World Medical Innovation Forum: Insights on AI from healthcare leaders

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Ziad Obermeyer MD, Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School during First Look session

The World Medical Innovation Forum in Boston just wrapped after three days of insights on artificial intelligence in health care. While it didn’t disappoint in respect to buzzwords as is expected in AI conferences, it was the quality of the participants and their views on AI in health care workflows that made it notable. Here are twelve quotes directly from healthcare leaders.

On AI as a capability and adding immediate value

We realized having great medical devices is not enough, we need to connect them and make them interoperable. We operate on Adaptive Intelligence rather than Artificial Intelligence. Frans Van Houten. CEO, Philips

You will need to have capability to process structured (EHR) and unstructured (genomics) data, we can say we are more advanced in AI due to our work in oncology  – aiding in virtual recruiting in clinical trials. Amy Abernethy, MD, PhD. CMO/CSO, Flatiron Health

Knowing about the range of products being developed now, in 5 to 10 years time, there will not be a single decision made in healthcare and medicine not influenced by AI. John Kelly, PhD. SVP Cognitive Solutions and Research, IBM

30-45% of each provider’s day is wasted in non-care related activities, AI can improve healthcare and reduce burnout. Peter Durlach. SVP Health Care Division, Nuance

On data generation and interoperability

We need to remove any remaining friction between insurers and providers when it comes to sharing data, we need free flow of information. Patrick Conway, MD. CEO, BCBSNC

Some doctors don’t want to be paid electronically. They are still sending paper faxes.  Roy Beveridge, MD. CMO, Humana

Pharmaceutical companies are sitting on mountains of data on clinical trials. This data is still underutilized. Jackie Hunter, PhD. CEO, Benevolent AI

On data security, privacy and consent

When thinking of AI innovation, two considerations  – medical requirements on devices as well as consumer privacy and security. Jigar Kadakia. CISO, Partners HealthCare

Facebook says we got consent from you. But then you don’t really know you signed consent. Consent needs to be clear  – in healthcare. Noga Leviner. CEO, Picnic Health

On quality and trust of all these AI algorithms 

How are we going to address quality. How is that algorithm performing and how does that impact health outcomes? Seth Hain. Director, Analytics and Machine Learning, Epic

There’s a difference between Big data and AI. Big data has informed and enabled’. What has AI done in drug development? Dr Thomas Lynch. EVP, R&D Bristol Myers Squibb

Garbage in, Garbage out. We have to de-toxify the data. Carl Kraenzel. CISO, IBM Watson Health