Our main focus is hyper-automation, AI, and ML, with GenAI as a subset: Rashmi Kumar, SVP and Global CIO, Medtronic

In a recent insightful interaction with Express Computer, Rashmi Kumar, SVP and Global CIO, Medtronic, talks about the company’s ambitious digital transformation journey. Kumar outlines key milestones, such as the evolution of pacemakers into digital products with real-time data capabilities, and highlights the role of AI and ML in enhancing patient care. She discusses Medtronic’s efforts to integrate these technologies within their global IT infrastructure and the importance of leveraging Indian talent through their new IT centre in Hyderabad. Kumar also addresses broader themes, including the need for ongoing talent development, the impact of emerging technologies on healthcare, and the challenge of achieving gender balance in technology leadership.

Can you walk us through some of the key milestones in Medtronic’s digital transformation journey?

When we talk about digitalisation, there are two or three different aspects to consider. One is the transformation of products, such as pacemakers. Pacemakers used to be very physical hardware, typically a tier two or tier three treatment for patients. These devices would be implanted in the body and had time lapses between treatments. Now, pacemakers have become digital products with a foundational technology called CareLink, which allows real-time understanding of interactions between the physical product and the human body. This continuous data transfer provides visibility not only to the providers and doctors but also to caregivers and patients via an app.

There are two aspects to converting a product to a digital one. First, there’s the improved care continuum, as we can now better understand what’s happening, making patients more responsible for their health. This keeps them out of the healthcare system, allowing us to treat more people. Secondly, we gain a better understanding of how patients are interacting with the product, enabling continuous improvement. I often say that digitalisation creates “digital exhaust,” which is data. This data is our goldmine, from which we can harvest more information to improve care.

With automation and data, we can apply AI and machine learning to enhance digitalisation. For example, our AccuRhythm algorithm, integrated with the CareLink system, reduces system noise and false alarms, improving patient care and providing better insights for doctors and providers to create more effective treatment plans.

Another important aspect of digitalisation is the process and operating model transformation. There are two parts to this: the digital customer experience and the digitalisation of core operations. Digital customer experience aims to create a frictionless experience, providing better access to product information, order management, and pricing transparency. More critically, digitalising core operations, such as supply chain and order management, is essential. With the consumerisation and amazonisation of customer experiences, simply having a nice portal is not enough. Customers now expect price and quality transparency, insight into product development phases, and real-time order status updates.

Investing in digital capabilities enhances our operations, automates processes, and generates data, which allows us to understand our customers and their needs better, making our processes more efficient. During COVID-19, many companies struggled with supply chain issues due to inadequate forecasting and lack of insights into supplier and customer demands. Creating a seamless line from suppliers to manufacturing to customers allows us to improve business insights and operations.

Talent is crucial to achieving digitalisation. Despite talk of a slowdown in the tech space, there is still a significant demand for critical skills in hyper-automation, AI, ML, and data analytics. We need people who can drive business outcomes through better use of technology. Additionally, talent is essential in the “follow the sun” model to meet the increasing demands of digital products, ensuring operational efficiency and early problem resolution.

As technologies rapidly evolve, technologists must stay on top of their game. My mom used to say that doctors and lawyers have to study forever, and now I say technologists must continually develop their skills. Focusing on development, inclusivity, and workforce diversity is key to attracting and retaining talent today. If you ask me the key pillar of digitalisation, it’s talent. That’s why I’m here this week, to help create that talent pool as a global company in Hyderabad at MEIC.

Do you feel like you can capitalise on the Indian talents with this new global IT centre in Hyderabad?

We are a global company and our customers are global, if you see any customers as patients are, as well as the providers and hospitals are global. So we need that talent pool globally. And India is our key destination for some of that talent to continue to develop globally.

The other part I’ll add is, you know, there are software companies which are there and the misnomer is that they are more attractive to the talent. But the advantage we have with MEIC in Hyderabad is we do R&D out of here. So we have a lot of product presence here. And when we are able to get the people, the talent in the door here, they’re passionate about really impacting a human life through the products versus just building some software, which then links to the passion of the people and our ability to attract talent here in Hyderabad because of MEIC presence. 

Please mention in what ways you are leveraging the benefits of AI/ML and GenAI.

As GenAI became a buzzword, there was a lot of fanfare around it. But as I’ve mentioned, that’s why we don’t have a GenAI community of practice. Our main focus is on what we call hyper-automation, AI, and ML, with GenAI being a subset of that. We have a core team dedicated to hyper-automation, and within that, we’ve built our centre of excellence across a few organisations. This time, even in IT, we were ahead of the game in building that capability.

We follow a hub and spoke model. Common platforms are built as part of the hub, and then we have spokes in different organisations that can leverage generative AI in various ways. For example, we’ve deployed it in automated visual inspection on factory floors. Our communication and translation teams also benefit from this, as we are a global company and need these capabilities for our products and sites. We’re exploring these areas, as well as compliance and legal use cases, to benefit from the centrally built platform. We’ve named it Medtronic GPT, and it has the capability to connect with various models as they emerge because this is a rapidly evolving field. 

The value lies in finding high-priority use cases that drive ROI, improve customer experience, and enhance operational performance through the use of AI and GenAI. We’re also focusing on initiatives involving large amounts of data and utilising it effectively. 

Regarding data privacy and patient consent in these initiatives, that’s a great question. It plays a significant role. When we started the GenAI or Medtronic GPT Centre of Excellence, the first topic we covered was data privacy. Medtronic was leading in MedTech organisations a couple of years ago when we first published our AI Compass. The AI Compass was then enhanced with the development of the Centre of Excellence around AI and GenAI. This information is publicly available if you want to look it up.

Any conversation or training we conduct around AI starts with AI Compass. Our cross-functional team includes the cyber leader, privacy leader, compliance leaders, data engineers, and technologists who can code AI models. Our big focus has been on data privacy. That’s why, in the hub and spoke model, we constrain people to use a common set of platforms. This approach enables privacy and compliance from the core, rather than us having to enforce it across multiple use cases.

What emerging technologies are you exploring for future healthcare solutions?

It spans across various areas. When we talk about operational excellence and improving our distribution, even in our day-to-day functions, such as our distribution centres and robotics, we enhance our manufacturing efficiencies through what we call operational equipment visibility. All these are futuristic advancements. Though as a platform, they might utilise the same old data engineering capabilities, data lake platforms, cloud, or advanced networks.

We have a lot of factories in Puerto Rico and recently deployed the Starlink system for continued communications, even during hurricane season. This ensures connectivity despite adverse conditions. So, when I talk about emerging technologies, it’s not just about cool things like AI and ML. Technology keeps evolving in every area. For instance, SD-WAN is a seven-year-old concept, but corporate IT is still implementing it to enhance network security and privacy. We continuously explore zero trust technologies to improve our company’s cyber outlook.

Regarding data and analytics platforms, the space is evolving quickly. Leveraging the cloud, where we don’t have to build new infrastructure, our hyperscale partners provide platforms that allow us to focus on what we do well—either operating our company better or building superior products and technologies. Our CareLink platforms for both cardiac and diabetes products are built on hyperscale public clouds to utilise their infrastructure availability and scalability.

When I consider innovation and futuristic technologies, I emphasise to my leaders and team members that there is significant innovation happening even in operational excellence. We achieve better observability and improved monitoring to keep our systems running smoothly. As new technologies emerge, we evaluate and introduce them to the company promptly.

What is your vision for the new IT centre in India and for the company overall?

So, if you look at the overall IT strategy and vision, some of my CIO colleagues talk about it better than me. But look, we, as IT leaders, have to keep everything running. From our 100,000 employees’ PCs to the network in 300 different locations, to our data centres and cloud and everything. While doing that, we have to deliver a lot of digital transformation, which drives business outcomes.

In this process, we have to stay efficient because the need for technology is unlimited. So, we have to do it at the right price point with the right ROIs, grow with the technology as the industry matures, not only on the technology side but also on the med-tech side, and keep us on the cutting edge. But at the end of the day, we keep our customers, our patients, in focus, so that our mission is bigger than anything at Medtronic. And that’s a huge deal for every employee at Medtronic. We serve 74 million customer patients; two patients every second receive Medtronic therapy today. Keeping that in view, all our visions are ultimately aligned with that.

Then we have our mission and strategies around keeping the systems running, operational excellence, investing in future-looking technology, building the talent, and keeping us all secure, managing the risk for the company from a cyber perspective. So, when I looked at that, India becomes a priority hub for us because of the global nature of the company and bringing in talent here, which is amazing. They are very hungry to learn and grow. When they join Medtronic, they quickly align with our passion and mission and continue investing in the location here, spending time with them across my leadership team, giving them exposure to our products and technologies, and making it a valuable experience for them to be here.

Why do you think there is still an imbalance in the gender ratio among technology leaders?

I always say I’m a technologist who is also a female. An interesting part is that I grew up as a metallurgical engineer. My first job was steelmaking in a steel company. Six years later, I moved into technology.

When you ask why, I think there is a decent representation in technology leadership, though I don’t want to underplay the lack of it. I have colleagues who have grown through the ranks and are also technologists who happen to be women doing well in this space. I think the biggest challenge is creating an environment where our talent thrives, giving women engineers today the capabilities and flexibility to grow, succeed, and trust in their abilities.

The point I make to a lot of diverse talents is that they have a seat at the table. Now, it’s my opportunity to grab it and deliver on the opportunity given to me. In India specifically, we need to shift from protecting our female talent to letting them thrive in their environment and giving them the confidence to succeed.

Our parents’ generation in India was the best globally. I grew up in a very small town. I’m originally from Bihar and grew up in Bengal, but I was never told, as a girl growing up, that there was something I couldn’t do because I was a girl. I was always encouraged. Many of us had opportunities through our parents and ecosystem, though there are places where this isn’t the case. We have to start early with parents, guiding them on how to treat their daughters, sisters, and wives to make them successful.

It takes a village. I owe a lot to my family, not only my parents but also my in-laws, who invested in my growth, my husband, and even my children. It takes a lot for men to be successful, and the same is true for women. Creating an environment at work that helps them thrive, giving them inclusive treatment to feel accepted, and making them feel at home that there is nothing they cannot do, is crucial. They just need to understand where they want to go.