Health care is becoming increasingly connected but also increasingly complex. This presents an opportunity and a challenge to organizations like Stanford Health Care. As always, our job is to heal, innovate, and educate. Yet we cannot overlook a key trend—the profound role of big data. It changes everything. By harnessing it, we believe we can create a health system that will go beyond curing disease to preventing it before it strikes, providing precision health care that is predictive, proactive, and patient-centered.

We are using digital tools to enable our physicians to reconnect with patients in ways that are all too uncommon in today’s pressured environment. Our providers now have more opportunities to be empathetic observers, enlightening educators, and engaging counselors. Consider the new virtual care tools we are creating with our Primary Care 2.0 rebuild of care delivery—they are motivating patients toward healthier lifestyles.

Another exciting digital initiative is Stanford’s Apple Heart Study, where our clinical oversight, the Apple Watch, and a telehealth service work in concert to accelerate heart science. We are also working with Google and Duke University to analyze data and look for new predictors of disease.

In numerous ways, digital and data-driven advances are helping to instill high value across all functions and all organizations throughout our enterprise: Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford Health Care, and Stanford Children’s Health.

We are well positioned to use technology. In addition to our proximity to Silicon Valley, Stanford was the incubator for the digital revolution and one of the original sites where artificial intelligence (AI) began. We know how to disrupt industries and create life-saving innovations. We are continuing that tradition, creating the blueprint for a high-tech, high-touch, high-value future.

Lloyd B. Minor, MD
Carl and Elizabeth Naumann Dean of the School of Medicine Professor of Otolaryngology—Head & Neck Surgery