Talamo Topline v2.4: Science, Art, and Artificial Intelligence

This issue of the “The Talamo Topline comes as we tear through the first few weeks of Q4 with our eyes on the finish line for the year. As in any race or sporting event, you never remember who is winning or losing at the homestretch, you only remember when the competitors cross the finish line. With just a few short weeks left, that makes now that time to refocus your “stride” and execute your plan to land where you want to be. In some cases, that may be adjusting your strategy, your speed, or even your team. I think of it as a competitive rower – do you have the right people in the boat to get you through that last 500? If not, who or what is missing that is keeping you from top speed?

I hope you enjoy this issue of The Talamo Topline. As we move through Q4 let’s catch up and talk about partnerships! Find me on Calendly or send me a note offline. Looking forward to it!

Chart of the Week

A recent GlobalData Survey highlights how patients’ familiarity with AI significantly influences their comfort level when considering healthcare facilities utilizing this technology.

During July–August 2023, 574 patients were surveyed from Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, the UK and the US.

Out of surveyed patients who were familiar with AI, 60% were either very or quite comfortable with using a healthcare facility that uses AI, while of the patients who were not familiar with AI, only 7% were.

The Headlines

• MedCity News: 3 Questions This Healthcare Investor Finds Herself Asking Startups All the Time: At HLTH, General Catalyst Principal Candace Richardson discussed some of the questions she frequently asks startups during investment meetings. Some of these include "Do you stratify your outcomes data by different populations to ensure your model works well for everyone?" and "Is serving Medicaid populations on your roadmap?"?
• MM+M: The New Innovation Playbook for Healthcare Orgs: Nearly every healthcare organization devotes a non-small percentage of its resources to innovation. Here, leaders from Moderna, GE HealthCare and GoodRx share their approaches.
• STATnews: Kaiser Permanente Reaches Tentative Agreement with Workers: After a historic strike, health care giant Kaiser Permanente and the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions announced early Friday that they have reached a tentative union contract agreement. More details will be disclosed soon, they said. ?Seventy-five thousand members of the union, which spans seven of the states plus Washington, D.C., in Kaiser’s nationwide health care network, went on strike last week from Oct. 4 through the early hours of Oct. 7.

From our MJH Life Sciences Network

• Psychiatric Times: Science and Art in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: "The root of the word 'create' or 'creativity' essentially means 'to grow.' That is probably what lies at the heart of what patients really want; they want to grow in terms of their relationships, their abilities, their passions and interests, their health, and in terms of whatever dreams they want to achieve personally in their lives."
• OncLive: The Bleak Fiscal Implications of Advanced Cancer as a Chronic Illness: Maurie Markman, MD, highlights the rather profound fiscal implications of the combined effect of 2 quite different but closely related components of the rapidly evolving cancer treatment paradigm.
• The American Journal of Managed Care: Addressing Gaps in Digital Health, Telehealth in Patients With Cancer: The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of remote cancer care, in which notable gaps in care should be addressed, according to a new study published in published in The Lancet Digital Health.

AI in Healthcare

• Dermatology Times: Artificial Intelligence (in Dermatology): Friend or Foe?: Experience has shown that real AI value is challenging to capture at scale, largely because skin image data vary in quality, completeness, and representativeness, often leading to unreliable results. Additionally, prioritization of focus remains challenging. A single, unified ability to assist in diagnosing all skin diseases has not yet been developed, and selecting which use cases create most value in the meantime has been a complex task without many obvious quick wins.
• HealthTECH Zone: AI in Healthcare: Trends and Application Examples: The exponential growth of research is usually accompanied by a constant expansion of the range of problems to be solved. Therefore, we will not pretend to provide an exhaustive picture of AI applications in medicine but will try to outline the most successful or promising areas from our point of view.

On the Hill

• The Hill: Medicare Part B Premiums to Rise by 6 Percent in 2024: Medicare Part B covers medically necessary services and preventive services, which include mental health services, some outpatient prescription drugs, ambulance services and durable medical equipment. The premium announced Thursday falls in line with what the Medicare Board of Trustees estimated the 2024 premium would be earlier this year.

Leadership & Management

• Forbes: Leading in the AI Revolution: The Case For a Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer: As AI becomes more sophisticated and pervasive, many firms are considering whether to appoint a chief artificial intelligence officer (CAIO). A CAIO is a senior executive responsible for developing and implementing a company's AI strategy. The CAIO works with other leaders and employees to identify and prioritize AI opportunities, develop and manage AI projects, and ensure that AI is used ethically and responsibly.

I hope you enjoyed this week's eNewsletter! If you would like to subscribe via email, please send me your info over LinkedIn message or drop me a note!

Phil Talamo

Senior Vice President | Mergers & Acquisitions, Strategic Innovation

[email protected]