Esther Kim, head of emerging technologies and solutions at Mass General Brigham
Photo courtesy Mass General Brigham
MobiHealthNews’ Emerging Technologies Series spotlights organizations developing, scaling and investing in innovative healthcare technologies. What follows is Part 7 of a seven-part series:
Esther Kim, head of emerging technologies and solutions at Mass General Brigham, sat down with MobiHealthNews to discuss the promise and practical limits of emerging healthcare tech, including AI-enabled robotics and medical extended reality.
MobiHealthNews: What are some emerging technologies that you get most excited about?
Esther Kim: Right now, I'm getting most excited about robots, very honestly. We are thinking through what the opportunities are. Robots have come through a number of generations, but especially with AI-assisted robotics, I think there's so many opportunities where we can look to leverage really decreasing some of the burden that we have on our employees.
Other health systems are maybe a little bit more mature than us, but we do think that there are opportunities, for example, in transport of specimens, as an example, you know, transports of medications so that folks aren't running around. We also have a very complex matrix of large buildings across our campus and other different opportunities that we can leverage robotics for.
Additionally, with robotics, thinking through, for example, sterilization of equipment post-operatively is another area where there needs to be a certain standard. We know that robots can do that really well. We know that that can also decrease risk, for example, like incidents with sharps. If you're cleaning objects and humans don't have to be involved. We haven't piloted any of this yet. I think this is all just in the excitement and in the concept, but this is definitely an area that we really want to pursue further.
MHN: So you see robots walking around the health system and being able to help with different tasks?
Kim: In some ways, and I think some of the robots are much more simple. They're not like humanoid kind of robots, but I do think there are many opportunities. We did briefly pilot, during COVID actually, the Boston Dynamics dog to see whether or not, for example, you know, limiting contact. So, they could go and press the elevator button if they needed, as an example, or just go back and forth and provide documentation if they needed within, like, an ER flow. At that time, so that was five years ago, it was a very limited use case, and we felt the technology wasn't really great yet. It was very manual, but I think with the evolution of AI and evolution of robotics technology, that there could be more potential there as well.
So, we probably won't have a bunch of robots running around, but we do want the capability of thinking through what can technology and what machines can continue to help decrease, I think, the burden broadly for our employees. There's so much that one can do, and as we think about technology, how do we ensure that we can leverage it appropriately to really help everyone work to the top of their license?
MHN: What technologies are you less excited about that make you nervous?
Kim: I don't think there's anything that makes me nervous. I do think there are, certainly, as we think about new technologies, some of the operational challenges that we have.
So, we've been on this extended reality journey for about five years now. However, it's been limited in terms of the use cases. One, because headsets are really expensive and it's hard to really scale throughout. We've even done a few pilots. We were very excited a year and a half ago when Apple Vision Pro came out; however, they cost almost $3,000, they're extremely heavy, they don't have the interface to easily exchange between one user to another, and so I think sometimes the practicality of some of these new technologies can overcome the excitement. We have leveraged extended reality more in terms of the medical education space. I think there are some opportunities, but we also have to be careful about what truly can scale at the enterprise level, and that's part of my job to say.
That's one of the broader challenges, I think, with an academic medical center from bench to bedside. We have incredible researchers, incredible innovators that continue to think about new opportunities, but can that truly be operationalized? Can that truly be scaled is another question that we continue to struggle with.
MHN: Is there anything else you want to add?
Kim: It's interesting. I will just mention that as we think about new technologies, one thing that maybe sets us apart and it's a little bit different at Mass General Brigham with actually any new technology, we continue to have it be a part of our standard digital process. Because if we want new technologies to be successful, it does have to be incorporated into what is part of the standard processes and ensure that it also doesn't live in a silo.
I think that's also when there are some downfalls to really being successful with new technology to ensure that the broader, I think, leadership understand that this is, of course, an exciting opportunity, but that it is just like with any technology, it goes through our standard processes, it goes through all the appropriate vetting. I always think kind of an operational mind, as you might be able to tell, so ensuring that that is truly a key, and it doesn't live in a silo with any of the new things that we are considering.
