Former Cleveland Clinic CEO Toby Cosgrove on AI, data and joining Google

Cosgrove said hospitals have to up their game to harness emerging technologies.

CLEVELAND — Toby Cosgrove, the former Cleveland Clinic chief executive who is now executive advisor to Google Cloud Healthcare, discussed artificial intelligence, the ongoing data explosion and why he joined Google here at the HIMSS and Cleveland Clinic Patient Experience Summit on Tuesday.

“With every new technology, there’s a good side and there’s a problem; there’s always a downside,” Cosgrove said. “But the upsides way outweigh the risk.”

AI and emerging tech

Acknowledging that healthcare has yet to master cybersecurity, Cosgrove saw big strides in other areas, pointing to artificial intelligence, biometrics and voice technologies as holding considerable potential.

As one example, he noted that...