At the Digital Medicine Association Monday meeting at the 2030 Healthcare 2030 Summit in Washington, D.C., a panel of four healthcare executives and entrepreneurs shared issues they believe innovators in the field should receive more attention.
Here are the issues they highlighted.
Solve medical errors through AI
Michael Gorton, founder and former CEO of Teladoc Health, said he hopes doctors have “AI in their ears.”
He noted that medical errors resulted in about 250,000 deaths each year, and said he would like to see more AI solutions to the problem.
“[Doctors are] Made mistakes they shouldn't make – not because they're not that smart, but because they're busy. They need to get the AI to listen and say, “Maybe it's not this, that's it,” Gorton said.
Infiltrate the clinic
Sree Chaguturu, president of healthcare delivery at CVS Health, noted that he received pitches from many different healthcare startups.
“I found many of them great on paper, but they didn’t actually complete the full-fledged contact exercise in the clinic,” he said.
He added that the key reason why Teladoc was one of the first virtual care companies to achieve true success is that the company works side by side with clinicians to understand its pain points and workflow.
“The closer we get to the problem, the better the solution will be,” Chagutulu said.
Allow patients to have their data
Shauna Overgaard, senior director of AI strategy and frameworks at Mayo Clinic, highlighted that patient data ownership is the number one health care issue she hopes to address.
“From the moment, it's patients who make decisions about their health. I think it's time to democratize it and really provide their own database for patients,” she declared.
She mentioned that an increasing push has given patients more control over their health records – to ensure that they, rather than providers or tech companies, can decide how their data can be shared and used.
Better motivate strong relationships with PCP patients
Ann Allen, chief operating officer and director of health system partnerships at Amazon One Medical, said she would like to see more incentives about the relationship between patients and their primary care providers.
“If we start to build relationships with PCP and patients, we can save $67 billion a year. That could be simple,” she said.
Her perspective highlights how PCP patient relationships reduce expensive emergency visits and professional care.
