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Mercyhealth selects Vitea to responsibly scale AI across its system. Regional health system selects Vitea's AI governance platform to ensure all AI is visible, controlled, and compliant as it scales in-house AI innovation ROCKFORD, Ill. and JOHNS CREEK, Ga., Aug. 11, 2026 /PRNewswire/ - Mercyhealth entered into a partnership with Vitea, an AI governance platform built for healthcare, to bring end-to-end AI visibility, policy enforcement, and accountability across its hospitals and care sites. Vitea's radical visibility and enterprise governance capabilities enable Mercyhealth to scale AI-driven innovation while maintaining the highest standards of patient safety and data integrity. Mercyhealth selects Vitea's governance platform to scale AI safely with real-time visibility and policy enforcement. In recent years, Mercyhealth has accelerated its investment in technology transformation, expanding its AI capabilities across clinical workflows, patient outcomes, and operational efficiency. As AI use cases have expanded across the enterprise, the health system sought a governance infrastructure that could match the pace of innovation, ensuring every AI application is visible, policy-compliant, and accountable to clinicians, administrators, and patients. "At Mercyhealth, we've always held ourselves to a high bar when it comes to technology and security," said Ali Olia, Chief Information Officer at Mercyhealth. "But AI introduces a new category of risk that traditional security tools simply weren't built to address. These are non-deterministic systems - they don't behave the same way twice - and that requires a fundamentally different approach to governance. Vitea gives us the infrastructure to stay ahead of that risk and continue innovating boldly." Vitea's platform addresses one of the most pressing challenges facing health systems today: rapid AI adoption without the governance infrastructure to ensure it operates safely, consistently, and within clinical and regulatory bounds. Vitea provides comprehensive visibility into every AI application in use and the control to ensure each operates within policy. The platform deploys more than 100 out-of-the-box healthcare-specific policies, enforced in real time across every prompt and response. Centralized policy orchestration and continuous drift and performance monitoring round out a governance stack built for the clinical, ethical, and compliance demands of healthcare. Engineering & Technology Discover more Hospitals & Treatment Centers Medical Facilities & Services For Mercyhealth, which operates across a complex, multi-site environment facing differing AI regulations across multiple states, the ability to govern AI consistently across its footprint was a critical consideration. "The moment AI touches patient care, the bar for data integrity and accountability goes up significantly," said Jeremy Colson, Chief Data and Analytics Officer at Mercyhealth. "With Vitea, we have visibility into how our AI applications are performing and the ability to enforce policy across them, so deviations surface early rather than after the fact. For a health system at our scale, that level of oversight isn't optional." The partnership reflects a broader shift in how leading health systems are approaching AI adoption. Rather than treating governance as a compliance afterthought, organizations like Mercyhealth are embedding it into the foundation of their AI strategy. They recognize that trust, transparency, and accountability are essential to realizing the full clinical and operational value of AI. Shantanu Nigam, CEO of Vitea, said, "Mercyhealth is building and adopting real AI capabilities, both through partners and in-house applications. They understand the risks and they are committed to doing this right for their patients, their staff, and their communities. We built Vitea for organizations like this: forward-thinking teams that want to move fast without leaving governance behind. We are proud to be their partner." About Mercyhealth Mercyhealth is a nonprofit integrated health system based in Rockford, Illinois, and Janesville, Wisconsin. Founded in 1883, Mercyhealth serves more than 55 communities across northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin through seven hospitals, more than 85 primary and specialty care locations, home health and hospice services, and a wholly owned insurance company. Mercyhealth employs more than 7,000 doctors, nurses, staff, and volunteers who are united by a shared mission: providing exceptional health care services with a passion for making lives better. Mercyhealth is a recipient of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and has been recognized by Becker's Healthcare as a Top Place to Work in Healthcare. For more information, visit mercyhealthsystem.org. About Vitea Vitea is an AI governance system for healthcare. Vitea gives health system leaders the visibility to see every AI application in use and the control to ensure every one operates safely, ethically, and within policy - with healthcare-specific guardrails, real-time enforcement, and continuous monitoring purpose-built for patient care. Vitea empowers health systems to harness the full potential of AI to improve care, streamline operations, and innovate with confidence. Learn more at vitea.ai. Media Contact Discover more Educational Resources Data Management SOURCE Vitea; MercyHealth

Mercyhealth launches Aquablation robotic waterjet treatment program. What's new at Mercyhealth Thursday, June 18, 2026 Hariharan Ganapathi, MD, Chief of Urology and Medical Director of Urologic Oncology and Robotic Surgery at Mercyhealth Hospital and Trauma Center-Janesville, and his team are pleased to announce the successful launch of the Aquablation robotic waterjet treatment program, a first of its kind in the region. Aquablation is a robotic, image-guided waterjet treatment for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), or an enlarged prostate. Performed using the HYDROS(TM) next generation robotic system, the technology combines advanced ultrasound imaging, digital cystoscopy, robotic precision, and AI-assisted treatment planning to deliver a personalized treatment approach. Aquablation is designed to relieve urinary symptoms caused by prostate enlargement while minimizing potential side effects related to sexual function and continence. It is a minimally invasive alternative to traditional surgery for benign prostate enlargement. "This success reflects the excellent teamwork, preparation, and professionalism demonstrated by all involved," said Dr. Ganapathi. Patients typically qualify based on moderate to severe lower urinary tract symptoms from BPH, prostate size, symptom severity, and failure or intolerance of medical therapy. Each patient is individually evaluated to determine the most appropriate treatment option. Patients interested in learning more can contact the Urology department at the Mercyhealth Michael Berry Building in Janesville for a consultation and evaluation at (608) 756-6588. Dr. Ganapathi earned his medical degree at Madras Medical College, India. He served a surgery and urology residency at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, India. He then completed an endourology fellowship (three years of advanced robotic urology training) at the Global Robotics Institute at Florida Hospital Celebration Health, Celebration, FL. Prior to joining Mercyhealth, he served on the faculty and trained urology residents within the Florida State University system for eight years. Dr. Ganapathi's special interests include urologic cancers, including prostate, bladder, and kidney cancer; robot-assisted surgery; and treatment of complex kidney stone disease using advanced techniques such as mini-PCNL. To schedule a media interview, please contact Media Relations Specialist Therese Michels at [email protected] or (815) 971-5421.