Inside Boston Children’s Hospital’s AI-Ready Governance Overhaul

Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH) is a world-leading pediatric medical center that plays a pivotal role in advancing children’s health globally. As artificial intelligence becomes more deeply embedded in clinical workflows—from diagnostics to predictive care—the value of AI in healthcare has never been higher. But to harness AI’s full potential, organizations must first establish a strong foundation of trusted, well-governed data.

With an extensive trove of sensitive healthcare data, BCH needed to strike a balance between accessibility and privacy, all while supporting their drive toward operational excellence, clinical innovation, and next-gen AI initiatives.

As Jared Hawkins, Sr. Director of Enterprise Data, Analytics & Reporting, put it: “AI needs a strong data foundation… and that push for AI has helped us increase the priority for a strong governance foundation.”

Key challenges

Before rebooting its governance strategy, BCH faced a number of complex hurdles:

• Data complexity and sprawl: A vast and fragmented data landscape complicated visibility and consistency.

• Negative perceptions of governance: “Governance became a dirty word,” said Hawkins. Teams saw it as restrictive—something that slowed innovation.

• Process and communication gaps: Definitions and data catalogs existed, but without a central way to communicate and discover them, “it’s almost as if the work is not done at all.”

• Metric inconsistency: Different teams generated conflicting versions of the same metrics, undermining trust in data across the organization.

• Organizational silos: Data subject matter expertise was often trapped within teams, limiting knowledge sharing and coordination. 

These challenges made it clear that governance couldn’t be a side project—it needed to become a core enabler of BCH’s data and AI strategy.

Objectives

The data governance reboot, led in partnership with digital consultancy Archetype, aimed to reset the narrative. As Oliver Courtney, Head of Digital Advisory at Archetype, explained, “We created a mandate around unlocking the full potential of data—framing governance as an enabler, not an obstacle.”

Four strategic pillars emerged:

1. Collaboration & coordination – Aligning motivated teams around shared standards and workflows.

2. Data transparency – Making it easier for staff to discover and understand available data assets.

3. Standards & definitions – Creating clarity and consistency across metrics and terminology.

4. Protection & access control – Ensuring appropriate, secure data use through role-based governance.

With a clear mandate and focused pillars, BCH was ready to rebuild governance from the ground up.

Implementation: A ground-up reboot with Alation and Snowflake

The reboot began with interviews across senior leadership to understand pain points, risks, and goals. These executive insights informed the new governance operating model.

Building the right governance structure

A multi-tiered model was launched:

• Executive data steering committee – Provided authority and strategic alignment.

• Data governance council – A cross-functional body chaired by Hawkins to set priorities.

• Operations group – The day-to-day engine of governance execution.

• Analyst, technical, and protection groups – Tasked with community-building, systems expertise, and data access oversight.

To ensure success, every team and role had clearly defined responsibilities. “It was important these roles were written from the person’s perspective,” said Courtney, “so they knew what was expected of them.”

Alation and Snowflake in action

Alation became the cornerstone of BCH’s governance infrastructure:

• A comprehensive data catalog allowed for the standardization and surfacing of key metrics, definitions, and ownership structures.

• By tagging, categorizing, and creating a curated “document hub,” teams could find trusted content quickly.

• BCH avoided a purely technical implementation of Alation, instead creating a business-focused, role-aware onboarding experience.

To avoid the chaos of an overly broad and technical implementation, BCH took a step back and refocused its Alation rollout through a business lens. Rather than pulling in everything, the team prioritized the data and metrics that mattered most. They created a curated document hub using tags and domains, making it easy for users to find what they needed.

Onboarding was also reimagined. Each department received tailored, hands-on support through white-glove onboarding sessions. The emphasis was on making the experience welcoming and relevant to each group’s needs, which significantly improved adoption and internal communication.

Once the business-focused setup was in place, the team launched a coordinated communication campaign—including updates in the analytics newsletter—to promote the catalog across the organization. This strategic rollout helped spark broad engagement and signaled that governance could be a value driver, not just a technical requirement.

Snowflake’s cloud data platform supported the scalable foundation for data centralization and AI enablement, complementing the governance-first approach enabled by Alation.

Results: Building momentum and trust in nine months

Just nine months after launching “Governance 2.0,” BCH has seen tangible cultural and operational results:

• Governance adoption surged: “People unrelated to governance are organically asking to be part of it,” Hawkins said.

• AI enablement accelerated: Governance processes are now embedded into the validation and approval of AI models.

• Data quality improved: Through clinical validation and new definitions, BCH can now trace and address anomalies across systems.

• Classification policies implemented: Approved and rolled out to operational teams for enhanced data protection.

• Catalog engagement increased: “Business users are creating assets, searching, and entering definitions,” said Hawkins. “There’s real traction.”

The cultural shift was undeniable—and the foundation for future success had been laid.

Governance as a catalyst for AI 

BCH’s story is still unfolding, but its trajectory is clear: governance is no longer a blocker—it’s a launchpad.

Looking ahead, the hospital is focused on measuring governance outcomes, not just activities. Embedding governance into operational workflows and AI pipelines is the next step.

Leadership buy-in has been critical. Hawkins emphasized:

“You must link the work in data governance directly to what senior leadership cares about—your organization’s OKRs, patient outcomes, research impact, and risk mitigation.”

Just as vital has been empowering the right people:

“The data governance manager is the critical middle person,” said Courtney. “They need to speak both the language of business and the language of tech.”

Boston Children’s Hospital has proven that with the right structure, tools, and mindset, governance can unlock the power of sensitive data, accelerate responsible AI, and—most importantly—improve patient outcomes.

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