Future pharma

Many will be aware of how AI, predictive modelling and advanced analytics are already transforming the world of discovering new drug targets and molecules, but it isn’t the only way that AI is transforming healthcare.

When coupled with the ‘know-how’ of human intelligence, we are unlocking every step of the healthcare pathway.

One of the most exciting ways AI is being used is to evaluate ‘actual’ patient journeys.  Through social media patient data, diagnosis and prescription data, referral patterns, or in the US insurance claims data, we begin to unravel the individual journeys of patients.

They rarely follow the simplified approach: from awareness to diagnosis to treatment. In reality, the patient journey is unique and iterative, with patients often seeking help without diagnosis, sometimes for several years, before reaching the right diagnosis and receiving optimum treatment and care.

However, with new predictive models and large language models, we are able to deconstruct and visualise an individual patient journey.

Using claims data, social, geospatial models, behaviour data, images and even consumer data sets, we can identify specific patient journey challenges and estimate how, for example, investing in patient and/or HCP education or digital health tools will improve identification, diagnosis or adherence.

We can also target areas of the country where individuals are at highest risk by overlaying data sets and geospatial modelling to help target solutions. This enables us to prioritise areas with the highest return on investment in addition to improving patient experience and outcomes.

Colin Baughman, EVP, Integrated Intelligence, reflected, “Not only can geospatial and predictive modelling help target education awareness programmes to speed up patient pathways, but it can also accelerate clinical trials.

“For example, in a recent clinical trial, we used geospatial and predictive modelling to model the patient landscape, identify potential clinical trial sites, and even evaluated site travel times to close recruitment several months ahead of target.”

Dr Diane Wass, SVP Integrated Intelligence, JPA Health and Chair of the ADHD Foundation, is a passionate advocate for ‘AI inclusion by design’.

AI bias is something we need to proactively ensure we are addressing. ‘Human-in-the-loop’ and ensuring we include diversity in data sets is key in achieving this, but she believes we need to go beyond this.

In a recent AI summit hosted by IBM HQ in London, Diane opened the summit calling for even further action in her presentation on ‘Harnessing AI: A ‘New Era’ Diverse Workforce’, where we not only proactively ensure representative data sets, but also representation in those that pioneer and apply the AI tools.

In her words, “Why would a 50+ neurodivergent woman with severe hearing loss join the AI revolution? Because representation and diversity are important, these tools have such potential for giving deeper insights, informing decision-making and helping improve and save lives, but diversity is key not only in the data sets but in those designing and applying the tools. All of us should get involved.”

From informing strategy and evidence-based decision-making, through understanding the connectivity of influencers and predictive messaging, to unlocking patient pathways, AI can unlock healthcare at every step of the pathway.

Tim Cockroft, Founder, akt health, reinforces, “Integrated intelligence is the combination of our human in-depth healthcare ecosystem knowledge, experience and ‘know-how’ augmented by AI tools that can give us deeper insights, enable closer connections to patient and HCP experiences and inform our human decision-making with evidence.

“The potential for transforming healthcare if harnessed the ‘right way’ is huge.”

Colin Baughman is Executive Vice President and Dr Diane Wass is Senior Vice President, Integrated Intelligence, JPA Health. Tim Cockroft is a Founder, akt health, a JPA Company.