This Is How AI Is Going To Change How You Access And Experience Healthcare: Medtronic CTO

hi everybody I'm Diane Brady I'm talking today with Dr Ken Washington who is senior vice president as well as Chief technology and Innovation officer for metronic um Ken you've been in the job six months now let's start with that how has it been it's been a great six months um some of the most rewarding months of my my career and that says something because I this is my fifth company to work for and I've been in the workforce for over 35 years and I have had an amazing time making a difference for a company that does work that really matters well I love your background because let me just go first of all you a PhD in nuclear engineering you were at loed Martin CTO Forbes most recently general manager of consern consumer robotics at Amazon what's the through line there if you had to identify just the what you brought to these roles and how you've built on your skill set sure what starts with my my formal training as a nuclear engineer I I wanted to do nuclear engineering because I was told that it was like the hardest but I as I studied it I realized that it's the one engineering discipline where you need to know a lot of different things you need to know thermodynamics you need to know materials you need to know software you need to know controls and uh you know artificial intelligence wasn't a buzzword back then but uh it turned out modeling and simulation was super important in the field of nuclear engineering and so what's common about all of my career roles is that they all involve complex multidisiplinary hard problems and they all involve advanced technology and they all involve solving problems that that really have a purpose and a mission and I feel like I've landed really like in my dream job because metronic has a mission that is it's hard to be well what's interesting so I think you're doing robotic sensors implantable of course as you mentioned um a lot I'm sure around artificial intelligence and and generative AI um I used to speak to cosos and they take a hundred days to listen to figure out what's going on there's so much urgency right now around technology can do you hit the ground running or what do you do when you come into such a massive company obviously wants to accelerate innovation did you know right off the bat what levers to pull well I I I live by The Credo of is better to be a learn at all than a know at all and so it was really important as I came into this job to really learn learn what the company is all about understand what the culture is and and see where there there's opportunity but it did not take long for me to realize that the transformation of healthc Care by digital technology and artificial intelligence is a huge opportunity in fact it's been said I believe uh that Jeffrey Hinton said that healthc care is the one area where AI has the opportunity to to do the most good and it didn't take long to understand why he said that and why that I believe that's true because there's so much opportunity to bring uh this digital Innovation to health Tech products to make them better to help clinicians be more impactful and effective and to give patients and and clinicians both a better experience and the lead to better outcomes and we're seeing that already that's already the case in a few cases and we're going to build on that and make it even better you know I I love you mentioned Jeffrey Hinton being from Toronto of course you know uh iconic one of the Godfathers of AI and he said that in the context of of an overall kind of atmosphere of concern you know fear of AI and to your point and I agree healthc care is the one where we go I get it I love it I want it how do you feel overall having come from these other roles should we be nervous about where we are with technology right now excited a bit of both I'm just curious to get your 30,000 foot perspective first my my perspective about this is that it's no different than any new technology and any emerging breakthrough Innovation that they have to be thought about responsibly so very early in the in the Journey of thinking about how how would we leverage Ai and health Tech and patronic very early on we put together we got our heads together and and put together what we call an AI Compass it's to help guide us in the responsible use of AI where where can it help where do we not need it and how do we manage and and leverage data in a responsible way look I I've learned this from my other other roles where you know AI was not a Panacea for building cars that were smarter in in the the job that I did at Ford Motor Company in fact all the hype about self-driving cars where people had all these amazing dreams about building cars so they could sleep in the back and the car would take them wherever they want to go well that never came about that sounds scary it sounds scary right because cars are are like big metal things that drive on roads and and and you have to be very careful and responsible about what are you GNA see to a computer and what are you g to keep the responsibility of a of a human so Ai and Healthcare is no different we don't think about AI as replacing doctors we think about AI as making doctors better and making clinicians better making outcomes better and in the hands of a skill clinician an AI power tool or an AI enabled technology can help help them deliver a better experience and lead to a better outcome our GI genius product is a great example of that where the hands of a skilled colonoscopy uh uh professional a gastroenterologist it can help them detect more apbs more reliably and consistently and we've seen that in our studies and um that's the way we're thinking about Ai and Healthcare let me ask a question about culture because you know obviously company like metronic like many Healthcare Innovations you know at the core of what they do but it must feel different being in a tech technology role when you come from a technology first company like Amazon comes to mind to a company that's you know obviously technolog is integral to what it does but so much differences right it's it's the the intersection of Regulation Innovation how is the culture different how do you lead differently in that environment this is why coming into a new company you always have to start with learning the culture being alert at all I had to take take the time to understand where are the where are the cultural what are the cultural norms how do we make decisions where are the how does the fact that we we work in a in a regulated industry how does that manifest itself to what our risk profile is and and how we make decisions so um I took the time to understand that and learn it but at the same time I'm bringing to the company some skills and some and some processes and some mechanisms to help us take measured risks where it's aach apprpriate to help us make decisions with more more laity and with less friction and decisions that'll stick with Clarity um as a digital first company one of the things I learned at Amazon was how to uh assign ownership in a way that that that allows leaders to be empowered to drive decisions and so we're applying some of those mechanisms on my team and on some of the teams that we work with but at the same time um we work in a regulated industry as so the culture is shaped because of that can I I'm always curious about tactics and of course it's hard to deduce your you know reduce your job to like here's seven things I do that I find effective but but it is interesting to me um when I think about the stage we are right now especially with generative AI every leader understands the urgency they understand they have to kind of get ahead of it the how part is is the tough part and anything tactically the advice that you give for how to think about it for people who are in your role but also you work with a lot of people and other seite roles and managers you know down the org chart what advice do you give in terms of how to be thinking about the Innovation cycle that we're in right now sure I guess I'd start with the advice of encouraging leaders in positions like mine and you know even if you're not in a technology leadership role role to start with focusing on raising the digital fluency of the of the leadership teach them what AI is all about and it's not just about generative AI you know AI has been around for over 50 years and so teach them the difference between a deep learning model and a generative AI model teach them how these models are built and how they depend on on uh massive amounts of data that has to be labeled and curated and and what the risks are associated with using these models and how to use them responsibly and what is the life cycle of data in in ownership and what are the trades you need to make when you want to implement a model like this these things are all new to a lot of leaders and and businesses so raise the fluency by talking about it and and teaching your colleagues what to do and encourage them to play with the technology to learn by using you know they the good news is a lot of of these Technologies are so easy to use today because they're built into commercial products they're built into office they're built into our you know tools that we use every day so um you can learn about these Technologies so that when you are faced with strategic decisions and conversations about applying this to your mission you're coming at it from a position of higher fluency and understanding you know I'm I'm talking to you as a business leader and one of the um I want to be cognizant of the consumer conversation because there is I think we talk a lot about transparency and trust and especially in the health care space you know you were talk you know this whole concept of a digital self and how that can really revolutionize personalize Health Care yet there are a lot of communities that don't have that automatic trust that you know institutions or healthc care are their friend what what can we do to build that trust and that transparency so that everybody can participate in the benefits and the upside that AI can bring and other Technologies do you think about that much I think about that a lot um because um Ai and digital has the potential of increasing access to great health care uh to you know to many people and uh trust is is is something that you earn and you build on the trust and the and the brand recognition that you have um we are a a well-known brand in the medical field um and we need to leverage we leverage that as we think about integrating AI into our into the products that we design and build um but you know I should clarify that that um AI is not all created equal and so uh we've been talking a lot about generative AI which burst onto the scene a little over a year ago and that's what yeah sort of created the frenzy around AI but a lot of the artificial intelligence that we use in the Medtech Space is really based on you know deep learning technology where the the models are more carefully curated and and and there's learning and Based on data that you have uh that you've managed carefully and and so it's it creates that that ability for you to to build a narrative around how you're bringing the product through the FDA approval process into the hands of a skill clinician in a way that will engender that kind of trust and that's how we're approaching our AI Journey on the clinical side and on the therapeutic intervention side on the business side there's ample opportunity to Leverage The Proven commercial tools that are are now being upskilled with new AI technology like generative AI uh so we've adopted the Microsoft 365 co-pilot technology for example inside our company and we started using it first in a small pilot to build trust amongst our employees in that pilot we told stories about how it boosted our productivity while yet using it in a responsible way that created a sense of of trust that you could use the models in a responsible way so that's how I think about it you know starts with with u starting small and being clear about what what are you actually using and how are you how are you using it I know you're six months in so I still think it's early days for where you are but um you know i' be remiss not to think more holistically about technology have your as you've looked at the opportunities and priorities what what would you be putting on our radar right now you've mentioned a few things but obviously AI is dominates the conversation but you know there's many other aspects to Innovation can you give us a broader sense of what we will be talking about for example this time next year what excites you and even some of the hard choices sure um so uh one of the things I've learned in my six months was been here has been that metronic has a um a very rich portfolio and a very diverse portfolio of Technologies and Innovation is at the heart of what we do so AR are um is more than it's not you know just a slogan that we engineer the extraordinary it's really who we are and what we do and um and so that applies to some really amazing technologies that we have in the cardiovascular portfolio in fact I'm really excited about some recent new technologies that we've that we've uh launched and just uh literally yesterday we received FDA approval for pfield ablation which has a huge opportunity to to to create lots of value and and improve patient care um I'm really excited about our Hugo robot with like redefining how you do laparoscopic surgery and a less invasive way uh with you know a better experience for both the clinician as well as better outcomes for patients um I'm very excited about what we have have in our Neuroscience portfolio um yesterday we had our holiday event and we we actually met some patients who whose lives were transformed by these these um pain relieving therapies where you know this patient had spent seven years in a wheelchair and because of our therapy she was able to get up and not only walk but it's now running a half marathon wow so that's amazing think about that that's amazing and you know we're doing that today and so imagine what we'll be able to do in three to five years um I was going to ask what the hard choices you can certainly talk about that but I I'm immediately thinking as you're talking about these um particular examples of pivot Points in your own career you know I'm thinking of you getting up and running your own version of a half marathon what have been some of the most important pivot Points you think about as you've become taken on bigger bigger leadership roles so the key pivot Points for me have been the the pivots and the transitions in my career to move closer and closer to missions that matter for people for consumers for end users of pro of complex technical products I started my career working in a defense funded government funded research and development laboratory for space was that for space no that was a I worked for for a company called Sandia National Laboratories which is the Department of energy funded research laboratory whose mission is to ensure the shity the safety security and efficacy of the nation's nuclear weapon stockpile and so most you know citizens dayto day don't think about that right but it's an extremely important Mission with a high Purpose with a lot of complex hard technology work to do and I spent a lot of time there learning a lot about technology and learning a lot about Computing and modeling and simulation and and networking and and I ended up being their CIO and I went to locki which was my first transition you asked about transitions that was my first transition a little closer to what people think about dayto day and that was ly Martin where I ended up running the research lab for their space business well people day-to-day typically don't think about satellites and Rockets but they certainly think about the GPS device in their cars and their phones and that works because of satellites that locky Martin built provide an enable GPS as well as communication satellites and and other satellites that uh un unve unveil the secrets of the universe uh that my next transition was then getting a little closer to the consumer building cars making them safe transforming them to digital experiences because everyone knows about cars and mobility and it enables people to be mobile and to be near their loved ones and to get to where they need to go in a safe efficient and effective way and that was very rewarding for me to help that company transform itself to make cars more accessible and safer and and more better experience uh but then moving into a consumer first digital native company like Amazon allowed me to further home my skills and equip me to come to metronic and do a job like I'm doing now so a lot of transitions that ultimately led to what I consider to be just my dream job making a difference in alleviating pain and you know restoring health and extending life through technology you talk about impact and I can tell you're somebody who cares deeply about the impact that you make and your company makes you know as you're going through some of the examples that you site satellites you know part of what comes to mind is the the um not certainly not monopolies or oligopolies but but we've seen a lot of behemoths in the tech space and behemoths for example in the satellite space not naming names and yet at the same time we're trying to create more you know inclusive Technologies we're trying to get people excited you know create startup cultures as somebody who's been at the Forefront of a lot of these Technologies can how do you how do you think about that just as a leader how do we how do we democratize in many ways the impact that these technologies have and and the gains that come from them well look I I I am a big believer in in uh enabling opportunities for wide varieties of different people and I'm a huge advocate of stem education I'm also a big supporter and advocate of of small businesses in fact one of the one of the things that I did when I was at Amazon was I helped my company my my business pivot to provide a product to help small businesses secure their what they work so hard to invest in and that was important to me because not only would it create a really great business for the product that I led but it would serve a real value to these small businesses um and so at metronic we were thinking about that kind of in the same in the same way we we have a very rich Supplier Diversity Program and we have lots of our supply driven by and enabled by small businesses um and so it's all part of the part of the the ecosystem that makes that makes business successful and makes business work there's a ton of AI startup technologies that um is making the AI opportunities in healthc care really rich and and possible so I I there's no shortage of opportunity for small businesses and startups to thrive in this future that's going to be rich in digital and rich in AI technology anything else that I mean I could talk to you all day I I'm enjoying this conversation I want to know so much more about your own sort of innovation strategy and how you keep yourself Innovative what would what's on your radar you would like to put on ours um in terms of how you think about this and how you think the people watching this should be thinking about these Technologies and the impact they'll have what I really would like your your listeners who anyone watching this to to to really realize is we're just getting started right so the AI Revolution is not like you know old old at all I mean this is like day one this is day one of us taking this amazing technology and making new therapies better and improving patient outcomes like GI what GI genius does or our ACU rithm AI product which takes a a cardiac monitor the size of a paper clip and it connects it to a digital algorithm that reduces false positives by more than 80 to 90% And so that gives patients and doctors time back so we've already made those therapies that are powered by AI available so this is just day one so imagine what day 100 will be if we're just getting started just imagine what these products that we build today like our Hugo robot like our deep brain stimulation capabilities and and like all the cardiac um uh uh monitors that we provide and and pacemakers the list goes on and on imagine what that will be like when AI matures and becomes much more common place as we learn more about how to use and apply these Technologies in a responsible way I think the future for health Tech and healthc Care is extremely promising given the digital Revolution that we're just getting started with well we are talking to you on day one I look forward to continuing that conversation on day 100 or whenever we meet again but thank you very much for joining us and um Good Luck as you're at the start of your journey too thank you so much I enjoyed the conversation as well

Channel: Forbes

Views: 1,496

Keywords: Forbes, Forbes Media, Forbes Magazine, Forbes Digital, Business, Finance, Entrepreneurship, Technology, Investing, Personal Finance, medtronic, ken washington, ai in healthcare, healthcare industry and ai, healthcare industry updates

Id: uUeTU6CKTxE

Length: 24min 9sec (1449 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 15 2023