by Ewelina Wołoszyn December 19, 2021
When I first started AI Safety Holdings, my vision was to solve the most critical areas facing the healthcare market through technology, specifically the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI). As I researched the healthcare technology market, there was considerable focus on technology such as Drug Research, Clinical Trials and Diagnostics. While these are much needed, in my mind, they didn’t achieve what I was most focused on, which was what is impacting people in healthcare. The people in healthcare are the patients and the healthcare professionals, this drove me to look at what impact could I have for the people.
I was well on my path of defining my vision when the COVID pandemic hit and the greatest impact it had was of course, on the people. Previous to the pandemic, there was a global shortage of healthcare workers, and the pandemic stretched these limited resources significantly. Non-COVID patients could no longer see their primary care providers and there were limited viable telehealth solutions. As I watched this changing world of healthcare, I looked back not only at my vision, but my decision to focus on the people, the pandemic put that focus in the spotlight.
When I was defining my goals, I could have never predicted something like COVID turning everything the world was familiar with upside down, but it did exactly that. My vision was at that very moment the most important thing in the world to me, the path I was going down needed immediate execution and action. I assembled a team to help drive my vision, with a focus on what technologies and companies can be leveraged to help the people. On the patient-facing side of technology, there wasn’t much available in the market so we took a sincere interest in the patient experience, which was now new and unfamiliar to them. My heart went out to these people, and watching the many stories of these hero’s, the healthcare professionals and the sacrifices they were making had a significant impact on me.
We are making progress in healthcare process automation and the patient experience, and key technologies have entered the market. However, these new technologies are not inexpensive. Large healthcare providers can afford the investment, but small independent ones cannot. People choose primary care providers based on various criteria, but the most common is a provider near them. For many, these are not large providers, they are smaller regional or local providers and hospitals that spend profits on patient care and are constrained by budgetary needs. I am proud to say that I am driving AI Safety Holdings, though our industry activities and investments, to help ensure that these new healthcare technologies that are focused on the people, have a much broader impact. We must address the access to these technologies for them to have an IMPACT for the PEOPLE!
