These 20 people are not just theorizing about the whizzbang of hot technology but rolling up their sleeves and demonstrating its value in real-world settings—to improve diagnostic care, access information that can inform treatment, address health inequities, and ensure the financial sustainability of health provider systems that operate on razor-thin margins. Their collective work offers a blueprint for leveraging AI responsibly and (hopefully) ethically, from streamlining hospital operations and enhancing clinical decision-making to revolutionizing drug discovery.

The current AI evolution presents both opportunities and challenges. Health systems face increasing demands, including rising patient expectations and staffing shortages. Implementing AI and large language models (LLMs) can address these concerns by enabling faster and more accurate treatment plans, automating administrative burdens, and personalizing patient care. However, realizing AI’s full potential requires thoughtful application, ethical considerations, and a commitment to addressing disparities.

These 20 champion AI’s practical application, guiding health systems toward innovation without losing sight of humankind’s well-being. They exemplify how AI can enhance rather than replace human expertise—an essential message as we continue to adapt to this rapidly evolving landscape. By following their work, health-sector leaders and innovators can gain invaluable insights into deploying AI for meaningful impact.

Trailblazers Redefining Health Innovation

While many thinkers will wow you with the future possibilities of these technologies, the 20 on this roster demonstrate transformative influence on the future of diagnostics, operational efficiency, and personalized care while emphasizing responsible, ethical implementation. From academia to industry, they provide vital insights and direction into leveraging AI for better health outcomes. Their work underscores AI’s ability to augment human expertise, providing a roadmap for health systems to innovate without losing sight of patient-centric care. Thanks to them and the others appearing on our Medika Life 2023 and 2024 list, we define AI as “augmented implementation” and not artificial intelligence.

How were they selected? They are public-facing, sharing their thoughts in articles, books, keynotes, classroom talks, research papers, and conferences. They willingly share their knowledge with others on their social media platforms. They spark ideas and challenge our current thinking, and these behaviors make them invaluable to the future application of information and its human health impact. Each person appears in hyperlinks so that readers can explore the depth of their contributions and, whenever possible, follow them on their social media platforms.

20 Voices of Influence Shaping AI in Health

Regina Barzilay, PhD

Dr. Barzilay, an MIT professor and MacArthur Fellow, is revolutionizing oncology and drug discovery through AI. Her pioneering work in machine learning has led to breakthroughs in early cancer detection, particularly in breast cancer screening. As co-founder and AI faculty lead of the MIT Jameel Clinic and the AI Cures initiative, she’s spearheading efforts to deploy AI models for cancer risk prediction in hospitals around the globe and accelerate drug development for infectious diseases. Dr. Barzilay’s work in oncology and drug discovery is paving the way for screening policies and new treatments.

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Anthony Chang, MD, MBA, MPH, MS

Dr. Anthony Chang, a pediatric cardiologist and founder of AIMed, is a driving force in AI education for health professionals. His book Intelligence-Based Medicine has become a cornerstone text. Dr. Chang’s recent work focuses on developing AI-powered predictive models for pediatric cardiac care and implementing AI solutions to enhance hospital operational efficiency. His annual AIMed conference has become a global platform for sharing cutting-edge AI health innovation.

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Karen DeSalvo, MD, MPH

Google Chief Health Officer DeSalvo leads initiatives that leverage AI and big data to address critical public health challenges and promote health equity. Her work includes developing AI-driven tools for early disease detection in underserved communities and creating platforms that provide real-time health data analytics for policymakers. Dr. DeSalvo’s leadership in responsible AI use ensures that Google’s health technologies prioritize patient privacy and ethical considerations.

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Pamela Davis, MD, PhD

Dr. Davis is a distinguished researcher at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine specializing in AI-driven diagnostics and clinical applications. After 13 years as the Dean of the School of Medicine, she returned to the faculty. Her work centers on predictive algorithms for early disease detection and improved treatment planning. But Dr. Davis is an anomaly to this roster. She has no social media handles and her many published works are not curated carefully. Yet, tracking her contributions shows her depth and national influence on the future of AI in practice. With numerous published studies on AI’s transformative role in health, Dr. Davis continues to shape the future of diagnostic pathways.

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David Feinberg, MD, MBA

As Chair of Oracle Health, Feinberg champions using AI and cloud-based technologies to improve health outcomes. He focuses on predictive analytics and data-driven tools that enhance clinical decision-making and streamline hospital operations. His leadership drives innovation in health technology integration. Dr. Feinberg is widely recognized for his transformative leadership as CEO of Geisinger Health, where he pioneered initiatives in population health, precision medicine, and value-based care. His expertise in integrating technology with health-care delivery continues to drive innovation, making digital tools more accessible and impactful for providers and patients.

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John Halamka, MD, MS

John Halamka, President of the Mayo Clinic Platform, is a trailblazer in AI-driven health solutions, leveraging data and technology to transform patient care. Co-author of The Digital Reconstruction of Healthcare, Halamka is a leading voice on digital transformation, interoperability, and the ethical use of AI in medicine. His work at the Mayo Clinic focuses on developing scalable digital platforms and AI models to advance diagnostics, remote monitoring, and personalized medicine. With a background spanning emergency medicine, informatics, and policy, Halamka’s insights continue to guide health systems toward a more connected, efficient, and data-driven future.

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Taha Kass-Hout, MD, MS

Dr. Taha Kass-Hout, General Manager of Amazon Health AI, is a pioneer in leveraging artificial intelligence to drive advancements in healthcare delivery. With a background in clinical practice, public health, and digital innovation, he leads initiatives that harness AI for improved diagnostics, care management, and population health outcomes. Previously, as the first FDA Chief Health Informatics Officer, he championed data-driven approaches to public health. His leadership at Amazon drives scalable, data-driven health models that integrate machine learning with real-world applications, positioning him as a key influencer in the future of AI in health.

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Isaac Kohane, MD, PhD

Dr. Kohane, Chair of the Department of Biomedical Informatics at Harvard Medical School and co-author of The AI Revolution in Medicine: GPT-4 and Beyond, is a leading authority on the intersection of AI and clinical care. His research focuses on using machine learning for precision medicine and improving electronic health records. Dr. Kohane has been instrumental in developing AI models that enhance diagnostic accuracy and patient outcomes. His recent work explores the potential of LLMs, such as ChatGPT, in clinical decision-making and patient engagement.

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Daniel Kraft, MD

Dr. Daniel Kraft is the founder of Exponential Medicine and a visionary in personalized medicine approaches. He’s an inventor, a former F-16 flight surgeon, and always ready to champion others’ bold ideas. Dr. Kraft explores how AI can transform health delivery and disease prevention. Dr. Kraft’s recent initiatives focus on AI-powered tools for early diagnosis and patient engagement. His next chapter includes the very successful NextMed Health and the evolution of Exponential Medicine. NextMed Health 2025 will be held in San Diego on March 30 and April 2, 2025.

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Tom Lawry

Tom Lawry, soon to be the author of his highly anticipated new book Health Care Nation: The Future Is Calling, and It’s Better Than You Think, may redefine the intersection of technology and patient care. Already renowned as the author of Hacking Healthcare, Lawry has built a reputation as a leading AI strategist who advises organizations on integrating cutting-edge AI solutions to boost operational efficiency. His former role at Microsoft as Director for AI for Health and Life Sciences, Director of Worldwide Health, and Director of Organizational Performance for the company’s first health incubator cements his standing as a trailblazer in health innovation. He’s almost always a keynote favorite at conferences such as HLTH and HIMSS.

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Fei-Fei Li, PhD

Dr. Fei-Fei Li is a strong advocate for diversity and inclusion in AI, emphasizing ethical considerations and societal impact. She co-founded AI4ALL, a nonprofit dedicated to increasing diversity in artificial intelligence, and has played a pivotal role in shaping policies for responsible AI development. Her leadership continues to influence the global AI landscape, bridging technology with human values.

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Vivian Lee, MD, PhD, MBA

Dr. Lee, author of The Long Fix, is a pioneering health tech executive driving data-driven health transformation. Her recent work includes developing AI-powered platforms for value-based care models and implementing predictive analytics to reduce hospital readmissions. Dr. Lee’s initiatives as former president at Verily Life Sciences focused on leveraging AI to optimize care delivery across diverse populations.

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Peter Lee, PhD

As Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Health, Dr. Peter Lee spearheads initiatives that apply AI to solve complex health-sector challenges. His recent projects include developing AI models for precision medicine and creating cloud-based solutions for health data interoperability. In his role, Dr. Lee seeks to solve complex health-sector challenges by integrating cutting-edge technology with practical healthcare applications.

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John Nosta

John Nosta has earned his place as a top influence in the AI landscape—particularly in discussions surrounding ChatGPT and large language models—due to his visionary insights and ability to demystify complex technological innovations. His thought leadership bridges the gap between cutting-edge AI research and practical, real-world applications, making the transformative potential of these tools accessible to a broad audience. By articulating AI’s promise and ethical challenges, Nosta fosters a balanced dialogue that drives the industry forward. His forward-thinking perspective and engaging commentary not only illuminate the evolving impact of AI on various sectors but also inspire both startups and established companies to reimagine the future of technology. Nosta has an upcoming book that is expected to drop sometime in fall 2025.

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Ziad Obermeyer, MD

Ziad Obermeyer, MD, is the Blue Cross of California Distinguished Associate Professor of Health Policy and Management at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, researching the intersection of machine learning, medicine and health policy. His work has exposed biases in clinical algorithms and highlighted disparities in care delivery. As a co-founder of Nightingale Open Science, he promotes data transparency and collaboration to advance medical AI. His contributions are reshaping predictive analytics and decision-making in healthcare. Before his full-time career in emergency medicine, he consulted pharmaceutical and global health clients at McKinsey & Co. in New Jersey, Geneva, and Tokyo.

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Neal Patel, MD, MPH

As the Chief Information Officer for Health IT at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), Dr. Patel leads the integration of advanced technologies into health delivery. With more than two decades of experience in HIT, Patel has been instrumental in computerized physician order entry systems and electronic health records to enhance clinical and quality processes. He focuses on translating VUMC goals into informatics strategies, optimizing patient care, and improving safety and services across the care continuum. Dr. Patel’s work underscores the transformative potential of AI and LLMs in the provider system.

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Kyu Rhee, MD, MPP

As Senior Vice President at CVS Health, Rhee leads initiatives that leverage AI for health equity and personalized care. His recent projects include implementing AI-driven health risk assessments in underserved communities and developing machine learning models to predict medication adherence. Through his leadership, CVS has deployed AI-powered virtual care solutions expanding access to preventive services and helping to close care gaps while improving outcomes for diverse patient populations.

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Nigam Shah, MBBS, PhD

Dr. Shah, a professor at Stanford University, specializes in applying AI to clinical workflows and electronic health records. His recent work includes developing AI models for real-time clinical decision support and creating algorithms to identify patients for clinical trials. He has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals on machine learning applications in healthcare and co-authored chapters in Artificial Intelligence in Medicine. Shah also leads Stanford’s Center for Biomedical Informatics Research, advancing research on AI’s role in population health and precision medicine.

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Eric Topol, MD

Dr. Eric Topol is not just “a” trailblazer in digital medicine. He will likely be among those acknowledged singular voices bridging the possible with the practical. His groundbreaking work has consistently pushed the boundaries of health innovation. Dr. Topol redefined patient empowerment with his seminal book The Patient Will See You Now. He transformed the traditional healthcare model, advocating for a future where technology facilitates personalized, proactive care. As the author of Deep Medicine, he continues to champion the integration of AI in health, exploring its potential to revolutionize patient care. Dr. Topol’s visionary contributions and commitment to merging clinical expertise with cutting-edge technology have established him as a guiding voice at the intersection of care and innovation, making him a standout influencer in AI applications.

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Hal Wolf, III, FHIMSS

Harold (Hal) Wolf is the president and CEO of HIMSS, a global advisor and thought leader supporting the transformation of the health ecosystem through information and technology. If health-related smart technologies such as AI, ChatGPT, GenAI, and LLMs have a central home to discuss policies and implementation, it is HIMSS. Hal shepherds the world’s health information management community. While his staff advance science and policy, championing implementation throughout the ecosystem. Wolf and HIMSS are where theory meets action. Wolf is far more than a leader of a global society of import; he is the community’s ambassador to NGOs, governments, and industry.

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The Rise of Generative AI in Digital Health: Key Insights from Galen Growth

Beyond tracking the 20 listed in the year’s people to watch and the previous two years, following the Galen Growth executive briefing Generative AI in Digital Health – Hype or Reality? The report is a must-read for AI, ChatGPT, and LLM professionals. It reveals how nearly 4,000 digital health ventures leverage AI, with 2% focused on generative AI. Notably, 27% of these applications enhance health management, and over 330 AI-driven ventures have partnered with health systems in the past five years. This report offers critical insights into AI’s growing impact on digital health innovation.

Acknowledgments

I thank my Medika Life colleagues, including Drs. Robert Turner, Jeff Livingston, Hesham A. Hassaballa, Patricia Farrell, and Michael Hunter, whose commitment to public health information inspire. I am also grateful to the many sector professionals I engage at events such as CNS Summit, DHAI, HIMSS, HITLAB, HLTH, and ViVE—people who generously share perspectives and contribute invaluable recommendations. A shout-out to Christina Raish, our new associate editor at Medika Life, for her support in making this feature possible.

Special recognition goes to those who have appeared on past Medika Life lists and remain engaged in advancing health and well-being. Their commitment to meaningful change is commendable to individuals and the planet. These trailblazers continue to push boundaries, demonstrating an unwavering dedication to improving lives.

Since the dawn of civilization, humanity has been awed and challenged by technological progress—from the mastery of fire to artificial intelligence. Each era, from the Stone Age to the Iron Age and now the Information and Cognitive Age, has demanded careful consideration of how best to harness innovation. Today, as we navigate the era of “thinking” technologies, one truth remains unchanged: the power of human insight, courage, and empathy must guide progress.

—Gil Bashe, Editor-in-Chief, Medika.Life

Remember to Follow the Voices of Influence from our 2023 and 2024 Rosters:

Spot a broken link, typo, forgotten degree, or name misspelled?

Oops! Apologies! While care has been taken in compiling this list and adding social media links, things go wrong: a name is misspelled, a link is broken, or an incorrect social media handle is listed. Please do get in touch to address typos, amendments, or omissions by reaching gil.bashe@medika.life.

Thanks in advance and be healthy!

The post 20 People Who are Transforming the Health Ecosystem Through Practical Paths to Apply AI – 2025 Roster appeared first on Medika Life.

Along with the presence of the CHIME community, ViVE offers an opportunity for more than 8,000 health leaders—including a sizable number of C-suite executives—to engage in operational and “from the heart” exchanges shaping a long-awaited sector transformation – from fragmented to fluid.

Nashville, celebrated nationally as Music City and an epicenter of health innovation, may play a Swiss-like role in the much-needed shift that must happen sooner rather than later. It is a city of possibilities and a health community built around purpose, entrepreneurial energy, and a collaborative mindset.  If changes in the health system are remotely possible, it is because the town’s ” vibe ” is inclusive and built on realizing dreams and hopes.

At ViVE, the conversation around Artificial Intelligence (AI) has evolved dramatically during the past four meetings. What was once speculative hocus-pocus is now embraced as essential and operational. AI is often mischaracterized as “artificial intelligence.” The correct term that should be applied to the reality of its integration in the workflow is “augmented implementation,” a tool that amplifies human capabilities rather than replacing them. This distinction is key to understanding that AI fits into the health ecosystem’s future, where precision, trust, and efficiency converge.

A recent report from MarketsandMarkets states that the AI in healthcare market size is estimated to surge from USD 20.9 billion in 2024 to USD 148.4 billion by 2029.

The Evolution from Theory to Practice

Reflecting on previous ViVE conferences, the discussion around AI was theoretical and focused on potential applications, ethical considerations, and integration challenges. At ViVE 2025, that narrative continues to head in a focused endpoint direction. AI advancements through ChatGPT and large language models (LLMs) are a given asset embedded in health workflow.

Sessions now showcase real-world applications, from AI-driven clinical decision support to streamlined administrative processes and enhanced patient engagement. The focus is no longer on possibility but on action—how organizations can effectively harness AI to improve outcomes and efficiency in care and cost.

Addressing Cost Inefficiencies and Workflow Optimization

The buzz on the stage and exhibit hall is a common message. One of the most critical aspects of AI integration into health is its potential to address repetitive actions and overcome systemic challenges. Leveraging AI and data analytics, health professionals can identify disease and diagnostic possibilities that escape their training eye and imagination, reduce cost inefficiencies, and optimize health system workflows – from procedure and patient scheduling to finding correct billing codes.

AI-driven insights enable a more equitable distribution of resources, ensuring that underserved populations receive the care they need when needed. Moreover, automating administrative tasks should free up time for clinicians, reducing burnout and allowing them to focus on patient-centered care.

Major Players Accelerate AI Adoption

Industry giants like Amazon, Epic, Microsoft, and Oracle are propelling the rapid integration of AI into health care. These companies are not just developing AI tools that others use as platforms but fostering collaborations to ensure seamless integration within existing health infrastructures.

Amazon: With a strategic investment of up to $4 billion in Anthropic, Amazon is expanding its generative AI capabilities within Amazon Web Services (AWS). Its initiative aims to equip health organizations with advanced AI-driven tools to enhance patient care and operational efficiency.

Epic: Beyond its Microsoft partnership, Epic continues to lead in AI integration, ensuring providers can access cutting-edge tools to improve clinical decision-making and patient engagement.

Microsoft: To deepen collaboration with Epic, Microsoft has embedded its Azure OpenAI Service into the Epic electronic health record (EHR) software. This integration enables generative AI tools to optimize clinical workflows, reduce administrative burdens, and enhance decision-making.

Oracle: Recognizing AI transformative potential, Oracle has introduced generative AI tools within its EHR systems. These tools automate routine tasks, allowing health professionals to devote more time to patient care.

Entrepreneurial Companies Driving Change

ViVE is not only about the industry’s most prominent health IT players coming together under one roof but also a platform where entrepreneurial companies push the industry forward. Smaller AI-driven start-ups and health tech service providers function as a pipeline for innovation, capturing media attention and influencing companies’ mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and investment strategies.

Here are three companies that started small and have become sector change agents:  

Abridge: In February 2025, Abridge raised a $250 million Series D investment that now has the company valued at $2.5 billion. This funding supports deploying their AI-driven clinical documentation platform across more than 100 health systems, including prominent institutions like Duke Health, Johns Hopkins, Mayo Clinic, and UNC Health. The investment also fuels the development of its new Contextual Reasoning Engine, designed to produce billable clinical notes at the point of care, streamlining workflows and reducing administrative burdens.

Cohere Health: Cohere Health is a clinical intelligence company transforming the prior authorization process. By leveraging artificial intelligence, Cohere streamlines administrative paperwork, expediting patient access to necessary care. Their mission is to simplify health by fostering collaboration among patients, physicians, and health plans, ensuring the proper care is delivered promptly and effectively.

Qventus: In January 2024, Qventus announced a $105 million Series D investment led by powerhouse KKR, with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners and investors such as Northwestern Medicine, HonorHealth and Allina Health. This funding aims to enhance Qventus AI-based care automation software, optimizing hospital operations by predicting patient flow and reducing inefficiencies that impact revenues.

These entrepreneurial players—now operating at scale and resourced—challenge industry norms and encourage the mega information players to rethink how their platforms can be the “Intel-inside” service provider systems.

Collaboration is the Catalyst for Innovation

The true power of AI in health emerges from collaboration. Collaboration among technology leaders and health institutions drives innovation, ensuring AI solutions address real-world challenges. That has been a clear message during ViVE 2025.

The Microsoft-Epic collaboration is a driver in integrating AI within EHRs to analyze vast datasets, providing clinicians with actionable insights that improve patient care. Similarly, the Amazon investment in Anthropic is advancing generative AI to enhance health operations. These alliances demonstrate how combining technological expertise with health knowledge leads to breakthrough solutions.

ViVE has become a welcoming platform for fostering these collaborations, bringing health and technology leaders together to discuss AI’s practical applications. The 2025 meeting agenda reflects this focus, offering hands-on sessions that provide attendees with tangible AI implementation strategies and case studies.

The Future of Augmented Implementation in Health

The “augmented implementation” concept is more relevant than ever as we stand at the intersection of technology and health – and a new Administration pushing AI as an elixir for what ails the industry and US global competitiveness. While many wonder whether AI will replace human expertise, there is little debate about whether it will enable more transparent decision-making and efficient care delivery.

The shift from theoretical discussion to practical application has been faster than expected, fueled by collaboration, innovation, and a shared hope for improved patient care. The AI footprint in health will continue to expand, and its success will depend on maintaining a balance between technological advancement and human-centered care.

ViVE is a time capsule of obstacles, anxieties, and health system progress integrated with our combined wisdom into practice. Conversations continue to evolve, collaborations deepen, and applications become more practical. As we continue to embrace “augmented implementation,” the future of health is encouraging—where technology amplifies human potential and delivers unparalleled value to patients and providers alike. ViVE continues to be a place for open, candid exchange.

The post ViVE 2025: Breakthrough Moments in Health Innovation appeared first on Medika Life.

Technological advances, including AI, are like fire—destructive and essential. Our mastery of fire has been vital to industrial and technological progress, from smelting iron to the steam engine to sterilizing food and medical instruments.  But, unchecked, fire is a destructive, societal danger. Similarly, AI can be a force for positive change, but it requires a positive perspective and responsible use to avoid potential dangers and greater socio-economic disparities.

By tapping into AI’s potential, we can create a future where human ingenuity and machine learning work together to improve the well-being of people and the planet. For instance, AI can assist in medical diagnoses, climate change predictions, and disaster response, among other areas. But to make that possible, we will need the courage and curiosity to see AI as humanity’s partner rather than an unwelcomed competitor – to leverage its strengths to complement our own.

Language matters, so we might be better off and more equipped to apply smart technologies by thinking about AI not merely as “artificial intelligence but, at the same time, “augmented implementation.”  

AI is not theoretical. It’s already transforming drug research and discovery and patient care delivery. From the research bench to the patient bedside, augmented implementation accelerates the discovery of new drugs and optimizes clinical trials, assigning the right patients to the right protocol. In hospitals, AI enhances resource allocation, accelerates clinical decision-making, personalizes patient care, automates administrative tasks such as billing and scheduling follow-up appointments, and tracks supply-chain necessities to avoid drug shortages. These implementation advancements result in better patient outcomes, reduced health costs, and a more effective care delivery system.

So, what is the problem? It seems evident that embracing these information technologies can make us smarter and faster – even fail smarter and faster. We don’t even need to know coding.  Large language models (LLMs) with the proper prompts can generate code based on a natural language description of the desired functionality.  

Perhaps the problem isn’t the technology; it’s humanity.  While most believe that humanity will triumph over tech, people’s fears translate into “pump the breaks” reflexes. But go slow quickly also ensures guardrails are in place for its appropriate use.  These transformative informational technologies are happening; now it’s a question of protecting people’s privacy and well-being, using these platforms ethically and responsibly, and keeping our eye on the prize – people’s healthy lives and the planet’s sustainable future.

20 AI/ChatGPT/LLM Champions to Follow

Once again, selecting only 20 thoughtful pathfinders for this listing was a challenge. There are thousands of people writing, speaking, and commenting about AI. It remains a hot topic and is always trendy. This list is not an exclusive roster of people speaking about or explaining AI possibilities. Those that do appear are key voices of influence at the frontlines of AI, GenAI, ChatGPT and LLMs and are boldly guiding the health sector and other related industries to adapt to these technologies ethically and practically. There is no turning back! For that reason, it is important to follow their social posts, speeches, and writings. They are consultants, physicians, policymakers, teachers and theorists. What they say and write should inform opinions and directions. Follow them and get smarter faster or fail slowly.

On this list, you will notice several differences from our last roster. First, we begin with including an LLM model we have been tracking and recommend following closely. Dave AI was the topic of a previous Medika Life article and is a role model for those interested in the potential of LLM technology to augment the patient-care team’s abilities and desire to help and heal. Dave AI offers patients WAZE-AI-like information support.

We have also included an organizational policy leader to close the list—Hal Wolf, President and CEO of HIMSS. We have interviewed Hal before, and his global community, nearing 40,000 members, comprises health leaders and government representatives who are setting the parameters for how these smart technologies can be used wisely.

Acknowledgments

Special appreciation to Medika Life colleagues such as Drs. Robert Turner, Patricia Farrell, and Michael Hunter, who inspire and the many others from numerous circles I meet at meetings CNS Summit, DHAI, HIMSS, HITLAB, HLTH, and ViVE and who share their thoughts and contribute recommendations. Many who appeared on the initial list of global voices keep in touch and share news of sector colleagues who are in the thick of the conversation. Special acknowledgment to people who appeared on previous Medika Life lists and continue along the path to improve the well-being of people and the planet. These exemplary people are dedicated to improving people’s health and we applaud their efforts to make a difference.

Since the dawn of time, people have been in awe and fear about advances made in times marked by technologies—from fire to AI: the Stone Age, Iron Age, and now, today’s Information and Sustainability Age. Humanity must decide how best to deploy these transformative “thinking” technologies. The emphasis on objective and expansive (courageous) “thinking”—the human touch—remains constant.

Gil Bashe, Editor–in-Chief, Medika.Life

AI and ChatGPT Global Voices of Influence

Here is our Medika Life roster of 20 people to follow in alphabetical order—all-important voices to track and learn from in the coming years. We have included links to the social media platforms and bios wherever available.

Follow these Voices of Influence—they are accessible leaders who write and speak on the future of how AI, ChatGPT, GenAI, and LLMs will be essential to health system transformation and the future of care delivery.

Dave AI

Dave is the world’s first LLM conversational AI oncology mentor for cancer patients, bringing a new level of support for cancer patients and their families and trained on billions of unique data points and anonymized real-world patient journey information accumulated during eight years on the Belong Life platform. Learn how LLMs make a difference for patients and the care team, “Meet Dave” and see the practical possibilities and potential of LLMs.

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Anima Anandkumar, PhD

Anima Anandkumar is a Bren Professor at Caltech. Her work developing novel artificial intelligence algorithms enables and accelerates scientific applications of AI, including scientific simulations, weather forecasting, autonomous drone flights, and drug design. Anandkumar is a fellow of the ACM, IEEE, Schmidt Science, Guggenheim and Alfred. P. Sloan Foundations. 

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Brian Anderson, MD

Dr. Brian Anderson is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of the Coalition for Health AI (CHAI). He leads a national coalition developing technical standards and best practices for MLOps, including governance, testing, evaluation, and monitoring in Health AI Assurance Labs. Dr. Anderson led the Informatics and Network Medicine Division at Athenahealth, where he launched a new approach to clinical decision support leveraging machine learning models.

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Pascal Bornet

Pascal Bornet is an award-winning expert, author, keynote speaker, influencer, and thought leader in artificial intelligence. He has received multiple technology and artificial intelligence awards. Various research and consultancy firms rank him as one of the top 10 global experts in AI and Automation, and he was awarded Global Top Voice in Tech in 2019. He is the author of the best-seller and first reference book on Intelligent Automation.

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Lex Fridman, PhD

Lex Fridman, PhD, is a Russian-American computer scientist, podcaster, and artificial intelligence research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on computer vision and autonomous vehicle systems, among other areas of specialty. Fridman also hosts the “Lex Fridman Podcast,” a popular podcast and YouTube series.

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Mo Gawdat, MBA

Mohammad “Mo” Gawdat is an Egyptian entrepreneur and writer. He is the former chief business officer for Google X and the author of the bestselling business books covering life and technology: Solve for Happy and Scary Smart – The Future of Artificial Intelligence and How You Can Save Our World. His premise is critical – “Humans design the algorithms that define the way that AI works, and the processed information reflects an imperfect world.”

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Aneesh Chopra, MPP

Aneesh Chopra is the Chief Strategy Officer of Arcadia, a health data platform that acquired CareJourney, the company he co-founded in 2014. Aneesh served as the first United States White House Chief Technology Officer during the Obama Administration and authored “Innovative State: How New Technologies Can Transform Government.‘ When it comes to policy and smart tech applications, he’s at the forefront of the conversation.

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Eric Horvitz, MD

Microsoft’s Chief Scientific Officer and an early AI champion for health and medicine going back many years, Dr. Eric Horvitz is among the founders and funders of Stanford’s 100-year longitudinal study of the impact of AI on Society. Dr. Horvitz is known for his contributions to AI theory and practice, with a focus on principles and applications of AI amidst the complexities of the open world.

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Andrej Karpathy, PhD

Andrej Karpathy was the senior director of AI at Tesla, where he led its computer vision team in the development of the Tesla Autopilot. He championed its neural network training, the science of “making it work, ” and deployment. His PhD focused on convolutional/recurrent neural networks and their applications in computer vision, natural language processing, and their intersection – his adviser was Fei-Fei Li at the Stanford Vision Lab, who also makes this list of 20 people to follow. He also did a stint at OpenAI.

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Tom Lawry

Tom Lawry is a leading AI transformation advisor to health and medical leaders globally, a top keynote speaker, and best-selling author of Hacking Healthcare – How AI and the Intelligent Health Revolution Will Reboot an Ailing System. Now the managing director of Second Century Tech, he is a former Microsoft leader who served as National Director for AI for Health and Life Sciences, Director of Worldwide Health, and Director of Organizational Performance for the company’s first health incubator. Prior to Microsoft, he was Senior Director at GE Healthcare, the founder of two venture-backed healthcare software companies, and a health-system executive.

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Fei-Fei Li, PhD

Dr. Fei-Fei Li is the inaugural Sequoia Professor in the Computer Science Department at Stanford University and Co-Director of Stanford’s Human-Centered AI Institute. She was the Director of Stanford’s AI Lab from 2013 to 2018 and mentored others appearing on this Medika Life Top 20 list of AI voices to follow.

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Berci Mesko, MD, PhD

Bertalan Meskó, PhD, is known as “The Medical Futurist” and the Director of The Medical Futurist Institute. He analyzes how science fiction technologies can become a reality in medicine and healthcare. Dr. Mesko’s writings are must-reads—he provides incredible practical knowledge on how AI will transform the health sector. He holds a PhD in genomics and is an Amazon Top 100 author. His book, “The Future of Medicine,” outlines his journey as a medical futurist.

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Allie K. Miller

Allie K. Miller was the Global Head of Machine Learning Business Development for Startups and Venture Capital at Amazon (AWS), advising the world’s top machine learning researchers, founders, and investors. She was the youngest-ever woman to build an artificial intelligence product at IBM, spearheading product development across computer vision, conversation, data, and regulation for thousands of companies. Allie continues to explore how this technology will impact workflow.

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Andrew Ng, PhD

Dr. Andrew Ng is a globally recognized leader in AI. He is the Founder of DeepLearning.AI, the Founder and CEO of Landing AI, the General Partner at AI Fund, the Chairman and Co-Founder of Coursera, and an Adjunct Professor at Stanford University’s Computer Science Department.

• LinkedIn
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John Nosta

John Nosta is a cutting-edge thinker and speaker in the world of technology, science, medicine, and innovation. He is globally recognized among the foremost voices constantly pushing the envelope on how AI and ChatGPT will transform health settings and workflow. Nosta is a nonstop power thinker (and contrarian) and has more than 500 articles published on innovation topics. His writings on Psychology Today chronicle “The Cognitive Age.” John is someone who challenges the status quo. As a creative thinker; he’s also been the spark behind several multi-billion health products improving and saving lives.

• LinkedIn
• X

Tam C. Nguyen

Tam Nguyen holds multiple appointments, including Associate Professor at Melbourne Medical School and Deputy Director of Research at St. Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne. He has more than 20 years of experience in clinical trials, health and medical research, and research management, including tertiary teaching hospitals, medical research institutes, and universities across Australia. He is applying smart technologies to learn and engage faster. He is the co-editor of the recent book Artificial Intelligence in Medicine (Springer).

• LinkedIn

Ziad Obermeyer, MD

Ziad Obermeyer, MD, is the Blue Cross of California Distinguished Associate Professor of Health Policy and Management at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, researching the intersection of machine learning, medicine and health policy. Before his full-time career in emergency medicine, he consulted pharmaceutical and global health clients at McKinsey & Co. in New Jersey, Geneva, and Tokyo.

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Brian Roemmele

Brian Roemmele is an author, scientist, researcher, analyst, connector, thinker, and doer. Brian became an early adopter of AI and neural networks and pioneered Prompt Engineering technologies and techniques to understand and extract information from AI platforms. He’s also a bit of a pop icon, and his works range from smart tech to how to apply Pokémon for customer acquisition.

• LinkedIn
• Medium
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Stela Solar

Stela Solar is the Inaugural Director of Australia’s National AI Centre, hosted by CSIRO. The Centre’s mission is to accelerate positive AI adoption and innovation that benefits businesses and the community. Currently, Stela also serves as Co-chair of the Commonwealth AI Consortium.

• LinkedIn
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Harold (Hal) Wolf III

Harold (Hal) Wolf is the president and CEO of HIMSS, a global advisor and thought leader supporting the transformation of the health ecosystem through information and technology. If health-related smart technologies such as AI, ChatGPT, GenAI, and LLMs have a central home to discuss policies and implementation, it is HIMSS. Hal shepherds the world’s health information expert community, and his staff advances the science and policy championing implementation throughout the health ecosystem. Wolf and HIMSS are where theory meets action.

• LinkedIn
• X

Spot a broken link, typo, forgotten degree, or name misspelled?

Oops! Apologies! While care has been taken in compiling this list and adding social media links, things go wrong: a name is misspelled, a link is broken, or an incorrect social media handle is listed. Please do get in touch to address typos, amendments, or omissions by reaching gil.bashe@medika.life.

Thanks in advance and be healthy!

The post As AI and LLMs Supercharge Digital Health Possibilities – Here Are Medika’s Top 20 ’24 Influential Voices to Follow appeared first on Medika Life.

But what would I do if I could only attend one and not the other?  Sorry, you’ll have to crystal ball that answer. 

I’m dedicated to health innovation that can improve people’s health.  I recognize that the fragmented health ecosystem creates a self-inflicted system-wide chaos that diminishes the provider’s ability to help people seeking healing. It results in patients having to re-tell their medical narrative again and again to each health provider they engage.  It leads people needing preventive or follow-on care to fall through system cracks.  It means that people most at risk due to enduring and unjust health disparities are left to wither.  That injustice pains and angers me.

The Business of Industry Conferences

Who doesn’t have FOMO – the fear of missing out – as we see the explosion of selfies on LinkedIn, X, Thread and Instagram of industry friends and colleagues and realize we’re not among Nick Adkins’ #Pinksocks or Swaay Health group photo glam? It’s like being invited to a hot party, not showing up, only to hear later that it was “incredible” and how we missed out. That’s life. Even Bruce Wayne and Batman can’t be in the same place simultaneously.

Industry gatherings – conferences, summits, and meet-ups – are revenue-generating businesses, from selling lanyards to exhibit costs to sponsoring satellite sessions.  To accommodate attendees, the companies that organize these mammoth events need to drive efficiency to reach profitability.  They need to inform and entertain. Don’t begrudge them the right to make money – sustainable gatherings lead to enduring communities.  We all benefit from the consistent, collaborative exchange.

Logistics are Often Planned Years in Advance

These meetings are geo-positioned corresponding to audience size, and space is secured many years and years in advance.  HIMSS is a 36,000-person gathering.  In the United States, only three venues can likely accommodate that meeting size: Orlando, Chicago, and Las Vegas.  ViVE has almost 8,000 attendees, more location flexibility, and wisely, it is heading back to Nashville – the nation’s capital of health provider services.  As businesses, their timing depends on the competitive strategy to attract sponsors, speakers and attendees. Retaining attendees annually creates a powerful magnet to draw in others – friends of friends.

ViVE, only three years old, is a hit. The blend of major sessions held within the exhibit hall, evening social events, and size speak to people’s need to connect with thought leaders and find a place within the CHIME/ViVE community.

Competitive or Different Missions 

Our mindsets are too often structured to pit one against the other.  Don’t go there. These two health industry gatherings are very different in rationale, structure, duration of time, and desired outcome. I don’t favor one over the other and schedule for both.  Imagine if we started to choose among ATA, HIMSS, SXSW, and ViVE.  

It’s an interesting polemic – especially if you only have the budget to attend one or two of these gatherings.  If budget and time demand, I recommend picking two to three and investing your time in cementing a network of advisors, mentors, and community.  [NOTE: I tend to center my meeting schedule around CNS Summit, HIMSS, HITLAB, HLTH, and ViVE – though I attend others such as the Digital Health & AI Innovation Summit.]

Keep in mind the top speakers rotate among all these gatherings. It is their responsibility as institutional thought leaders to share their wisdom.  So, we must listen to and learn from leaders such as Rasu Shrestha, MD, Walter Greenleaf, Ph.D., or Tom Lawry, who are likely to attend or speak at many of these gatherings.  However, the attendees and the call-to-action required determine their message flow and should set your scheduling priorities.  

ViVE draws me in due to its intimacy and community.  Like CNS Summit (Collaborate for Novel Solutions), ViVe is “right-sized” to rub shoulders with key colleagues, move swiftly from session to session, and have an exhibit floor that doesn’t require cutting through the jungle.  It is a magnet for like-minded digital health grass-tops leaders who want to check in and connect about how the system can better align workflow processes.  Clear process results in better (health-system) performance.

Digital health in itself is misunderstood.  Apps and wearables are the tip of the information iceberg.  It is about digitizing the health system overall and connecting the provider system to the consumer – seamless care.  That remains an enormous undertaking for an industry sector that still clings to the old ways, like a three-year-old to a beloved teddy bear, despite being told to abandon its treasured fax machines.  Digital encompasses how we will deploy AI, ChatGPT and GenAI to improve workflow.  It demands that we position health equity as the core priority of these efforts.  It considers how we can connect consumers to their providers confidently and well within HIPAA parameters.

I like ViVE for many reasons – mainly because I can enter into conversations with people seasoned enough to influence corporate strategy or at least inspire each other and are eager to learn and hear from others who care equally about the patient experience.  I think ViVE enables attendees to revisit critical elements of the health system that determine business success. Don’t ever underestimate reflection. The CHIME/ViVE connection offers added value and brings a strong community mindset.

HIMSS is the Davos of Health Information

HIMSS is a 70-year-old society with 125,000 members worldwide.  Since 1962, it has held an annual global meeting, part of a bigger effort to serve patients by democratizing information with best-practice standards.

“HIMSS is where big ideas are discussed, innovation is created, and professionals make the connections that will change the future of healthcare. From the engineers and developers building new solutions to the technology leaders guiding health systems through major challenges like the ethical use of AI and cybersecurity, HIMSS conferences are a meeting of the minds that will create tomorrow’s health,” said Christine Buck, HIMSS chief marketing officer.

Yet, the HIMSS conference is much more than scale – 36,000 people focused on health information. It’s about where these attendees come from and their determination to shape health access and delivery standards.  They hail from 70 countries, and their titles range from Health Minister of Korea to call center manager from South Dakota.  They’re wearing US Armed Forces non-commissioned officer to bird colonel military ranks or t-shirts and jeans from the top dogs at global giants like CISCO, EPIC and Microsoft to health tech start-ups.

“My favorite part? The authentic, genuine, and casual nature of interactions with other humans in the health industry who are navigating the mutual hallways of mixed indifference and passion — the marketing formality gives way to our better nature of connection and collaboration,” says Matt Cybulsky Ph.D., host of edgy The Digital Health Roundtable.

HIMSS is a moving city, and expect to cover your step goal during its five-day 8 AM to 6 PM schedule, including hundreds of sessions curated, tracked, and peer-reviewed by HIMSS-member volunteers.  Along with a bolus of professional development, there are key NGO moments where government leaders announce new international health information management agreements. HIMSS is a society that encompasses best-practice solutions, professional development and public policy.

For example, during the meeting, Hal Wolf, president and CEO of HIMSS, and Geun Chan Lim, CEO of Korea Health Information Service, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) cementing a three-year relationship between HIMSS and the Republic of Korea for Electronic Medical Record adoption in hospitals throughout the country.  HIMSS transcends the definition of a meeting; it’s a professional society that works across industries and countries.

“HIMSS conferences and events provide our membership – and all our attendees – with unrivaled access to best-in-class thought leaders, educational programming, and groundbreaking speakers. HIMSS24 helped drive awareness of pressing health equity issues and social determinants of health while also creating a space for everyone from CIOs to nurses to build connections and collaborate,” adds Buck.

Apples or Oranges?

The idiom comparing two dissimilar objects was originally apples to oysters.  Things change over time. Originator John Ray penned his thoughts in a collection of sayings in 1670.  It wasn’t a competition between two fruits but a reminder that they’re different, so don’t compare. 

I was at ViVE.  I was at HIMSS. I value lessons learned – albeit different – from both.  Apples and oranges.  I like them both.

The post ViVE and HIMSS – Apples to Apples? Apples to Oranges? appeared first on Medika Life.

In the first three days of this Los Angeles gathering, I’ve had the chance to pop in on countless sessions, swing by exhibits that occupy large and small footprints and chat with C-Suite voices from some of the nation’s most prominent health players and most promising start-ups.  But as Sheba Medical Center’s Chief Innovation Officer, Eyal Zimlichman, MD, MSc, thoughtfully reminded a filled-to-capacity room during one session: “Sometimes the challenge is not the technology or innovative approach.  It can be in the implementation.”

Several companies caught my attention during three days at ViVE.  Unexpectedly, the most impressive are enterprises that aren’t swinging for the bleachers of change but those who make incremental improvements in the health ecosystem, leading to better patient care and putting a lid on spiraling costs. More and more, there is a need for meaningful changes now.  What happens tomorrow is theoretical. Keeping the health system chugging ahead translates into keeping doors open to patients who might not have access to care.

What should readers do with this information?  Follow these companies.  Listen to what their senior executives say about how their approaches impact the health industry. Use their information to benchmark the “right now” that lays the groundwork for successful technologies that too often capture the buzz and have yet to show. As the adage goes, the “proof is in the pudding.”  These are companies that have a presence within the sector and demonstrate momentum.

Companies at the Forefront of Health Information and Innovation

Several companies invited Medika to swing by their exhibits or attend panel sessions.  These companies are working hard to help health systems improve workflow – recognizing that repetitive tasks can and should be automated. Highways have moved from coin-taking toll attendants to EzPass transponders. The benefits are clear – reduced traffic and smog. Give thought to eliminating hospital bureaucracy that burdens providers and consumers. 

The companies on the ViVE exhibit floor acknowledge that physician time – a precious resource – can be better used in patient care.  Others realize that the changes in technology and information systems are happening so fast that hospital systems must embed outsourced staff to keep current with transitions.  Innovation is only meaningful if used – otherwise, it’s merely conversational and conceptual.

ViVE is doing something needed and practical. It’s bringing together prominent players in health, companies that can make information valuable, and start-ups looking not to disrupt but positively evolve time-test but worn approaches. Here are some companies that caught my eye:

• The consumer appliance giant Best Buy presence at a health industry conference may seem out of place. They don’t have in-store clinics – they have gadgets and wearables. They have a Geek Squad ready to set up your home entertainment studio.  But they’re the perfect partner for hospital systems looking to discharge patients to heal at home and remain connected to their providers.  They are experts in helping seniors overcome the challenges of setting up and using remote monitoring technologies that incorporate blood pressure monitoring or ECGs.  They are pros in addressing tech questions virtually.  If aging and home care are to become a standard of care, Best Buy is ahead of the curve in helping health systems make it a possible leap.

• Technology should reduce workflow – not add to the headaches chief technology and information officers manage. Health systems must streamline repetitive operations and care processes. CereCore is a leading provider of IT services that help hospitals and health systems chart a course through the operational IT labyrinth. The company works with hospital systems to prioritize patient care and information streamline processes. Its “get it done approach” includes IT staffing, application support, technical professional and managed services, IT advisory services, and EHR consulting.  With more than 700 employees across the US, its workforce includes clinical and technical experts supporting 450 hospitals and implementing IT solutions across 4,000 care settings.

• Corti is a startup specializing in AI-enabled decision support tools for clinic and first responder environments. Corti develops solutions to improve efficiency and experience by analyzing emergency conversations using ambient clinical voice and real-time clinical discussions. Like large language models (LLMs), Corti trains on thousands of actual patient calls and clinical consultations, listens alongside professionals, and converts this learning into insights and suggestions using proprietary speech recognition and natural-language processing. Published data show that AI outperforms human call-takers in sensitivity and predictive accuracy. This advancement augments call-takers ability to triage and ensures faster and more precise emergency response.

• DigiCARE is an early company addressing a long-targeted goal of improving brain disease care.  Based on Indiana University research, a machine-learning algorithm powers its promising AI platform with an 80% performance accuracy and a one-year prediction horizon to detect all forms of unrecognized dementia. The platform mines already-collected data from electronic patient health records and sorts through structured and unstructured data, including patient demographics, diagnosis, medication history, and vast medical notes. The company is already working with health systems to deliver routine brain care for a growing aging population. Early detection of diseases such as Alzheimer’s treatments will accelerate new approaches to drug discovery and development.

• e4health fills expertise gaps in IT, HIM, coding, and CDI. When provider organizations face management issues and bandwidth concerns, the company provides expert resources to complete projects and achieve departmental goals on time and within budget. From legacy data conversion for new EHR implementations to staffing vacancies, e4Health delivers the highest levels of healthcare expertise alongside a relentless commitment to integrity and data accuracy. Their teams ensure consistent quality, accuracy, and productivity for the customers served.

• Like the “smart home,” eVideon is championing hospital smart room technology and digital workflow. The company’s flagship product, Vibe Health, automates clinical workflow, facilitates enhanced communication, and transforms care environments into personalized and interactive spaces. The solutions include an in-room Smart TV, digital whiteboard, digital door sign, and bedside tablet, redefining traditional care settings. These technologies integrate with the hospital’s Electronic Medical Records (EMR) system and other technologies, making real-time information accessible to patients, families, and the care team. Medika Life readers can access their Smart Room Technology Playbook— to understand how technology saves nurses time and improves the care experience.
• HCTec provides IT services to over 1,500 academic medical centers, health systems, community hospitals, critical access hospitals, and other healthcare provider organizations nationwide. HCTec teams offer health information technology expertise across clinical and business applications, data, security, and other technical services. With some 500 team members and decades of combined health experience, HCTec is highly KLAS-rated, providing healthcare IT staffing, managed services solutions, and EHR services.

America has a significant obesity challenge – a public health epidemic that is a tipping point to heart disease, diabetes and stroke. New medications called GLP-1 are a new class of medications and a partial solution – they address weight-key symptoms of the problem. They do not address the underlying diseases or modify the patient’s mindset long-term. Some other pathway is needed! Enter Intellihealth, a startup software solution that effectively scales obesity management and tackles weight management, risk management, comorbidities, diabetes, cancer, and heart and respiratory disease impact. The American Medical Association classifies obesity as a disease, but the US health system is no match for its prevalence.

• The “value-based care” buzzword continues to enter the health economics conversation.  Interwell Health, a kidney care management company, has impressive roots – formed from the merger of the value-based care division of Fresenius Medical Care North America with Cricket Health – and may be among the better examples demonstrating how information can guide physicians and staff to prioritize care decisions for people with chronic kidney disease care to end-stage kidney disease.  So far, the company has proven its ability to improve outcomes and deliver better quality of life for people while reducing the cost of care for payer partners and providing the resources physicians need to navigate a value-based world – all at scale.

• We need more information. TED Founder Richard “Saul” Wurman describes data dilemma perfectly in his bestselling book titled “Information Anxiety.”  The US healthcare system places tremendous weight on the shoulders of health providers to obtain, manage, and share clinical data. If health professionals need a remedy for their anxiety, MRO understands data exchange challenges between providers and payers.  MRO has been a key clinical data exchange player for some 20 years, modernizing health information analog and manual processes. The company is lightening the load for customers, and the proof is that it connects more than 200 EHRs, 200,000 providers, 35,000 practices, and 900 hospitals, drawing data from more than 1.3 billion clinical records.

NourishedRx is a purpose-centered digital health and nutrition company that has become a public health voice working to improve outcomes, lower medical costs and advance health-equity goals. Diet-related chronic conditions account for almost 20% of all US health care costs—particularly for people facing food insecurity and diet-related health conditions that can be tracked through blood pressure and HbA1c, NICU admissions and LBW births, pre-term births, depression, and more. Mission-centered NourishedRx is not a food bank! Its highly personalized model structures service through the lens of “food as medicine.” Its operating system is also a call to action—health and health equity—one meal, one individual, and one community at a time. Its customers are surprising—savvy payers who recognize that without access to healthy nutrition, vulnerable people at risk for non-communicable diseases are almost certain to tip into the abyss of illness.

Lauren Driscoll is the founder and CEO of NourishedRx and a Medicare Advantage expert. She founded NourishedRx in 2019 to support health plans’ efforts to address their members’ most actionable and critical non-clinical needs — nutrition and social isolation. Information can be linked to life-saving interventions. NourishedRx demonstrates that possibility.

There’s no clear consensus on whether ADHD is over- or under-diagnosed. However, it is universally understood that timely and accurate assessment can prevent emotional and academic struggles among children and teens.  Getting it right is hindered by a lack of standardized diagnostic tests. Qbtech is transforming objective ADHD care through a technology-first approach that augments professional care. Like many ViVE attendees in the busy hallways and crowded exhibit halls, Qbtech takes a practical solutions approach to health-sector challenges.  Its Food and Drug Administration cleared for marketing computer-based tasks monitoring system brings new perspectives to evaluation and treatment, and decision-makers welcome the 15-20 approach to initial assessment.  The system has been adopted across 43 US states and by organizations such as the NHS in the United Kingdom. Outcomes data appears in over 35 independent studies.

• Sendero is a management consulting firm that guides strategic planning, digital transformation, and organizational effectiveness. Sendero healthcare practice was developed to help clients navigate the industry’s complex and frequently changing operations, experience, and technology enablement challenges. The consulting group brings objective thought combined with years of experience to clients from project ideation through implementation so that health systems can maintain their focus on essential high standards and adapt to deliver solid patient experience, support employees, and engage in evolving waves of innovation. Objectivity and knowledge are precious resources.

• Prof. Eyal Zimlichman, the Chief Transformation Officer and Chief Innovation Officer at Sheba Medical Center, was on hand during VIVE.  Sheba is Israel’s largest medical center and a top-ranked Newsweek hospital. Dr. Zimlichman is the founder and director of the Sheba ARC (Accelerate, Redesign, Collaborate) Innovation Hub. This global innovation ecosystem aims to redesign the health system through digital health innovation. Here, Sheba was wearing a different health system hat. ARC is creating innovation communities worldwide and in locations where, beyond transformation, innovation can address social determinants of health, such as economics, education, and life experience. 

Sheba is also a “paperless-wide” health system: no faxes or massive file systems.  The health system can impact more than physical health. They can inspire young people to pursue careers in technology and reduce the carbon impact of hospitals to improve the environment.

• Tegria is a global healthcare consulting and services company partnering with provider and payer organizations to unleash their potential to contribute to a healthier future collaboratively. Like others, it delivers end-to-end solutions to help clients avoid economic strife that is too common among health systems and secure growth. But here, they are not wishes or empty words.  Tegria has over 1,500 professionals with technology expertise working alongside 500 clients in North America and Europe.

“When we invest in technology, we invest in partnerships and define our priorities,” said Ray Gensigner, MD, Tegria chief medical officer, responding to Medika Life. “Technologies must demonstrate a clear potential to benefit patients and healthcare providers simultaneously. To be on my investment radar, technologies should have credible validation and promise to make a tangible difference,” he added.

• The financial reports of the hospital system reflect the growing number of struggling care systems. Information is the lifeblood of patient care – but it’s also the navigational tool for hospital executives to build sustainable systems. ViVe was the setting for breaking news.  TruBridge is a new player on the scene with a heritage that spans four decades.  Numerous companies joining legacy company CPSI as acquisitions have united under this new brand identity.

While the name is new, the company continues to offer highly regarded revenue cycle management (RCM) solutions that enhance productivity and integrate financial operations across acute to post-acute and ambulatory settings. But rallying all its companies under one corporate identity clarifies for customers how TruBridge services, products and talent weave together and project the scale and strength of a mega sector player.

• On the go? 98point6 Technologies. has refocused its talent and time, making its AI-powered technology and software available to providers to expand access to care and improve patient engagement since the sale of its Care Delivery Division a year ago to Transcarent. In many ways, this renewed business focus secures 98point6 place as one of the nation’s leading virtual care platforms for patients and their physicians to connect when on the move. Its flagship 98point6 Technology Platform provides cloud-based software combining augmented intelligence with automated practice standards and EHR integration.  

At a time when primary care services are needed more than ever to stem the tide of non-communicable illnesses, 98point6 Technologies are a needed bridge between brick-and-mortar physicians’ services and consumers who now think hybrid and expect the world to respond to their flexible needs.

• Viz.ai harnesses the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to improve patient outcomes. Its FDA-cleared algorithms analyze medical imaging data, including CT scans, EKGs, and echocardiograms, and have the potential to provide real-time insights that accelerate diagnosis and treatment. The Viz Platform autodetects possible disease presence across therapeutic areas, including neurovascular, cardiovascular, trauma care, and radiology. Diagnosis sits at the heart of treatment – do that faster and more accurately, and physicians can do their best work with greater confidence and less stress.  This is not a “success is just around the corner technology.”  Already, Viz.ai has been adopted by more than 1,500 US hospitals – perhaps on its way to becoming a sector standard.

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The concept of the future is always inviting and exciting. Futurists are rarely wrong.  It isn’t easy to judge what remains intangible. The difference between invention and innovation is scaled customer application.  AI, ChatGPT, and GenAI applied play to the strengths of the curious and bold. Using these technologies democratizes information for humanity’s benefit. The tools can improve care, increase workflow efficiency, and lower spiraling health costs.  This is all happening right now. 

The companies included in this ViVE summary are helping the health system and their customers deliver transformational health technology today. That may seem less “edgy” than tomorrow’s shiny object, but all ideas are judged by their impact and sales. Follow these companies who are paving the way for improved care delivery.

The post Is Innovation an Overused Idea? ViVE is Home to Real-World Health-System Evolution! appeared first on Medika Life.

Hospital systems are experiencing increased cost of care due to workforce shortages, constrained bed capacity and increasing readmission rates.^i,ii Care-at-home programs, which typically include a virtual component, have proven to be effective in decreasing the length of stay and readmission rates which can result in the overall cost of care being reduced.^iii,iv Additionally, care-at-home programs can also support patient recovery and safety, with a potential reduction in fall risk and hospital acquired infections.^v Patients using remote solutions in their homes are three times more likely to be satisfied with the overall care experience.^vi

The goal of the GE HealthCare-Biofourmis collaboration is to enable more patients to go home earlier, and offer an alternative to facility-based care with the comfort and peace of mind that they are receiving high quality care at home with the intent of driving healthy behaviors in patients by managing them remotely. Moreover, insights from Biofourmis’ FDA-cleared, AI-guided algorithms can help care teams deliver efficient, personalized care at home.

“Biofourmis’ demonstrated success with care-at-home solutions will extend GE HealthCare’s current inpatient monitoring portfolio to support patient care from the hospital to home,” said Ashutosh Banerjee, GE HealthCare. “Combining our companies’ demonstrated capabilities will help revolutionize the way we approach the patient care journey as well as help address current challenges faced by health systems including hospital capacity issues and clinical staffing shortages.”

Biofourmis offers care-at-home solutions to deliver and enable care both virtually and in person using its digital platform, with FDA-cleared AI-guided algorithms, clinical-grade wearable devices, in-home services orchestration technology, and nursing services. The solutions provide numerous dynamic care pathways with questionnaire-branching logic to provide enhanced clinical context for care teams.

GE HealthCare’s FlexAcuity™ monitoring solutions in combination with GE HealthCare’s virtual care solutions like Mural ICU, Command Center and Digital CMU adapt to rapidly changing patient needs in the hospital and are built on a legacy of innovation. By offering Biofourmis’ virtual care-at-home solutions to customers, GE HealthCare can extend the care continuum beyond the hospital, and care teams can have a longitudinal patient view beyond the hospital setting.

Ross Armstrong, General Manager of Biofourmis Care, said: “Our collaboration will enable health systems and hospitals to leverage the power of technology and data in order to shape patient-focused solutions across the care continuum, no matter where the site of care is.”

GE HealthCare will begin distributing Biofourmis solutions to customers in the United States starting Q1 2024.

About Biofourmis

Biofourmis delivers technology-enabled solutions that bring the right care to any person anywhere. Biofourmis’ innovative solutions provide people everywhere with connected access to hospital-level services, virtual provider networks for remote care, in-home services, and life-changing clinical trials—all without leaving their homes. The company’s FDA-cleared AI-enabled analytics collect and analyze patient data in real time and identify shifts that can assist in supporting proactive interventions. Trusted by leading health systems, payers, biopharma companies and patients alike, Biofourmis’ connected platform improves patient outcomes, prevents hospital readmissions, aims to accelerate drug development, and closes critical gaps in care—ultimately making science smarter, healthcare simpler, and patients healthier. Biofourmis is a global technology company enabling care delivery, with headquarters in Boston and offices in Singapore and India.

About GE HealthCare Technologies Inc.

GE HealthCare is a leading global medical technology, pharmaceutical diagnostics, and digital solutions innovator, dedicated to providing integrated solutions, services, and data analytics to make hospitals more efficient, clinicians more effective, therapies more precise, and patients healthier and happier. Serving patients and providers for more than 100 years, GE HealthCare is advancing personalized, connected, and compassionate care, while simplifying the patient’s journey across the care pathway. Together our Imaging, Ultrasound, Patient Care Solutions, and Pharmaceutical Diagnostics businesses help improve patient care from diagnosis, to therapy, to monitoring. We are a $19.6 billion business with 51,000 colleagues working to create a world where healthcare has no limits.

ⁱ Fleron, A., Krishna, A., & Singhal, S. (2022, September 19). The gathering storm: The transformative impact of inflation on the healthcare sector. McKinsey & Company. https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/healthcare/our-insights/the-gathering-storm-the-transformative-impact-of-inflation-on-the-healthcare-sector

ⁱⁱ Massive Growth in Expenses and Rising Inflation Fuel Continued Financial Challenges for America’s Hospitals and Health Systems. American Hospital Association. (2022, April). https://www.aha.org/system/files/media/file/2022/04/2022-Hospital-Expenses-Increase-Report-Final-Final.pdf

ⁱⁱⁱ Levine DM, Ouchi K, Blanchfield B, Saenz A, Burke K, Paz M,Diamond K, Pu CT, Schnipper JL. Hospital-Level Care at Home for Acutely Ill Adults: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Ann Intern Med. 2020 Jan21;172(2):77-85. doi: 10.7326/M19-0600. Epub 2019 Dec 17. PMID: 31842232.

^iv Leff B, Burton L, Mader SL, Naughton B, Burl J, Inouye SK, Greenough WB 3rd, Guido S, Langston C, Frick KD, Steinwachs D, Burton JR. Hospital at home: feasibility and outcomes of a program to provide hospital-level care at home for acutely ill older patients. Ann Intern Med.2005 Dec 6;143(11):798-808. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-143-11-200512060-00008. PMID: 16330791.

^v Telehealth: Helping hospitals deliver cost-effective care.American Hospital Association. (2016, April 22). https://www.aha.org/system/files/content/16/16telehealthissuebrief.pdf  

^vi Leff B, Burton L, Mader S, Naughton B, Burl J, Clark R, Greenough WB 3rd, Guido S, Steinwachs D, Burton JR. Satisfaction with hospital at home care. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2006 Sep;54(9):1355-63. doi:10.1111/j.1532-5415.2006.00855.x. PMID: 16970642.

The post GE HealthCare and Biofourmis Collaborate to Extend Patient Monitoring Outside the Hospital with Virtual Care-at-Home Solutions appeared first on Medika Life.

Media colleague Eric Wicklund, associate content manager and senior editor for Innovation, Technology, and Pharma for HealthLeaders, has penned a ViVE preview piece with a power grabber: “CAN VIVE 2024 SOLVE HEALTHCARE’S BIGGEST DILEMMAS?” That headline question isn’t rhetorical and doesn’t require an answer.  Resolution is not the responsibility of the ViVE co-organizers CHIME Health and HLTH.  ViVE puts the collaborative opportunity for health ecosystem players to face the challenges and opportunities in motion.

At the heart of these dilemmas is how payers, patients, product innovators, policymakers, and providers source and maximize health information.  No doubt everyone is jumping on the AI, ChatGPT, and GenAI bandwagon, excited that technology will solve the problems of system-wide fragmentation.  But like any tech shift or bolus of information, it all comes down to what innovation theorist John Nosta calls the “Introduction of the Cognitive Age.”

While some express trepidation that this technological revolution is the dawn of all fears that smart machines will replace health professionals, Nosta suggests that the “Cognitive Age leverages AI as a partner, augmenting and enhancing people’s ability to access and act with heightened intellectual and even technical (i.e., physical ability).

Once again, ViVE has teamed up with Galen Growth to provide insights on digital health in the US health systems. Galen Growth connects the importance of partnership and recent trends influencing not only the US health system – but also the close reader how health information and innovative technologies will transform the delivery, quality, and cost of patient care – including the influence on clinical evidence, decentralized clinical trials, and connective and home care.

Access the Galen Growth 2024 Digital Health Report here: LINK

ViVE is the space where all these conversations – the good, bad, and ugly – of the (predominately US) health ecosystem can be explored, and ideas can be identified and pursued.  VIVE partners with Galen Growth – the global digital health research and analytics specialist. It uses its proprietary database HealthTech AlphaTM to track more than 680 million data points, documenting 14,200 digital health ventures worldwide to produce its “Digital Health Innovation | 2024 Report.”

“In an era of rapid technological advancement, the 6,129 hospitals within 407 Health Systems1 across the United States are at the forefront of transforming healthcare delivery for diverse communities nationwide, notes Julien de Salaberry, a co-founder and CEO of Galen Growth. As the Digital Health landscape evolves, Health Systems play a pivotal role in bridging gaps, enhancing patient outcomes, and addressing persistent pain points.”

But the most significant challenges to accessing the potential of these new digital health technologies are not in ideas themselves – rather the innovators’ understanding of how the US health system works (or is dysfunctional); too often, the founders of these companies are unaware of how to engage leading hospital systems – find champions, integrate within the system, and address cost benefits and ongoing support issues.  Failure to navigate the complexity of countless decision-makers too often leads to ventures running out of capital and vanishing.  The Galen Growth Digital Health Innovation Report documents the roadway to potential success.

CTOs and CIOs within significant health systems are not immune to unprecedented challenges facing hospital economics and the cost of technology. Digital health leaders also recognize that they will hit a brick wall without clearly expressing ROI.  Health systems require measurable outcomes and evidence-based results from digital health partners, and to succeed mutually, they are creating incubators, venture groups and partnership models.

Health systems – hospitals, long-term care communities, and home care providers – will make giant leaps very shortly, drawing on information and technological changes.  The Galen Growth Report issued at ViVE on Monday, February 25^th, is the analysis and roadmap to understand better the economic priorities and investments driving these changes.

What is evident from the Galen Growth Digital Health Innovation Report is that while the total dollars of investment in digital health saw a steep decline from the exuberant investment during the height of the COVID pandemic, the category has gained greater importance among health systems seeking to make significant advances in how patient-care, work-flow processes, preventive care and reimbursement analyses play out.

AI, ChatGPT and GenAI investment is not aspirational – the focus is mainly practical and operational.  Those accessing the full report during ViVE will immediately gain valuable information to guide internal planning. Medika Life will update this article tomorrow with a link to the full report.

Will ViVE solve – as Eric Wicklund teases readers – the health system’s “biggest dilemmas?” Is that even it’s mission?  Likely not. But the people who attend ViVE will be looking for insights and information that can guide solutions. The Galen Growth “Digital Health Innovation | 2024 Report” will be one of the big takeaways that will spark conversation, ideas, and hopefully, as Eric reflects, some concrete solutions.

The post Galen Growth + ViVE 2024 Champion Digital Health Innovation as a Salve for an Ailing US Health Ecosystem appeared first on Medika Life.

The sessions (and meals) – positioned around the exhibit floor were meaty – and welcomely unscripted, offering plenty of time for real-world reflections on the state of health delivery.  Afterward, speakers would mingle on the exhibit floor to answer questions and continue the conversation.  Whether an intended benefit for attendees or not, the meeting structure was a great hit and strengthened ViVE as a go-to community where people can interact and discuss challenges and possibilities. 

The number of attendees was right-sized, where meeting and exchanging thoughts is a priority and at a time when the economy and health system are under a magnifying glass.  The system is broken. That’s a collective given. However, where we go next remains a mystery.

Some 6,000 people were in Nashville for this four-day CHIME intensive, and the schedule of events – official and unofficial – offered plenty of opportunity – need – to catch up.  There were specialty Start-Up, Interop Now, and Cybersecurity Pavilions for the ever-curious and Speed-Connection Forum for deal makers and plenty of action on the exhibit floor.

Some of the add-on gatherings included: the Start-Up Health Transformers Session, UC Davis and FINN Partners Summit on Innovation and the timed release of the Galen Growth Digital Health Report on US Health Provider Systems, the Nashville Entrepreneur Center Evening Meet-Up, and the always fun and welcome Pinksocks Get-Together at the famed Springwater.

MAGIC AROUND THE EXHIBIT HALL

The everyday magic centered around the exhibit hall – home to the mainstage presentations, provided meals, pop-up post-5 PM receptions, and varied entrepreneurial hubs.  That offered plenty of opportunities to connect with innovators who reserved exhibitor space. 

The themed location of exhibits also supported a deep dive for conversation with people looking to improve the flow of information within health systems, better utilize information for preventive care or harness the power of smart tech and wearables.  Most importantly, there was a general acknowledgment from the speakers and vibe that our health system doesn’t lack innovation – it is sorely in need of structural healing. 

ADDRESSING HEALTH ECOSYSTEM PAIN POINTS

In this way, the range of companies appearing on and wandering the exhibit floor made the meeting well worth the time investment.  Many of the companies present at ViVE are worth following (those here are in alphabetical order).  These are among the enterprises that are addressing pain points of the health ecosystem and rallying to pressing patient needs:

• AssureCare, a population-health company connecting payers, providers, pharmacies, and government-sponsored healthcare programs across the US, is taking the long-awaited patient-centric approach using technology to generate better insight through health information. This company is working to converge pharmacists’ and pharmacy data into a bigger population health picture. AssureCare hopes to break down silos in healthcare data sharing from specialty pharmacies to national chains.

• Babson Diagnostics is doing what over-promoted Theranos failed to deliver. Babson is reimagining the diagnostic blood testing experience making routine blood testing less invasive, more convenient, affordable, and empowering people to take charge of their health. The holy grail of patient testing has been to bring it into the retail pharmacy setting using technologies that require one-tenth the sample blood volume of traditional venipuncture methods without sacrificing quality, accuracy, or menu breadth and pushing these diagnostic tests into a well-known setting where convenience corresponds to patients’ upcoming physician visit is in itself a big step in the right direction.

• CereCore® is elevating hospital operational effectiveness.  Its systems are already based in top-performing US hospitals, enabling this health IT enterprise to improve processes, data security and clinical applications. Hospitals remain the most expensive points of care within the US health ecosystem.  Generating insights and learning to mine and apply data earlier in the patient engagement process is key to improving care and reducing costs.  Hospitals cannot go it alone; tapping into a well-proven system is a smart starting point.

• CPSI has combined several companies under its corporate umbrella focusing on health solutions and services for community hospitals, clinics, and post-acute care facilities. These are the health systems that are known to struggle as more and more systems look to align with other, larger entities. The path to system-wide health has been to ensure a better patient care experience, improve financial operations and offer community hospitals and affiliated clinics EHR solutions that can accurately code assignments for reimbursement. While many companies in the field are looking to “innovate,” sometimes the greatest care advances are in strengthening the care system’s capacity to be economically viable.

• eVideon uses smart-room technology to streamline clinical workflow and transform the patient room into an immersive environment. This company enables hospitals and long-term care clinics to integrate EMR and other installed technologies to display real-time information through the in-room Smart TV, digital whiteboard, digital door sign and bedside tablet. The platform is streamlining clinical workflow and reducing the technology burden on clinicians. This system even features in-room surveys and video chat so the patient has a greater real-time voice.

• Harmony Healthcare IT is the data management firm that moves and stores health organizations’ patient, employee and business records. Among the category of veteran players, it continues to pioneer health IT tech in many ways.  Founded in 2006, this company works with more than 550 clinical, financial, and administrative software in the US and Canada.

• HCTec provides services to more than 1,500 academic medical centers, health systems, community hospitals, critical access hospitals, and healthcare provider organizations. While patients are supposedly the health system’s priority, it’s vital to remember that if the care locations are poorly staffed and lack infrastructure, their mission will be severely hampered.  At a time when hospital systems are integrating, getting their staff and EMR systems connected is a mega – even life-saving priority. 

• Interwell Health is a kidney-care management platform in a field that has become one of the most pressing health sector needs.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 37 million Americans are affected by kidney disease, and most are unaware of their progressive condition.  With kidney disease reaching near-epidemic levels, how physicians care for patients and help them navigate a fragmented reimbursement environment is a monumental task. The cascade of care – from diagnosis to dialysis – requires access to practice knowledge and reimbursement.  Learning about an illness is the start of a process and getting the care essential to keeping people on track to prevent additional medical risks is where medical outcomes are judged.

• ixlayer is partnering with payors, retail pharmacies, direct-to-consumer brands, biopharma, health systems, and telehealth providers to create quick and easy diagnostics for common conditions where reducing cost is possible – before an illness is much more severe. This platform “white labels” its tests for major customers with direct patient access and enables numerous testing options and seamless integration with its customers and lab partners. Like many innovation leaders, its goal is to shift engagement to earlier stages when a disease presents and its management has far more cost-effective treatment options.

• Juli was front-and-center at the American Telemedicine Association meeting in San Antonio earlier this year. The consumer-direct platform – available through a convenient app – supports people with chronic health conditions such as asthma, migraine, depression, bipolar disorder, hypertension or chronic pain through several evidence-based approaches. This consumer health empowerment tool integrates information that impacts health and awareness by tracking health responses to environmental data (e.g., weather, air pollution, pollen) through smartphones or popular wearables and aligning health.  The information can help shift the sick-care reactive system to a self-care preventive care approach.

• Lifepoint Health, the Nashville-headquartered provider, has, since its founding, become a national health system serving patients, clinicians, communities and partner organizations across the healthcare continuum.  A spin-out of the pioneering HCA, this system now includes more than 50,000 employees, 62 community hospital campuses, 50 rehabilitation and behavioral health hospitals – plus 200 additional care sites, including managed acute rehabilitation units, outpatient centers, and post-acute care facilities.  It was no surprise that Lifepoint Health was present at ViVE.

• Loyal is among the first companies to offer end-to-end digital and AI-powered solutions tracking the patient journey; its software solutions for improved care utilization can be found within the nation’s top health systems and hospitals. From selecting a provider best suited for treating a specific condition to closing a feedback loop on patient experience, they have demonstrated that feedback is desired and that people who engage their health networks tend to show greater loyalty.

• Sheba Medical Center was part of the expert conversation at ViVE – a surprise for some as Newsweek World’s Best Hospitals five years straight – this medical system sent representatives from more than 6,000 miles away to share insights on how it maximizes technology across its care systems.  Its acute-care hospital, rehabilitation center, research and training programs, medical simulation center, center for disaster response, and the ARC Innovation Center for redesigning global healthcare all tap into the full range of digital and health technologies. At ViVE, its head of innovation spoke about the importance of looking for innovation from within its walls and the benefits of sharing best practices around the globe.  

• Teladoc Health appears to be about accessing care from many locations, but the pandemic demonstrated that the platform could provide much more to improve people’s well-being.  Now, telemedicine has become a given and has shown its value in patient adherence, management of chronic conditions such as diabetes, checking in with people enrolled in clinical trials and dealing with senior care needs.  In post-acute hospital care, telemedicine can support the outpatient process and keep people healing at home.  This global leader in delivering whole-person virtual care – including primary care, mental health, chronic condition management, and more – is the category must-watch innovator.

WHAT’S UP NEXT FOR HEALTH INNOVATORS?

The success of ViVE had many looking forward to April and HIMSS in Chicago, and CNS Summit in Boston this November.  For health innovators planning for 2024, mark your calendars for ViVE February 25 – 28, 2024, in Los Angeles.  If you have already marked your calendar for those dates, it’s a sure sign that #ViVE2023 was a hit!

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