Artificial intelligence and machine learning are key to unlocking patient data and solving some of healthcare's most complex problems. Even as the U.S. seeks to put the COVID-19 pandemic in the rearview mirror, many who survive the initial illness suffer debilitating long-term health impacts, especially those with underlying health conditions. Technology allows easier access to disparate data sources without compromising data privacy or integrity. In addition, advanced analytics deliver real-time insights, enabling providers to predict outcomes and diagnose illness early to intervene with patients at risk of developing long-term COVID and other chronic diseases. To delve deeper into these technologies and their ramifications in healthcare, Healthcare IT News spoke with Brett Furst, president of HHS Tech Group.

Paddy Padmanabhan, founder and CEO of Damo Consulting Inc., is a digital health entrepreneur, author and host of The Big Unlock podcast. As someone who works in digital health and telehealth and advises large health systems on their digital transformation road maps, I am a true believer in the potential for remote and real-time virtual care modalities to transform healthcare. The Covid-19 pandemic made telehealth and remote care a necessity because of restrictions on in-person care. More recently, the growth in the virtual care and telehealth models is due to an acute shortage of workers at physical locations. In fact, according to the American College of Healthcare Executives' annual survey of top issues confronting hospitals, personnel shortages ranked as the top concern for hospital CEOs in 2021.

Artificial intelligence allows underserved populations to gain access to a radiologist, pointed out Anthony L. Loschner, MD, assistant professor and associate program director, Critical Care Fellowship Program, Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine. Artificial intelligence allows underserved populations to gain access to a radiologist by just clicking a snapshot on their cell phone, said Anthony L. Loschner, MD, assistant professor and associate program director, Critical Care Fellowship Program, Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, about his presentation at this year's CHEST meeting.TranscriptIntroduce us to the use of artificial intelligence in pulmonary medicine.The title of my presentation was "Artificial Intelligence in Pulmonary Medicine: The Rise of the Machines." And we reviewed the major articles that had been published in the last year or so guiding future AI in pulmonary medicine.There were some reviews that were done, literature reviews, where I reviewed articles on how AI is currently being used. Examples include great work by a Stanford team called ChestNet, and they're using a deep learning algorithm to read chest x-rays on any media pretty much.

Microsoft has announced a five-year, $40 million initiative aimed at leveraging artificial intelligence to empower people and organizations working to advance solutions to urgent global health challenges. Part of the AI for Good initiative, a $165 million effort launched by the company in 2017, AI for Health, as the new initiative is called, will focus on ensuring that nonprofits, academia, and research organizations have access to the technology, resources, and technical experts they need to apply AI and data science to their work. To that end, the initiative will focus on three areas: accelerating the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disease; advancing a shared understanding of mortality and longevity to protect against global health crises; and addressing inequities among and improving access to care for underserved populations. Inaugural AI for Health grantees include Bangladesh-based BRAC, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Pensacola-based Intelligent Retinal Imaging Systems (IRIS), the Novartis Foundation, Seattle-based PATH, and Seattle Children's Research Institute. "Unlocking and sharing data is critical to discovering new ways to treat and ultimately cure cancer," said Raphael Gottardo, scientific director of the Translational Data Science Integrated Research Center at the Hutch.

The health of people and communities around the world has been improving over time. For example, the steep decline in child and maternal mortality is a key indicator of positive momentum. However, progress has not been equal across the globe, and there is a great need to focus on societal issues such as reducing health inequity and improving access to care for underserved populations. While researchers work to unlock life-saving discoveries and develop new approaches to pressing health issues, advancements in technology can help accelerate and scale new solutions. That is why we are launching AI for Health, a new $40 million, five-year program to empower researchers and organizations with AI to improve the health of people and communities around the world.