Latest news with #Harvard-based
Forbes
20-05-2025
- Health
- Forbes
From Hype To Infrastructure: The Great Compression Of Health AI
Amber Nigam is CEO and cofounder of a Harvard-based company streamlining prior authorization for health plans with generative AI. getty The generative AI boom in healthcare feels inevitable. Every week, a new vendor promises to reimagine clinical workflows, redefine care management or reshape revenue cycle operations. Billions are pouring into startups, tech giants are repositioning and healthcare incumbents are scrambling to stake their claim. But beneath the noise, the real AI arms race is quietly underway—and winning it requires more than flash, jargon or even technical prowess. It demands discipline, clinical credibility and a long view of how the industry's foundations are shifting. As the cofounder of a health AI startup and someone who has spent a decade in healthcare and data science—from the halls of Harvard to the trenches of health plan operations—I've seen the real trenches and the real hype. And I can tell you: The AI arms race in healthcare is very real. But it's not what you think. Let's be clear: Healthcare has been burned before. Blockchain, virtual reality, wearables: Each had moments where hype outpaced reality. I think generative AI is different, but not because it's immune to exaggeration. The difference is that GenAI genuinely has the potential to replace rote administrative tasks, streamline care delivery and change how data moves through the healthcare system. Early proofs are real, and we are seeing firsthand streamlined prior authorizations, faster risk adjustment coding and more humanlike patient engagement. But these examples are narrow. A model that drafts a prior authorization letter isn't the same as a system that understands patient context, payer policy nuance and clinical appropriateness at scale. Copywriting is easy. Clinically meaningful transformation is not. Still, I see some vendors are serving up the same old drink. If a pitch centers around an AI that can "talk like a doctor" without having deep clinical oversight, be skeptical. If it relies solely on fine-tuning open models without access to proprietary, real-world healthcare data, be even more skeptical. And if it suggests that technology can replace clinical judgment wholesale—not just augment it—you're not dealing with a serious player. You're dealing with an "intention impostor": a founder who may believe in their mission but lacks the operational, regulatory or clinical sophistication to actually deliver it. Healthcare isn't a sandbox. It's a high-stakes, highly regulated environment where the cost of failure is patient harm, and the cost of overpromising is industry fatigue. So, how do you separate noise from signal? Start with team composition. True healthcare AI players blend technical excellence with clinical credibility. Look for former clinicians, policy experts and health plan operators at the leadership table—not just advisors used for window dressing. Second, scrutinize the problem they're solving. Is it rooted in collaboration with existing workflows, or does it presume clinicians and operators will change overnight? Healthcare doesn't bend easily to technology. The solutions that work will complement human decision-making, not try to outshine it. Third, assess their attitude toward regulation and liability. Serious players view HIPAA, CMS guidelines and AI-specific governance as the price of entry, not a hurdle to "hack." Finally, and most importantly, watch who trusts them. Meaningful pilots, real integrations with major payers or providers as well as tight partnerships matter. The best early indicators aren't flashy logos; they're renewal rates, expansion contracts and references from customers who are hard to impress. In an arms race, speed matters—but substance wins. The startups and incumbents pulling ahead are moving fast and building for durability. They're investing in proprietary data partnerships today to future-proof their models. They're building modular, interoperable platforms instead of narrow-point solutions. They're also deeply integrating into existing vendor ecosystems. The players who realize early that they must be an API, not an island, will pull ahead. Those who assume they'll own the whole stack will face slow adoption, frustrated users and dwindling investor patience. Healthcare is the ultimate trust-based system. Every new technology must prove it deserves a seat at the table—not just once, but every day. Perhaps the least discussed but most profound outcome of this AI arms race will be the collapse of the current vendor landscape. Historically, health plans and providers bought solutions for prior authorization, care management, risk adjustment and member engagement from different vendors—each with siloed data, rules engines and interfaces. I view AI as eventually breaking that model. Large language models (LLMs) and foundational healthcare AI platforms aren't task-specific; they're context-specific. The same longitudinal patient record that powers faster prior authorization can also power smarter care management workflows, risk stratification and value-based care initiatives. What does this mean? It means many of today's seemingly distinct categories will likely converge into a few dominant layers: • Data orchestration • Clinical knowledge modeling • Application-specific workflows I believe vendors that can plug into these layers will be the ones to thrive. Vendors that can only operate in isolation—no matter how good their specific application—will risk becoming redundant. Expect a wave of acquisitions, mergers and even outright closures over the next 24 to 36 months. Expect a few dominant AI platforms to emerge—ones that health plans, providers and life sciences companies use across functions. In the end, healthcare won't have 50 different AI partners. It will have a handful of trusted foundations, each deeply embedded into clinical, operational and financial lifeblood. The AI arms race in healthcare is real. But it won't be won by those shouting the loudest. It will be won by those who build quietly, partner wisely and think long term. In a world where data, models and workflows converge, the winners won't just automate tasks—they'll transform how healthcare is delivered, trusted and experienced. Sorting glitter from gold has never been more urgent—or more valuable. This article was co-written with CEO and cofounder Arpan Saxena, a Forbes Business Council member. Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. Do I qualify?
The Advertiser
19-05-2025
- Business
- The Advertiser
Ardern lashes US isolationism in Yale address
Jacinda Ardern has re-entered the political fray with a rallying call for internationalism, rebuking the inward outlook of the United States under President Donald Trump. The popular former New Zealand prime minister spoke at Yale College's Class Day on Monday (Australian time), the undergraduate arm of the prestigious Ivy League university. Dame Jacinda, who has lived in the US as a Harvard-based fellow since late 2023, said she opted against "the usual pep talk that perhaps you might expect" in an address witnessed by thousands. "Suddenly didn't feel enough. Not when the world, over the course of a few short months, moved from tumultuous to an all-out dumpster fire," she said. "There's the war in the Middle East and Europe, with both leaving questions over our sense of humanity. "The daily reminder of climate change that bangs on our door but falls on deaf ears at the highest echelons of power. "Challenges to rules around trade, increases in migration flows, and a decreasing regard for civil rights and human rights, including the right to be who you are." Dame Jacinda said the world stood at an "inflection point in global politics", fuelled by post-pandemic economic challenges, when politicians needed to care for the most vulnerable. "Some of the greatest leaders here in the United States have recognised that amongst all of the challenges politicians face, they must meet the most basic needs of their citizens, first and foremost," she said. "FDR (former president Franklin D Roosevelt) said in 1944 while still governing a country at war, 'true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made'." Dame Jacinda supported unsuccessful Democratic candidate for president Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election, appearing at party events. In a thinly veiled attack on Trump's America First economic doctrine, Dame Jacinda said isolationism was an "illusion". "You cannot remain untouched by the impacts of infectious disease. A trade stand-off can never just hurt your competitors," she said. "A warming planet does not produce extreme weather that respects borders, and far-flung wars may not take the lives of your citizens but it will take away their sense of security and humanity. "We are connected. We always have been." The 44-year-old said "to be outwardly looking is not unpatriotic" and "in this time of crisis and chaos, leading with empathy is a strength". Dame Jacinda has become a worldwide poster child for empathetic leadership since her response to New Zealand's worst modern-day mass shooting, the Christchurch Mosques massacre, in 2019. Since leaving office, she has made few incursions back into public life, but is expected to expand on her time in office in her memoir, A Different Kind of Power, released in June by Penguin Random House subsidiary Crown. Jacinda Ardern has re-entered the political fray with a rallying call for internationalism, rebuking the inward outlook of the United States under President Donald Trump. The popular former New Zealand prime minister spoke at Yale College's Class Day on Monday (Australian time), the undergraduate arm of the prestigious Ivy League university. Dame Jacinda, who has lived in the US as a Harvard-based fellow since late 2023, said she opted against "the usual pep talk that perhaps you might expect" in an address witnessed by thousands. "Suddenly didn't feel enough. Not when the world, over the course of a few short months, moved from tumultuous to an all-out dumpster fire," she said. "There's the war in the Middle East and Europe, with both leaving questions over our sense of humanity. "The daily reminder of climate change that bangs on our door but falls on deaf ears at the highest echelons of power. "Challenges to rules around trade, increases in migration flows, and a decreasing regard for civil rights and human rights, including the right to be who you are." Dame Jacinda said the world stood at an "inflection point in global politics", fuelled by post-pandemic economic challenges, when politicians needed to care for the most vulnerable. "Some of the greatest leaders here in the United States have recognised that amongst all of the challenges politicians face, they must meet the most basic needs of their citizens, first and foremost," she said. "FDR (former president Franklin D Roosevelt) said in 1944 while still governing a country at war, 'true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made'." Dame Jacinda supported unsuccessful Democratic candidate for president Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election, appearing at party events. In a thinly veiled attack on Trump's America First economic doctrine, Dame Jacinda said isolationism was an "illusion". "You cannot remain untouched by the impacts of infectious disease. A trade stand-off can never just hurt your competitors," she said. "A warming planet does not produce extreme weather that respects borders, and far-flung wars may not take the lives of your citizens but it will take away their sense of security and humanity. "We are connected. We always have been." The 44-year-old said "to be outwardly looking is not unpatriotic" and "in this time of crisis and chaos, leading with empathy is a strength". Dame Jacinda has become a worldwide poster child for empathetic leadership since her response to New Zealand's worst modern-day mass shooting, the Christchurch Mosques massacre, in 2019. Since leaving office, she has made few incursions back into public life, but is expected to expand on her time in office in her memoir, A Different Kind of Power, released in June by Penguin Random House subsidiary Crown. Jacinda Ardern has re-entered the political fray with a rallying call for internationalism, rebuking the inward outlook of the United States under President Donald Trump. The popular former New Zealand prime minister spoke at Yale College's Class Day on Monday (Australian time), the undergraduate arm of the prestigious Ivy League university. Dame Jacinda, who has lived in the US as a Harvard-based fellow since late 2023, said she opted against "the usual pep talk that perhaps you might expect" in an address witnessed by thousands. "Suddenly didn't feel enough. Not when the world, over the course of a few short months, moved from tumultuous to an all-out dumpster fire," she said. "There's the war in the Middle East and Europe, with both leaving questions over our sense of humanity. "The daily reminder of climate change that bangs on our door but falls on deaf ears at the highest echelons of power. "Challenges to rules around trade, increases in migration flows, and a decreasing regard for civil rights and human rights, including the right to be who you are." Dame Jacinda said the world stood at an "inflection point in global politics", fuelled by post-pandemic economic challenges, when politicians needed to care for the most vulnerable. "Some of the greatest leaders here in the United States have recognised that amongst all of the challenges politicians face, they must meet the most basic needs of their citizens, first and foremost," she said. "FDR (former president Franklin D Roosevelt) said in 1944 while still governing a country at war, 'true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made'." Dame Jacinda supported unsuccessful Democratic candidate for president Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election, appearing at party events. In a thinly veiled attack on Trump's America First economic doctrine, Dame Jacinda said isolationism was an "illusion". "You cannot remain untouched by the impacts of infectious disease. A trade stand-off can never just hurt your competitors," she said. "A warming planet does not produce extreme weather that respects borders, and far-flung wars may not take the lives of your citizens but it will take away their sense of security and humanity. "We are connected. We always have been." The 44-year-old said "to be outwardly looking is not unpatriotic" and "in this time of crisis and chaos, leading with empathy is a strength". Dame Jacinda has become a worldwide poster child for empathetic leadership since her response to New Zealand's worst modern-day mass shooting, the Christchurch Mosques massacre, in 2019. Since leaving office, she has made few incursions back into public life, but is expected to expand on her time in office in her memoir, A Different Kind of Power, released in June by Penguin Random House subsidiary Crown. Jacinda Ardern has re-entered the political fray with a rallying call for internationalism, rebuking the inward outlook of the United States under President Donald Trump. The popular former New Zealand prime minister spoke at Yale College's Class Day on Monday (Australian time), the undergraduate arm of the prestigious Ivy League university. Dame Jacinda, who has lived in the US as a Harvard-based fellow since late 2023, said she opted against "the usual pep talk that perhaps you might expect" in an address witnessed by thousands. "Suddenly didn't feel enough. Not when the world, over the course of a few short months, moved from tumultuous to an all-out dumpster fire," she said. "There's the war in the Middle East and Europe, with both leaving questions over our sense of humanity. "The daily reminder of climate change that bangs on our door but falls on deaf ears at the highest echelons of power. "Challenges to rules around trade, increases in migration flows, and a decreasing regard for civil rights and human rights, including the right to be who you are." Dame Jacinda said the world stood at an "inflection point in global politics", fuelled by post-pandemic economic challenges, when politicians needed to care for the most vulnerable. "Some of the greatest leaders here in the United States have recognised that amongst all of the challenges politicians face, they must meet the most basic needs of their citizens, first and foremost," she said. "FDR (former president Franklin D Roosevelt) said in 1944 while still governing a country at war, 'true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made'." Dame Jacinda supported unsuccessful Democratic candidate for president Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election, appearing at party events. In a thinly veiled attack on Trump's America First economic doctrine, Dame Jacinda said isolationism was an "illusion". "You cannot remain untouched by the impacts of infectious disease. A trade stand-off can never just hurt your competitors," she said. "A warming planet does not produce extreme weather that respects borders, and far-flung wars may not take the lives of your citizens but it will take away their sense of security and humanity. "We are connected. We always have been." The 44-year-old said "to be outwardly looking is not unpatriotic" and "in this time of crisis and chaos, leading with empathy is a strength". Dame Jacinda has become a worldwide poster child for empathetic leadership since her response to New Zealand's worst modern-day mass shooting, the Christchurch Mosques massacre, in 2019. Since leaving office, she has made few incursions back into public life, but is expected to expand on her time in office in her memoir, A Different Kind of Power, released in June by Penguin Random House subsidiary Crown.
West Australian
19-05-2025
- Business
- West Australian
Ardern lashes US isolationism in Yale address
Jacinda Ardern has re-entered the political fray with a rallying call for internationalism, rebuking the inward outlook of the United States under President Donald Trump. The popular former New Zealand prime minister spoke at Yale College's Class Day on Monday (Australian time), the undergraduate arm of the prestigious Ivy League university. Dame Jacinda, who has lived in the US as a Harvard-based fellow since late 2023, said she opted against "the usual pep talk that perhaps you might expect" in an address witnessed by thousands. "Suddenly didn't feel enough. Not when the world, over the course of a few short months, moved from tumultuous to an all-out dumpster fire," she said. "There's the war in the Middle East and Europe, with both leaving questions over our sense of humanity. "The daily reminder of climate change that bangs on our door but falls on deaf ears at the highest echelons of power. "Challenges to rules around trade, increases in migration flows, and a decreasing regard for civil rights and human rights, including the right to be who you are." Dame Jacinda said the world stood at an "inflection point in global politics", fuelled by post-pandemic economic challenges, when politicians needed to care for the most vulnerable. "Some of the greatest leaders here in the United States have recognised that amongst all of the challenges politicians face, they must meet the most basic needs of their citizens, first and foremost," she said. "FDR (former president Franklin D Roosevelt) said in 1944 while still governing a country at war, 'true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made'." Dame Jacinda supported unsuccessful Democratic candidate for president Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election, appearing at party events. In a thinly veiled attack on Trump's America First economic doctrine, Dame Jacinda said isolationism was an "illusion". "You cannot remain untouched by the impacts of infectious disease. A trade stand-off can never just hurt your competitors," she said. "A warming planet does not produce extreme weather that respects borders, and far-flung wars may not take the lives of your citizens but it will take away their sense of security and humanity. "We are connected. We always have been." The 44-year-old said "to be outwardly looking is not unpatriotic" and "in this time of crisis and chaos, leading with empathy is a strength". Dame Jacinda has become a worldwide poster child for empathetic leadership since her response to New Zealand's worst modern-day mass shooting, the Christchurch Mosques massacre, in 2019. Since leaving office, she has made few incursions back into public life, but is expected to expand on her time in office in her memoir, A Different Kind of Power, released in June by Penguin Random House subsidiary Crown.
Perth Now
19-05-2025
- Business
- Perth Now
Ardern lashes US isolationism in Yale address
Jacinda Ardern has re-entered the political fray with a rallying call for internationalism, rebuking the inward outlook of the United States under President Donald Trump. The popular former New Zealand prime minister spoke at Yale College's Class Day on Monday (Australian time), the undergraduate arm of the prestigious Ivy League university. Dame Jacinda, who has lived in the US as a Harvard-based fellow since late 2023, said she opted against "the usual pep talk that perhaps you might expect" in an address witnessed by thousands. "Suddenly didn't feel enough. Not when the world, over the course of a few short months, moved from tumultuous to an all-out dumpster fire," she said. "There's the war in the Middle East and Europe, with both leaving questions over our sense of humanity. "The daily reminder of climate change that bangs on our door but falls on deaf ears at the highest echelons of power. "Challenges to rules around trade, increases in migration flows, and a decreasing regard for civil rights and human rights, including the right to be who you are." Dame Jacinda said the world stood at an "inflection point in global politics", fuelled by post-pandemic economic challenges, when politicians needed to care for the most vulnerable. "Some of the greatest leaders here in the United States have recognised that amongst all of the challenges politicians face, they must meet the most basic needs of their citizens, first and foremost," she said. "FDR (former president Franklin D Roosevelt) said in 1944 while still governing a country at war, 'true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made'." Dame Jacinda supported unsuccessful Democratic candidate for president Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election, appearing at party events. In a thinly veiled attack on Trump's America First economic doctrine, Dame Jacinda said isolationism was an "illusion". "You cannot remain untouched by the impacts of infectious disease. A trade stand-off can never just hurt your competitors," she said. "A warming planet does not produce extreme weather that respects borders, and far-flung wars may not take the lives of your citizens but it will take away their sense of security and humanity. "We are connected. We always have been." The 44-year-old said "to be outwardly looking is not unpatriotic" and "in this time of crisis and chaos, leading with empathy is a strength". Dame Jacinda has become a worldwide poster child for empathetic leadership since her response to New Zealand's worst modern-day mass shooting, the Christchurch Mosques massacre, in 2019. Since leaving office, she has made few incursions back into public life, but is expected to expand on her time in office in her memoir, A Different Kind of Power, released in June by Penguin Random House subsidiary Crown.
Yahoo
29-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
What ever happened to the American dream?
Is the American dream on a slow march to the grave? The adage suggests any child born in the U.S. should have the opportunity, through hard work and determination, to do better than their parents. And once upon a time, it held up pretty well. Back in the 1940s, it was almost a guaranteed path for children to surpass the living earned by their parents with some 92% of those progeny moving up the economic ladder, according to data shared in a presentation Thursday by renowned Harvard economist Raj Chetty at the University of Utah's Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute. But by the 1980s, that virtual lock had faded dramatically, Chetty said, and children of that decade were facing even money — 50/50 odds — to surpass their parents on the income metric. And that's about where their chances remain today. Chetty is the William A. Ackman Professor of Economics at Harvard University and the director of Opportunity Insights, a Harvard-based group of researchers and policy analysts working to address a fundamental challenge: How can we give children from all backgrounds better chances of succeeding? Utilizing massive amounts of data going back decades, Chetty and his team have identified the underlying factors behind the profound backslide in American economic mobility with the hope that by recognizing causal issues and vetting potential policy solutions, the trend can be reversed. Chetty notes, perhaps not surprisingly, that the location of a child's neighborhood has a major impact on their future economic prospects. 'Where you grew up, the community you were living in, is a critical determinate of your life outcomes,' he said. Chetty said that the data clearly reflects that childhood environment has a direct impact on future economic prospects but has a waning influence the older a child gets. By adulthood, the influence essentially disappears. Chetty shared a heat map of the U.S. showing the variations, divided by zip code, in levels of economic opportunity across the country. Children who grow up in low economic mobility zones have the lowest chances of bettering their parents' economic prospects while those in high mobility neighborhoods are likely to level up. The strongest characteristics of high economic mobility areas, according to Chetty, include: Lower poverty rate More stable family structures Better K-12 levels schools and easier access to higher education Social capital 'In the U.S. as a whole, about half of the disconnection we see between low and high income people is driven by segregation by income,' Chetty said. 'We tend to live in different neighborhoods, we tend to go to different schools, different colleges and so on.' The other half of that separation, according to Chetty's research, is driven by friending bias, the tendency for individuals to form friendships and connections with those in their own socioeconomic sphere. One study found that poor children with a friend network of 70% wealthier kids would realize future incomes 20% higher than peers without the cross-class connections. Those cross-class relationships, according to the 2022 study, had stronger economic impacts than school quality, family structure, job availability or a community's racial composition. To grow the pool of American children with elevated economic mobility, Chetty said policy solutions would be most effective in targeting three areas: Reducing economic segregation Making place-based investments Increasing access to higher education and workforce training Chetty cited a housing subsidy pilot program in Seattle in which half the families received vouchers for housing in whatever area they chose, while the other half received vouchers along with additional social support to secure homes in higher opportunity neighborhoods. In the control group, only 14% of families moved to higher opportunity areas but the rate rose to 54% among families in the supported group. The rate of the return on investment for those families in high opportunity areas is on track to be substantial, Chetty said, with children from those families likely to see their lifetime earnings elevated by $200,000. Another exploration of policy-based solutions, led by Opportunity Insights, is the Collegiate Leaders in Increasing MoBility (CLIMB) Initiative, a partnership between leading higher education economists, policymakers and a diverse set of U.S. colleges and universities. The initiative is seeking to understand not only which colleges act as engines of intergenerational mobility, but why and how schools and policymakers 'can promote opportunity and economic growth by helping larger numbers of low-income students reach the middle class.' Chetty noted that while Utah has earned top billing in the country when it comes to economic mobility measures, at a neighborhood level there remain deep divides across the state for children's relative chances, depending on where they live and the opportunities they can access, to move up the socioeconomic ladder. A wide swath of current and former Utah policymakers were in attendance for Chetty's presentation this week including former Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt, Utah Senate President Stuart Adams, Utah House Speaker Mike Schultz as well as municipal government representatives from the Salt Lake City Council and other communities. In comments made following Chetty's presentation, Schultz noted his personal journey as an individual who has ascended from his childhood economic position. 'We are these numbers,' Schultz said, referencing the data from Chetty's presentation. 'Most of us started out at a different economic scale than we're currently at today. Personally, I was on the bottom end of the middle income class. I grew up in a community where I was fortunate enough to have great mentors … and (connections with) people on the upper end of the income scale."
