How one healthcare system is using AI to improve care

Tampa General announced a deal this week to use Palantir’s AI Platform to develop a care coordination platform and automate other system workflows.

Tampa General CEO John Couris sat down with Yahoo Finance anchor Josh Lipton at Palantir’s (PLTR) AIPCon and explained why AI is important for the hospital chain and the healthcare industry.

“It’s gonna absolutely improve the care, the clinical outcomes, the experience for the patient. It’s going to do that by making our physicians more efficient and effective by making our nurses and allied health professionals more efficient and effective.”

It is an expansion of Tampa General’s existing relationship with Palantir, which started in 2021.

Couris went on to explain how the partnership will work, including how Palantir will deploy engineers to work alongside workers in its healthcare system. He also explained that Tampa General’s work with Palantir is fundamentally changing the company.

“The work that we’re doing with Palantir is changing the DNA of the organization slowly in a very thoughtful, pragmatic, impactful way. So no question, is it going to change the way we do our business? Absolutely. Is it gonna make us a stronger and more resilient health system? Without question, why can’t I say that? Because it’s already doing it. We’ve got three years of experience with this work today, and it has made us a better, stronger, and more resilient health system.”

To learn more about Palantir and its AIPCon, watch the full interview with Palantir CEO Alex Karp.

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This post was written by Rachel Sherman.

Video Transcript

Tampa General Hospital made some news this week announcing a new $50 million deal with Pier to use Piers A I software to talk more about what this deal means for Tampa General, but also the broader health care industry.

We’re speaking exclusively here with John Curri.

He is president and CEO of Florida Health Sciences Center which includes Tampa General.

John.

Thanks for making the time to chat.

It’s great to be with you.

So I I do wanna dig into the into the deal, John, but maybe just to begin with for, for viewers who are not familiar, just give us the 30,000 ft view of, of Tampa Generals, the history, the, the place of the institution, the community, the Tampa General was founded almost 100 years ago in Tampa Florida.

Um We are a six hospital academic and research health system affiliated with the University of South Florida uh in the US F Health Maani College of Medicine.

Uh We have about 700 residents and fellows over 70 training programs.

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We conduct thousands of research studies annually.

Um And we are a system that spans across the entire state of Florida and you And so let’s, let’s dig into this deal.

A $50 million deal of punier.

You’re using Punier A I software.

What are you using those A I tools to do, John?

What, what’s the, the problem that technology is gonna be solving for?

Well, let, let me start with what, what’s plaguing the industry?

Um If you look at the health care industry, uh we have, we, we struggle in quality across the country.

There are plenty of great health systems doing really interesting and important work.

But as a country, as a nation, we still struggle with improving quality and clinical outcomes and safety.

Uh cost fluctuates anywhere from 17 to 21% of the GDP depending on the year.

So cost has been very stubborn to lower.

Um I believe that A I both for Florida Health Sciences Center, Tampa General and for the nation, quite frankly, um I think we can increase quality lower cost, pass that value on to the consumer of health care through those types of improvements.

And I think A I is a very important tool in that journey.

And so you what you’re suggesting, you, you think this, you will pound here as you integrate more of these A I tools.

Do you think bottom line it is gonna improve the care, the experience for the patient.

It’s gonna absolutely improve the care, the clinical outcomes, the experience for the patient.

It’s going to do that by making our physicians more efficient and effective by making our nurses and allied health professionals more efficient and effective and it’s going to help our administrators leave their organizations in a very different way.

And, and as you, as you sort of use these tools, use this software from Palant here.

Who’s using that John?

Is it your, is it your existing employees that you train up?

Do you bring in new people?

It’s a combination.

So mostly it’s existing employees that we train up.

Think of the work that we’re doing with Pal and, and A I in general as a way to augment the work that our people are already doing to make them better.

Will we be bringing in more people and different people?

Absolutely.

One of the aspects of our relationship with Palant here is we are going to forward deploy engineers inside the organization itself.

So those engineers will be working elbow to elbow.

So these are penalty engineers literally sitting side by side, they will be working inside our entire health care system, elbow to elbow with our clinicians.

A as you incorporate this kind of technology, John, does it change the way you think about um running the business in terms of allocating resources, hiring decisions when we deploy or as we continue to deploy this technology?

Because as you know, we’ve had a very good relationship with Palantir over the last three years.

Now, we’ve extended our relationship with them in a significant way.

The work that we’re doing with Palant is changing the DNA of the organization slowly in a very thoughtful pragmatic impactful way.

So no question, is it going to change the way we do our business?

Absolutely.

Is it gonna make us a stronger and more resilient health system without question?

Why can I say that because it’s already doing it?

We’ve got three years of experience with this work today and it has made us a better, stronger and more resilient health system.

So it sounds like John, what you’re saying is, I mean, listen A I has been traditionally used for drug development.

It sounds like what you’re seeing is, are you suggesting looking at now, you think there are actually broader, more general use cases for this tech in the health care industry?

Oh, there’s no question.

There are broader and more general use cases for this technology.

I think this technology if used appropriately and thoughtfully will absolutely change the way we deliver care to our patients, the way nurses and doctors engage with those patients, the job of A I.

And in our from our perspective is how do we make the lives of our caregivers, our doctors, our nurses, our allied health professionals, how do we make their work easier?

How do we bring back joy and happiness into the work that they do?

How do they, how do we excuse me?

How do we build resiliency in the workforce?

One of the ways you do that is put important tools in the hands of these clinicians so they can do their best work.

Eliminate barriers, eliminate obstacles, eliminate fragmentation.

And it does just that, uh, in my health system with the help and support and partnership of pal and deer, we have made the lives of the people that were, that are working in that system and the people that we’re caring for much better than what it has been.

Now.

We still have a long road to go to go.

This is a lot of work.

I mean, this is, you, you’re trying to change an entire industry which is one of the largest industries, not just in the country but in the world.

So it’s going to take time.

Does it work?

Absolutely works.

We would not have done the deal we just did with Palant here if we did not see the real results from that relationship, John.

I know you’re busy today.

I appreciate you taking the time to chat.

Thank you.

You bet.