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 Today in Health AI system is more powerful than anything we have seen. My name is Sarah Richardson, and I'm a former CIO for several healthcare systems, most notably within HCI and Optum, and now president of the This Week Health 229 Executive Development Community, where we host a set of channels and events dedicated to transforming healthcare for all.

One connection at a time. And I am joined by Kate Gamble, Managing Editor here at This Week Health. Kate, welcome to the show. Thanks, Sarah. Looking forward to it. I am, too, because this was a YouTube video we came across that talks about Microsoft's MagneticOne, a powerful multi agent system designed to handle complex tasks by using specialized agents for web browsing, file management, coding, and more.

and executing commands. It's led by a central orchestrator and can seamlessly perform a range of activities from booking tickets to analyzing data, making it highly adaptable and efficient. It is built on Microsoft's open source AutoGen framework. MagneticOne stands out as a flexible, action oriented AI tool that's pushing the boundaries of technology.

When you watched this video, Kate, what were some of the things that came to mind?

Oh first of all, I thought Magnetic One was some kind of Star Trek reference, but it's not, as it turns out. But this is really interesting because for me, when you think about AI, the name that comes up to me is maybe Apple, but Microsoft has Quietly assembled the largest AI agent ecosystem.

There's more than a hundred thousand organizations that are creating or editing AI agents through co pilot since it was launched. So that's really impressive. And MagneticOne, in this video, they talk about how it could be changing the game, which. We hear that a lot. So at some point it becomes white noise, but this one maybe could be legit.

It's really interesting what they're doing. And there's a lot of implications for healthcare organizations.

There are a ton of healthcare implications, which is why I found it so fascinating. To your point about Star Trek, I thought about Star Wars, and I'm like, this is not the droid you're looking for.

There is no droid right now that comes with it. It certainly could come forward. There's some significant implications for healthcare when you consider Automation of administrative tasks, enhanced data analysis, interoperability integration, I thought of improved patient engagement, and a big one being the efficiency and cost reduction.

Which of those stands out for you? If you're going to go ahead and plug this into your health system, because this thing is a true cockpit of absolute capability, where does your desire go if you were going to implement this in your facilities?

That is not an easy question because what you just named are all really big implications.

But to me, the one that stands out most is automating administrative tasks, because in our interviews, we hear again and again, how that's something that CXOs really want to focus on. They want their teams to be more efficient. They want people operating at the highest level they can. So using something like Magnetic One that can handle complex, multi step tasks like file management, web browsing, coding, and automate labor intensive processes, that could really make a difference.

Absolutely. Patient record management, appointment scheduling, claims processing. What's interesting is we hear about so many point solutions that are doing all of these things today. It's getting through that noise and really understanding what is the engine behind the And I can see companies layering on top of Magnetic One, which becomes a really good conversation point about understanding what is the engine behind the systems that are being utilized.

And when you have a partner like Microsoft, you get, to a degree, that sense of, Maybe greater safety and security because they're going to be considering things like encryption techniques, strict access controls, compliance with HIPAA and other regulatory frameworks. And yet, even with these big provider systems, such as Microsoft, you have to make sure that the transparent AI governance policies to securely integrate things like multi agent AI systems are top of mind in board conversations, C suite conversations and beyond.

Yeah, absolutely. And when you think about what really matters most to the CIOs, CXOs, one of the things is strategic implementation of AI and making sure that they know how to evaluate Magnetic One's multi agent system and making sure it can fit within their current ecosystem and support broader organization goals such as improving care.

Operational efficiencies, we talked about, and compliance. As with anything, this has to work with what you already have in place and make it better.

What about risk management and governance? And also that driving innovation aspect of what we talk about pretty often.

What are some things that a CIO should be considering?

Yeah, governance is, we joke that sometimes we think it's not the most exciting topic, but it's so important and everybody, and it needs to be a priority. So as automation increases, CIOs, you have to ensure that there's a robust governance framework to mitigate risks, such as data breaches or algorithmic bias, something we're starting to hear more about, particularly in sensitive healthcare environments.

And then when you look at innovation, Everyone's priority. The flexibility of Magnetic One allows CIOs to experiment with new applications like predictive analytics for pop health management or AI driven clinical decision support tools, all things that are priorities for the people that we talk to.

And the CIOs have a huge hand in. Ensuring the adoption and scaling technologies inside their healthcare systems, this can empower them. It transitions from traditional IT leadership, which we talk about often, you need to know operations, you need to know finance, et cetera, to strategic innovators that enables them to champion AI driven healthcare solutions that improve operational efficiency outcomes.

And one of my favorite is always those predictive analytic capabilities. You start layering those in and having the right conversations. You can begin to queue up. the departments in your healthcare system , that can benefit most greatly from these Innovative perspectives and capabilities.

Yeah, there are a lot of them. Clinical operations, as you might, expect, for streamlining workflows, optimizing resource allocation, and enhancing patient care, through predictive analytics and automation. But then also revenue cycle management, supply chain, Patient engagement and experience, as well as quality and compliance, cyber security, population health management.

So as you can see, this is not a one shop solution. This is really something that could make a difference. across an organization.

I don't know why I get excited about supply chain management. I think about the ability to optimize inventory, reduce waste, ensure timely procurement, medical supplies, because of the storms.

The hurricanes ended up with a deficit in IV bags. And even during the pandemic, my goodness, running out of masks and having to find ways to print them with 3D printers and create these supply chain mechanisms that were across different healthcare systems. And I also love the aspect of population health management.

Over the years, it has morphed more and more into the ability to not only identify the at risk populations, what we're seeing with AI for faster drug development, creating targeted interventions, and improving community health outcomes, whether it's access, whether it's equity, whether that's Preventative care, like it's so good to be able to see how AI can be used for good in areas where it's really about outreaching to the patient, having a healthier community, and creating better outcomes.

that layer of stickiness that's beyond just sick care.

Yeah, exactly. And I only briefly mentioned patient engagement and experience, but this is something that could help personalize patient communications, schedule appointments efficiently, and provide AI driven virtual assistance for queries.

And these are all things that are really important. And that, Maybe easier for some of us, but there are a lot of people who do need that assistance, and this can definitely help that along. And

you've got the ability to customize it from moving beyond simple responses to performing these complex actions autonomously.

And what a boon for all of us, because when you start to integrate it into your day to day, then using it as a patient or a provider does not seem quite as much of a stretch. as it did previously, and that will only continue to exponentially build over the next few months and years. So it's very cool to see this coming out, and we'll be following it closely.

Yeah, absolutely. I'll be interested to see what it does., it has implications for so many different ways in the health system and actually beyond that. So maybe the more we hear about this, the more we can talk about the other possibilities. But yeah, I am on board with magnetic one.

I'm on board too. Maybe we'll get a droid out of it for Christmas. We'll see. Thanks as always for joining me. I love the way we dig into these conversations. And if you are listening, remember to share this podcast with a friend or a colleague, use it as a foundation for daily or weekly discussions on the topics that are relevant to you and the industry.

You can subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening. That's all for now.