We need CARPA to win the 5th industrial revolution and protect us from cyberattacks

Doctors and their patients are joining forces in a pitched battle. There are six disruptions that are colliding in sick care.?They represent the front lines of the 4th Industrial Revolution. Which side wins will have a significant impact on the future of medicine and society.

The 4th Industrial Revolution is a mental model created by the leaders of the Joint Economic Forum and describes how physical, digital and biologic technologies have collided and the?resulting challenges and opportunities that presents.

Now we are fighting the 5th industrial revolution too.

By one scholarly count there have been more than 160 major revolutions over just the last two centuries alone. Here is one take on the back story.

More than three weeks since a cyberattack that continues to disrupt U.S. healthcare operations, Congress is still groping for a response. But paths forward have begun to emerge as awareness of the damage slowly spreads on Capitol Hill. Many lawmakers still have no answers ... But a growing number of them are devising plans that range from holding hearings and putting pressure on federal agencies to enacting legislation.

Strategies to win the revolution are designed to create guardrails around potential collateral damage. But minimizing that damage will take state of the art weapons:

1. Rules and regulations for 4th industrial revolution technologies that balance the public health with innovation
2. Educational systems that create a diverse talent pipeline with the knowledge, skills and abilities to win the war
3. Rethinking STEM education

4.Stress the arts and soft skills education as part of public education with the necessary funding to support it

5. Create cost effectiveness screens for digital health products and services

6. Enforce tougher cybersecurity protections

7. Reform digital health reimbursement and payment rules

8. Turn sick care into health care by paying for health

9. Lead the revolution innovators, don't manage innovation

10. Rethink federally funding university and federal research lab technology transfer

Experts disagree on what?regulation?should look like for AI because it’s evolving much faster than other recent innovations. And moving quickly (or at all) isn’t exactly Congress’s strong suit, so it’s unclear whether traditional lawmaking can keep up with establishing rules around a constantly changing technology.

Why the U.S. Needs a Moonshot Mentality for Artificial Intelligence

We will need a new operating system for the 4th industrial revolution.

The American Medical Informatics Association is urging the Trump administration to leverage an existing industry strategy on artificial intelligence research and development, rather than beginning from scratch.

Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI,?testified?on Capitol Hill on the future of AI and how the field should be regulated. He advocated for the creation of a new government agency with the power to license large AI models, create and monitor safety standards, and conduct independent audits. But he did not mention requiring transparency around model training or source data.

DARPA is a government agency responsible for developing and deploying weapons for warfighters of the future. We need CARPA- The Cyberhealth Advanced Research Projects Agency- to man the war room and do the same for doctors and their patients and an "czar" to run it.

Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA is the President and CEO of the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs on Substack and Editor of Digital Health Entrepreneurship