Industry and academia leaders unite to transform healthcare through AI adoption

The coalition brings together the Brookings Institution, Cleveland Clinic, Duke Health, Intermountain Healthcare, Microsoft, Novant Health, Plug and Play, Providence, UC San Diego, and University of Virginia with the goal of maximising technology to provide recommendations, tooling and best practices for AI in healthcare.

Patty Obermaier, vice president, US Health and Life Sciences, Microsoft, said:

“The goal of the newly created AI3C is to establish a pragmatic coalition with public and private organisations to advance health by identifying and addressing significant societal and industry barriers.

“I am excited about the launch of AI3C and working with its distinguished board as we continue the momentum toward serving the needs of patients and communities through AI innovation.”

The AI3C board, composed of volunteer senior executives acting as advisors, will work to co-create AI solutions for positive societal and healthcare outcomes, identify and set the AI strategy and vision for a variety of projects, and track the success of AI adoption in the industry. Each member organization has nominated its own AI ambassadors to serve as regional leads and drive programs. All members have an equal voice in the way the coalition operates and is governed.

The AI3C intends to apply AI to resolve significant challenges in business such as:

• General economic and industrial challenges – including research transfer, industry standards and funding instruments
• Digital skills and employability – including organisational and cultural challenges, as well as labour policies
• Data privacy – including data access and shared innovation.

Overall, the AI3C objectives are to accelerate AI innovation and adoption by:

• Showcasing emerging AI tools
• Gathering industry-specific AI use cases, best practices and research feedback
• Transforming the AI workforce
• Preparing students for careers in AI and data science.

To achieve these goals, AI3C members will focus on providing a comprehensive program for responsible AI education and upskilling. Moreover, the AI3C will engage with the healthcare community through white papers, new tools and programs, and social media outreach to make AI more applicable and impactful. The coalition will host quarterly meetings and events to transparently communicate the resolution and progress of solving key challenges through AI adoption.

The AI3C will provide recommendations and advice on a wide array of AI topics including responsible healthcare innovation, health equity and workforce transformation to reduce clinical fatigue.

More details about the coalition’s programs and its impact will be available later this year. The AI3C follows in the footsteps of the National Coalition for Artificial Intelligence in Financial Services, which was launched in December 2020.

Ashley Llorens, vice president and managing director, Microsoft Research and Incubations, said:

“Meeting the urgent need for new health technologies requires diverse partners coming together across sectors.

“With perspectives from AI practitioners, healthcare professionals and the research community, the AI3C can guide collaborative projects that accelerate the translation of frontier technologies from research to solution development, to implementation,” Lorens added.

Shamyla Lando, chief technology officer, Duke Health, said:

“AI in health care provides us powerful tools to address systemic challenges by identifying true root causes. At Duke Health, we are committed to eliminating inequities in clinical care and reducing social barriers to a healthy life through the Collaborative to Advance Clinical Health Equity, led by Dr. Richard Shannon.

AI will empower us to redesign the care delivery system at the population level and I look forward to creating health equity for our generation and future generations,” Lando added.