The inaugural meeting of the Health Systems Innovation Council took place on Oct. 30 at the Cedars-Sinai Accelerator Lab. Hospital and health system CEOs, innovation leaders and founders from a range of health care organizations met to discuss novel ways to improve patient access and outcomes across the HASC region.
Created by HASC and the Alliance for SoCal Innovation, the council aims to speed the development and launch of innovative solutions. “Our hope is to help fast-track new technologies and platforms by better connecting Southern California health innovators, showcasing breakthrough technologies, and sharing best practices,” said Mark Gamble, chief of advocacy and operations at HASC.
“We’re thrilled to collaborate with HASC and their membership on this important effort,” added Andy Wilson, executive director and CEO of the Alliance. “There is no better crucible for healthcare innovation than our region — we have the scale, diversity and desire to improve patient outcomes while managing costs.”
Each meeting will delve into a specific health innovation opportunity area. The first meeting focused on “Reshaping Health Care with AI: How we can be a leader and not a laggard in this next technology wave.”
Eran Halperin, an adjunct professor in computer science at UCLA, kicked off the discussion with an overview of AI in health care. He discussed milestones in AI history and highlighted three main drivers in the revolution: model improvement, hardware, and data.
The meeting also featured three presentations from AI-driven startups, expertly curated by noted venture capitalists Jay Goss and Helen McBride. Aditya Rajagopal, CEO of Esperto Medical, emphasized AI’s transformative role in health care imaging. He discussed his company’s current innovation—a non-invasive, continuous blood pressure monitor that utilizes AI for real-time tracking and analysis. Potential applications include stroke prediction, preeclampsia detection, and personalized patient metrics. Rajagopal acknowledged his team at Caltech and industry partners for their contributions to enhancing medical imaging and improving patient outcomes.
Eli Ben-Joseph, co-founder and CEO of Regard, explained that the company emerged from the Cedars Accelerator program to address the underutilization of data in health systems. Despite hefty investments in electronic health records (EHRs), physicians only use a small fraction of patient data. Regard integrates with EHRs such as EPIC and Cerner to analyze this data. By surfacing relevant insights and diagnoses within physician workflows, the platform improves patient care and reduces oversight.
Conor McGinn, CEO of Akara Robotics, shared his personal experience with health care inefficiencies, which inspired him to develop ways to improve operating room productivity. Akara has created two products: a sensor that tracks activity in operating rooms to inform scheduling and an autonomous robot that uses ultraviolet light to clean more effectively than traditional methods. These technologies aim to reduce human error, streamline workflows, and enhance cleaning standards, ultimately improving hospital efficiency and patient safety. Akara is collaborating with hospitals in Europe and exploring partnerships in the U.S.
The meeting concluded with a group discussion facilitated by Austin Gispanski, managing director and partner at BCGX. The conversation centered on ways AI might transform operations and financial outcomes for health care organizations, and attendees shared their thoughts and concerns about the technology.
The group expressed enthusiasm for sharing evaluation and benchmarking of new technologies, with the goal of accelerating the adoption into clinical environments. The next Innovation Council meeting will explore this possibility while delving into current practices.
For more information about the Health Systems Innovation Council, please contact Katie Cameron, director of administration and development, Alliance for SoCal Innovation, at [email protected].