Pete D’Addio leverages AI, emerging tech to innovate in cancer care
Pete D’Addio is on a mission to harness the untold power of artificial intelligence and other new technologies to improve cancer care. The director of enterprise technology at Moffitt Cancer Center already has plans for weaving AI into the sophisticated fabric of oncology at Moffitt.
“This is the year of AI,” D’Addio said. “ … How can we harness AI to be an enabler, but an ethical enabler?”
D’Addio explained how a doctor could use AI to better treat a tumor.
“We have all this data about a tumor,” he said. “How can we harness all of that data and all past treatments and do the right things to be able to have AI … bring better … treatments [and] healthcare outcomes for patients?”
D’Addio envisioned feeding data into models to spur better treatments and outcomes. In this way and others, he is imagining the fusion of big data with AI.
Moffitt has an “enormous” amount of data, including imaging data and patient data. D’Addio wondered how his department could de-identify the data and share it with other organizations. By sharing data, his department could monetize it in addition to making it “actionable and usable” outside of Moffitt.
There are some “low-hanging fruit opportunities” for Moffitt’s use of AI too, such as provider note dictation.
“That’s been there for a while,” D’Addio said. “But how do we harness it where it makes it an even better experience for doctors, nurses and clinicians for when they need to do notes? How does AI help that experience where it makes it even easier for doctors?”
AI is far from the only technology D’Addio is focused on. During the COVID era, Moffitt pivoted to virtual health visits. Since then, the cancer center has been enhancing its virtual care practice. It is augmenting not only doctor-patient visits, but virtual rounding and virtual consults as well. As a result, a doctor in one of its facilities would be able to conduct a virtual consult in another facility using bedside technologies and more.
With his employer set to open a new hospital and other facilities shortly, D’Addio is spearheading its technological growth.
“How do I drive a strategy to support the growth of today, continue to support patient care, as well as support the growth of what we’re trying to achieve in the next five to 10 years?,” he asked, explaining his areas of focus.
D’Addio’s visionary leadership stems from years of membership in SIM Tampa Bay. Having joined the professional society in 2018 and its board last January, the group’s secretary has learned from the bay area’s most innovative minds.
He has met equally ambitious IT professionals and shared ideas with them about technology and leadership alike.
“I could go talk to somebody who may be a leader in a completely different organization, but learn quite a bit from them and really have a good collaboration. … For me, SIM has helped to … network with a lot of folks, but also to really understand and appreciate the type of talent that Tampa Bay has and how vibrant it is.”