Sorting through a sea of data: AI in health care

So much is happening with artificial intelligence in health care; thank goodness for experts who provide clear explanations.

I can barely turn around at healthcare conferences without “bumping into” another presentation or vendor booth talking up the benefits of artificial intelligence in health care. I sense that we’re at the high point of the hype curve---that many of the claims will fall flat.  We’ve been through this hype cycle with breathless descriptions of what electronic medical records can do for us, the hope that electronic prescribing would eliminate medication errors and more.

Realistically, artificial intelligence in health care won’t solve all of our problems. We’re not replacing doctors with mobile apps, but on the other hand, we are clearly benefiting from dramatic improvements in voice recognition software. My early experience with voice-to-text documentation was an exercise in frustration that sent me back to typing.  Now I can speak into my phone and only occasionally correct the output.

I had the opportunity to speak to a real expert in the field of AI on computer systems, his knowledge of technology and more. V. Juggy Jagannathan is a colleague and an AI Evangelist at 3M M*Modal. His Inside Angle blog series “AI Talk” exposes his passion for and knowledge of AI in health care. Our conversation ranged from “How do computers learn to recognize a cat?” to breakthroughs in knowledge transfer (now that the computer can recognize a cat, maybe we can transfer some of that knowledge to recognizing a dog).

Dr. Jagannathan describes the breakthroughs and the hyperbole. I learned a lot from our conversation.

L. Gordon Moore, MD, is Senior Medical Director, Clinical Strategy and Value-based Care for 3M Health Information Systems.