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The ideas and innovators shaping health care | | | | |  | | By Daniel Payne, Carmen Paun, Evan Peng, Ruth Reader and Erin Schumaker | | | | |  Biden's got a plan to regulate AI, but Milken summit panelists were skeptical government can keep pace. | Getty Images | The health care industry’s rapid adoption of artificial intelligence is cause for enthusiasm and worry. That was our top takeaway at this week’s Milken Institute Future of Health Summit in Washington where Future Pulse reporters covered the newsmakers onstage and took the temperature of industry denizens offstage. What did we hear? Top lawmakers, government officials, public health experts and business leaders see a health system on the brink of major change — much of it driven by AI, Daniel reports. They expect AI to speed diagnoses, target treatments and ease doctors’ burdens. They see a place for the rapidly advancing tech in doctors’ offices, pharmaceutical development, diagnostics and administrative work that has long bogged down health care. It could even bring patients better, faster information on their own care. Even so: For every new foothold the technology finds in the health system, a new danger arises. It could spread misinformation faster and farther than currently possible, said Ellen Patterson, president of EVERFI, a digital education company. And, over time, it runs the risk of misinterpreting data, giving flawed advice or becoming inaccurate. Veiled details of how AI works mean the true risk profile of any given system can be difficult for government to discern. Here come the regulators: The White House’s recent executive order on AI shows it’s a priority. Still, the government is a step behind the tech. Dr. Brian Anderson, chief digital health physician at MITRE, a nonprofit that works with the government on technology projects, suggested the existing rules governing medical devices may not work with the latest AI. And Srini Iyer, chief technology officer of Leidos’ health technology group, said the rules could be easy to dodge. “People are going to be doing stuff and not reporting it because they’re going to look for that loophole,” Iyer said.
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National Arboretum, Washington, D.C. | Shawn Zeller | This is where we explore the ideas and innovators shaping health care. Talking about overuse of social media as an addiction may be exaggerated, according to a new study. People who embarked on a tech detox by going cold turkey didn't suffer withdrawal symptoms or cravings, Science reports. Share any thoughts, news, tips and feedback with Carmen Paun at cpaun@politico.com, Daniel Payne at dpayne@politico.com, Evan Peng at epeng@politico.com or Erin Schumaker at eschumaker@politico.com. Send tips securely through SecureDrop, Signal, Telegram or WhatsApp. Today on our Pulse Check podcast, host Alice Miranda Ollstein talks with Daniel, who breaks down key takeaways from the 2023 Milken Institute Future of Health Summit, including experts' prediction that artificial intelligence will revolutionize health care and warnings from lawmakers and regulators about the risks around misinformation and data privacy.
| | | | | | |  Sununu has changed his view on how bosses should treat people who misuse drugs or alcohol. | AP | President Joe Biden and the GOP governor of New Hampshire, Chris Sununu, want to help people with substance use disorder stay employed. The Biden administration Thursday released a 140-page toolkit for recovery ready workplaces to help employers respond more effectively when their employees misuse substances and to develop a workplace culture supportive of recovery. “A job offers stability for tens of millions of Americans in recovery or those struggling with substance use disorder and their families and communities,” Dr. Rahul Gupta, the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, told reporters. Why it matters: Some 44 million American adults misuse alcohol or drugs, and 20 million more are in recovery, according to the ONDCP. Sununu, who joined Gupta for the press briefing, recounted how his thinking evolved about employees facing addiction from “we got to get rid of him” to trying to support them in their treatment and recovery. “Just to fire them … I call this sending them back to the wolves,” Sununu said, explaining that losing a job only makes recovery more difficult. What’s next? Sununu announced the launch of the National Recovery Friendly Workplace Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan effort to help businesses become supportive places for employees recovering from substance use disorder. A recovery-ready workplace helps employees with substance use disorder seek help, provides reasonable accommodation while the employee is in treatment and reduces stigma and discrimination, according to the toolkit. This saves the economy between $2,689 and $13,534 per year, the estimated cost per employee with untreated substance use disorder depending on the type of job, according to a 2023 study included in the toolkit.
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Clinton's placing a bet on health AI. | Getty | Chelsea Clinton’s venture capital firm, Metrodora Ventures, is boosting a startup with ambitions to use artificial intelligence to speed new drugs to market. The startup, BioPhy, said its software is in pilot use with several leading pharmaceutical companies and it has partnered with various organizations in life sciences, the U.S. government, financial services and the public sector. The vision: BioPhy’s platform for drug development consists of two products. The first uses large language models to help pharmaceutical companies analyze and interpret studies, research, clinical trials and regulations. The second is a predictive AI tool that provides guidance to researchers through all stages of drug development. The company says clients already using its tech benefit from the speed and regulatory intelligence the products provide. Why it matters: “The industry has faced a crisis for years — development costs companies billions of dollars per drug, with 95 percent of all clinical trials failing,” said BioPhy co-founder and CEO Dave Latshaw II in a statement. “AI can be leveraged to solve for the inefficiencies.” | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
