, and optimize administrative functions.

In research, AI is being harnessed to analyze large multimodal datasets, accelerate therapeutic discoveries, generate hypotheses, and uncover relationships that would be difficult to detect manually. Dr. D’Souza emphasized that the most promising applications of AI are not simply automation but rather augmentation of human expertise, enabling teams to act with greater speed, precision, and insight.

Dr. D’Souza believes that AI will help advance UT Southwestern into the future by supporting earlier detection, more personalized treatment, safer workflows, and better patient outcomes in clinical care. In research, it can accelerate discovery by connecting data, prospective therapeutics, and expertise across disciplines in new ways. Additionally, AI has the potential to transform education at UTSW, enabling a more effective teaching, training, and preparation of clinicians, scientists, and health leaders for a technology-enabled world.

Dr. D’Souza’s appointment marks an important step towards integrating AI into all aspects of UT Southwestern’s mission-driven work. He is committed to making the institution a leader in responsible AI adoption, ensuring that these technologies are used safely, effectively, and ethically.