At HIMSS23, Holly Maloney, managing director of General Catalyst, discussed the importance of responsible AI use in healthcare. She highlighted the need for building systems that are fair, inclusive, robust, reliable, private, secure, transparent, and knowledgeable. Maloney emphasized the importance of understanding the potential consequences of using AI in healthcare to avoid negative impacts. General Catalyst’s investment strategy is focused on Health Assurances, and the company believes collaborations are needed to go to market. However, challenges exist in integrating technology into existing healthcare systems.
As healthcare continues to move towards more data-driven and consumer-centric services, responsible innovation and the use of AI are becoming increasingly important. During a talk at Venture Connect at HIMSS23, Holly Maloney, Managing Director of General Catalyst, discussed the company’s investment strategy and the importance of responsible AI use in healthcare. Maloney stated that General Catalyst’s investment thesis is based on the concept of Health Assurances and that the company is looking for startups that can help take the historically fragmented, costly, and reactive healthcare system and transform it into one that is more focused on access, quality, lower cost, and personalized proactive experiences.
Maloney emphasized that responsible innovation is vital for offering data-driven and consumer-centric healthcare services. She noted that while technology can drive incredible change, it also carries great responsibility, especially when it comes to the role of AI and automation in healthcare. The promise of AI has existed for over ten years, but adoption has been incredibly slow due to a lack of trust. To build trust, Maloney suggested that the focus should be on building systems that are fair, inclusive, robust, reliable, private, secure, transparent, and knowledgeable.
Maloney also emphasized the importance of understanding the potential consequences of using AI in healthcare and building with those consequences in mind to avoid negative impacts. She stated that the stakes are incredibly high due to the amount of super private information that can be monetized in many ways and that it’s important to consider who will benefit from automation and care pathways.
In addition to Health Assurance, General Catalyst believes that collaborations are needed to go to market. While innovation, change, and transformation in healthcare take time, the company does not assume it needs to fundamentally disrupt the existing infrastructure. Instead, it has developed partnerships with health systems.
However, Maloney acknowledged that it’s still difficult to integrate portfolio companies’ technology into big healthcare systems. The challenges include getting truly embedded into the workflow and aligning expectations around realistic implementation and expansion within organizations.
Despite the challenges, many companies are recognizing that partnerships are necessary to scale operations and establish themselves in the market. As a result, there is a lot of innovation happening in healthcare. However, it’s up to investors to figure out how some of these point solutions can come together to create a more cohesive system.
