Achieving Better Global Health Through Data Science

Summary

Bloomberg Businessweek

Episode Summary: "Achieving Better Global Health Through Data Science"

Date: September 26, 2025
Hosts: Carol Massar & Tim Stenovec
Guest: Dr. Joan Laravel, Interim Chief Medical Officer at Boston Children's Hospital & Co-founder/President of Virtue Foundation

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Episode Overview

This episode tackles the intersection of data science, artificial intelligence (AI), and global health, especially focusing on how innovative technologies are transforming healthcare delivery—and particularly women's and children's health—around the world. Dr. Joan Laravel shares insights from her extensive work at Boston Children’s Hospital and the Virtue Foundation, discussing the real-world potential (and limitations) of using data-driven tools to close care gaps, mobilize resources, and improve outcomes in underserved regions.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Controversy Over Tylenol and Public Health Messaging

• Segment: Begins at [01:44]

• Discussion:

  • Recent comments from President Trump suggesting a connection between acetaminophen (Tylenol) use in pregnancy and autism have caused confusion and concern among the public.
  • Dr. Laravel noted that while Boston Children’s does not directly treat pregnant women, the hospital is receiving calls from worried families.
  • She highlighted the challenge of misinformation:

    "Creating confusion around this is really a challenge. We're really taking that head on in terms of addressing the questions of families as they're coming to us." – Dr. Joan Laravel [03:16]

• Health Policy Tension:

  • Carol Massar observes growing tension and lack of alignment between government health recommendations and professional medical organizations.

    "It doesn't seem like that's happened in the past where you don't necessarily have the government aligned with these professional organizations." – Carol Massar [03:49]

  • Dr. Laravel underscores the hospital’s focus on delivering safe, effective care amid uncertainty:

    "We just stick to our mission that we are trying to provide the best, safest, most effective care to children that we can." – Dr. Joan Laravel [04:21]

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2. The Promise and Application of AI in Global Health

• Segment: Begins at [04:32]
• Discussion:

  • AI and data science are entering a new era in healthcare, making actionable solutions at scale more feasible than ever before.

    "I think that the tools that are now unlocked, particularly now with gen AI, cloud computing, big data, we're seeing use cases that are much more actionable than before and at an enterprise scale." – Dr. Joan Laravel [04:56]

  • Virtue Foundation's Early Adoption:

    • Dr. Laravel recounts the organization's 15-year journey, beginning with grassroots efforts in Burundi to gather and visualize granular health data.
    • Partnerships with companies like Databricks, DataRobot, and Carto have enabled real-time, geospatial mapping of healthcare resources and needs.
    • The creation of a "marketplace for global health philanthropy":

      "So you can actually see what is happening in health care facilities and what is the work of health care NGOs on the ground in low and middle income countries." – Dr. Joan Laravel [06:47] "We've built an enterprise grade pipeline ... extracting all the data that exists and co-locating it to a geospatial location." [06:47]

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3. Impact and Outcomes: Where We Stand

• Segment: Begins at [07:31]
• Discussion:

  • Current State:

    • The technology is not fully mature, but is rapidly evolving.
    • Data platforms now enable unprecedented visibility—facilitating better team deployment and strategy in real time.

      "For now, I can see this data in ways I couldn't see before. I can send the right teams to the right locations." – Dr. Joan Laravel [07:44]

  • Vision:

    • The primary goal is to bridge the time gap toward universal, quality healthcare by identifying and strategically addressing medical deserts.
    • Outcomes range from increasing life expectancy and improving skills-transfer to lowering infant mortality and boosting systemic efficiency.

      "We personally are using it to send medical and surgical teams to locations where the medical deserts are—the large populations of patients who need that ophthalmologist or that neurosurgeon or that gynecologist." – Dr. Joan Laravel [08:19] "So that the people who are doing it, like myself...know the place they can go to be most useful to the patient and most useful in passing on skill." [08:19]

  • Paradigm Shift in Efficiency:

    • Tim Stanovec notes how these advances are fundamentally changing healthcare response time and scale.

      “It wasn’t so easy to do that before." – Tim Stanovec [09:23]

    • Dr. Laravel agrees, emphasizing the system’s new efficiency and potential for scale.

      "Exactly. This is to create efficiency and scale." – Dr. Joan Laravel [09:34]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Dr. Joan Laravel [04:56]:

  "We're at one of the most exciting times in healthcare...the tools that are now unlocked, particularly now with gen AI, cloud computing, big data, we're seeing use cases that are much more actionable than before and at an enterprise scale."

• Dr. Joan Laravel [06:47]:

  "We are building the marketplace for global health philanthropy."

• Dr. Joan Laravel [07:44]:

  "For now, I can see this data in ways I couldn't see before. I can send the right teams to the right locations."

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Important Timestamps

• [01:44] – Introduction of Women’s Health segment
• [02:21] – Dr. Joan Laravel introduced
• [03:16] – Addressing confusion over Tylenol and autism claims
• [04:32] – Shift to AI and the global health landscape
• [06:43] – Explanation of data platform and partnerships
• [07:31] – Assessing if data leads to better outcomes
• [08:19] – Broader vision for data-driven global health interventions
• [09:23] – How technology has improved efficiency in medical missions
• [09:34] – Emphasis on scale and efficiency

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Conclusion

This episode reveals how bold data science, AI, and multi-sector collaboration are reshaping the landscape of global health, narrowing care gaps, and opening up a world of targeted, efficient intervention. Dr. Joan Laravel’s perspective merges clinical leadership with practical innovation, showing not just what's possible, but what's already underway in improving lives—especially in the world’s most vulnerable communities.

Transcript

[Narrator/Commercial Announcer]

Pinpointing the genetic changes that predispose us to disease. Identifying the roots of mental illness, treating congenital anomalies even before birth. At Boston Children's Hospital, we're investing in children's health today to ensure the well being of adults tomorrow. As home to the world's largest pediatric research enterprise and more than 260 specialty programs, Boston Children's is where the world comes for answers. The learn [e-mail] A great presentation can.

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[Carol Massar]

You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Massar and Tim Stanovec on Bloomberg Radio.

[Tim Stanovec]

It is time now for the Bloomberg Business Week Women's Health segment, where we focus on key issues in developing technologies impacting the present and future of women's health around the world. And I gotta say, the world of women's health was rocked a little bit this past week.

[Carol Massar]

Yeah. President Trump created a potentially existential crisis for Ken View, the maker of Tylenol, with just three words about the company's most recognized product. He said, don't take it. The Trump administration is linking Tylenol's active ingredient, acetaminophen, to autism and urging pregnant women. Carol. To largely avoid the medication. Although decades of scientific research have yet to identify a single case cause, excuse me, for autism.

[Tim Stanovec]

All right, let's get more, though, into the bigger, broader picture of Women's Health. Dr. Joan Laravel is with us. Interim chief medical officer at Boston Children's Hospital, Director of innovation and outcomes. She's also co founder and president of the NGO Virtue foundation, which is delivering health care in over 25 countries. So she has a big global perspective here. She joins us here in studio. Dr. La Roverte, so nice to have you here with us. How are you?

[Dr. Joan Laravel]

I'm great, Carol. Thank you so much for having me today.

[Tim Stanovec]

There's a lot we want to talk to. You're in town with everything that's going on. We're looking at global health with global leaders. I do need to ask you, though, about what we got from the administration this week, the Trump administration, the president on pregnant women taking Tylenol. I'm just curious what it's been like. And I know you've been in New York, but what you've been hearing from your team back at Boston Children's when it comes to this news and what they're hearing from patients and what the guidance is that you're giving them.

[Dr. Joan Laravel]

Absolutely, Carol. Well, firstly, at Boston Children's Hospital, we don't take care of pregnant women. It's a children's hospital, but this obviously encompasses women and children. I myself don't take care of autism patients. I'm a pediatric cardiac intensive care specialist. But I am hearing from my clinical colleagues that they are getting calls from families and creating confusion around this is really a challenge. We're really taking that head on in terms of addressing the questions of families as they're coming to us.

[Carol Massar]

One thing that we've noticed about this moment in time is and we spoke to a doctor from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists earlier this week, and there's this tension between what we're hearing from professional organizations as far as recommendations go and what we're hearing from the American government and the hhs. And it doesn't seem like that's happened in the past where you don't necessarily have the government aligned with these professional organizations. I'm just wondering how you're thinking about this moment when it comes to health care.

[Dr. Joan Laravel]

It's a challenging time for health care, and I think we just stick to our mission that we are trying to provide the best, safest, most effective care to children that we can.

[Tim Stanovec]

I am also curious, like we said, you're in town and we've had the benefit of talking to global leaders about some of the big issues that are out there, whether it's climate change. We've talked a lot about AI this week. But looking at health care from a global perspective, I want to bring you into this because you're very involved when it comes to the applications of AI in medicine. Talk to us about kind of where we are today with it and kind of where it can go.

[Dr. Joan Laravel]

Absolutely. I Think we're at one of the most exciting times in healthcare and I've been involved with AI with Virtue foundation for 15 years and never has it been like this moment in time. Because I think that the tools that are now unlocked, particularly now with gen AI, cloud computing, big data, we're seeing use cases that are much more actionable than before and at an enterprise scale.

[Tim Stanovec]

What does that mean, break it down?

[Dr. Joan Laravel]

Well, I can break it down in the context of what we've done with Virtue Foundation. I'm happy to talk about some of the hospital use cases too. But in terms of Virtue Foundation, 15 years ago, Dr. Ebi Allahi, my colleague was in Burundi and he was there caring for patients and had this eureka moment where he's like we should have more granular data on the ground to understand what my eyes see and I should be able to see it here in New York to be able to action on it at that time. People are like what are you talking about? Right? It was very early days and we started that journey of trying to first get the granular data, visualize it geospatially. But I think we've grown up as the technology has grown up and I think key leverage points for us have been partnerships with databricks. Datarobot Carto and I can break down one now if it's helpful.

[Tim Stanovec]

Well, and talk to us about data because especially when it comes to the developing world, if you have data and information, you can assess a situation then figure out what to do. Yes, so, so talk to us a little bit about that. You do have partnerships with databricks as you said. Datarobot Cardo, what are you guys building together?

[Dr. Joan Laravel]

We are building the marketplace for global health philanthropy.

[Narrator/Commercial Announcer]

What does that mean?

[Dr. Joan Laravel]

So you can actually see what is happening in health care facilities and what is the work of health care NGOs on the ground in low and middle income countries. And we've used AI in particular, we've built an enterprise grade pipeline with databricks where we're extracting all the data that exists and co locating it to a geospatial location. You're a hospital, Kualubu Hospital in Ghana. Everything that's out there, information wise is co located geospatially to that organization. You create this vector graph, this knowledge graph with all these mini knowledge graphs that tell you what's happening in each of those facilities.

[Carol Massar]

At the end of the day this is all about improving outcomes and it's helping people live longer, healthier, happier lives. Do we have the data yet that shows that this moment in technology is leading to better outcomes.

[Dr. Joan Laravel]

I think that's what we're on the cusp of. Would I say that we're there and it's all completely functional and moving? No. But that is the direction of travel, and those are the tools that are enabling us to do so. For now, I can see this data in ways I couldn't see before. I can send the right teams to the right locations.

[Carol Massar]

What are the better outcomes that you envision? I mean, are we talking about longer life expectancy in the developing and the developed world? Are we talking about lower infant mortality? Like, what are we talking about here?

[Dr. Joan Laravel]

I think we're talking about all of it. I think eventually economic development will solve some of our problems. But in that window in time, how can we shorten the time it takes till we get really more developed health care in these markets? We feel that this VF Match platform, this actionable data initiative, will allow you to be able to use this information, whether you're a health care ngo, whether you're a government in a country, whether you're even a corporation, to determine what you can build to accelerate progress. We personally are using it to send medical and surgical teams to locations where the medical deserts are the large populations of patients who need that ophthalmologist or that neurosurgeon or that gynecologist. And so that the people who are doing it, like myself, there are many in global health who are doing this work know the place they can go to be most useful to the patient and most useful in passing on skill.

[Tim Stanovec]

And just 10 seconds. So we didn't really. It wasn't so easy to do that before.

[Dr. Joan Laravel]

No, no.

[Tim Stanovec]

And it was probably not. Unless somebody brought your attention to it.

[Dr. Joan Laravel]

Yes.

[Tim Stanovec]

Or you got wind of it and then. But that's not the most productive way of doing it.

[Dr. Joan Laravel]

Exactly. This is to create efficiency and scale.

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[Tim Stanovec]

Gotta leave it there. Dr. Laura Ver, thank you so much.

[Dr. Joan Laravel]

Thank you.

[Tim Stanovec]

Really appreciate it. Interim chief medical officer at Boston Children's Hospital, Director of innovation and outcomes, and as we said, co founder and president of the Virtue Foundation.

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[Dr. Joan Laravel]

Ugh.

[Tim Stanovec]

Come on. Why is this taking so long?

[Dr. Joan Laravel]

This thing is ancient.

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