The Power of Predictive Health: Discern Health’s Approach to Longevity and Equity for the 2024 Digital Health Awards

Recently, Discern Health chief medical and strategy officer, Dr. Paulo Pinho, joined a webinar with fellow finalists for the Digital Health Hub Foundation’s Digital Health Awards. The conversation encompassed the importance of equity and inclusion in healthcare, specifically as it relates to longevity. As a Rising Star finalist in the Longevity category for the 2024 Digital Health Awards, the conversation was an important one, focused on equity-driven predictive models, why radical collaboration is key for innovation, and how empowerment and inclusion can help fuel team morale.

Q: How does Discern Health address equity in healthcare, particularly in underserved populations?

We believe in addressing one of the most critical challenges in healthcare: ensuring that advancements benefit everyone, not just the wealthy. As Dr. Paul Farmer once said, “The idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that is wrong with the world.” This philosophy underpins everything we do at Discern.

We use real-time clinical, social, and geographic data to build predictive models that reflect the realities of all patient populations, especially those facing socioeconomic challenges. For example, our Fall Prediction Model focuses on older adults, a group often impacted by financial and health disparities. By considering decentralized data sources, we safeguard patient privacy while incorporating insights from underserved populations into our models. This ensures that our predictions are not only data-driven but also inclusive, tackling issues such as access and social determinants of health.

Our models don’t just address the financial burden on healthcare systems; they also identify patterns of clinical decline in vulnerable populations, helping to alleviate the strain on patients, caregivers, and medical providers who are often working with limited resources. Each subpopulation has its haves and have-nots and there are career learnings that have helped our team experience this divide firsthand – not knowing this undoubtedly creates model blind spots. We address these blind spots head-on.  By using data from diverse sources, we create models that go beyond surface-level insights to capture the nuances that drive health disparities.

Q: How has Discern Health fostered collaboration to ensure the success of its initiatives?

Success in healthcare isn’t achieved in isolation. Discern Health thrives on radical collaboration, which has been critical to advancing our predictive models. Healthcare truly takes a village, a connected ecosystem of best-of-breed solutions is the way of the future.  Part of working on a great idea is not letting yourself get carried away and believing that the idea can boil the ocean.  You need to know what you’re good at and what you’re not good at.

Discern strives to partner with a wide range of organizations—payers, providers, ACOs, and federal initiatives—to apply our predictive models in various settings. We also collaborate with best of breed tech solutions to do the things we can’t do. These collaborations provide access to diverse datasets that enrich our models, ensuring that they are as effective as possible across different healthcare environments. Our involvement with incubators and academic initiatives, including Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s frailty project, is another example of how collaboration helps us bring innovative solutions to market.

We firmly believe in the power of partnership, recognizing that no one organization can solve the complex challenges of healthcare on its own. Discern’s partnerships allow us to bring our models to a wider range of providers and patients, ultimately benefiting the entire healthcare ecosystem.

Q: How does Discern Health maintain morale and inclusion within the team?

Our team is united by a shared mission to improve health outcomes through predictive modeling. This purpose is our North Star—it keeps our team motivated and aligned with the company’s goals. We believe that every voice matters, and we make a conscious effort to include diverse perspectives from our cross-functional team of healthcare professionals and data scientists.

Fostering a culture of empowerment is key to our success. We provide opportunities for all team members to learn and grow, regardless of their role or seniority. Whether it’s a junior data scientist leading an educational initiative or a terminologist presenting at a national conference, we ensure that every team member feels empowered to contribute to our mission.

Through cross-functional learning opportunities—such as “mini medical schools” and data science reviews—our team members continuously develop their skills while teaching others. This shared learning environment keeps our team engaged, creative, and aligned with our collective goal of transforming healthcare through predictive models.

At Discern Health, we believe that addressing equity, fostering collaboration, and maintaining a strong, inclusive team culture are the keys to improving healthcare outcomes for all. Attending HLTH? Join us on October 21^st at the Digital Health Awards finale where winners will be named!