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How Can AI Improve Health Care? – Wharton's Hamsa Bastani and Marissa King | AI in Focus Series

November 10, 2023 / 27:45

This episode discusses the applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning in healthcare with guests Marissa King and Hamza Bastani. Topics include AI's role in prescription reminders, radiology, triage, equity concerns, and algorithm implementation challenges.

Marissa King, a distinguished professor at Wharton, explains how AI is integrated into various healthcare processes, such as prescription reminders and radiology report analysis. She emphasizes the importance of AI in improving patient outcomes and reducing emergency department wait times.

Hamza Bastani, an associate professor at Wharton, shares insights on the challenges of implementing AI algorithms in healthcare settings. He highlights the need for quality data and the importance of understanding clinical workflows to ensure successful integration.

The conversation also addresses equity issues in AI applications, with Marissa noting that algorithmic fairness will become a primary concern for businesses as they deploy these technologies.

Both guests agree on the necessity of collaboration between AI and human clinicians to enhance healthcare delivery, emphasizing the importance of training and education for healthcare professionals in understanding and utilizing AI tools effectively.

TL;DR

AI and machine learning are transforming healthcare, focusing on improving patient outcomes and addressing equity issues in algorithm implementation.

Episode

27:45
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welcome welcome to the analytics at
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Warton AI at Wharton podcast series on
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artificial intelligence my name is Eric
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bradow professor of marketing statistics
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and data science here at the Wharton
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School I'm also the vice dean of
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analytics and I'm the one that's been
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hosting this podcast series today's
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episode is on an area that you know I've
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said it many times even when my two
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guests are not here I think that
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artificial intelligence and machine
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learning in combination with industry is
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going to solve the healthcare problems
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we have today Ai and Healthcare is such
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an important area and I can't imagine
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two colleagues better to talk with me
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about that topic first I have my
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colleague Marissa King Marissa is the
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Alis y hung president's distinguished
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professor at the Wharton School uh her
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research has significantly contributed
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to our understanding of a wide range of
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pressing Healthcare issues ranging from
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prescription drug abuse crisis to
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clinician burnout Welcome to our podcast
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it's a pleasure to be here and then next
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and certainly last last not last but not
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least is my friend and colleague Hamza
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bastani Hamza is associate professor
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operations information decisions as well
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as a colleague in the statistics and
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data science department her research
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focuses on developing machine learning
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algorithms for Learning and optimization
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in healthcare and as I know very well
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because I've interviewed her for other
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podcasts uh she's done a lot of work
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with Greece and Sierra Leon to deploy
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algorithms at a Countrywide scale Hamza
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welcome to the podcast as well thanks so
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much for having me so let me start with
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the beginning maybe uh Marissa I'll
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start with you um for those people that
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aren't familiar with the applications of
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AI and Healthcare what are they if you
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could just give us a broad overview of
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the kinds of problems in healthcare
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people are trying to use artificial
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intelligence to use and uh to solve and
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maybe it's in combination with machine
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learning and other types of
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algorithms yeah machine learning and
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artificial intelligence have touched
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almost all aspects of healthcare at this
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point if you think of everything from
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who and how you get reminders to pick up
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prescriptions uh from who's reading your
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Radiology reports to even how you're
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being triaged in the emergency
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department machine learning plays a key
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role in all of those facets so why don't
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maybe before I jump to Hamza here let me
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ask you a question so um are the
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reminders that we're all getting are
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those being determined using some
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optimal algorithm um is triage being
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done in a more like not entirely 100%
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human basis and um in terms of who is
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reading my charts um like is that being
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done a lot in an automated way so maybe
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just to give us a baseline there yeah
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and pretty much in every one of those
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applications machine learning and AI is
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playing a critical role so when you get
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those reminders it's almost certainly
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coming from an AI powered reminder the
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same is true if you're thinking about uh
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La reminders to pick up labs and get
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your blood work done so that's the point
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of care for for patients but clinicians
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are also starting to deploy this for a
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wide range of uses if you think about
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Radiology reports that's arguably the
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place where AI had the greatest
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penetration so many many of our
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Radiology reports are read Now by
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machines and then finally if we think
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about triaging in the emergency
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department that's another important area
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of application that's really reducing
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overall length of stay within the
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emergency department and we know that
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when length of stay is reduced that has
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important implications from everything
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from um complications to long-term
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mortality so AI is already playing a
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critical role in a lot of domains of
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healthcare so Hamza as someone who's I
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know both a statistical methodologist
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but also cares about the practical
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application of the work how do you think
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about the kinds of problems that Marissa
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just laid out like do you try to solve
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them in some idic setting do you try to
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solve them with real data do you try to
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kind of develop algorithms and then you
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know try to run field experiments
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actually launch them in the field how do
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you think about your role as similar to
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me as we're statistical methodologists
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how do you think about your role in
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helping solve these problems I think it
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has to start with the data so I think in
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healthcare there's a lot of variation so
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only recently in the last couple decades
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have we started digitizing the whole
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health record but even now like EKG
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readings for example aren't digitized in
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most health systems and so um I think
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the first thing we need to figure out is
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is this a use case where an algorithm
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given the data that is digitized is able
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to do better than a human or at least
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comparably to a human in a way that's
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Equitable and also like transports well
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to other Health Systems um and if that's
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the case then we start thinking about
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algorithms and rcts because there's lots
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of other things that come up like
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whether we're able to effectively
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integrate it into the workflow whether
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there's Buy in from stakeholders and so
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on but I think it has to start with the
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data so Marissa Hamza said a lot of
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things I want to ask you about let me
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let me fire these through in a rapid
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fire kind of way how much are people in
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Industry worried about
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Equity it's easy to say you're you care
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about it but how much does it impact
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like let's imagine I could have an an
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algorithm that improves the outcomes for
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some population of people but not others
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it's not Equitable but it's still from a
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population perspective it could still
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benefit Society how are people thinking
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about Equity yeah I mean I think it's
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certainly a point of concern in large
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part because some of the key issues
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arising around Equity with algorithms
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that have already been deployed have
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been made quite public um but at the
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same time I do think it's a second order
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consideration and that's going to I
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think have a really important long-term
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business implications because in the
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long run as businesses start to deploy
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these algorithms um when issues around
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equity come to light I think it's going
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to have really significant impact for
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their bottom line so I think in very
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short order it will go from being a
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second order consideration to a primary
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consideration or it should and one of
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the things I've been talking to all of
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our uh guests on the podcast series
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about is what are the hindrances to
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actually getting this stuff implemented
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so what do you see you know there's
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always whether you want to call it
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algorithm aversion there's like well how
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do I know this machine learning
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algorithm is right how what kind of
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barriers are you seeing or hesitancy
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you're seeing in the field especially
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when when it's
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Healthcare yeah I think as a first order
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consideration one of the biggest issues
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is that as Hamza mentioned data is
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certainly an issue but a bigger issue is
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that to deploy these algorithms well you
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need to actually have a very deep
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understanding of clinical workflows for
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them to be incorporated so even when
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clinicians are willing to accept them um
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you still have to integrate them into
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workflows and that point of integration
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seems to be one of the biggest
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challenges at the moment so that's a
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perfect segue to my question for Hamza
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so
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um I've that's probably the biggest
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problem I've had in my career and you're
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going to tell me now how to solve that
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where I develop algorithms but you know
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the fact is getting them actually in
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someone's workflow is really tough how
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did how do you think about that how did
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you deal with that when you were working
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with Greece with Sierra Leon to actually
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you know you have an algorithm but you
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can't just hand it off to someone and
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say good luck right I think um that's an
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excellent question and uh I'm doing my
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best over here I dep I think it depends
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on the complexity of the setting and how
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well a human is trained to answer that
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particular question uh compared to how
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well an algorithm might be so I think in
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a lot of public health questions uh
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where you're trying to forecast demand
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for Health Resources or you're trying to
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figure out who which population to
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screen and it's kind of rapidly evolving
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that's kind of the work we've done um it
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makes sense like even policy makers or
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public health experts think that
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algorithms are better suited to
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assessing those situations because
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there's large volumes of data um I mean
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assuming that you've built an
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interpretable system that they can look
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into and you know um check the reasoning
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of the algorithm I think in healthcare
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it's harder because for example a very
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famous example is this sepsis alarm
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that's in a lot of icus that's being
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deployed now uh and I think a big
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challenge is those algorithms they're
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not always aware of the private
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information that the physician has so a
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lot of Doctors Express frustration that
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when the alarm goes off they already
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knew that the patient was crashing
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they're working actively to you know
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stabilize the patient and this thing is
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just you know irritating them and so
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this causes something called alarm
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fatigue so I think algorithms need to be
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exactly as Marissa said designed in a
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way that is aware of what knowledge the
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human decision maker has and is able to
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complement it in a useful way and that's
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not how we do machine learning so that's
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a fascinating idea let me let me give
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you my example that I always like to
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give in sports and then I'll translate
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it to healthcare which is what is the
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role of Scouts in sports like can't I
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just measure everything and then just
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the algorithm's going to tell me who the
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better player is but they may have
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private information that the algorithm
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doesn't see and so I always talk about
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blending the two can you talk to me
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Marissa a little bit about how it's it
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shouldn't really be AI or humans it
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really should be Ai and humans in
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healthcare yeah in healthcare in
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particular this is not negotiable in
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many ways in large part because of
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Regulation so if you think about what's
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happening at the Forefront of algorithm
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development almost all the models at
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this point are thinking about a
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physician or clinician with an AI
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co-pilot and that model I think is going
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to be the one that is the one that's
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most likely to Prevail both for
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regulatory reasons which you in many
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ways can't get around with but also
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forgetting clinici and buy in which is
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absolutely essential and seems to be a
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huge hurdle at the moment so um Mera
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just mentioned a word which is you know
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an interesting word when we develop
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algorithms which are whether it's
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regulation or restrictions how do you
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think about that when you're kind of
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saying well here would be the optimal
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solution in kind of an unrestricted
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world with unlimited data and the
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ability to do whatever you want or now
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that there restrictions here's kind of
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whether you want to call it the loss of
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efficacy or here's the you know how do
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you think about restrictions when you're
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thinking about building algorithms I
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think it's a great question uh I think
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in most of these cases humans still have
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this valuable private signal so we do
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want them to override the algorithm uh
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but I've heard a lot of concerns that um
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you know people are worried about
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malpractice lawsuits and things like
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that and so they would rather if if an
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algorithm is for example FDA approved
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they would rather be more conservative
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and Ur towards the algorithm so we've
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had a lot of talk about algorithm
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aversion but I think it also goes the
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other way that sometimes there's over
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Reliance on algorithms because it clear
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creates a more established like uh paper
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trail but ideally we would have better
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training so Physicians are able to
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understand what are the limits and the
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capacities of these algorithms what is
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the correlation between the information
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that's bringing to the table and their
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own private signal so that they're able
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to more effectively combine these
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signals in a I guess beian way uh and I
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think that will be necessary to get
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actually good outcomes so you just
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mentioned something I was not aware of
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maybe Marissa you could educate me and
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our listeners here on SiriusXM and in
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this AI at Wharton podcast series do
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these algorithms have to be FDA approved
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and if the answer is yes usually the
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gold standard for approval is randomized
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experiments can you run a is it I
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mean imagine running a randomized
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experiment and now people are dying so
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how do you think about running like
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getting kind of the gold standard of
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evidence in cases is where you're
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testing an algorithm how is that thought
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about yeah all these algorithms require
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FDA approval did know they do and there
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have been more than 500 algorithms that
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have already been approved for use in
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clinical settings and so you can get a
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sense of just how many algorithms there
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are that exist and I think the lack of
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clinical integration is also highlighted
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by how few of those are actually used in
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practice um so certainly um regulation
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is a key point for this um and there's a
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lot of debate over how well they're
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actually being regulated so the current
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standard is trying to compare them to
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existing clinici and performance um but
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we know right that algorithms that
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particularly when they're exposed to new
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data will often times deteriorate so
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you're like the question is both how
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well does it work compared to clinicians
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but also on how large of data sets and
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those are two current criteria that are
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really key um the other interesting
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piece about on the regulation side is my
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under and I'm not a lawyer uh but my
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understanding is that ultimately
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responsibility still lies with a
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clinician so if there is going to be a
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loss suit um even if an algorithm does
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have FDA approval the final the
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responsibility finally lies with the
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clinician um so that's another
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Regulatory and legal challenge in terms
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of getting large scale deployment so
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could you give us a sense maybe Marissa
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um of these I think you mentioned about
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500 algorithms could you give our
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listeners here on SiriusXM just a sense
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of like what are these algorithms like
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like what would be if you want to think
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about them from the most impactful and
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efficacious to the least What would near
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the top and what would be like I don't
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know like for example let's imagine you
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had something that could red EKGs that
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could prevent heart attacks at a much
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higher rate than a h that would seem to
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be be given the frequency of heart
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attacks that would seem to be pretty
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efficacious and important can you give
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us a sense of like or the way I like to
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describe it I'm an effect Siz person
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tell me the things that you think the
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algorithms that are having the big
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effect sizes on a large population yeah
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the algorithms that seem to be enjoying
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the greatest success in having the
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biggest impact on Healthcare and
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healthare outcomes do seem to be the
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ones that are focused on Radiology so if
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you imagine that you show up at the
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emergency department and that you may be
00:13:08
having a stroke um the ability to get
00:13:10
that scan and read that scan quickly is
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critical so time is of the essence in
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Saving Lives um and the deployment of AI
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to you read Radiology reports which then
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do set an alert that speeds up the rest
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of clinical care so a human is looking
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at it um but that acceleration seems to
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have a huge impact on both Health
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outcomes and the cost and quality of
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care so I would put the more Radiology
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focused machine red ability to read um
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various scans of whatever nature those
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may be or Radiology reports seem to be
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the area where there's been the greatest
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penetration um so I think that's where
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the greatest impact lies where things
00:13:47
get trickier or when you think about
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things that um require a deeper
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integration into clinical care and I
00:13:54
think where the they're facing the
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biggest uh point of resistance is
00:13:57
actually if we think about things that
00:13:58
are directly patient facing MH so uh
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Marissa just mentioned something that I
00:14:04
haven't thought about for a while I used
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to spend a lot of time working on
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methods that I called realtime
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approximation methods I haven't worked
00:14:10
on these in a while but as Marissa said
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someone comes in you know I hate to put
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it this way but I'll use the word basian
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um I can't run my basian mcmc sampler
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overnight to get some result that gives
00:14:22
me something and of course the patient
00:14:23
may have died by then how much do you
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think about you know um as we as AC mics
00:14:29
are supposed to in theory we're supposed
00:14:31
to come up with good answers the fact
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that they may not be real Time That's I
00:14:35
hate to put this way but that's someone
00:14:36
else's problem how much do you think
00:14:37
about that when you're trying to come up
00:14:39
with Solutions like when you were
00:14:40
working with coid testing you know
00:14:43
someone's coming through the skin and
00:14:44
you can't say well give me a few hours
00:14:45
why don't you just sit over here on the
00:14:47
side while we decide which you know what
00:14:48
the likelihood of you having Co is how
00:14:50
do you think about real time nature of
00:14:52
things yeah I think um sometimes that
00:14:55
changes uh the algorithm that you use so
00:14:57
sometimes it's better to use do
00:14:58
something that's uh computationally
00:15:00
easier uh that might be slightly less
00:15:02
accurate um because it's actually
00:15:04
practical and another big thing we do is
00:15:06
batching like batched updates uh so you
00:15:10
can't so like uh like Marissa was saying
00:15:12
one of the issues I think the FDA is not
00:15:13
monitoring is making sure that these
00:15:15
algorithms actually evolve over time as
00:15:17
the patient population changes and
00:15:19
adapts to thing things to events like
00:15:21
coid uh I think that should be part of
00:15:23
the regulation but isn't yet uh but we
00:15:25
do do need to monitor these algorithms
00:15:27
as like uh the ICD system changes as uh
00:15:30
scanning imagery uh changes and so on uh
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and I think doing batched updates on as
00:15:36
fresh data comes in is kind of a
00:15:38
critical part of that and that makes it
00:15:39
that kind of solves a computational
00:15:41
issue I see uh we're here on the
00:15:43
analytics at warten AI at Warton podcast
00:15:45
series we're talking about Ai and
00:15:46
Healthcare I'm here with my colleagues
00:15:47
mura King the alisy hung president's
00:15:50
distinguished professor at the Wharton
00:15:51
School and Hamza bastani associate
00:15:53
professor of operations information
00:15:54
decisions and statistics and data
00:15:56
science um let me ask you a question
00:15:58
question when we as
00:16:00
academics approach these problems maybe
00:16:02
even approach companies I can imagine
00:16:05
one of two reactions like what are you
00:16:07
doing here or number two oh thank you
00:16:10
the academics have come to help us um so
00:16:14
what is the reaction when we as I mean
00:16:17
it's not that we we care I mean I think
00:16:18
I can safely the three of this people in
00:16:20
this room care more about our the way
00:16:22
our research impacts practice then
00:16:24
probably we're in the top desile of
00:16:26
Wharton faculty but what's the reaction
00:16:28
of Industry when academics want to get
00:16:30
engaged
00:16:31
here yeah I I think that the engagement
00:16:35
of academics is absolutely critical and
00:16:36
I think this is where analytics at
00:16:38
Wharton has particularly a huge role to
00:16:40
play if you think about the nature of
00:16:41
the Health Care system in general it's
00:16:43
highly fragmented fragmented with
00:16:45
stakeholders having various um strong
00:16:49
positions for a variety of different
00:16:50
reasons so you have right insurers you
00:16:52
have Regulators you have the people
00:16:54
delivering care um so there's a many
00:16:57
many players in this space and to solve
00:16:59
healthcare's biggest challenges you need
00:17:01
to get them all to work together
00:17:02
collaboratively and because many times
00:17:04
the positions from which they're arguing
00:17:06
right they may have um different
00:17:08
incentives or misaligned incentives and
00:17:09
so having a neutral convener who can
00:17:11
bring together um all those parties and
00:17:14
Tackle them from a place um of
00:17:16
scientific basis and a place of
00:17:18
neutrality and act as a really convening
00:17:20
organization is really really critical
00:17:23
um so certainly algorithmic tools can be
00:17:25
useful um but in order for them to have
00:17:28
broad penetration to tackle the most
00:17:30
pressing challenges you need
00:17:31
coordination among stakeholders and I
00:17:33
think that's where Academia can play a
00:17:34
really important role so actually
00:17:36
Marissa reminded me of something that's
00:17:38
in neither of your bios but it's going
00:17:39
to change after today I should have
00:17:42
mentioned even more importantly that
00:17:43
analytics at won is launching a
00:17:45
healthcare analytics lab under Hamza and
00:17:47
Marissa's leadership for those people
00:17:49
interested which is I would think
00:17:51
everybody you could go to analytics.
00:17:53
won. up.edu Warton Healthcare analytics
00:17:57
lab and see about about all the work
00:17:59
that we're that Hamza and Marissa will
00:18:01
be leading Us in could you talk uh Hamza
00:18:04
about the role of uncertainty like an
00:18:06
algorithm comes up with a suggestion or
00:18:09
a recommendation but one of the things
00:18:11
that's important is you know if it's
00:18:14
640 does the clinician have the right to
00:18:17
know that this is 6040 like the model
00:18:19
saying this is better than this but
00:18:21
maybe it's not that much better how do
00:18:24
you think about that when you're kind of
00:18:26
whether it's a dashboard you're creating
00:18:28
or you're providing recommendations
00:18:29
you're doing some form since you're an
00:18:31
oid which means you also care about
00:18:32
optimization when you think about
00:18:34
optimization what is the role and how do
00:18:36
you think about uncertainty I think it's
00:18:38
super important as you probably agree uh
00:18:41
but I think uh so I'll talk about the
00:18:43
humans first so when you're thinking
00:18:44
about human AI collaboration I think
00:18:46
uncertainty is one of those critical
00:18:47
pieces of information that you have to
00:18:49
convey so they know when they should
00:18:51
override it and when they shouldn't um
00:18:54
but I think one of the challenges has
00:18:56
been that in behavioral experiments when
00:18:58
you show uncertainty people often tend
00:19:00
to over trust the algorithm because they
00:19:02
think oh not only did it give me a point
00:19:04
estimate but it also gave me a measure
00:19:06
of uncertainty uh so I think this is
00:19:08
part of the training thing that has to
00:19:09
happen that uh we want people to
00:19:12
intervene in a preferential way when the
00:19:14
algorithm is uncertain for optimization
00:19:17
it's a little bit easier we've built a
00:19:19
lot of tools in in stochastic
00:19:20
optimization that account for
00:19:22
uncertainty uh so that we're targeting
00:19:24
for example the right quantile of
00:19:26
uncertainty rather than just using the
00:19:27
mean or estimates because typically in
00:19:29
underserved populations we'll have a lot
00:19:31
more uncertainty and we don't want that
00:19:33
to result in you know them getting uh
00:19:36
fewer
00:19:37
resources um the next question I'm going
00:19:39
to ask Marissa is my favorite question
00:19:41
to ask anybody and when it comes to
00:19:43
analytics and I can't you know usually
00:19:45
with me it's about some sort of food or
00:19:47
beverage so I'm taking outside my
00:19:49
personal life I'm talking about my
00:19:50
professional life here if you think
00:19:52
about the way that AI can impact in
00:19:54
healthcare I'm going to give you one of
00:19:56
three options okay okay you can have
00:19:59
better
00:20:00
data you can have better mathematical
00:20:03
models or you could have better
00:20:05
adherence by people in the field to what
00:20:08
we as academics you can't pick all three
00:20:10
you you we all want all three which one
00:20:13
is the big if you'd like impedance right
00:20:16
now to advances we're making is it lack
00:20:19
of data lack of better models or is it
00:20:22
we've got all that stuff just you know
00:20:24
these damn people just won't listen to
00:20:26
us I think it's a ladder um so if you
00:20:29
think about the data challenges the data
00:20:31
challenges still Loom large um but we
00:20:33
have now the ability to work with large
00:20:35
enough data sets that this is starting
00:20:37
to become a solvable problem I think
00:20:39
particularly on the electronic health
00:20:41
record front it's still a challenge in
00:20:43
the sense that most of the time we're
00:20:44
going hospital by Hospital deploy these
00:20:46
things um but it's still like the data
00:20:48
is okay um the second piece is the
00:20:50
algorithms seem right like the
00:20:52
algorithms I don't think are the
00:20:53
challenge uh if you just even look at
00:20:55
how many your FDA approved right and I
00:20:57
feel like h and I could sit down
00:20:59
probably tomorrow and write an algorithm
00:21:00
that would certainly improve care in
00:21:02
many many ways um the big is I'm
00:21:04
counting on that but H the biggest
00:21:07
challenge is really implementation and
00:21:09
integration and the same is true as was
00:21:12
true with data in the sense that most of
00:21:13
the time these things have to be rolled
00:21:15
out system by System hospital by
00:21:16
Hospital doctor's office by doctor's
00:21:18
office um and until and even within
00:21:21
those roll outs um there's a lot of
00:21:23
clinical resistance so I as I watched
00:21:25
these things be deployed in various
00:21:27
settings right um I can't tell you like
00:21:29
I don't even want to disclose how often
00:21:31
times the algorithm is overridden um
00:21:33
just for and medicine is particularly
00:21:36
challenging in the sense that clinicians
00:21:40
have a lot of expertise and a lot of
00:21:41
authority and um there's a strong
00:21:44
difference to that expertise and
00:21:45
Authority as there should be but it
00:21:47
makes um changing the way that they
00:21:49
think um and questioning their judgment
00:21:52
um particularly difficult so I think
00:21:53
it's the latter if I could improve
00:21:55
anything it would be adoption and
00:21:57
implementation so HS I know an issue
00:21:59
you've thought quite a bit about and are
00:22:00
planning on doing a lot of work on is
00:22:02
kind of educating people in these
00:22:05
methods so what's the process like I my
00:22:08
brother's a cardiologist I'm pretty sure
00:22:11
if you I mean he's also a researcher so
00:22:13
I'm pretty sure if you present him the
00:22:14
ideas of confidence intervals and
00:22:16
prediction methods he might get it um
00:22:19
but many doctors that's not their job
00:22:21
like so how do you present information
00:22:24
or how do we even educate this large
00:22:27
population on these algorithms cuz you
00:22:29
use the word before I think
00:22:30
interpretable and explainable maybe
00:22:32
they're like how do I know this is just
00:22:34
some black box data's coming in
00:22:35
something's coming out how do you think
00:22:37
about your role in kind of educating the
00:22:41
if you'd like the distribution channel
00:22:42
in this case the Physicians on these
00:22:45
methods I think uh one big challenge is
00:22:48
that people don't know what training
00:22:49
data was used to train the algorithm and
00:22:51
I mean giving it to them wouldn't be
00:22:53
super useful anyway because it's not
00:22:55
interpretable but I think um a lot of
00:22:57
the reasons that uh we want humans to
00:23:00
override these algorithms is because the
00:23:02
data that they're seeing is possibly an
00:23:04
outlier or has a different distribution
00:23:06
uh than the data that it was trained on
00:23:08
so for example maybe they didn't see
00:23:09
people of this particular type um or
00:23:12
maybe the Imaging system that they're
00:23:14
using now is a little bit different from
00:23:15
uh the one that was used in the training
00:23:17
data uh and I think partly it's on us to
00:23:20
provide these signals but I don't think
00:23:22
they're immediately interpretable so I
00:23:23
think some kind of training where we
00:23:25
show them historical examples of when
00:23:27
the algorithm went wrong and when they
00:23:29
might have had a right prior and when
00:23:31
the algorithm didn't go wrong and when
00:23:32
they overwrote it even know even just
00:23:34
showing them their own decisions
00:23:35
historically and seeing when they um
00:23:38
should or shouldn't have overwritten the
00:23:40
algorithm like would help a lot because
00:23:41
people need feedback and there isn't
00:23:44
spec like healthcare is very expensive
00:23:46
and these people's time is very
00:23:47
expensive so like setting aside the time
00:23:49
to do that training I think is important
00:23:51
and costly well that's what that was
00:23:53
going to be my next question for Marissa
00:23:54
do you see whether it's Hospital groups
00:23:56
or do you see I don't know the American
00:23:57
American Medical Association or the
00:23:59
American Association of Surgeons I'm
00:24:00
just I don't know I think that's assume
00:24:02
that's a real one I mean do you see them
00:24:04
coming to people like yourselves and say
00:24:07
help us train Us in Mass come up with
00:24:10
video series or something so that these
00:24:13
people that are overburdened overworked
00:24:15
in general you could argue underpaid
00:24:17
like how are we going to train them
00:24:19
because we want to save
00:24:21
lives yeah I think unfortunately or
00:24:24
fortunately depending on how you look at
00:24:25
it the greatest opportunity is actually
00:24:27
just going to come from pain um we know
00:24:29
that we're facing a clinical healthcare
00:24:31
worker shortage so by 2033 um there's
00:24:33
going to be a massive shortage of
00:24:35
healthcare workers and if you already
00:24:36
look at the issues around burnout um
00:24:39
with a majority of clinicians burnt out
00:24:41
um there's already an enormous amount of
00:24:43
pain and overwork and so I think in many
00:24:45
ways that we're most likely to see
00:24:47
adoption coming coming from the bottom
00:24:48
up where clinicians asking right and I I
00:24:52
didn't talk about clinical notation but
00:24:54
that's a huge area in which um large
00:24:56
language models and machine learning can
00:24:58
play a role by starting to do some of
00:25:00
the work right and the tasks that
00:25:01
clinicians don't need to be doing and by
00:25:03
saving them that time right then you can
00:25:05
allow them to reconnect with patients
00:25:07
deliver higher quality care and so I
00:25:09
think in many ways um education is
00:25:11
certainly going to be more important but
00:25:13
based on my experience people are really
00:25:14
much more willing to adopt things when
00:25:16
there's a a real need for them and right
00:25:18
now in healthcare there's a strong need
00:25:20
for help um to augment clinical
00:25:22
workflows but particularly with the
00:25:23
things that clinicians don't need to be
00:25:24
doing and so I think very soon we're
00:25:27
going to be seeing
00:25:28
yeah I just had an example the other day
00:25:29
where someone I'll just say with a large
00:25:31
Investment Bank told me that all of
00:25:34
their meetings are now recorded and now
00:25:37
the agent or the investment adviser
00:25:39
doesn't need to take notes because all
00:25:41
of that is automatically put into the
00:25:43
system any types of decisions they made
00:25:45
get automatically implemented because
00:25:47
they're now in this case voice recorded
00:25:49
and automatically and so now the
00:25:50
investment adviser can spend time on
00:25:52
training and other forms of doing her
00:25:54
his or their job actually better which
00:25:57
is a great really great point so maybe
00:25:59
in the last minute or two that we have
00:26:00
let me ask each of you i' I'm trying to
00:26:02
ask each person in this podcast series
00:26:04
about this so let's say we're sitting
00:26:06
here 10 years from now which the
00:26:08
invitation is open we're sitting here 10
00:26:10
years from now that'll be my 38th year
00:26:12
at Wharton we're sitting here 10 years
00:26:13
from now what are we talking about that
00:26:16
either you or you think the field of AI
00:26:19
and healthc Care from an algorithmic or
00:26:21
you know data perspective what have we
00:26:23
seen over the past 10 years what's your
00:26:26
hope and dream at Le least even if it's
00:26:28
not going to happen I think over the
00:26:30
past 10 years we will definitely have um
00:26:32
adoption on on notes for example or
00:26:34
things that Physicians don't want to do
00:26:36
I think we'll have more adoption in
00:26:38
developing countries where there isn't I
00:26:40
know we're we're short staffed even in
00:26:41
the US but uh where there isn't as much
00:26:44
health worker staff to reach underserved
00:26:46
communities so automation is sort of
00:26:48
being more adopted in those locations uh
00:26:51
and I think definitely for things like
00:26:52
Radiology I think we'll still be facing
00:26:54
challenges with you know things like
00:26:56
alarm fatigue and adoption for places
00:26:58
where we have clinician experts and I
00:27:00
think uh with models like gbt coming out
00:27:03
I think it'll be easier to educate
00:27:05
people on machine learning um and be
00:27:07
able to you know better enable this
00:27:09
human AI collaboration but I feel like
00:27:11
that is going to be a big challenge even
00:27:12
10 years from now and what do you think
00:27:13
mer so what are we going to see out
00:27:14
there whether it's in the field or we as
00:27:16
academics are doing I mean both homs and
00:27:19
I's goal at the analytics lab is to try
00:27:21
to improve access to care and quality
00:27:23
care for all and I think that that's
00:27:25
hopefully where analytics will take us
00:27:27
well I'd like to thank both of you for
00:27:29
our podcast series episode here on AI
00:27:31
and Healthcare i' like to thank again my
00:27:33
uh colleague Marissa King and Hamza
00:27:34
basani thank you again for joining me
00:27:37
thank
00:27:43
you

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    Best concept / idea

Episode Highlights

  • AI's Role in Healthcare
    AI and machine learning are transforming healthcare, impacting everything from triage to prescription reminders.
    “Machine learning plays a key role in all of those facets.”
    @ 02m 05s
    November 10, 2023
  • Integrating AI with Human Knowledge
    Successful healthcare algorithms must complement human expertise, not replace it.
    “Algorithms need to be designed in a way that is aware of what knowledge the human has.”
    @ 08m 06s
    November 10, 2023
  • The Importance of Time in Emergencies
    In emergency situations, rapid AI analysis can be life-saving.
    “Time is of the essence in saving lives.”
    @ 13m 14s
    November 10, 2023
  • Academic Engagement in Healthcare
    Collaboration between academia and industry is essential for effective healthcare solutions.
    “The engagement of academics is absolutely critical.”
    @ 16m 35s
    November 10, 2023
  • The Role of Collaboration in Healthcare
    To tackle healthcare's biggest challenges, collaboration among various stakeholders is essential.
    “You need to get them all to work together.”
    @ 17m 01s
    November 10, 2023
  • Launching a Healthcare Analytics Lab
    Analytics at Wharton is launching a healthcare analytics lab under new leadership.
    “It's going to change after today.”
    @ 17m 42s
    November 10, 2023
  • The Challenge of AI Adoption
    The biggest challenge in healthcare AI is implementation and integration, not data or algorithms.
    “The biggest challenge is really implementation and integration.”
    @ 21m 07s
    November 10, 2023
  • Future of AI in Healthcare
    In 10 years, we may see more automation in healthcare, especially in underserved areas.
    “Automation is being more adopted in those locations.”
    @ 26m 48s
    November 10, 2023

Episode Quotes

  • Machine learning plays a key role in all of those facets.
    How Can AI Improve Health Care? – Wharton's Hamsa Bastani and Marissa King | AI in Focus Series
  • Time is of the essence in saving lives.
    How Can AI Improve Health Care? – Wharton's Hamsa Bastani and Marissa King | AI in Focus Series
  • The engagement of academics is absolutely critical.
    How Can AI Improve Health Care? – Wharton's Hamsa Bastani and Marissa King | AI in Focus Series
  • We want to save lives.
    How Can AI Improve Health Care? – Wharton's Hamsa Bastani and Marissa King | AI in Focus Series
  • Adoption comes from pain.
    How Can AI Improve Health Care? – Wharton's Hamsa Bastani and Marissa King | AI in Focus Series
  • Education is certainly going to be more important.
    How Can AI Improve Health Care? – Wharton's Hamsa Bastani and Marissa King | AI in Focus Series

Key Moments

  • Introduction to AI in Healthcare00:27
  • AI Applications Overview02:05
  • Emergency Response13:14
  • Academic-Industry Collaboration16:35
  • Collaboration Needed17:01
  • Analytics Lab Launch17:42
  • Implementation Challenges21:07
  • Future Automation26:48

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown

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