Season 6 - Episode 7 - Wins with Tight Budgets - The Real Path to AI Capability in a Cash Strapped Sector"

Healthcare has some of the highest ambition and the tightest funding for AI of any sector. In this episode Lachlan MacBean walks through how his team built a ten person AI capability without a dedicated AI budget, the partnering model that made it possible, and why they made the call to shut down an early project despite strong results.Key discussion pointsJoining three months before COVID and the operational chaos that followed, and how the crisis proved the value of the analytics functionThe partnering strategy: using clinicians' grant funding and dual academic clinical roles to fund AI work that wouldn't otherwise get a business caseStructuring the team on a part revenue target model, operating internally like a consulting practice within the hospitalA handful of models now running in production, built on a mix of structured data and clinical notesWhy an early AI project got strong results but was shut down: a solution looking for a problem, and a pricing model that made it commercially unsustainable at the timeThe "shark tank" process now used to pressure test new ideas before committing delivery resourcesKeeping teams engaged through all hands meetings, a cross organisation community of practice, and tying work back to patient impact