Full presentation by Steve Monaghan delivered to healthcare and laboratory medicine leaders at the Roche Efficiency Days (RED) 2018: REDefining perspectives in Guangzhou, China.

National healthcare systems in many countries around the world are on the verge of collapse. There is a simple problem, a growing gap. Healthcare costs are growing at 6-9% compounded by aging populations. Incomes are flat to negative, compounded by aging populations and automation. Medical care is becoming increasingly exclusive. Our current trajectory is unsustainable. Socially and politically.

Artificial intelligence holds the promise of changing that equation. The three essential laws of technology, Moore’s Law, Metcalf’s Law and Kryder’s Law, are driving unparalleled discovery in almost every field of endeavor. Medicine is no exception. The explosion in data is enabling unprecedented learning in diagnostics, genomics, pharmaceuticals and medicine. Simply, machines are becoming capable of assessments humans are not. Companies such as Google are using up to 46 billion data points to predict medical outcomes. This corpus of insight is growing exponentially.

Diagnostics are moving into the hands of consumers. In the same way the computing power that put man on the moon rests in your pocket today. This is both a threat and an opportunity. Either way it is unstoppable. The question is how do we use these developments to achieve our objectives in right time, right cost treatment. If we are to change our trajectory in medical access from exclusion to inclusion. To drive efficiency and quality simultaneously, we need to rethink the business model of healthcare. The clock is ticking.