#130 AI, Ethics and the World of Health Data with Christopher Boone – Global Head of Health Economics & Outcomes Research
Christopher is the Global Head of Health Economics & Outcomes Research at Abbvie, an adjunct professor at NYU Graduate School of Public Service and active board member of several influential organizations.
He has received numerous recognitions in the past. In 2019 he was named a Top 100 Innovator in Data Analytics, in 2018 an Emerging Pharma Leader and in 2017 he was a Top 40 Under 40 in Minority Health Honoree by the National Minority Quality Forum
Christopher has an undergraduate degree in Information Systems. At the time, he went through quite a few internships in different industries trying to find his calling, but he felt like they all lacked something. He was looking for a place where he could help people, do something meaningful and that’s why one of his advisors suggested the healthcare industry.
He shares with us how he experienced the lack of information exchange first-hand after his mother had a stroke. She had various medical conditions and they didn’t know what all of them were or all the medications she was on. The effect this had on his career was tremendous; he realized the best way he could have a positive impact on the world was by finding ways to use digital technologies and data to improve care for patients.
Christopher then explains how, in his eyes, all human data is healthcare data, and how excited he is at the applications this data might have if we learned how to analyze it in a better way, given that, currently, only 5% of all the available data is being analyzed. He is hopeful that the world is moving towards a place where we are not as fearful of the rapid acceleration of technologies like AI, ML and Deep Learning, but instead we can think about how humans can work in conjunction with them to address questions that have not been addressed yet.
Stay tuned to know how the broad array of experiences he had in organizations like non profits, government and pharmaceuticals helped him learn to think outside the box and gain a broader perspective.
Enjoy Christopher Boone in our “Bitesize Insights for Data-Driven Leaders” Series!
We speak about:
[4:20] Tell us about your origin story and how you got into the world of data.
[8:50] What are some of the barriers organizations face when wanting to do clinical research?
[12:55] Is there any advice you can give about control groups when doing clinical research or is there a way to get around that?
[17:25] What are recent data sources that can help us monitor people’s health in a better way?
[21:10] What things are you currently working on or things you’re excited about?
[28:10] If you could make any change in your industry to make it better, what would that be?
Resources:
Christopher’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/datahippie/
Christopher’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/DataHippie
AbbVie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/abbvie/
Quotes:
"I'm just not feeling it, it's just not meaningful to me and I just want to help people.
"In my eyes, all data is healthcare data."
"I think that the problem that we have is we're still in a society where there's fear of the unknown and I also think that in some cases the system is set up to benefit folks from having a level of fragmentation even lack of data quality."
"You also have to identify what is the benefit or value proposition for each of these individuals or groups within the organisation for them to really buy into it."
"You also have to identify what is the benefit or value proposition for each of these individuals or groups within the organisation for them to really buy into it."
"[Big data can] addresses the ethical concerns [of clinical trials], it certainly can accelerate the time that it would take to complete this sort of clinical study and then it's also lower cost."
"If you sell a vision that's too bold to people who aren't ready to receive it, they're going to stop it on sight and you aren't getting anywhere."
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