Preparing for the tsunami of healthcare data approaching

In a new pharmaphorum podcast, web editor Nicole Raleigh spoke with Michael Ibara, chief data officer at Elligo Health Research, discussing AI in clinical research and its overall impact on healthcare.

Elligo itself is a healthcare-enabling clinical research organisation and its mission is to provide everyone with easy access to participation in research, as well as to accelerate clinical trials along the way. In order to do so, the company relies on data – that all important word in the technological age.

With a passion for programming sparked from childhood, Ibara has always enjoyed using technology to solve problems. From Bayes’ theorem to Eisenhower’s pharmaco-regulatory vendor complex, the conversation explores how using AI and indeed electronic health record (or EHR) data in order to optimise research is what will bring meaningful change to healthcare systems; how, today, it is a true possibility - with a tsunami of healthcare data approaching.

In fact, we have more data than we know what to do with, and how to use that data needs to be worked out. Looking at the economics of this, ‘decreasing the cost of a transaction’ - in Coasean terms - is one path by which to ascertain the benefits of combining both AI and EHR data for practical application in clinical research. Medical grade data, after all, is extremely useful and we are experiencing a ‘revolution’ of sorts with AI and LLMs.

From AI augmentation of HCP interaction to the very real risk of ‘hallucinations’ in LLMs, of false authoritativeness, and from the notion of ‘research as care’ to the future vision of AI not just on, but over the horizon – this episode aims to provide insight into the technology streamlining healthcare today. William Gibson might have had it right about the future’s presence, but uneven distribution, and Andrew Ng have been pretty accurate in describing AI as the new electricity, but Ibara himself has much to add in reflecting on this topic.

You can listen to episode 92a of the pharmaphorum podcast in the player below, download the episode to your computer, or find it - and subscribe to the rest of the series - in iTunes, Spotify, acast, Stitcher, and Podbean.