Global Big Data Conference

Much proselytizing has occurred regarding the value and future of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning in healthcare. As with blockchain technology, which continues to evolve in the healthcare marketplace, AI and machine learning are constructs that require a bit of near-term expectation management. While their efficacy and value will improve with time, they are not the magic bullet (at present) that will answer the myriad care and cost delivery questions surrounding healthcare in the United States. Owing to space constraints this column is an overly simplistic contemplation of AI. As prologue to this article, I am not an AI programmer, don't play in Python, and have never built a machine learning algorithm. That said, I do have 30 years of practical experience in the healthcare trenches and have dealt with information technology (IT) systems and applications in that time, such as culling quality data and outcomes from electronic medical record (EMR) systems and deploying rudimentary analytics.