Specialist
Former Managing Director at Emis Group plc
Agenda
- Current AI capabilities
- Key future opportunities for AI disruption
- Other high growth healthcare tech targets
- Outlook for unicorns Babylon and Doctolib
Questions
1.
Healthcare has a reputation of being behind the bell curve in terms of tech disruption so far. When thinking about AI applications specifically, how far along are we in healthcare vs other industries?
2.
To generalise across AI applications in health, what key challenges could limit future uptake?
3.
You mentioned both clinician and patient concerns as potential headwinds. If we broadly consider all the stakeholders – including regulators and payers – is anything in particular significantly holding up AI uses in healthcare? Or is there just general inertia throughout the system?
4.
Which use cases do you think are most widely targeted by AI at the moment in the health space?
5.
Which of the major three areas would you say are the lowest hanging fruits for the next two, three years?
6.
Thinking longer-term, where do you expect the really large opportunities will be? What are your thoughts on the moonshots over 5-10 years?
7.
You mentioned Babylon, and there appears to be several interesting players. Focusing on the more low hanging fruit, what kind of players are most interesting to you on the diagnosis side?
8.
Do you know which symptom trackers are used in New Zealand?
9.
Babylon has a very significant valuation after the last funding round, over USD 2bn in the symptom checker space. Do you think the current state of the tech justifies that kind of valuation for symptom checkers?
10.
Thinking about the other major symptom checkers which are raising money in the VC [Venture Capital] markets at the moment, American Well, Cry, Push Doctor, Ardour, also Min Doktor. Can the amount of money raised by these companies be used as a proxy for future success – is this an effective way to gauge winners and losers? Or would you use other major differentiating factors, such as actual capabilities and strategy?
11.
You mentioned clinical trial disruption and the use of Insilico clinical trials going forwards at Ascensia and Benevolent. What timelines are you expecting for significant clinical trial disruption, if at all?
12.
Is the AI tech pretty comparable across the different areas in the UK’s healthcare system – primary vs secondary vs community-based care? Would you say any of those three are particularly underserved by AI or worthy of incremental investment right now?
13.
What are your general thoughts on the international element of scaling for the health tech business? Babylon raised money to expand internationally to the US and Asia. Do you think it is realistic to have international emerging players in these areas? Or does the nature of health in the tech space mean stronger local players will win out?
14.
Which three emerging growth players would you pick out as having strong AI offerings at the moment, across the areas we discussed today?
15.
What are your thoughts on Doctolib, is its service hugely differentiated in terms of tech vs other players? Are barriers to entry sustainable just for an appointment-booking platform?
16.
Which businesses do you think are slightly overhyped? Do any operate in areas where it will be difficult for AI to have a short- to mid-term upside?
17.
Do you think AI could get to a point in the next few years where data will become less crucial for optimising the algorithms?