Mayo Clinic names new CIO from Honeywell to lead AI push

Mayo Clinic's appointment of Arun Kumar Bhaskara-Baba as Chief Information Officer reflects the health system's deliberate escalation of its AI investment. Bhaskara-Baba's track record at Honeywell Aerospace and Defense—where he directed digital strategy and scaled artificial intelligence capabilities—suggests the organization is recruiting leaders with hands-on experience building AI at scale, rather than managing IT infrastructure alone. His prior roles at Johnson & Johnson, where he led global manufacturing IT and held senior positions in quality, compliance, and information security, add depth in regulated environments where Mayo operates.

The timing of this appointment aligns with Mayo Clinic's concrete AI commitments announced in June: a partnership with Microsoft on a "frontier" AI model for clinical diagnosis and treatment planning, alongside deployment of NVIDIA's advanced AI infrastructure for drug discovery. These initiatives span both clinical care and research, suggesting Bhaskara-Baba will oversee IT strategy across both domains. His responsibility extends to Mayo's substantial footprint—16 hospitals and 45 multispecialty clinics—making the CIO role central to operationalizing AI at an academic medical center scale.