The future of healthcare - Precision with AI

Speaker A: AI will be instrumental to deliver the next breakthroughs in healthcare. And ultimately, AI will make healthcare more human. India, clearly, obviously, is one of the largest economies in the world. I think India just, you know, earned the space of being the fourth largest economy, uh, overtaking Japan. It's also one of the largest healthcare and medical device markets in the world. It's in the top 20 looking at healthcare serving 1.4 billion people. Better is really what gets us up every day, right? Because there's still a huge need and a huge opportunity to provide better healthcare to more people in India. We have been committed to India for a very long time. We have been present here for 35 years. GE Healthcare, part of General Electric, was one of the early investors as a multinational, um, we have a highly successful joint venture partnership with Wipro, uh, for that long period of time. And we are actually creating solutions here which serve India, but also serve other places in the world.

Speaker B: Hello and welcome to AI Rising, the podcast where we decode the transformative power of artificial intelligence one breakthrough at a time. I'm your host, Nelson John. And today we turn our, uh, focus to one of the most critical frontiers of AI innovation. Healthcare. a time when the world is grappling with widening healthcare gaps and increasing demands for accessibility and precision, how can AI drive solutions that truly make a difference? And what role does a global giant like GE Healthcare play in this narrative, especially in a high priority market like India? Joining me today is a leader who has been at the forefront of this transformation. Please welcome Mr. M. Roland Roth, President and CEO of Imaging at, uh GE Healthcare, a seasoned healthcare leader with over two decades of experience in driving innovations that advance medical technologies globally. Roland's vision for AI enabled healthcare, combined with his deep understanding of the industry's evolving landscape, has been instrumental in shaping GE Healthcare's strategy for impactful growth across markets, including India. Roland, it's a pleasure to have you here on AI Rising. Welcome to the podcast.

Speaker A: Thank you, Nelson. Thanks for having me. Looking forward to our conversation.

Speaker B: Beautiful. All right, let's dive right in, starting with the big picture. The world sees India as a high growth market from your perspective. Could you let us know, uh, why now? Why India is the right time for India right now?

Speaker A: Yes, great question. Look, I would say India clearly, obviously is one of the largest economies in the world. I think India just, uh, earned the space of being the fourth largest economy, uh, overtaking Japan. It's also one of the largest healthcare and medical device markets in the world. It's in the top 20. And, uh, so There is a lot of growth ahead, there's a lot of rise ahead when it comes to gdp, when it comes to other growth areas. But looking at health care serving 1.4 billion people, better is really what gets us up every day. Right. Because there's still a huge need and a huge opportunity to provide better healthcare to more people in India.

Speaker B: That's right. So you know, GE Healthcare has been doubling down on India with big moves. Uh, how does India fit your global plans in terms of innovation and uh, growth?

Speaker A: Yes, I would like to emphasize we have been committed to India for a very long time. We have been present here for 35 years. Right. GE Healthcare, part of General Electric, was one of the early investors as a multinational, um, we have a highly successful joint venture partnership with Wipro, uh, for that long period of time. And we are actually creating solutions here which serve India but also serve other places in the world. In fact, over these years we have grown the impact m more and more from research and development, manufacturing, you know, artificial intelligence. So our India base here is today the largest research, development and manufacturing base outside the United States, anywhere in the world. So it's a very significant place for us, a centric place for innovation, for driving new possibilities in healthcare and again, both to serve Indian patients and Indian healthcare systems better, but also to export these innovations to broader scale worldwide.

Speaker B: So Roland, if you had to name, um, the top healthcare challenges, both globally as well as in India, what would they be?

Speaker A: Yeah, if we think about healthcare globally, Right. We see a rise of non communicable diseases such as cancers, um, cardiological disease, but also neurology. Right. So these significant diseases are universally on the rise, its effect. And at the same time, you know, we have, so we have more patients to deal with, we also have aging populations in most countries. So, so in that sense we have more and more demand and at the same time there's not necessarily more investment. At the same time there is a shortage of people, um, which can actually provide proper healthcare. So in that sense we need to create solutions to match the supply and demand challenge. And we have possibilities with technology, especially with AI, to meet some of these challenges really, really well. To overcome operational inefficiencies.

Speaker B: Mhm.

Speaker A: By the help of AI or to provide better solutions by connecting the dots in cancer care and provide a much more personalized view about why is a particular patient having this cancer. What happened before, what happens after we do a certain treatment. All these areas can be better answered with newer technologies which we have available today. So the challenges are Directly paired with some of the errors we can solve and improve as we go forward.

Speaker B: Talking about artificial intelligence, you know, it's the buzzword everywhere, but when it comes to healthcare, the stakes are different. Um, how do you see AI helping solve these, uh, critical gaps, especially in the clinical aspect of the situation?

Speaker A: So one challenge is that non communicable diseases, such as cancer, cardiological diseases, uh, neurological diseases, they are responsible for 73% of, of all deaths worldwide. And this is more than 40 million people every year, you know, die from these diseases. And these diseases not only have a high share today, but they continue to be on the rise worldwide. Also in India, you know, AI has a lot of potential, broadly speaking. Right. So, um, specific to healthcare, we started to embrace the possibilities of AI pretty early. Actually more than like seven, eight years ago, we launched our first commercially available regulated products with embedded AI, uh, in the industry actually. And today we have more than 85 regularly cleared FDA cleared medical devices with embedded AI. Um, so we are truly leading in this space of AI in medtech. And why is that? Why does that matter to your question? Because healthcare professionals have a lot of work to do in order to again care for a patient. And even to use some of these medical devices takes a lot of steps, takes a lot of, you know, clicks, a lot of settings, a lot of particular ways how to ultimately get to this best possible examination for a particular patient. Now with the help of AI, uh, we can substantially simplify that. We can take steps away. We can make sure our medical devices become smarter. Right. And we also can align these medical devices better to certain disease states, meaning cardiology, cancer care. Right, Neurology. So we can focus smarter medical devices on specific disease states. And third, we can make more use out of all the data which is available, uh, with the help of AI. We call this a D free strategy because it's these three Ds. Smart devices focus on disease states, leveraging data where we can ultimately provide precision care.

Speaker B: That's wonderful. Um, so at GE Healthcare, how are you using AI to improve patient outcomes and make healthcare more efficient? Like you know.

Speaker A: Yeah. Let me give you a few examples of how AI can really look like in practice. Think about a modality like ultrasound. Right. Ultrasound is very user dependent. And um, what we achieved is with the help of AI, that an ultrasound user gets real time guidance. So while doing a scan. Mhm. Holding a probe in a particular position to scan a heart, get real time feedback. Like is the probe in the right position? Should I move it a little bit left? Or right, like a navigation system in the car. And ultimately scoring the quality of an image with the help of AI, saying you've reached a good enough level or this is a level which is, you know, which is possible for doing diagnosis with. So such kind of a tool can help users which are probably less experienced, uh, to ultimately get to higher quality outcomes. This concrete example is one which exists live, which helps a lot of users today. And we are actively working with the uh, Gates Foundation. This is a partnership, Bill Gates foundation, who was passionate about this idea to serve especially low and medium income countries, uh, and provide more access with such a collaboration. So this is one concrete example. Another example I could give you is in the space of magnetic resonance imaging. M Mr. Magnetic resonance imaging. Today in India we have still a relatively small kind of coverage, like two in thousand I think, uh, of patients can be covered, uh, which is a relatively low percentage. So it has to be at the forefront to provide it to more patients. We created AI algorithms in the space of um, image reconstructions which ultimately makes the image reconstruction faster and you get to a sharper image. So the outcome is that more patients can be handled like 50, 60% faster. Throughput means more patients can be handled at a certain clinic at a certain time. And that helps the cost per patient, but it also helps the excess per patient. So in summary, AI will be instrumental to deliver the next breakthroughs in healthcare. And ultimately AI will make healthcare more human because it allows physicians to have more time for patients while taking some of the mundane tasks away from them. So ultimately really enable physicians to take precision care at heart and serve each and every patients with more attention.

Speaker B: Can these uh, technologies be used with legacy systems that are already existing in a, in a lot of rural places?

Speaker A: That is a great question. So uh, yes, legacy systems can be upgraded. So we actually found that to provide value to customers, ideally we also offer it not only for new systems, but really to upgrade existing installed base with AI capabilities. So we do actually offer exactly those solutions, make an existing MRI system smarter, faster, you know, more precise, um, and that even extends the life cycle of these, of these products.

Speaker B: Now, looking ahead, say about 10 years from now, what do you think the AI and healthcare equation is going to look like? Do you have any uh, exciting opportunities in the future for this?

Speaker A: Look, I would say we are still in the early stage of embracing AI fully in healthcare and um, it has a lot of potential but there's also a lot of needs. We need to make sure it's properly regulated. Right. We have very high Bar when it comes to patient safety, um, we apply AI in more and more clinical areas or disease states. So I would say in 10 years, we will see a significant breakthrough forward that we have even smarter devices, that users can focus more time on the patient, on the human, because they have less to do with just get the equipment to work. And they can really connect the dots. Mhm. Of every patient by looking not only at the current situation, but also at all the holistic data which exists about a patient and get to smarter decisions about what to do next. So we are really entering a phase of precision health where we will see much better diagnosis, more efficiently done, and then ultimately, after diagnosis, the treatment and the monitoring, um, to provide better health.

Speaker B: All right. Okay. Um, so we've, um, covered some big grounds here, right? From AI's impact on healthcare to India's, uh, global role. Um, why don't we shift our gears to something a little more lighter? Because here at, um, AI Rising, we'd like to get behind, uh, the person's title. So, uh, shall we shift gears here?

Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. Happy to.

Speaker B: All right, so, Roland, um, if AI were a colleague in your team, what kind of employee would it be? The options are here. The perfectionist intern, the genius but distracted engineer. Or maybe the super efficient, no lunch break types.

Speaker A: Yeah. Or the combination of all the three. Right. I would probably opt for the first. And why? Because. Yes, perfectionist. So AI appears to have an answer for pretty much everything. It's not really always perfect because it depends on the context. And the intern needs to learn the context. Right. The intern doesn't have all the experience just yet, so. And this is exactly where we find ourselves with AI. Lot of potential. Uh, we need to make sure it's applied in the right context. We are conscious about the errors, hallucinations, etc. Cut all that out. And then we have a very, very powerful colleague.

Speaker B: Wonderful. All right, so, Roland, who are you outside of work? Any hobbies, passion that inspire you?

Speaker A: But first of all, I'm a father, um, and have, uh, family. I have a father of three, two adult kids and a minor. And so I do spend the time when I'm not traveling globally, um, as I do a lot, uh, with my family. I spend time with my kids, have some hobbies, and, um, you know, um, go hiking, go skiing, or play some good chess, which, uh, is also, uh, you know, every. Sports, uh, online. Uh-huh.

Speaker B: That's interesting. So when you're not traveling, you spend more time with kids traveling other countries,

Speaker A: or, you know, I travel a lot in my role. Right. I'm a global CEO in GE Healthcare, meaning we serve customers globally. Um, I am, you know, in one week in the United States. Now I'm here a week later I could be, um, in China. So in that sense, yeah, travel is the norm. Being close to customers, being close to the problems, but also close to our teams, um, matters.

Speaker B: That's right. All right, one last question before I let you go. It's a very important question. Since you spend a lot of time in India, do you have any favorite Indian dishes? Butter chicken, naan, biryani, masal, dosa, Anything on the list?

Speaker A: I'm always discovering the local dishes wherever I go. So I do like the Indian food, as long as it's not too spicy. Um, definitely. The butter chicken, I would say, is my favorite out of these.

Speaker B: Wonderful. So you don't have issues with spicy food and all that, right?

Speaker A: Well, I think, uh, I would see a level of spice, which you will find probably mild. Right. So in that sense, uh, I need to calibrate, uh, perhaps. But, uh, I do not generally have a problem with.

Speaker B: Love the answers, Roland. It's always refreshing to see the human side of, um, innovation leaders like you. So, as we wrap up this fascinating, uh, conversation, one thing is clear. AI is no longer the future of healthcare. It's the present. Actively transforming lives. One patient, one innovation, and one breakthrough at a time. Roland's insights offer a, uh, glimpse into how global players like GE Healthcare are not just adapting to AI revolution, but leading it, especially in high impact markets like India. Thank you so much, Roland, for your time. It was great conversing with you here.

Speaker A: My pleasure, Nelson. Thanks a lot.

Speaker B: Well, if you enjoyed this episode of AI Rising, don't forget to, like, comment and share it with your network. Stay tuned for more episodes where we bring you the brightest minds and boldest ideas shaping the AI powered world of tomorrow. Until, uh, next time, this is Nelson John signing off.