All
things
AI
was
the
dominant
theme
at
last
week’s
ViVE
conference
in
Nashville.
Dozens
of
companies
launched
new
AI
solutions
at
the
event,
experts
spoke
about
the
technology
during
most
panel
sessions,
and
AI
was
of
course
a
frequent
discussion
point
in
my
interviews
and
conversations.
The
leaders
I
spoke
with
agreed
that
healthcare
AI
is
developing
at
a
rapid
rate
—
and
that
the
industry’s
attitude
on
how
to
best
regulate
and
deploy
this
technology
is
evolving
every
day.
They
also
agreed
it’s
clear
that
AI
will
play
a
major
role
in
care
delivery
for
years
to
come.
One
factor
that
is
indicative
of
this
is
the
fact
that
med
tech
giants
like
Epic
and
others
have
been
so
nimble
in
their
efforts
to
release
AI,
said
Scott
Arnold,
CIO
and
chief
of
innovation
at
Tampa
General
Hospital.
“The
Epics
of
the
world
—
they
move
very
quickly
on
artificial
intelligence,
and
they’ve
traditionally
been
about
four
or
five
years
behind
where
we’ve
needed
them
to
be.
It’s
been
really
interesting
to
see
some
of
our
big
partners
moving
that
way
—
GE,
Phillips,
they’re
all
putting
AI
into
their
firmware
for
their
diagnostic
equipment.
They’re
doing
anything
that
can
be
done
to
tell
us
that
something’s
wrong
before
it
goes
wrong.
It’s
amazing,”
Arnold
declared.
Healthcare
providers
are
also
growing
more
comfortable
in
their
efforts
to
test
and
scale
AI
models,
pointed
out
Simon
Nazarian,
chief
digital
and
technology
officer
at
City
of
Hope.
AI
tools
are
being
viewed
less
and
less
as
shiny,
unconventional
objects
in
the
healthcare
world,
he
said.
Nazarian
highlighted
a
trend
of
providers
increasingly
focusing
on
the
applicability
of
AI
—
as
he
puts
it,
“how
to
maneuver
AI
properly
and
best
take
advantage
of
it.”
His
colleague
—
Nasim
Eftekhari,
City
of
Hope’s
executive
director
of
applied
AI
and
data
science
—
added
that
healthcare
providers
are
growing
increasingly
interested
in
agentic
AI.
Last
year
at
this
time,
many
conversations
about
healthcare
AI
centered
around
generative
AI
and
large
language
models
—
now,
more
and
more
leaders
are
discussing
how
to
apply
AI
agents
to
automate
tasks,
Eftekhari
stated.
As
healthcare
providers
continue
their
AI
deployment
efforts,
“the
hardest
thing
is
separating
the
wheat
from
the
chaff,”
said
another
expert
—
John
Halamka,
president
of
Mayo
Clinic
Platform.
With
these
organizations
looking
at
solutions
with
more
of
a
discerning
eye,
startups
in
the
healthcare
AI
space
that
sell
point
solutions
will
have
a
much
harder
time
thriving,
he
pointed
out.
“Will
there
be
just
one
platform
to
rule
them
all?
The
answer
is
no,
but
there
will
probably
be
categories
—
and
our
challenge
right
now
is
just
having
a
thousand
point
solutions,
each
of
which
solve
a
niche
disease,
problem
or
function.
That’s
not
something
a
CIO
is
likely
to
buy.
Where
is
a
differentiated
product?
Where
could
this
serve
as
a
platform
for
a
category
or
function?”
Halamka
explained.
Even
though
these
questions
are
yet
to
be
answered,
AI
development
for
healthcare
use
cases
show
no
signs
of
slowing
down,
according
to
Aneesh
Chopra,
chief
strategy
officer
at
Arcadia.
While
responsible
and
ethical
AI
remains
a
key
priority
for
the
healthcare
sector,
the
change
in
presidential
administration
could
give
way
to
a
faster
pace
of
innovation,
he
remarked.
“I
think
the
shift
in
tone
from
the
administration
gives
a
little
bit
more
comfort
to
the
stakeholders
that
if
we
are
responsible
on
our
own,
with
more
self-governance,
we
might
be
able
to
move
a
little
bit
faster
in
a
more
responsible
way.
I’m
sensing
the
gas
pedal
getting
a
bit
more
of
a
push
towards
adoption
in
healthcare,”
Chopra
declared.
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