Studio Stories

Pioneering Precision: AI’s Role in Transforming Patient Care

01/14/2025

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Moon’s Chief Creative Officer, Mike Peng, leading a Fireside Chat with Dr. Allan Conway.

A part of Moon Creative Lab’s Speaker Series events, AI in Healthcare: Pioneering Precision was an insightful talk on how artificial intelligence is emerging in the healthcare industry.

Dr. Allan Conway, Clinical Associate Professor of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery, UCSF and MarinHealth, was the first surgeon to use AI technology in a vascular surgical procedure for aneurysm repair. In a Fireside Chat with Moon’s Chief Creative Officer, Mike Peng, he shared his insights on how AI enables medical professionals to perform complex procedures with greater precision, and how AI can improve healthcare and patient outcomes.

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Opportunities for AI in Healthcare
Allan discussed how AI can play a significant part in making healthcare professionals’ jobs much more efficient. By optimizing workflow and reducing the daily tasks that are part of medical professionals’ jobs, such as charting patient data and documentation, healthcare can become more accessible. More efficient operations and automated tasks would allow doctors to see more patients and spend more time interacting with them than on paperwork. Relieving some of the administrative burden that doctors face daily could lead to improved patient communication, wider availability of healthcare, and better access to care for underserved communities.

Not only would AI make daily administrative tasks more efficient, but it would also help increase efficiency in the operating room. Allan envisions AI reducing surgery times by 20-30 minutes, which would allow doctors to treat more patients.

 

The Current State of AI
Allan and his team at MarinHealth used Cydar Maps, an AI-powered surgical platform that can create a detailed 3D map of a patient’s anatomy. Such visualization helps with pre-surgical planning, image guidance during surgery, and automated evaluation of surgical outcomes. This technology allows medical teams to better visualize during the surgery, operate with more precision, make better decisions in the operating room, and guide care throughout the patient’s entire journey.

mcl_DrConway_AiInHealthcare_036.jpgImplementation Challenges
Like with any new technology, implementing AI in healthcare has not been immediate. Allan attributed the lack of AI-prevalence to financial hurdles. Most AI technology comes with high subscription costs, and many medical institutions might be reluctant to invest heavily into something that might not have the data to back the technology up — yet. But as AI technology is adopted, Allan is hopeful that as the data grows, so will implementation across the industry. To help overcome the financial hurdles AI technology faces, Allan thinks philanthropy and product champions are key. More philanthropic support from strong believers and evangelists of new technology could be key to ushering more AI in healthcare.


No, AI Will Not Replace Surgeons
With new ideas comes new misconceptions — and Allan addressed those head-on by assuring that AI will not replace surgeons. He emphasized the need to wane expectations about AI capabilities and that, instead of focusing on the fear of AI, the focus should be on enhancing and augmenting the work of medical professionals, not entirely replacing them. 

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Pictured: Moon CEO Kaichi Yokoyama, Dr. Allan Conway, Moon CMO Mary Ann Gallo, and Moon CCO Mike Peng

Moon’s Focus 
Moon is always open and welcoming to new ideas, and one particular focus area of ours is AI in Healthcare. How might we leverage cutting-edge technologies to deliver more personalized and better outcomes for patients around the world? How can we use AI to augment the already-incredible abilities of medical professionals and transform healthcare as we know it? If you have ideas, we’d love to hear them! Chat with us, attend an event, and meet incredible innovators and entrepreneurs by joining our Moon Community here.

Interested in being a featured speaker at Moon or partnering for your event? Reach out to us here

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