Recently, the Healthware editorial team covered my press release on how I wrote about the Hospital of the Future in Comatose, with an emphasis on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Holograms, and Smart Devices. They also provided me with the zoomed-in image of my cover art which heads this blog entry.
In my novel, I spent the most time focusing on AI. Today’s HealthTech landscape has a variety of AI solutions, and both the number and complexity are increasing rapidly. This chart which I saw on Twitter from @CognitiveValley and SwissCognitive creates an easily digestible summary.
Two takeaways from this chart:
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1) Fiction has already become reality in the world of AI
Four years ago, I created an Artificial Intelligence character called Khutulun as I worked in the first draft of Comatose. She started her life as an Automated Insight engine. But over time, she shifted further to the lower right in the chart until she became the entity that my readers first meet when reading Comatose. There are examples of these Automated Insights engines today, and I’m excited to see startups partnering with hospitals to put them to work by focusing on integrating with both legacy systems and new pools of data.
2) AI is a hungry engine, and it requires a lot of data
An AI engine can only be impactful if it has a lot of data. During a recent trip to London, a curious soul in the HealthTech world jokingly told me that because of the “bureaucracy of healthcare,” she was generating data to try and move forward with her development efforts. I know she meant well, but her point is critical.
I also attended a talk where Joe Biden – at the time focusing exclusively on his Cancer Initiative – described how his role was to break down silos. That matters. It will take evangelists, investigators, and data geeks with intense focus and unrelenting commitment to achieve this goal. Once that happens, all the powerful AI engines can then be set free to improve the inner and outer workings of healthcare.
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I leave you with one parting thought. “Don’t forget the end user.” Emotional intelligence, caring about individuals, and helping caregivers deal with consequences of traumatic health events are not things AI does best right now.
If you have any comments, please share below or drop me an email at [email protected] or @estrellavino on twitter.
