Speaking during a “CEOs Unplugged” session covering the emergence of AI in medical technology at AdvaMed’s The MedTech Conference in San Diego alongside Stryker CEO Kevin Lobo and Hologic CEO Steve MacMillan, McEvoy explained that her experience building up to her role in Insulet’s corner office — including decades at Johnson & Johnson — has primed her for the next wave of innovations in medtech.
“What’s old is new,” McEvoy said. “Many of us started in the world of consumer health, then went a bit into medtech and now we’re here at this intersection. So, the world is indeed small.”
Now, as McEvoy helps Insulet — one of the largest diabetes tech companies in the world — continue to grow as one of the leaders in automated insulin delivery, the role of AI is as prevalent as ever.
“Our product absolutely relies on taking advantage of where the world of AI is going,” McEvoy said. “With Omnipod, you wear it 24/7 and get data 24/7. To make sure that’s cyber-secure and private and can use machine learning and the right, responsible algorithms, data governance is a newer thing that we’ve been standing up.
“We’re very much in a learning mode. It’s also really important that we set it into our product, getting the balance of cultural capabilities as well as innovation and staying apprised of how we stay in the cutting edge of patient care. That’s really the balance we’re trying to strike within the company.”
Using AI to help with productivity
Within Insulet’s workforce, McEvoy said the company is making an effort to enhance productivity by utilizing AI platforms. She mentioned Microsoft CoPilot and Google Gemini as platforms that make a difference.
“[They] help our coders take what used to take weeks on software documentations, take days,” McEvoy said. “Everything is related to skilling up the workforce in the future to improve our productivity.”
Insulet also applied a lot of AI foundational models at its customer care center, McEvoy said. She saw it in action at the company’s Guadalajara, Mexico, facility, observing significant help in the customer experience in terms of call and wait times.
Additionally, the company deploys AI to retain customers. McEvoy said the AI can help intercept patients before they see behavior go a different way with their diabetes technology devices.
“We’re in the business of diabetes, making sure that people can continue to live life,” McEvoy said. “They wear our pod 24/7. Keeping them on pod is really paramount to achieving superior patient outcomes. We’ve deployed some really nice AI models [for that].”
Innovation remains central to Insulet’s use of AI
Ly shared that Insulet has two planned clinical trials for new algorithms for its platforms. One involves SmartAdjust 2.0, the next algorithm update for the Omnipod 5. The other evaluates a fully closed-loop algorithm for the type 2 population.
“People don’t want more knobs to turn,” Ly said. “They want more automation. They want to forget about their diabetes. So, we’re delivering that through more automation. … We’re going to get into clinical, and we’ve got to see whether it works or not.”
McEvoy echoed that, saying the company has to utilize the data collected from Omnipod users to create the most personalized, effective insulin delivery therapy possible.
“How do we take all of this live data that we have access to 24/7 and really start to get after what we’re hearing a lot about, that precision medicine, and really start to create that personalized algorithm?” McEvoy asked. “We are a ways away, but we have some really good strategic partners really helping us modernize that.”
What comes next with AI?
McEvoy stressed that Insulet remains in a learning and experimentation phase with AI. She said the company continues to stand up its AI capabilities with more prioritization while staying thoughtful of continuous capital allocation toward those efforts.
“It’s fun to learn,” she said. “I think the biggest chasm we have to address is more cultural. … There’s a big change around how the younger generation uses AI versus how a more seasoned generation uses AI. I’m going to spend time with my leadership team to see how we orient the culture to embrace the good parts of this and not to be naive to the darker sides. … I want to make sure that we don’t get left behind.”
For Insulet and McEvoy, the belief is that AI can be a useful tool to change behaviors within the diabetes community.
“It’s a force of nature that we’re up against every single day, making a dent in that clinical inertia to really move patient care along,” she said. “We know it takes so many times to start a new habit, so when you’re in the business of healthcare — particularly chronic healthcare — [it’s really about] enabling major disruptions and changes in human behavior is front an center as our holy grail.”
