Gabelli School Global Healthcare Innovation Management Center, in Collaboration with Maynooth University, Hosts Conference on AI in Healthcare
Featured Events | Oct 30, 2024 | Gabelli School of Business
Top Industry Experts and Academics Provided Deep Insights into the Rapidly Evolving AI-Driven Developments Occurring Across the Healthcare Spectrum
On September 26, 2024 Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business Global Healthcare Innovation Management Center (GHIMC), in collaboration with Maynooth University, hosted “AI for Good Health: Transforming Data into Decisions and Outcomes,” a full-day thought leadership event that convened stakeholders from across the health professions and technology sector to discuss the ways in which the integration of artificial intelligence is impacting the medical and pharmaceutical industries.
Falguni Sen, Ph.D., professor of strategy and statistics at Fordham’s Gabelli School of Business, and the director of its Global Healthcare Innovation Management Center, who spearheaded the planning and execution of the event, introduced the day’s agenda, which focused on exploring the ways AI is shaping the future of hospital efficiency, patient care, diagnostics, drug discovery, ethical and regulatory considerations, and entrepreneurship. Martin Curley, Ph.D., professor of Innovation, Maynooth University, Ireland, and a digital health leader who also collaborated on the event, shared how healthcare in Ireland is undergoing a transformation by “shifting to the left,” a term used to focus on delivering care proactively in the community rather than in hospitals, where the costs are significantly higher and outcomes are less favorable.
Navid Asgari, Ph.D., associate professor and the Grose Family Endowed Chair in Strategy and Statistics at the Gabelli School of Business, followed with a presentation about generative AI as a strategic option within healthcare organizations. He discussed how to approach AI integration as a systemic innovation that focuses on the process of ensuring decisions are underpinned by significant resource allocation and considers the complexity and scope of impact across the healthcare environment.
John Sheehan, M.D., clinical director of radiology at Blackrock Health, discusses the exciting possibilities for advancing the diagnostic capabilities of radiologists
Richard A.D. Jones, who is president of C2-Ai, a healthcare analytics platform that is focused on being the global gold standard for improving quality, reducing harm and variation, and delivering hospital cost savings, spoke about his company’s AI adoption capability framework and the complexities of integrating AI into the healthcare environment. Jones stressed the need to assess the probability of successful integration based upon availability of datasets and ability to predict outcomes in the longer term. His presentation was followed by an engaging discussion by John Sheehan, M.D., clinical director of radiology at Blackrock Health, regarding the exciting possibilities for advancing the diagnostic capabilities of radiologists that are emerging as a result of developments in AI technology.
Jan Beger, head of AI advocacy at GE Healthcare, addresses the audience
During the first panel discussion titled “AI for the Human Touch: Empowering Healthcare Professionals and Enhancing Patient Care,” Jan Beger, head of AI advocacy at GE Healthcare joined Anand Iyer, Ph.D., chief AI officer at WellDoc, and Sanjay Doddamani, founder and CEO of Guidehealth, to showcase the plethora of AI tools that are under development. During his presentation, Beger shared the surprising statistic that 30% of all datasets collected are healthcare related, further emphasizing the importance of utilizing data ethically and efficiently to enhance patient care. During the panel discussion that followed and was moderated by Martin Curley, Iyer shared details about his company’s new digital health platform, which is designed to empower patients to work along with their healthcare provider to understand their health situation and make educated decisions regarding their care. Doddamani discussed the mission and vision of his company, which is to deliver value-based care, improve provider and health system financial performance, and bring affordable whole-person care to all.
During the pre-lunch panel titled “AI in Diagnostics,” Suyash Khubchandani, M.B.B.S., clinical solutions architect for CARPL.ai, delivered a keynote address about the advancements in integrating different AI technologies into a single, user-friendly platform—introducing the entrepreneurial aspect of AI development in healthcare. He then joined Ryl Jensen, CEO, Digital Health Association, New Zealand’s peak advocacy and industry body for the digital health sector, in a discussion that was moderated by John Sheehan.
During an afternoon panel discussion titled “AI in Drug Discovery,” Stanley Shaw, M.D., associate vice president, digital medicine at Amgen, presented the latest on the frontiers of AI-assisted drug discovery. In addition to sharing the specific challenges facing the life sciences industry, he acknowledged that there are unprecedented opportunities to offer novel therapies to patients and discussed Amgen’s approach to harnessing the potential while mitigating risk. Associate Professor Navid Asgari then joined the related panel discussion with Shaw that was moderated by Professor Falguni Sen.
This panel was followed by a fireside chat titled “Investing in AI for Healthcare,” which was
moderated by Professor Sen and featured Richard Mulry, president and CEO of Northwell Holdings and Ventures, the for-profit arm of Northwell Health, which is focused on investment in early stage/growth opportunities, strategic partnerships and the cultivation of internal innovations that drive improvements in patient care and create diversified revenue streams for the health system.
The event’s final panel discussion covered the regulatory challenges entrepreneurial ventures face in AI in healthcare. Sean Khozin, M.D., CEO, Roundtable on Cancer and founder of Phyusion, and Doni Bloomfield, J.D., associate professor of law at Fordham University’s School of Law, enlightened the audience on the velocity of AI developments, particularly in the area of healthcare, and the difficulty in keeping up with them from a regulatory standpoint.
