THE HEALTHCARE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION LEADER

Hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend. We honor those who served to protect our nation.

This past weekend, I went looking for a pair of Sonos speakers for my surround sound system. The speakers were back-ordered on the company’s website with an estimated shipping date in mid-July. I looked at retailers who might have it in-store and eventually found two Best Buy outlets which had one piece each in stock. I paid online and drove a total of sixty miles one afternoon to collect the speakers (I know what you’re thinking. I just had to have them.) Companies like Sonos have seen their global supply chains disrupted over the past year and are trying to ramp up manufacturing in other countries to meet surging demand. 

And what about the services sector?

Today, nearly all Fortune 500 companies rely to some degree on India-based talent for their technology operations. You would be hard-pressed to find a technology vendor who does not rely on an India-based workforce to build and support products. As the second wave of COVID washes across India, the potential impact of the virus ripping through the tech workforce is significant. We include this article from WSJ that discusses how IT service providers are coping and the options available to CIOs who want to mitigate the risks by sourcing talent from other locations.

This past week, we saw AI partnership announcements by Geisinger Health, HCA, and lab test leader Quest Diagnostics. HCA became the latest to partner with Google on a multi-year cloud partnership to leverage data analytics. As I wrote in my article in CIO online this past month, the AI technology is here but the users are not. A related, but an underappreciated challenge, is the labeling of data at scale to enable AI algorithms to do their work.

On June 2, I’m moderating a panel discussion on the evolution of the cyber threat landscape – a topic that is increasingly dominating the news. You can register here.

In my latest podcast episode, I interview Murray Brozinsky, CEO of Conversa Health, one of the leading startups in the conversational AI space. Take a listen. 

Have a great week. 

Paddy 

UPMC Health Plan launches smart speaker integration

UPMC Health Plan launches a virtual concierge service that integrates into its 4million members’ Amazon Alexa and Google Home devices, joining a growing number of health insurers integrating plan information with smart speakers. Modern Healthcare 

Why a Grand Plan to Vaccinate the World Against Covid Unraveled

The multibillion-dollar Covax program was supposed to be a model for vaccinating humanity but has hit problem after problem. The Wall Street Journal

Global Companies Retool as Covid-19 Surge Hits India’s Tech Talent

In the first quarter, nearly all Fortune 500 companies had exposure to India’s coronavirus crisis in their IT operations, according to consulting firm Hackett Group. The Wall Street Journal  

Where are retail healthcare offerings falling short? 3 hospital innovation execs weigh in

In the past few years, big tech companies and retail pharmacy chains have scaled up their consumer-minded healthcare offerings. These efforts, from companies such as Amazon, Walmart and CVS, promise to improve affordability and convenience for patients. Becker’s Hospital Review

The imaging AI field is exploding, but it carries unique challenges

Gathering data at scale, labeling that data and monitoring tool efficacy are all critical steps in scaling AI tools, but they can also act as bottlenecks, especially in the healthcare space, said experts during an AWS panel. Healthcare IT News  

Note: Some of the articles linked in this newsletter may be behind paywalls that need a subscription.