In his book, AI in Health: A Leader's Guide to Winning in the New Age of Intelligent Health, author Tom Lawry put forward the concept of Intelligent Health Systems. Unlike traditional health systems, Intelligent Health Systems are emerging as entities that leverage data, AI, the cloud, and digital tools to create strategic advantages. And while all health systems may lay claim to doing some of this, there is a difference in the approach taken by traditional health systems compared to those on the path to becoming Intelligent Health Systems.

Both models recognize the inherent power and capability of using data and AI to improve the delivery of health services. The approach of traditional health systems is to use AI and digital tools to improve current service delivery models.

Intelligent Health Systems are taking this to the next level by using the intelligence revolution to rethink their entire delivery model. In essence, they are using AI to efficiently provide health and medical services across all touchpoints, experiences, and channels.

Prior to the pandemic, we were seeing a slow but steady movement of traditional health providers and new entrants toward becoming Intelligent Health Systems. The pandemic came along and became a forcing function. It accelerated our thinking, our willingness to change, and our ability to harness the power of the Intelligence Revolution to do good. Intelligent Health Systems are taking new approaches to overcoming the age-old challenges of improving access, quality, effectiveness, and costs of health services. Going forward with this approach, they become the health systems of choice as the connected health consumer becomes the new norm.

This book is about understanding and applying the things we learned from the pandemic to address other big challenges. It's about leveraging the power of AI and the digital revolution to drive health and healthcare services to improve outcomes and empower clinicians and consumers alike in making things better. The book highlights what we learned from the COVID-19 pandemic in the application of AI and intelligent solutions and how we must apply these lessons to address the other big challenges faced by providers and consumers alike (e.g., chronic diseases, the opioid crisis, mental health, and the dissatisfaction of health consumers today).

While this is not a book about COVID, this book will use the pandemic as a context for how AI and intelligent solutions were used to stem the tide in everything from managing patient care to expediting vaccine development. It will then pivot to the premise that what we did and learned from the pandemic must now be applied to rethinking and redeploying health services to be better at improving quality, effectiveness, and consumer satisfaction.

Tom Lawry serves as National Director of AI for Health & Life Sciences at Microsoft and previously served as Director of Worldwide Health. Tom works with providers, payors and life science organizations in planning & implementing innovative solutions that improve the quality and efficiency of health services delivered around the globe.

Tom focuses on strategies for digital transformation applied to performance optimization including Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and Cognitive Services. He previously served as Director of Organizational Performance for Microsoft's health incubator (Health Solutions Group).
Prior to Microsoft Tom served as a Senior Director at GE Healthcare with global responsibilities for revenue cycle analytics and operational performance solutions.

Lawry was founder and CEO of Verus, a healthcare software company named as one of the Top 100 Fastest Growing Washington Companies for three consecutive years and to the Deloitte Fast 500 Technologies list.

For twelve years Lawry served in various executive management roles in hospitals and integrated delivery networks. He has published numerous articles on using technology to innovate healthcare. His new book is Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare: A Leader's Guide to Winning in the New Age of Intelligent Health Systems.