ThoughtLinks CEO, Sumeet Chabria, Gives Guest Lecture on The Future of AI in Medicine at Vanderbilt University
Sumeet Chabria, ThoughtLinks CEO, was honored to appear as a guest lecturer at Vanderbilt University on March 8, 2023.
Special thanks to Vanderbilt University ; Michael Ainslie, Patrick Leddin, Ph.D., Peter Embí, M.D., M.S., and Gabriella Ayad.
Healthcare is one of the greatest success stories of the century. We have made tremendous advances in life expectancy, discovery of new drugs and vaccinations. However our healthcare system is at a crisis point. We are facing serious challenges and the system risks failing us badly.
It’s a perfect storm…greater longevity with sub optimal health choices translates to more demand. It takes years and billions of dollars to bring new drugs to market. There is a serious shortage of qualified health professionals. These amazing doctors and nurses who do a great job everyday are facing serious burnout and fatigue. A recent Times article from Jamie Ducharme highlighted that patient fatigue is also growing with long wait times for appointments and shorter interactions with doctors.
There is too much inefficiency with non-value added paperwork and documentation not counting for litigation and fragmentation across the entire supply chain between providers and insurers. Insurance remains a mystery to many. Decisions on health insurance claims seems more opaque than AI blackboxes. Then there are inequitable outcomes and COVID has shined a huge spotlight on it.
Artificial Intelligence has tremendous potential to transform healthcare from improving diagnosis to discovering new molecules/ drugs to personalized treatments. It can help us live better, healthier lives by proactively warning us of individual risks and nudging our behaviors. It can make home care a reality. It can improve management and forecasting of hospital facilities - beds and operating rooms.
Nothing great is ever achieved without risk and challenges. There are surely significant hurdles with legal and accountability frameworks, training, education and ethics. But these are not insurmountable if we think of new approaches with due care responsibly. Doctors equipped with AI will outperform doctors without it with less burnout.
Let’s help the great start-ups looking to disrupt this space. The established players have a big opportunity but they need to think bold. What more could be at stake - if we can make it work, we can eliminate diseases, make healthcare more equitable and improve quality of life.