thought leadership

Thought Leadership

In a survey by KPMG, many healthcare executives expressed interest and optimism about the potential impact of AI in their businesses. 89 percent of respondents said that AI is already creating efficiencies in their systems,...

AI to Address Clinical Mistakes, Inefficient Care Pathways, and Non-Personalized Care I

It is not to be underestimated that many of the issues that are slowing down the adoption of AI in healthcare such as fragmented data, misaligned economic incentives, legacy IT systems, and more are currently...

Healthcare Resource Shortage As Driver of AI Adoption in Healthcare

As the figure below shows, there is an increasing imbalance between health workforce and demand for clinical services. This imbalance is due to a number of factors such as aging workforce within healthcare; competition from...

Reimbursement As a Driver of AI in Healthcare II

Another AI solution received favorable reimbursement decision recently. Viz.ai received FDA clearance in early 2018 for a deep learning system that can detect blockages in the large blood vessels that supply the brain, on CT scans....

Reimbursement As a Driver of AI in Healthcare I

If you want adoption of any technology in a meaningful way in the long-term, you need the public and private entities to pay for it. Most modern technologies are out of the reach of the...

Setting Industry Standards for Applications of AI in Healthcare IV

Major health plans along with health technology companies like Philips and Ginger collaborated to develop a new standard to advance trust in artificial intelligence solutions. Convened by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), a working group...

Setting Industry Standards for Applications of AI in Healthcare III

in 2020, Guidelines for clinical trial protocols for interventions involving artificial intelligence: (the SPIRIT-AI Extension) was released to provide more structure and standards for the increasing number of clinical trials for A-based clinical interventions. Also,...

Setting Industry Standards for Applications of AI in Healthcare II

American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) has proposed a framework for the regulation of AI decision support. AMIA has postulated that the development and implementation of clinical decision support (CDS) that trains itself and adapts its...

Setting Industry Standards for Applications of AI in Healthcare I

In 2021, the World Health Organization issued a report about AI in Healthcare called Ethics & Governance of Artificial Intelligence for Health. It is the product of eighteen months of deliberation amongst leading experts in...

Improved methodology of AI, powerful computers, cloud computing

Another major driver for the emergence of AI in healthcare is the fact that we now have more powerful computers with stronger Graphic Processing Units (GPU) and cloud computing. You need a lot of computing...

Policy As a Driver of AI in Healthcare III

The concerns around regulation of AI-based solutions in healthcare is real. Given the unique challenges of labeling for AI/ML-based devices and the need for manufacturers to clearly describe the data that were used to train...

Policy As a Driver of AI in Healthcare II

In conversations with Baku Patel, former Chief Digital Health Officer Global Strategy and Innovation at the FDA, he indicated that the FDA's lighter touch for AI solutions is informed by the fact that these are...

Policy As a Driver of AI in Healthcare I

One of the key drivers of AI in healthcare has been the shift in policy and regulatory approaches in this sector. There has been significant increases in the number of AI-enabled solutions with FDA approvals...

Increased Data and Investments as Drivers of AI in Healthcare

Before anything can be discussed about why the time for AI in healthcare has arrived, we need to say that if we did not have an increasing amount of digitized data, none of the other...

Key Drivers of AI in Healthcare

There are a number of major drivers for the development and adoption of AI in Healthcare solutions (Figure.) I would like to think that before we speak about anything else, we start by saying that...

AI Talent Shortage in Healthcare

One of the most challenging aspects of AI deployments has been the recruitment and retention of data science talent. Creating an AI-ready enterprise will require organizations to build a team of data custodians: experts at...

Health System Governance of AI Solutions II

Many of the concerns around AI revolve around how the technology reinforces bias within the healthcare system. There are two entry points at which bias can seep into an AI tool. The first is in...

Health System Governance of AI Solutions I

Health systems and care providers must be vigilant in ensuring that the models they implement foster better care and promote health equity and are not biased. Efforts must include a legal, regulatory and compliance review...

Legacy IT systems Pose A Risk To AI Adoption in Healthcare

Although enterprise-wide AI will begin in the traditional IT department, few departments, however, are prepared to take on the complexity and challenges that becoming AI-enabled will pose. Much like the rest of the organization, AI...

Medical – Legal Barriers to Adoption of AI in Healthcare II

The mutability and opaque nature of AI makes it difficult to determine liability for malpractice claims and professional regulatory standards. Health systems that choose to implement AI before the case law on these issues is...

Medical – Legal Barriers to Adoption of AI in Healthcare I

One key barrier in AI adoption in healthcare is med-legal implications of using AI algorithms that make predictions and provide recommendations. Clinicians could rely on these to make key decisions about patient management. What if...

Provider Workflow Issues in Adoption of AI – II

One of the key issues with implementing AI solutions in healthcare settings is the fact that these algorithms are often in the cloud and the medical center data would need to leave the institution to...

Provider Workflow Issues in Adoption of AI – I

One of the key issues with the use of digital technologies in healthcare has been that they need a reliable feed of data to perform as expected and their output needs to be timely so...

How Far is Reimbursement for Algorithms in Healthcare? II

Health systems are heavily dependent on procedures and thus will incentivize physicians to continue using them as first-line for treating patients. This can include investments in technologies such as AI to assist in performing colonoscopies....

How Far is Reimbursement for Algorithms in Healthcare? I

Reimbursement is critical for any new technology in healthcare. If the use of a new diagnostic or therapeutic technology is not paid for by insurance, there is very little chance that it will gain widespread...

Regulatory Landscape of AI in Healthcare II

The debate over how the FDA should regulate the emerging solutions that use AI for healthcare applications is one that is attracting opposite but truly equally valid points of view. Baku Patel, former head...

Regulatory Landscape of AI in Healthcare I

Before any new diagnostic or therapeutic, or technology can be used in the practice of healthcare, it has to be deemed safe and effective by certain regulatory bodies. US, EU, Japan, and others have robust...

Mitigating Risk of AI Algorithm Deployment

Evidence-based AI is not exclusive to showing that AI algorithms will improve patient outcomes, improve clinical workflows, or lower the cost of care. Currently there is a great deal of variability in risk-mitigating AI development...

What Evidence Will Cut it for AI Solutions in Healthcare?

My discussions with many of the experts in AI in Healthcare has highlighted the fact that well-designed, large-scale, multi-center trials have not been done so far. These types of trials would establish the efficacy and...

Myriad of Issues Facing Adoption of AI in Healthcare

According to a survey of over 12,000 participants conducted by the consultancy PwC, lack of trust and a need for the human element were the biggest hurdles to using AI in healthcare. Another survey by KPMG in...

Barriers to AI in Healthcare: Physician Acceptance and Comfort

Artificial intelligence gets a lot of buzz as a leading-edge technology in healthcare. But it still has a long way to go when it comes to adoption, with only 20% of physicians saying AI has changed the way...

Barriers to AI Adoption in Healthcare: Burden of Evidence

For AI-based solutions to become part of the daily practice of medicine, A myriad of technical, economic, regulatory, and other forms of barriers exist. Many of these have yet to be addressed sufficiently so the...

Model Bias: Part III

No data set can represent the entire universe of options. Thus, it is important to identify the target application and audience upfront, and then tailor the training data to that target. Another possible approach could...

Model Bias: Part II

On another front, AI algorithms are designed to learn patterns in data and match them to an output. There are many AI algorithms, and each has strengths and weaknesses. Deep learning is acknowledged as one...

Model Bias: Part I

Bias in AI occurs when results cannot be generalized widely. Although most people associate algorithm bias resulting from preferences or exclusions in training data, bias can also be introduced by how data is obtained, how...

Can You Take Your Model With You?

One of the key issues with AI is that algorithms developed in one institution or one set of data may not perform as well when used at different institutions with different data. Researchers at Mount...

AI Model Transparency

Besides issues in getting a hold of large and diverse datasets, annotation or labeling, and sexy new methods to train models (synthetic data and federated learning!,) transparency also relates to model interpretability—in other words, humans...

Synthetic Data

We have been examining the issues of obtaining data (enough of it! and high quality) and preparing that data to be used in training and validating models. One emerging way to deal with the issue...

Data Labeling and Transparency

Transparency of data and AI algorithms is also a major concern. Transparency is relevant at multiple levels. First, in the case of supervised learning, , the accuracy of predictions relies heavily on the accuracy of...

Federated AI As A Solution? Part III

In the final installment in this series about federated AI, we wrap up the discussion around the potential benefits of federated AI in developing good models in healthcare. Remember that this extensive discussion of federated...

Federated AI As A Solution? Part II

We have been examining the topic of data and its importance to developing and running AI algorithms now for several weeks. When it comes to AI, the topic of data can not be discussed enough!...

Federated AI As A Solution? Part I

In our last discussion, we tackled the issue of data as the bloodline for developing AI algorithms for various applications in healthcare. We also discussed how difficult it is to get that data and make...

How Do You Get the Data?

Data to AI is what oil has been to the world economy for the last century. Unless you have plenty of it, you will not be able to get far! It's not enough to get...

Data Standardization and Integration Into Existing Clinical Workflows II

There is an emerging solution for standardizing healthcare data. FHIR utilizes a set of modular components, known as ‘Resources,’ which can be assembled into working systems that will facilitate data sharing within the EHR and...

Data Standardization and Integration Into Existing Clinical Workflows I

Data standardization is critical for aggregating data from different sources to train and use AI algorithms. Data standardization refers to the process of transforming data into a common format that can be understood across different...

Data access laws and Regulatory issues

The GDPR will affect AI implementation in healthcare in several ways. First, it requires explicit and informed consent before any collection of personal data. Informed consent has been a long-standing component of medical practice (unlike...

Obtaining Data to Train AI Models

To create large and diverse datasets used for training algorithms that will perform as planned in clinical practice, you need data from multiple institutions. This will minimize the chance of using data that is too...

Data As the Building Block of Artificial Intelligence

If there is one issue that needs to be front and center in AI will fulfill its potential, it is the issue of data: getting enough of it to train the algorithms, having a steady...

History of AI

Artificial intelligence technology has been "around" for some 80 years. Although it has gained significant traction recently and its applications are transforming almost every industry in the past few years, its foundations were created around...

What is AI?

It’s important to remember AI isn’t magic (or robots coming to replace your doctor) — it’s just math. Terms like “machine learning” and “deep learning” are simply ways of explaining statistics-based computer algorithms. These algorithms...

Artificial Intelligence: The Future of Healthcare?

I have seen the evolution of healthcare over the course of my career, first as a Cardiologist, then as an entrepreneur and investor in healthcare. I have seen universally fatal diseases like hairy cell leukemia...

ECONOMICS BLOG

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Let’s Not Forget The Long-Term Issues!

Given the range of pressing issues in the news these days, there doesn't seem to be enough bandwidth for much else. Geopolitical tensions from China to Ukraine, ongoing pandemic, and a range of economic issues,...

Is A Recession Around The Corner?

In the last post we talked about the difficult task facing the Fed with interest rates. If interest rates are raised to cool off excess demand and at the same time the short-term drivers of...

Will Demand Stay Strong?

In the last post, we discussed the issue of the 4-decade high inflation and what is causing it. In previous posts, I had reviewed the data from the last few decades and how there has...

What Will Happen to Prices?

In the last few months, we have extensively discussed the issue of inflation. My focus has been on examining the drivers of inflation, why it picked up after years of dormancy, whether it's transient (whatever...

US Needs to Seize This Moment

US posted higher economic growth than China last year for the first time in decades. This was due to a strong government response to the pandemic and the underlying dynamic nature of the US economy...

The Financial Sector Can Determine China’s Future Potential

The financial sector of any economy is very different than any other sector. It supplies the key ingredients for all of the other sectors of the economy: Capital! Any problems in this sector rapidly disseminates...

Key Challenges to China’s Long-Term Economic Growth

China's rise as an economic power has been marked by tapping the potential of a large, mostly under-used population. It moved hundreds of millions of people from rural to urban areas and became the production...

US Economic Resurgence and Implications For the International Competition

Something amazing happened last year: US had a higher economic growth rate than China! This has not happened in decades. US being a large, fully developed economy with a high GDP/Capita is expected to grow...

The Emerging Landscape of International Competition II

Continuing with our discussion of how the competition for international influence and geopolitical climate will evolve in the coming decades and century, it's worth examining some of the key drivers of economic growth and international...

The Emerging Landscape of International Competition I

Last year saw several milestones signifying China’s rising global influence: it attracted more foreign investment than the U.S. for the first time and the number of Chinese companies on Fortune’s list of the world’s largest overtook the U.S. And for all...

Will China Continue to Defy Gravity?

In the last post, we discussed China's astonishing economic growth over the last few decades. As a result, it is now the world's second largest economy and continuing to gain on US. This is not...

Will China Overtake US in This Decade?

Since the 1970s, China has been racing to become the world’s largest economy. This wasn't obvious when China first began to open its economy with market reforms and consequently began to experience meaningful economic growth....

Why Did We Wait So Long To Invest in Infrastructure?

The recently passed infrastructure bill that aims to upgrade America's declining infrastructure makes serious investments in many areas that have been under-invested in for decades. This is great news in many respects. It will improve...

Finally, Investing in America’s Infrastructure II

The recently passed infrastructure bill is great news for the long-term productivity of American workers and wage growth for them. We looked at the transportation investments in the bill in part of this series and...

Finally, Investing in America’s Infrastructure I

In the last few posts, I have examined the impact of infrastructure spending on a country's overall productivity and wages. We also looked at data that showed America's investments in infrastructure are way down over...

What About Infrastructure? Part III

So far, in this series, we have discussed the importance of infrastructure investments on the overall productivity of the economy and its impact on wages and prosperity. We saw in a graphs that US has...

What About Infrastructure? Part II

Every year, the US spends more than $400 billion on public infrastructure. But annual infrastructure funding routinely falls short of capital and maintenance requirements, contributing to deterioration of the country's infrastructure assets. In 2017, the...

What about Infrastructure? Part I

One of the key building blocks of a healthy and growing economy is top notch infrastructure. What is infrastructure? Well, these days we have heard a lot of debate about this and it's a worthwhile...

Setting the Stage for the 21st Century Dominance Part VI

Once upon a time, enthusiasts designed a formal education system to meet the economic demands of the industrial revolution. Fast forward to today and, with the current global economic climate, it seems apparent that the...

Setting the Stage for the 21st Century Dominance Part V

So far in this series, we have tackled the issue of industrial policy and how it can impact a country's prospects. Industrial policy can mean that a country's government has a vision and a plan...

Big Bad Scary Inflation III. Is It Temporary?

Since we are tackling one of the most discussed economic (and political!) issues of the day and how its re-emergence after many decades is scaring everyone, paying close attention to historical benchmarks is quite informative....

Big Bad Scary Inflation II

In the first post in this series, I discussed the long-term low inflation that we have experienced here in US for the last few decades. This had sparked intense discussions as to why we did...

Big Bad Scary Inflation I

Every channel you tune into these days, every newspaper you read, and every website you visit, there is one topic that is dominating the discussions: inflation! Even those with little interest in economics or politics...

Setting the Stage for the 21st Century Dominance Part IV

So far in this series (Setting the Stage for the 21st Century Dominance,) we've focused on what makes for good national industrial policy and what can give a country an advantage in the international sphere....

Setting the Stage for the 21st Century Dominance Part III

In the previous entry in this series, we discussed the long-term decline in US public sector R&D investments and how that trend does not bode well for the continued US pre-eminence as a world power...

Setting the Stage for the 21st Century Dominance Part II

In the last blog post, we discussed the emerging competition between the established superpower, U.S., and the emerging superpower, China. Many are speculating that in the coming years China will become the largest economy in...

Setting the Stage for the 21st Century Dominance Part I

As congress gets into the later stages of debate on whether to pass the Biden economic agenda, it is worth taking a pause and thinking about what's at stake here. America is the world's dominant...

Evolution of US healthcare system: Part V

In our last installment of this series, I’d like to review some of the ongoing changes in our healthcare system and their potential impact on how healthcare is practiced in US. First, health insurance...

Evolution of US Healthcare System: Part IV

So, now you are the US government, the number of people in Medicare is increasing and they live longer and get better and more expensive treatments for their heart disease, arthritis, and Alzheimer’s and you...

Evolution of US Healthcare System: Part III

Well, it looks like big trouble for the governments who committed to providing healthcare to some or all of their population. After all, who could have predicted all of the expensive advances that would be...

Evolution of US Healthcare System: Part II

So, now everyone is living longer thanks to improved quality of life and better medicines. That’s a good thing, right? Well, yes and no. Longer life expectancy and more active life means higher productivity, thus...

Evolution of US Healthcare System: Part I

The US healthcare system is one of the top five economies in the world. Yes, that is true!! It’s time to step back and ask: How did we get here? The ongoing debate about how...

A Discussion of Economics and Its Impact on Our Lives!

In the City that I live (the Big Apple!) it seems that economics and finance reign supreme! Large number of people are employed in the financial sector and key investment decisions by them or the...