Keynote Speaker Jim Davis, CEO of Quest Diagnostics, Focuses on Diagnostics, AI in Pathology, and Health Span

On February 28, 2025, the Sloan Healthcare Club held its annual Bioinnovations Conference at the MIT Media Lab. This year’s theme was “From Innovation to Impact: The Changing Face of Healthcare.” The agenda covered a range of topics, including diagnostic testing, preventive medicine, the role of data and artificial intelligence, drug repurposing, and investment strategies. A recurring thread was the need for innovation and a shift in focus toward improving health span rather than simply extending lifespan.

One of the most eagerly anticipated sessions was the keynote talk by Jim Davis, CEO of Quest Diagnostics and an MIT alumnus (SM ’89, SM '92). He spoke on several themes.

• Quest Diagnostics' Role: Davis emphasized the company's massive scale and critical role in healthcare, processing over 220 million requisitions annually. "We serve one-third of all US adults each year. So, we have data on over 65% of the US population. I'd like to say... we know more about the health of the US population than almost any company in the US." The company views its role as encompassing the entire continuum of care, from risk evaluation to therapy monitoring.
• Data-Driven Insights: Quest leverages its vast data to identify nationwide health trends or disease outbreaks. The company can then collaborate with organizations like the CDC and state Departments of Health, allowing them to take swift action.
• Evolution of Diagnostics: Davis also discussed the shift from exploratory surgery to imaging (CT scans) and envisions a future where blood-based diagnostics increasingly replace imaging. "Over time, we believe the power of blood can replace many of the diagnostic imaging instruments currently used for diagnosis."
• Healthcare Crisis in the US: The CEO noted that the US spends more on healthcare per capita than any other country, yet it has relatively poor health outcomes. We spend more per capita than any other country globally, yet we rank somewhere between the 28th and 33rd most healthy countries globally." He attributed this to lifestyle factors, particularly obesity, with 75% of the US population considered overweight or obese.
• Shift to Health Span: The speaker advocates for a focus on "health span" (quality of life) rather than just "lifespan" (longevity), echoing John F. Kennedy's sentiment: "It is not enough for a great nation merely to have added new years to life. Our objective must also be to add new life to those years."

Davis concluded his talk with comments about AI in pathology. He discussed the transformative potential of digital pathology and AI algorithms in assisting pathologists with image analysis, which is revolutionizing the science of pathology. He also described using Gen AI to interpret patient lab results, noting that AI showed less variability than human physicians.

Following the kickoff, presentations and sessions throughout the day expanded on the themes introduced by Davis. As usual, at this conference, the MIT Sloan Healthcare Innovation Prize (SHIP) competition winner was announced at midday. SHIP competition entrants are teams developing health innovations at universities. This year, both the winner and the runner-up were companies from MIT. Another MIT graduate founded the company that won the Audience Choice Award.

The winner of the $25,000 prize was Spheric Bio, a medical device company. MIT News described this company’s personalized heart implants, which “grow inside the body once injected, to fit within the patient’s unique anatomy. This could improve stroke prevention because existing implants are one-size-fits-all devices that can fail to fully block the most at-risk regions, leading to leakages and other complications.”

Nurtur, the runner-up, was co-founded by two Sloan students, Kristen Ellefson, SFMBA ’23, and Bindu Chanagala, SFMBA ’23. Ellefson also earned the MIT Healthcare Certificate. Nurtur has developed an artificial intelligence-powered platform designed to detect and prevent postpartum depression. The Audience Choice Award was given to Merunova, which utilizes AI and MRI diagnostics to enhance the diagnosis and treatment of spinal cord disorders.