Many teams from across academia, government and the health industry have joined the race to predict the next wave of COVID-19. And when it comes to disease forecasting, this kind of friendly competition is quite healthy. That’s because it takes large amounts of data from a variety of sources and locations to build the most […]
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A triage reboot: Using technology to strengthen health care’s front door Grouping patients by severity of symptoms — also known as triaging — is not a new concept. Its early uses can be traced back to the late 1700s. Since its beginnings in battlefield medicine, triaging has become a key component of modern-day health care. […]
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Are we ready to manage our own health remotely? The vision to provide health care remotely was alive and well as early as 1879. That’s when the medical journal, The Lancet, published an article about using the telephone to cut down on unneeded visits to the doctor’s office. Now, here we are over 140 years […]
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We are at a turning point in how we use data and analytics in health care. Capabilities enabled by artificial intelligence (AI) are no longer just nice to have, and health care leaders agree. For the second year in a row, we surveyed 500 health industry leaders to gauge their attitudes, perspectives and actions […]
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How can you modernize and create lasting change in an industry that’s burdened by outdated systems and unproductive processes? It’s a question many are working to solve. The constellation of AI technologies (including computer vision, natural language processing and deep learning, among others) can be transformational technology for health care. Other technologies like ambient computing, […]
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Learning from other industries, health care is catching on to how consumers shop, compare options and make selections that best match their needs. At home, you watch a movie. Then the system compares you with other people who watched the same movie and recommends other films based on similar connections. Or you go online and […]
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Just 90 seconds to pitch their idea. That’s all most of the startup companies had. A dozen lucky companies were selected to present a six-minute pitch. And many others were invited to sit down in private one-to-one sessions. Who was listening? Investors and executives from some of the top names in health care, including Optum, […]
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The local weather forecast helps us plan and prepare for severe storms. What if we could forecast disease outbreaks in the same way? That would allow government officials, health care providers, business leaders and concerned patients to make life-saving decisions. How to predict flu outbreaks The Optum flu forecast is a data-driven early-warning system for […]
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By Dan McCreary, Distinguished Engineer, Optum Our CIO recently told me he wants everyone in our division to know at least the basics of AI. And he means everyone, at all job levels, no matter what role they’re in. So I shared with him an idea I’d been toying with: the AI Racing League. Some […]
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I practice human-centered design. To me, that means using empathy to connect with people, understand their problems and help them solve them. I’m especially interested in the ways technology can connect people to the health care they need. One of the ways we’re doing that is with a pilot program called Family Compass. My team […]
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