Welcome to Global Good’s Impact Interview series. This series is designed to tell the stories of the people and companies working to drive impact in society.
In this edition, we speak with Destin Harrison, Enterprise Data & Analytics Supervisor at CoxHealth and founder of Harrison Data Excellence — about leading AI and data engineering inside a major healthcare system, the ethical questions that come with deploying emerging technology in clinical settings, and why the most important decisions about AI are often the ones to slow down rather than speed up.
Can you introduce yourself and tell us about your role?
Thank you for this opportunity! I’m Destin Harrison, a Chartered IT Professional, author, speaker, and leader of an AI and data engineering team at a healthcare provider in Missouri. In my role, I lead a team responsible for data engineering, AI initiatives, and automation, enabling the hospital to improve the health of the communities it serves. I also lead Harrison Data Excellence, which exists to help provide insights on the ethical and sustainable use of AI and other emerging technologies.
How did your company come about, and what was the motivation behind it?
As a leader in the data and AI space, I noticed that there was a lot of ambiguity about how and when to use emerging technologies in order to actually create a positive impact. I started giving talks at local companies and universities, writing articles, and creating resources to help inform tech leaders and tech users alike. The ultimate goal is to make sure that those involved in world-shaping choices today are able to make the most well-informed decisions possible.
Can you describe your company’s mission and values?
New technology is difficult to understand, even more difficult to use, and most difficult to use well. Harrison Data Excellence exists to provide actionable insights into emerging technology, to empower the next generation of tech leaders and tech users, to bridge the gap between complex innovation and ethical implementation, and to ensure that technological excellence serves the greater good.
What are some of the most pressing social issues that your company is working to address through its technology?
AI is naturally fraught with ethical issues: bias, cognitive offload, accountability, sustainability, and resource consumption, just to name a few. Ensuring that the usage of tech is held to the highest possible standard prevents significant issues in the short term and builds positive habits in the long term. The decisions made about how new technology like AI is used today will inevitably shape the world that future generations adopt soon after.
How does your company measure the impact of its work in creating positive change?
In the office, within the healthcare system, positive change is measured by patient outcomes: reducing wait times, ensuring proper care is available, creating the best possible treatments for each individual, and ultimately improving the health of those who rely on us.
When it comes to sharing pivotal knowledge and resources, success comes down to how well tech leaders and users are equipped to make informed decisions, and what decisions they subsequently make. Equipping a university, hospital, or small startup to make ethical and responsible decisions is a victory in itself, but seeing those decisions create a positive impact in the long term is even better.
In your opinion, what impact will technology have in creating a better future?
Recent advances in technology present both imminent risk and substantial potential to enact positive change. I believe that the proper use of emerging technology today is key to ending massively impactful crises, if applied properly.
AI in healthcare, for example, presents great potential for personalised medicine, early detection of illness, and proactive health maintenance rather than reactive response to health crises. However, I believe the responsibility falls to tech leaders like myself to make the right decisions today, so that we are able to create long-term benefit as future generations are born into a world where this technology exists. We cannot close Pandora’s box, but we can make responsible use of its contents.
What advice do you have for other companies looking to use tech for good and positively impact the world?
It’s all too easy to get caught up in the latest and greatest, pursuing innovation rather than positive change. However, I believe that most companies would rather be known for one positive contribution to the world than ten early-to-market blunders.
When it comes to technology as powerful as AI, I believe the canonical “move fast and break things” motto is sorely misplaced. I always encourage tech leaders to slow down, ask the proper questions, consider ethical implications, think through irreversible actions, and ensure that decisions are well-informed before they are made.
