How Hospitals are Harnessing AI, Tech for Pediatric Care

Bloomberg

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00:00I'm sitting in this space. Tell us where we are, because I know when kids have to deal with things,

00:04it's tough, and it sounds like this is a place that just makes it maybe a little easier.

00:09That's exactly what this place is designed for. We're in the Hale roof garden on the 10th floor

00:15of the Hale building. The cardiac ICU that I work in is two and three floors below us,

00:21because we cover two floors, our cardiac ICU. And we need spaces like this for families to be able to

00:29step away and really, you know, think and decompress. And for staff, you know, these are very

00:37challenging, complex patients that we're taking care of in this building. Our neonatal intensive

00:42care unit is here. Our cardiac ICU is here. We have operating rooms in this building. You know,

00:49there's a lot of the cath labs are here. So it's wonderful that we can have these magical spaces

00:55where you can just feel that you're in a pediatric hospital and there's a place to relax and think.

01:02Can I just say it's like you're sitting on a tree, like a tree bench. There's like, I don't know,

01:07is this a rainbow? It feels like above us. It's pretty, it's pretty cool.

01:11You know, Carol mentioned the energy that we feel when we walk into a space such as Boston Children's.

01:17And we're reminded that it's not just a teaching hospital, a research hospital. It's also a place

01:23that treats kids from really all over the world. I'm wondering how you prioritize where resources go,

01:31whether it goes to treating patients right now versus thinking about research, thinking about

01:37development, thinking about ways to actually help patients in the future versus working with them

01:42right now. How do you allocate those resources? Well, that has always been part of the DNA of

01:49Boston Children's Hospital. It's been our mission. We deliver the highest, best quality clinical care.

01:57Really, that is the foundation of it all. And you see that, you know, the motto of where the world

02:04comes for answers. There's a lot of complex patients from the Boston area, Massachusetts, New England.

02:10Obviously, we provide primary services for all levels of care for children in this community.

02:18However, there are many from across the United States and across the world who really seek that type of care

02:24and come to us, usually the most complex cases. And I think that's really where we thrive.

02:31And the other piece of our DNA is the science. We, as you talked in the beginning.

02:37That makes a difference, right? When there's science involved, I feel like it's, it's practitioner.

02:42Yes, you're dealing with patients, but it's people who are like, I want to understand how this works.

02:46That's everybody here. Yeah. That's the doctors. That's the nurses. That's the social workers.

02:52That's the physical therapists. That's the respiratory therapists. It's the pharmacists.

02:58Yes. I just could keep going. So I think that's what's, what draws people to work here and to stay

03:04here. Because that purpose, that we're going to actually change things and we're going to be able

03:09to find newer ways of doing things. We're going to help more children survive, but also thrive.

03:15And that takes a real concerted effort. And you need the science here with the clinical.

03:20One of the things I think when you joined Tim and I back in New York, and listen, everybody's

03:24talking about AI and I know that. Like, but I think we all are thinking about what it could do

03:30for medicine and R and D and innovation. And I guess what we're trying to understand too is

03:36what's the reality of what AI is used within the medical community or R and D specifically?

03:42Like, where is it today? And you as someone who understands this space so well, and I'm curious

03:48the conversations you guys have, where do you think it could go?

03:50Well, AI has been a very important part of Boston Children's Hospital for a long time.

03:57This isn't something new. We have incredible research groups and an incredible innovation

04:04team here who've been really standing up AI initiatives for a very long time. We talked

04:10about some of the work I personally have done in terms of, you know, Virtue Foundation and

04:14the global health AI mapping and being able to match resources in need.

04:18You work with firms that are like specifically in AI.

04:22Yes, with Databricks and Data Robocard, you're building those real platforms that people can

04:27use. But I think about, for example, when ChatGPT first came out, we had Boston GPT. Immediately

04:34we were looking to get that behind our firewalls. How can we integrate that? How can we use that

04:38for real purpose and improving both the care that we can get to patients, but how can we use

04:44AI to also discover new things? I think the levels of data that we have, and I think you

04:50talked upon in the beginning in terms of rare diseases, genetic diseases, we are the epicenter of

04:57that. And we've already been extremely successful in bringing new therapies to market for children.

05:05But when I look at the infrastructure that we're building, and I think you've had Dr.

05:10Wendy Chung come and speak, and she's heading up a lot of that work, I think our best days

05:15are ahead of us. And AI is unlocking that type of potential.

05:20I like hearing that, the optimism about our best days being ahead of us. And I think about

05:23just even during your career, how much treatments have changed in a pretty short time. I'm curious

05:29about the connection between kids and adults and treating children. And of course, if kids are

05:36healthy, then they turn into healthy adults. But this is a children's hospital that does a lot

05:40of research. It does a lot of teaching also. Are there learnings that can be taken from what works

05:46with kids and even applied to a larger population as not just those kids grow up, but as adults also

05:53need treatment? I think there's two points that strike me there. One is the decisions they were making

05:59early in life have long-term impact. It's something I've thought about my entire career in the cardiac

06:06space and in cardiac intensive care. The decisions to have surgery on day two or day four, the decisions

06:13to use this drug or that drug, all of those things are shaping your long-term self. But it was very hard

06:20to be able to look at and analyze that type of data until you've opened up big data AI. So I think,

06:26again, along the lines of our best days are ahead of us, that we're going to be able to see so much

06:32more through that. And then you said the innovations. Now, many patients that I took care of are adults,

06:40right? We have this huge growing adult population that we provide care for. Science that's discovered

06:48here, it's in a pediatric hospital, but it's bringing forth therapies that are actually treating adults.

06:54So I think it's incredible to see how this innovation engine drives so much.

07:00If you could change one thing, just got about 30 seconds, if you could change one thing in terms of

07:04the work that you guys are doing and the R&D that would maybe make it easier, what would it be?

07:12Make it easier?

07:13Okay, bad work.

07:16If you could change one thing, though, that would help you guys in what you're working on. It sounds

07:21like you don't need, it sounds like you've got a great team. We have a great team, but we're always

07:25needing support and engagement, and we're just trying to drive the next level and partnerships

07:36to move in that direction. We are the leading children's hospital, so we're doing well, but

07:42we're always trying to push the envelope of what we can do.

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