Anniversary Symposium highlights Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare
The Rapides Foundation celebrated its 30th Anniversary on Wednesday, September 4, with an event that highlighted its unique history and featured a keynote address from CBS Sunday Morning correspondent David Pogue that explored artificial intelligence on the healthcare landscape.
The annual Symposium held at the Holiday Inn Downtown Alexandria began with a “Grantee Showcase,” an open house where 36 current grant recipients displayed their work toward the Foundation’s mission of improving the health status of Central Louisiana.
Over the past 30 years, The Rapides Foundation has awarded 2,000 grants totaling $239.9 million throughout its nine-parish service area of Allen, Avoyelles, Catahoula, Grant, LaSalle, Natchitoches, Rapides, Vernon and Winn parishes.
The annual Symposium recognizes the Foundation’s September 1, 1994, creation and provides information on a topic of importance to the Central Louisiana community. The creation was the result of a joint venture partnership between Rapides Regional Medical Center and HCA.
Today, the Foundation owns 26 percent of the hospital and has grown its assets from $140 million in 1994 to its current $350 million to invest in the community, said Joe Rosier, who has served as President and CEO of the Foundation since its creation. Under Rosier's leadership, the Foundation has continually updated its funding strategies and initiatives to reflect expert advice, issue-specific information and evidence-based research, while holding true to the Foundation's mission to improve the health status of Central Louisiana.
“We have the great fortune of having a resource of $350 million to invest in the community. So, this is an opportunity to showcase some of the work we’re supporting right now,” Rosier said.
To highlight the Foundation’s dual role as part owner of Rapides Regional Medical Center and as a health grantmaker, the 2024 Symposium topic was Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare.
“In 2024, nothing is more confusing, concerning or promising than AI,” Pogue said, before entertaining the 350-member audience with examples of the things artificial intelligence does really well, along with several examples of what artificial intelligence does not do well at all.
Pogue, an Emmy-winning CBS Sunday Morning correspondent and NOVA host, is considered the go-to expert on disruptive tech and science in a fast-changing world.
“AI is not what you see in the movies,” Pogue said. “What Hollywood likes to show you is general artificial intelligence – it doesn’t need to be taught. What we’re talking about here is different. This is ‘narrow AI,’ and that means you teach the software to do one task really, really well.”
That also means that the machine, or the software, ultimately teaches itself; but it’s only as good as the content it’s given.
The concern, Pogue said, is that AI could cause us to lose creative jobs, lose skills such as writing and art, lose the joy that goes along with creativity, question who owns the content created with AI, whether or not you can trust the content AI creates and how AI will affect education.
His advice, however, is, not to panic.
“Every invention in human history has triggered the same hysteria you are feeling right now,” Pogue said. “When steam trains began carrying humans, no one had ever moved at 50 miles per hour,” which led experts to wonder whether the human body could handle such an extreme speed.
AI is a lot like a steam engine, a calculator, or a smart phone, Pogue said. It’s a revolutionary invention that will change the way we work and live.
“Nowhere is AI more promising and more exciting than in healthcare,” Pogue said. “As far as I can tell, you have four major groups involved: the patients, providers, pharmacology companies and payors. And it’s amazing to see the strides all of these have made with AI in just one year.”
For instance, AI has accurately predicted 3D models of 200 million protein structures, which allows pharmaceutical companies to accelerate new drugs faster than ever before. And physicians are using AI to assist in early detection of cancer, Parkinson’s disease, heart disease and more.
“Now, is this the launch of a new creative renaissance? No one has any idea. It has only been one year, so it is way too early to tell,” Pogue said. “Things are changing weekly. But AI plus humans will be better than anything humans can do on our own or anything AI can do alone.”
The opportunity the Foundation has, Rosier said, is discovering how AI can benefit the healthcare community.
“We need to decide what the workforce needs to be able to work in an AI world,” Rosier said. “And from there, help our local workforce develop those skill sets.”
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