Current & Breaking News | National & World Updates

America’s healthcare system is notoriously reactive. Could AI shift it from a system that treats illness to one that prevents it? The question framed a panel discussion at the inaugural TIME100 AI Leadership Forum on May 27, which featured Dr. Omar Lateef, the president and CEO of Rush University System for Health; Arianna Huffington, the founder and CEO of Thrive Global; and Neil Lindsay, senior vice president of Amazon Health Services (Amazon One Medical, an Amazon health service, was an event sponsor). The conversation was moderated by TIME senior health correspondent Alice Park.

“If you’re born in Chicago, on Michigan Avenue, where all the bougie stores are, you live 16 years longer than if you’re born around five subway stops west, where our medical center is,” said Lateef. “We call that the death gap.” According to Lateef, such death gaps exist in every big city, driven by differences in access to resources patients need to manage chronic diseases, like hypertension and diabetes. One challenge that AI could help with here is adherence—getting patients to actually take their prescribed medications. “If you just enhance adherence, you can make a bigger difference than if you make a new medication,” he said.

AI systems that communicate with patients, nudging them to take their medications, show promising results. Using a tool called Nuna, Lateef said his institution found that of the first 100 patients who had uncontrolled hypertension, 20 were able to bring it under control. “20% is a huge number in healthcare. If you take 20 patients with uncontrolled hypertension and make it controlled, you decrease strokes, and you decrease heart attacks,” he said.

Huffington was also optimistic about AI’s potential. Her company, Thrive Global, partners with employers and healthcare organizations to create digital interventions that encourage people to adopt healthier habits. Acknowledging broader structural challenges—“I don’t know when incentives will be aligned with payers and providers,” she said—Huffington emphasized that daily behaviors are fundamental to health outcomes, and that AI can help Thrive Global to personalize its guidance, helping patients to take incremental steps on key behaviors. “We work on five foundational ones,” she said: “what we eat, how we sleep, how we manage our stress, how we move and exercise, and how we connect with ourselves and others.”

For Lindsay, whose background is in technology and operations, a consumer-focused mindset has proved to be an advantage in healthcare. In March, Amazon began expanding access to its Health AI assistant across the U.S. “When people are on Amazon, we know quite a large percentage of searchers have what we call a high health intent,” he said. People search for things like a healthy cookbook or a blood pressure cuff. Amazon Prime members now have access to what the company calls direct message care. “Perhaps you have a urinary tract infection, or suspect you do—you can start that conversation and have an asynchronous visit with a provider. And that prescription can be sent anywhere you want,” he said. “If you send it to Amazon, it can be delivered to your house in two or three hours.”

Beyond access and adherence, AI could also help by synthesizing data from wearables and other sources, to present doctors with richer diagnostic information. “Without data, you can’t treat a patient,” said Lateef. “If you can synthesize the ecosystem and the information that exists outside and make it palpable, it will absolutely improve health outcomes for the people who are fortunate enough to have those devices,” he said.

“Information and data are incredibly important,” Huffington said, “but we need to translate information and data into action.” Otherwise, “it’s not enough,” she said. “If information was enough, Apple Health would be winning. They are not winning because they don’t give you action.”

The panel’s participants were also hopeful that AI could reduce the inefficiencies that drive up healthcare costs. “The amount of time we spend on healthcare in this country dealing with inefficiencies is astronomical,” Lateef said. “Healthcare is a human right, and we can make it equitable across this country.”

The TIME100 AI Leadership Forum was presented by Amazon One Medical and Publicis Sapient.