When Jodi Eddy joined General Electric shortly after earning a degree in computer science from Southern Connecticut State University, she expected that her entire career would unfold at the conglomerate.
Throughout Eddy’s 18-year run at GE, she rotated through nearly every job in IT one could have, ranging from engineering to cybersecurity. And GE saw great potential in her too. Only six months after joining the company, Eddy was approached to join a management leadership program, setting her on the path that would eventually see her become commercial chief information officer of two different GE business units.
But when Eddy was recruited to join medical-device maker Boston Scientific in 2013, she “had a vision that we could transform the IT organization,” says Eddy, who became CIO in 2015 and since 2020, has served as SVP and chief information and digital officer.
When Eddy joined the Massachusetts-based medical-technology company, it was worth about $17 billion and while digital investments were a core focus, the folks in IT were there primarily as order takers. Eddy quickly overhauled IT, completing multiple rounds of restructuring and empowering the team to show that technology should be more critically deployed to address a complex healthcare system.
Eddy says there is now a digital leader who sits on the executive management board of every division, every region, and every business function, so they can work together to deploy tech, rather than being told, “I want this software package. Go implement it for me.”
Today, Boston Scientific is valued at around $110 billion and "treats" over 75 patients globally every minute through its assortment of medical devices such ad pacemakers, catheters, stents, and pain management products. Digital teams have had greater oversight in the development of key projects including an Amazon-ish e-commerce site that’s currently being rolled out. While larger hospital systems are fairly easy for Boston Scientific to sell to, smaller lab offices often lack a fully dedicated IT team. A direct sales channel helps Boston Scientific book more sales.
“We're listening to the strategies of the company and we are thinking of ways that technology can help solve our strategic priorities,” says Eddy.
Along with nearly all her peers, Eddy is keeping a very close eye on generative AI, though she thinks that “it is evolving slower than initially expected.” Eddy cites a recent survey by consulting firm McKinsey that found only 15% of companies see the technology having a meaningful impact on their bottom line. “But there’s such a huge inflow of money that we know the transformation will continue,” she adds.
With an aging population, staffing shortages, and "too much data,” according to Eddy, practitioners are overwhelmed. Generative AI can help consolidate and summarize large medical data sets to make them more productive and spend more time treating patients. AI models are also being used to detect abnormalities like tumors.
Boston Scientific is also bullish about the use of AI to scan and detect cyber incidents and for marketing use cases, helping create assets in mere hours rather than weeks.
But while Boston Scientific experiments with generative AI pilots within the organization, it isn't putting the technology in patient-facing applications. And every decision that does receive input from AI today won't rely on machines for the final say.
"We’re very cautious,” says Eddy. The rule of thumb, she adds, is that AI “never replaces the human. It supports the decision.”
John Kell
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