Robin Farmanfarmaian is a Silicon Valley-based entrepreneur working in technology and artificial intelligence. She has been involved with more than 20 early-stage biotech and healthcare startups, including ones working on medical devices and digital health. With more than 180 speaking engagements in 15 countries, she has educated audiences on many aspects of technology intersecting healthcare, including artificial intelligence and the shift in healthcare delivery to the patient's home. She has written four books, including The Patient as CEO: How Technology Empowers the Healthcare Consumer and, most recently, How AI Can Democratize Healthcare: The Rise in Digital Care. Healthcare IT News spoke with Farmanfarmaian to discuss where AI is impacting remote patient monitoring today, and how AI can democratize healthcare.

Americans will generate more clinical grade biological data like daily vital signs in the next 5 years than has previously been recorded in the past 20 years. The data will be more accurate since it won't be one snapshot in time, but many snapshots in someone's daily life. While most clinical grade vital signs are collected and recorded in a healthcare setting like a clinic, hospital, or ER, there are a number of factors changing that quickly. The combination of AI based software & medical devices that have cleared the FDA, payor reimbursement, clinical adoption, and patient adoption are all coming together to bring RPM mainstream. This is impactful for a number of reasons.

The greatest problem we have is access to care. According to the CDC, nearly 20% of adults in the United States have no regular source of healthcare. One of the places this is most stark is in lifespan – where the wealthiest Americans have benefits from steady gains, about five years of additional longevity from 2000-2014 – versus the poorest, for whom, during the same period, life expectancy hasn't changed at all. There are many factors that contribute to this growing divide in mortality, socioeconomic and medical – but one of the biggest is simply not enough physicians in the right places. The best doctors and providers are drawn to similar circumstances: top hospitals, with the top tier of colleagues, in the most desirable places to live, with patients that can pay for services.

The greatest problem we have is access to care. According to the CDC, nearly 20% of adults in the United States have no regular source of healthcare. One of the places this is most stark is in lifespan -- where the wealthiest Americans have benefits from steady gains, about five years of additional longevity from 2000-2014 -- versus the poorest, for whom, during the same period, life expectancy hasn't changed at all. There are many factors that contribute to this growing divide in mortality, socioeconomic and medical -- but one of the biggest is simply not enough physicians in the right places. The best doctors and providers are drawn to similar circumstances: top hospitals, with the top tier of colleagues, in the most desirable places to live, with patients that can pay for services.