Anthem Blue Cross is collaborating with Stanford to launch the AI for Health Affiliation program, a corporate affiliates program within the Stanford Department of Computer Sciences that will fund research on how AI can improve the efficiency and value of Anthem Blue Cross and its health plans.
Anthem joined the program as its initial founding member, according to a press release. Officials have chosen advancements in patient literacy, patient engagement and healthcare transparency as their most pressing goals.
“We are very pleased to collaborate with Stanford researchers in this work,” Rajeev Ronanki, Anthem, Inc.’s senior vice president and chief digital officer, said in the release. “At Anthem we realize the importance of collaboration in advancing AI technologies to create a better healthcare experience for all Americans. When a consumer or his/her family is sick, understanding insurance and financial liability should be least of their concerns—the focus should be on getting the needed treatment.”
The program, which Ronanki called AIHealth, will reportedly use healthcare data to develop “unbiased, explainable AI algorithms” to improve the delivery of healthcare for Anthem Blue Cross and its affiliated health plans in Colorado, Connecticut, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin.
“AIHealth will build tools and technologies that will help make it easier for the consumer to understand their options and make an informed decision,” Ronanki said.
After graduating from Indiana University-Bloomington with a bachelor’s in journalism, Anicka joined TriMed’s Chicago team in 2017 covering cardiology. Close to her heart is long-form journalism, Pilot G-2 pens, dark chocolate and her dog Harper Lee.