Generative AI, virtual nursing, remote monitoring: What hospital innovation leaders expect for rest of ’23
Becker’s Healthcare asked 11 health system leaders, “What are your innovation plans and predictions for the rest of 2023?”
Here is Mass General Brigham Chief Innovation Officer Chris Coburn’s response:
Growing translation and outcomes from our category-leading research base of $2.3 billion will continue to be our highest focus. In this period, it is interesting to see the breakthroughs our faculty are making related to a specific disease in parallel with their success expanding indications to additional diseases. We expect to see more therapeutics in expanded applications in the coming years.
The Mass General Brigham Gene and Cell Therapy Institute will continue to drive toward improved outcomes in cancer, cardiovascular, neuroinflammation and autoimmune diseases, with significant growth forecast for regenerative medicine — all areas the institute is exploring with hundreds of researchers across MGB.
New approaches to behavioral health solutions will expand to more people via digital technologies, helping improve access and capacity issues.
The development and validation of Generative AI applications will continue to accelerate for the next several years. A new study by Mass General Brigham investigators found that AI language models can accurately identify appropriate imaging services for two important clinical presentations: breast cancer screening and breast pain. Their results suggest that large language models have the potential to assist decision-making for primary care doctors and referring providers in evaluating patients and ordering imaging tests — which should further enhance utilization and ideally remove cost elements.
The full launch of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) this year could be a generational game-changer. Focused, bridging investments guided by disciplined program management may yield high-impact healthcare technologies on a scale similar to the ones that have consistently emerged from Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency since its establishment in 1958. ARPA-H has the resources, know-how and nationwide standing to address systemic innovation gaps in a way never previously possible.
Drug pricing and the impact of the Inflation Reduction Act have begun to play out and will only increase over the balance of the year. It will further increase as the ’24 election cycle takes hold, especially with the rise of biosimilars and their related approval pathways. A content-filled discussion on the topic was featured recently at the World Medical Innovation Forum, where Mass General Brigham also announced its list of the “disruptive dozen” technologies likely to emerge in-clinic before the end of ’24. These range from obesity drugs and diabetes treatment to potential new therapies for ALS and a future blood test for Alzheimer’s disease.
Read more on Becker’s Hospital Review.