[Music] hello and welcome to ey growth bites a conversation series with today's top data Executives to discuss how they're revolutionizing operations within their organizations by harnessing the complete spectrum of data and AI I'm Tracy gusher I lead the America's region for AI and data for Ernst and Young where I have the pleasure of working with some of today's most Innovative data Executives and technologists from around the world to Leverage Innovation and data to unleash the power within their organizations today I'm honored to have Kirby forland senior vice president of data commercialization and advanced analytics at McKesson joining us Kirby thank you so much for joining me today um maybe we'll just Dive Right In Here um first I just let's let's talk a little bit about you um I'd love to just understand how you got your start in data and maybe how it it it landed you to the role that you have today at massen oh well thank you for having me I'm excited to have this uh conversation um you know interestingly enough I didn't really start my my career in data I actually started my career in sales back in the early or late 90s I should say and was kind of a I was in the consumer package good industry and it was the start of like let's get into Data driven selling um and so prior to that was very much about relationships and in cpg or consumer packaged Goods it was about offering premiums which might I'm from Canada so we'd be like Buy 100 cases of hot dogs and you'll get a canoe um I always wasn't I always felt interesting um or struggled with that sort of sales approach and so I asked hey can we take the value of the canoe and actually talk about how that would impact their profitability because I was working with independent retailers that was my first real voy into really thinking about how data could influence decision-making I moved into account management but then quickly realized I love the data world I love influencing decisions with data and so moved into category management um and that sort of started and that's where I just my career started in data and data analytics it's grown so much and it's evolved so much over the the 20 plus years I've been in the industry um how I got my current role was um you know in my past my past lives I've talked a lot about hey we have a lot of valuable data at this company I brought that same mentality to McKesson Med Surge and said hey we have a lot of valuable data at McKesson I think that there's something we could do here and so two years ago we set up a data commercialization business within the med surge or um organization and lo and behold I see this target compile come up on the radar and they were really duplicating some and they' actually uh progressed on some of the use cases we had thought would be really interesting so that uh business closed it got added to my commercialization business um and off we've moved forward in sort of thinking about how what data do we have that we can really help um solve biofarma and biofarma services companies um you know analytics needs with and then how can McKesson use that to Advance Health outcomes for all that's that's amazing and and I think like like so many other um data Executives and and other organizations that have seen the the the power of data and and appreciate the the real value that it can drive um there there also comes the the struggle of having good structured data having good data that that can feed um all of the different ways to accelerate value in an organization so you know in light of everything that's happening today with AI and specifically generative AI I wonder Kirby if if you've got a definition or a way that you would Define how to have data that's AI ready AI ready data yeah well I think AI just to be just in general taking a step back how do you make sure that you are AI ready and I I actually think that there are three real components of being AI ready and and you hit on the first one is data you need to have really great data that is well governed it needs to be accurate reliable it needs to be well labeled it you know depending on privacy it might need to be deidentified but you need to make sure that that data that you recognize that data is the fuel that's going to drive future um AI applications certainly generative AI requires really well organized data I think the other two components of being AI ready are you need to have analytics Talent you need to have the analytics people that are there that can understand and work with the business to understand what are your the critical questions that you're trying to answer and what algorithms make sense uh to be applied to that really great data set that you have and the third piece of it all is technology I mean technology is the massive enabler of this we need to have the processing um Power in order to run models at scale and we need to have the we need to have the technology that enables us to store all of that righted that righted data in a way that enables not only the business analysts but of the of course the data scientists that are leveraging that data at scale yeah and you know I I wonder if we can take it a step forward into the specific industry that you're working in in in now um and talk a little bit about Healthcare and Life Sciences I mean the the the promise of AI and the promise of what data can deliver is just so massive across all different sectors but you know when you really think about where where can um you know where can we societally benefit the most you know our health and wellness has to be top of that list so I wonder if you can talk a little bit about how Ai and and data fueling AI is revolutionizing you know the the healthcare and Life Sciences industry yeah I it it's amazing and it's um this this role I'm working in right now is so exciting because of the vast opportunities to improve health outcomes for all and that is of course um mckesson's Mission but if you look at what's possible if we start to combine all of the data sets that we know about people across the United States or globally we get to understand you know how does different people's genetic makeup what their health their current health situation if we combine all that data we can move to much more personalized medicine what's going to work for that individual based on all of the things that we know about them and we've seen with like people with across the United States or Andor globally I think AI has is an important part of drug discovery and development we can simulate what is going to be the U biological response to different drugs we can understand um and look at their uh you know how how how effective they have been so drug Discovery is a really important one um specific to Med surge we actually partner with a company called uh Swift Diagnostics that's a real room care is that is a is a big issue and certainly in that Home Care setting you have nurses and they're not sure you know how well is this wound um healing they there's a AI technology that takes pictures of wounds and measures the size and understands how well is the treatment plan working over time leveraging images and so there's so much Innovation that's happening leveraging AI from a commercial front which is often what we focus on mess and compile understanding the health care providers and the claims that are happening at those Healthcare Providers really helps them better understand how should I bring my drug to Market Market how should I what what Healthcare Providers really need to know about this new treatment that that's available and that is a big part of what data can do to revolutionize uh the health care industry yeah I I mean there's just the the number of use cases and the ways that um organizations and us as as um as users of the Health Care System right um can benefit from this I think is just just one of the most exciting things that I see across all the sectors that that that I have the privilege of working with Kirby thank you so so much for for joining me in this conversation today we really appreciate your time and I know our listeners will really appreciate the insights that you've shared with us today um it's so important that we're talking with Executives like yourself that are on the ground and driving value for the organizations and the customers that they serve so we couldn't be be more grateful for you spending time with us today um for our listeners um thank you so much for joining us for ey growth bites be sure to check back soon for more conversations with other data Executives like Kirby thank you so much thank you