Why Healthcare Is Totally Unprepared for AI | TowerBrook Advisors President Eric Jon Larsen
US healthcare has more unproductive labor and more unstructured data than any other industry, making it both vulnerable to disruption from generative AI and especially unprepared for it.
That’s the provocative thesis of Eric Larsen, president of TowerBrook Advisors. In this episode, he joins host Steve Kraus to explain why generative AI is unlike any other technology we've seen—and why the $4.9 trillion healthcare sector is uniquely exposed.
We cover:
🧠 What makes GenAI a true “general purpose technology”—and how it compares to past innovations like the microprocessor or the internet
🏥 Why healthcare has failed to adopt past tech shifts, and why this time could be different
🔐 The role of the “F-150”—the 150 leaders who effectively control the US healthcare system
🤝 Whether incumbents or insurgents will win the AI race in healthcare
📉 Why GenAI will reduce labor costs and what that means for health systems that spend over half their budgets on people
🌐 How China is sprinting ahead in deploying medical superintelligence
🧬 What a compressed century of biomedical discovery could look like—and why Larsen believes we’re approaching longevity escape velocity
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About our guests:
Eric Jon Larsen is President of TowerBrook Advisors and a member of the healthcare leadership team at TowerBrook Capital Partners, a $30 billion AUM investment firm based in New York and London. TowerBrook invests across private equity, structured minority, and growth opportunities, with a strong focus on healthcare, partnering with health systems, payers, and other strategics. Notably, TowerBrook is the first mainstream private equity firm to achieve B Corp certification, reflecting its commitment to responsible business practices.
Eric is a nationally recognized healthcare strategist with a global advisory portfolio spanning CEOs and boards of leading healthcare organizations. He spent 25 years at The Advisory Board Company—five of those as President—advancing best practices in healthcare delivery worldwide. Following the firm's 2017 acquisition by Optum (UnitedHealth Group), Eric co-led strategic partnerships and market development efforts at UnitedHealth. He is also a Venture Partner at Thrive Capital and SignalFire, and serves on several digital health boards, including Somatus and Contessa Health. Beyond healthcare, Eric is active in the arts as Chairman of The Washington National Opera and trustee of The Washington Ballet. A Georgetown University graduate, he lives in Washington, D.C., and Miami with his wife and three children.
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The Heart of Healthcare | A Digital Health Podcast
The Heart of Healthcare podcast gets to the heart of our mission in digital health — to massively improve healthcare for all.
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👥 Hosted by digital health veterans Halle Tecco, Michael Esquivel, and Steve Kraus
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