A guest blog by Dr. Geeta Nayyar, MD, MBA

As I reflect on the beginning of 2024, the year has already started with a focus on AI and Innovations and investments in the space whether at JP Morgan or CES Health. 

I remain excited by the seemingly limitless potential of AI and other emerging tech entering the healthcare space, but only if we keep an eye and grounding on Human Understanding. 

Too often in tech we build it because we can vs. because we are solving a human problem. We are all united in the need to better the consumer experience in healthcare. However, the consumer experience cannot be divorced from the physician experience. Both have space for improvement in healthcare. 

In my recent webcast with NRC Health, this played out in real time in a discussion I had with a patient advocate Cheryl Marker. Of note, this is the ONLY webcast I have ever been invited to, focused on improving the patient-provider relationship that included both a patient and physician. That, in itself, tells the story we have to tell in health tech. 

Not surprisingly, Cheryl and I were like-minded in what we want out of healthcare. A focus on the diagnosis and treatment personalized at the bedside. We were empathetic to both sides of the system, the confusing and often disempowering consumer experience met with the unappreciated burned-out physician pressed to do more with less. 

My takeaway from this discussion and the conversation NRC Health is leading on Human Understanding is that we need more, not less. 

Healthcare leaders in 2024 are incredibly lucky to be living in a time of true transformation. We are living in a post pandemic world where the consumer has been reminded that health IS wealth.  Telemedicine is no longer a novelty seeking reimbursement. And yes, it remains exciting to think of the seemingly limitless potential of AI to improve the life of both patients and physicians. But ONLY if done with Human Understanding and humanity at its center. I hope we can continue to examine Human Understanding and where tech can offer solutions and where it cannot. 

Catch the full webcast on-demand.

Dr. Geeta Nayyar, MD, MBA, is the author of Dead Wrong: Diagnosing and Treating Healthcare’s Misinformation Illness.