How Palantir is helping hospitals with tasks that used to require spreadsheets and whiteboards

Published

2 years ago

June 17, 2023

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The Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S., on Saturday, Nov. 14, 2020. On Sunday, the Ohio Department of Health reported a total of 298,096 cases in Ohio since the pandemic began, leading to 5,722 deaths and 22,265 hospitalizations. Photographer: Dustin Franz/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Earlier this spring, the emergency department at the Cleveland Clinic told Dr. Rita Pappas it had a problem.

The Cleveland Clinic is the largest hospital system in Ohio, but after an influx of patients came in, the emergency department did not believe it could accommodate all the people who would need care.

Pappas, the Cleveland Clinic’s medical director for the admission and transfer center, disagreed.

The Cleveland Clinic was in the midst of trying new AI-powered software from Palantir. The system was predicting that there would be a large number of discharges that day, meaning there would be enough space for all the incoming patients.

Pappas and her team convinced the emergency department to give Palantir’s platform a chance, and — to her relief — the new system worked.

“It was perfect. We were able to accommodate all the patients, and so everyone was cheering, they were so happy,” Pappas, who also practices clinically as a pediatric hospitalist, told CNBC in an interview. “Everyone got really excited. I was very excited because I do not want to have the emergency department yelling at me.”

Ordinarily, Pappas said managing patient flow in a similar scenario would require constant communication, every hour throughout the night. But by accurately predicting patient discharges, Palantir’s system saved Pappas, her team and the emergency department a lot of time and effort.

Palantir partnered with two health-care systems, Cleveland Clinic and Tampa General Hospital in Florida, during the summer of 2021 to develop software called Palantir for Hospital Operations. Now, just two years later, the company says its hospital-operations platform accounts for around 10% of its commercial revenue in the U.S.

The software translates complex data into digestible information that health-care workers can use to guide their decision-making and resource allocation. It can be used to generate real-time and predictive insights into areas like staffing, wait times and hospital-bed assignments.

Shyam Sankar, the company’s chief technology officer, said he thinks Palantir for Hospital Operations is just getting started.

“I’m so excited that we’re at 13% of beds in the U.S., but you know, like 90% of the work is in front of us here,” Sankar told CNBC in an interview.

A race against the clock

Palantir specializes in data analytics, and shares of the company are up around 150% so far this year as bullish AI investors are buying into its tech offerings. The company reported its first quarterly net profit for Q4 2022, and Palantir CEO Alex Karp said in a May letter to shareholders that the company expects to remain profitable “each quarter through the end of the year,” and that demand for its new Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP) is “without precedent.”

The company is perhaps best known for its work with the U.S. government’s defense and intelligence agencies, but despite its high-profile customers in government, Sankar said Palantir works to tackle hard challenges across a variety of industries, including health care — a field that experts widely believe is in crisis.

Hospital360 within Palantir for Hospital Operations

Palantir

Nurses and physicians are experiencing high levels of burnout, and staffing shortages across the country have made it difficult for hospital systems to keep up with patient demand. These challenges were magnified by the Covid pandemic, as nearly 63% of physicians reported symptoms of burnout in 2021, up from 38% the prior year, according to a recent study co-authored by the American Medical Association.

Companies across the medical and technology fields have been working to build solutions that could bring health-care workers some relief. But unless the new platforms, tools and services can be easily integrated into workflows, physicians and nurses often find they can be more trouble than they’re worth.

“If you don’t build it in the workflow of the user, it actually doesn’t get used, it just sits on the shelf,” Dr. Peggy Duggan, executive vice president and chief medical officer of Tampa General, told CNBC in an interview.

As such, in the summer of 2021, a team of four Palantir employees set out to create a meaningful solution that health-care workers at Cleveland Clinic and Tampa General could actually use. It was a daunting challenge, and there was an additional catch: They were only given a matter of weeks to build something worthwhile.

Drew Goldstein and Jeremy David, co-heads of health care at Palantir

Courtesy: Palantir

Drew Goldstein and Jeremy David led Palantir’s team of four, and they now run its fast-growing U.S. commercial health-care team. The pair said they were given around 12 weeks to build a solution for Tampa General, and their work in Florida was already underway when the Cleveland Clinic’s chief information officer called to give them an even shorter timeline: eight weeks.

“For better or for worse, I’m quite hopeful and optimistic,” David said in an interview with CNBC. “I was like, ‘Eight weeks? We can get something live in three.'”

David, Goldstein and their two teammates took an intense, hands-on approach to building their hospital-operations software.

They spent their allotted time on the ground in the hospitals in both Ohio and Florida, shadowing doctors and nurses during their shifts, even overnight. They asked questions about existing workflows and tried to grasp the biggest pain points for each organization, an experience Goldstein said was both “overwhelming” and “exciting.”

To their surprise, the Palantir team learned that hospital staff were carrying out some of their operations by manually entering data into spreadsheets and configuring information like scheduling on paper and whiteboards.

The Palantir team also became acquainted with whiteboards, as Goldstein said much of their early efforts in Ohio were spent trying to draw out existing workflows with hospital-operations leadership.

“It was so foundational in our understanding of what these problems could look like,” Goldstein told CNBC in an interview.

At the Cleveland Clinic, the Palantir team initially focused on addressing challenges related to patient flow, particularly around accelerating aspects of the patient-discharge process, while they trained their focus on clinical-staffing allocation at Tampa General. But before long, Goldstein said it became clear the health systems shared both of those problems.

“So then, instead of just building these completely separately, we started to think about, like, what should the product look like to be able to solve this?” Goldstein said.

When their work was done in Florida and Ohio, Palantir’s team had what amounted to an early iteration of Palantir for Hospital Operations. David said it was the product of several 100-hour weeks where he and Goldstein, who have become good friends, often lived in adjoining hotel rooms.

“Drew didn’t like that,” David joked. “[I’d] knock on his door, ‘Good morning, Sunshine!'”

David said the team’s hands-on approach was essential in order to understand what support health-care workers truly needed.

“If you treat the nurses and patients like widgets, you’re going to lose,” David said. “For about two weeks, we tried to treat them like widgets, and we lost.”

The group presented their work to hospital leadership through a series of demos and testimonials, and David said it was clear the health systems believed Palantir had created something special.

Their next challenge, Goldstein said, was to keep building and execute on a broader, longer-term vision.

A new tool for hospital staff: ‘They love it’

The Cleveland Clinic officially launched Palantir’s platform in March.

Pappas said the hospital system had considered working with other companies, but that the Palantir team stood out because they truly listened to the staff’s needs.

She said the Cleveland Clinic wanted help building a system that could optimize the number of patients staff could see, while also ensuring that they were all being cared for safely. Pappas said Palantir’s engineers not only took their concerns seriously but got psyched when they were able to build successful solutions.

“It sounds silly, but everyone had this, ‘Oh, we did it!’ moment,” she said.

As the medical director for the admission and transfer center, Pappas works with a bed-management team to place patients throughout the hospital. Prior to using Palantir’s platform, they relied on Microsoft Teams and Excel spreadsheets to carry out their operations.

Now, Pappas said they have easy access to both real-time and predictive insights on the number of patients coming into the hospital’s operating rooms, emergency department and as direct admissions, which are patients who receive treatments like chemotherapy.

“The system is actually learning and taking information, and it’s very accurate,” she said. “It serves as a command center so that we can see very clearly how many patients we are going to be caring for every day.”

Since the official launch of Palantir’s software on March 1, the Cleveland Clinic main campus has been able to accept an 8% increase in patient transfers from other hospitals.

In fact, Palantir’s system proved to be so useful that Pappas said some members of her team expressed fear that they were going to be replaced by it. Once she reassured them that the platform is just meant to serve as a tool, she said they’ve grown to love it.

“They’ve developed a trust in the system,” Pappas said. “People in health care are kind of conservative, you know, don’t like change, and so the fact that they trusted and are using it now really just says to us that it’s a successful venture for us.”

Schedule review within Palantir for Hospital Operations

Palantir

Duggan said staff at Tampa General, particularly nurses, are also very fond of Palantir’s technology. She acknowledged that it is still the “early days” of the partnership, but the software company passed its first test by building a staffing model that nursing managers can use to find team members who are available for shifts. Duggan said this process is often conducted manually, so automating it has saved Tampa General’s staff significant time and energy.

“The nurse leaders love it,” she said. “It’s right in their workflow; it makes their day easier and they love it. They love all that technology support.”

Duggan said once the Palantir team managed to solve the staffing problem, it was clear the company would be able to use its software to tackle challenges across several different areas of the hospital. Palantir is now working on a series of projects at Tampa General, and Duggan said she is particularly impressed by how it is helping clinicians handle cases of sepsis, the No. 1 killer in hospitals nationwide.

Sepsis occurs when a patient’s body has an extreme response to an infection. Once diagnosed, Duggan said patients have to stay on a pathway of treatment over the next few days in order to increase chances of survival.

Palantir built a monitoring system for the sepsis pathway at Tampa General, which helps the clinicians ensure the patients are getting the care they need. She said it can also help provide insights as to why a patient might not have received antibiotics, for instance.

Duggan said it is new but exciting territory, and it has allowed Tampa General to identify variability in some of its most important work.

“Our work in sepsis definitely has decreased early mortality by about half, and so that’s real lifesaving,” she said. “I tell people that it’s people’s mothers, sisters, cousins, right? That’s real lifesaving for sure.”

Meanwhile, Palantir’s commercial health-care team has ballooned from four employees to more than 50, and Goldstein said the rapid growth has been unexpectedly challenging to learn to manage.

But as they plan to partner with more health systems, expand their own team and continue to refine their technology in the years ahead, David said the potential for innovation makes for a truly exciting time.

“I think we really solved this core problem, where it’s like, OK, a health system actually can deploy this really transformative platform technology to the front lines of health care,” he said. “There’s this old trope that’s like banks and hospitals don’t adopt technology — that is definitively not true anymore.”

Technology

Bitcoin to hit $250,000 this year and Magnificent 7 to adopt stablecoins, Cardano founder predicts

Published

2 hours ago

April 10, 2025

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Bitcoin to hit 0,000 this year and Magnificent 7 to adopt stablecoins, Cardano founder predicts

Crypto to benefit in the long term from geopolitical conflict, says IOHK co-founder

Bitcoin could hit $250,000 as early as this year with technology giants such as Microsoft and Apple entering the cryptocurrency space, industry veteran and founder of the Cardano blockchain Charles Hoskinson told CNBC.

Crypto markets have been hammered amid a sell-off of risk assets stoked by U.S. President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal tariffs” on countries across the world. Bitcoin traded below the $77,000 mark on over the last week, but on Wednesday spiked above $82,000 as Trump dropped levies to 10% for 90 days for most countries to allow for trade negotiations.

Sill, bitcoin has fallen far from its more than $100,000 record high hit in January — even as industry players remain bullish on the cryptocurrency.

Hoskinson, who has been in the crypto industry for more than a decade and helped co-found the Ethereum blockchain, said he believes bitcoin will reach $250,000 “by the end of this year or next year.”

“What will happen is that the tariff stuff will be a dud, and that people will realize that the world is willing to negotiate, and it’s really just U.S. versus China. And a lot of people will side with us. Some people side with China,” Hoskinson told CNBC during a recording of the “Beyond The Valley” podcast on Tuesday.

“The markets will stabilize a little bit, and they’ll get used to the new normal, and then the Fed[eral Reserve] will lower interest rates, and then you’ll have a lot of fast, cheap money, and then it’ll pour into crypto.”

Hoskinson, who is also the founder of Input Output, or IOHK, made his comments before Trump’s temporary pause on full-blown reciprocal tariffs.

Hoskinson highlighted a number of reasons that could drive bitcoin to that price.

First, he pointed to there currently being more users of cryptocurrencies. Owners of cryptocurrencies rose 13% year-on-year in 2024 to 659 million people, according to Crypto.com.

Secondly, Hoskinson said that the geopolitical situation is moving from a “rules-based international order to a great powers conflict.”

“If Russia wants to invade Ukraine, it invades Ukraine. If China wants to invade Taiwan, it’s going to do that. So treaties don’t really work so well, and global business doesn’t really work so well there. So your only option for globalization is crypto,” Hoskinson said.

Ripple president says crypto 'here to stay' regardless of short-term volatility

Third, Hoskinson said that there will be new stablecoin legislation and the Digital Asset Market Structure and Investor Protection Act will also likely get passed, which will help the crypto market. The law aims to address the regulatory treatment of various digital assets. Both bills are currently working their way through the U.S. legislative process.

Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency pegged to a fiat currency but backed with real-world assets.

The stablecoin bill in particular could lead the “Magnificent 7” companies to begin adopting the assets too, according to Hoskinson. The Magnificent 7 is a group of seven mega-cap technology stocks including Apple, Microsoft and Amazon. Stablecoins could be used by these technology giants to pay workers in different countries or even facilitate small transactions on their platforms which ordinarily would be expensive on existing payments rail, Hoskinson said. Stablecoins can be sent quickly from one wallet to another across the world.

Hoskinson said the crypto market will be “reignited” by these factors, in particular the passing of the regulation and the adoption of stablecoins by the Magnificent 7.

“[The crypto market] will stall for probably the next three to five months, and then you’ll have a huge wave of speculative interest come, probably [in] August or September, into the markets, and that’ll carry through probably another six to 12 month,” Hoskinson said.

– The conversation with Charles Hoskinson will be published in full as an episode of CNBC’s Beyond The Valley podcast soon.

Technology

Amazon delays first Kuiper internet satellite launch due to bad weather

Published

8 hours ago

April 10, 2025

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Amazon delays first Kuiper internet satellite launch due to bad weather

United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying the first two demonstration satellites for Amazon’s Project Kuiper broadband internet constellation stands ready for launch on pad 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on October 5, 2023 in Cape Canaveral, Florida, United States.

Paul Hennessey | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

Amazon delayed the launch of its Kuiper internet satellites due to poor weather conditions on Wednesday night.

A United Launch Alliance rocket carrying 27 Kuiper satellites was set to lift off from a launchpad in Cape Canaveral, Florida, but ULA said it couldn’t continue countdown operations as “stubborn cumulus clouds” and heavy winds pushed the launch outside its planned window, according to a livestream.

“Weather is observed and forecast NO GO for liftoff within the remaining launch window at Cape Canaveral this evening,” ULA said. The company said it will provide a new launch date at a later point.

Six years ago Amazon unveiled its plans to build a constellation of internet satellites in low Earth orbit, a region of space that’s within 1,200 miles of Earth’s surface. The company aims to sell high-speed, low-latency internet to consumers, corporations and governments, offering connections through square-shaped terminals. Commercial service is expected to come online later this year.

Amazon is racing to compete with SpaceX’s Starlink, the dominant player in the market, with 8,000 satellites already up in the air. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk now has a central role in the White House as one of President Donald Trump’s top advisors, overseeing the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. Since Musk took on the role, Starlink’s footprint has increased within the federal government.

The clock is ticking for Amazon to meet a deadline set by the Federal Communications Commission, which requires the company to have half of its total constellation, or 1,618 satellites, up in the air by July 2026.

Once it completes its first launch, Amazon expects to ramp up its production, processing and deployment rates. It’s begun prepping satellites for its next mission, which will also hitch a ride on one of ULA’s Atlas V rockets.

WATCH: Amazon launches Project Kuiper

Amazon launches Project Kuiper prototypes to low orbit as tech giant enters satellite internet race

Technology

Google reverses policy telling workers not to discuss DOJ antitrust case

Published

13 hours ago

April 9, 2025

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Google reverses policy telling workers not to discuss DOJ antitrust case

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai meets with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in Warsaw, Poland, on February 13, 2025.

Klaudia Radecka | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Google has reversed a policy forbidding employees from discussing its antitrust woes following a settlement with workers.

The company sent a notice to U.S. employees last week saying it rescinded “the rule requesting that workers refrain from commenting internally or externally about the on-going antitrust lawsuit filed against Google by the U.S. Department of Justice,” according to correspondence viewed by CNBC.

Google settled with the Alphabet Workers Union, which represents company employees and contractors, according to the U.S. National Labor Relations Board, or NLRB. The settlement and policy reversal mark a major victory for Google staffers, who have seen increased censorship on subjects such as politics, litigation and defense contracts by the search giant since 2019.

The U.S. Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google in 2020, alleging that the company has kept its share of the general search market by creating strong barriers to entry and a feedback loop that sustained its dominance.

Google said it “will not announce or maintain overbroad rules or policies that restrict your right to comment, internally or externally, about whether and/or how the on-going antitrust lawsuit filed against Google by the U.S. Department of Justice may impact your terms and conditions of employment,” according to last week’s notice.

The policy change was first reported by The New York Times.

The reversal comes as Google and the DOJ prepare to return to the courtroom for their scheduled remedies trial on April 21. The DOJ has said it is considering structural remedies, including breaking up Google’s Chrome web browser, which it argues gives Google an unfair advantage in the search market.

A U.S. District Court judge ruled in August that Google illegally held a monopoly in the search market. Google said it would appeal the decision. The DOJ doubled down on its calls for a breakup in a March filing.

Following the August ruling, Kent Walker, Google’s president of global affairs, sent a companywide email directing employees to “refrain from commenting on this case, both internally and externally.”

Shortly after, the Alphabet Workers Union filed an unfair labor practice charge against Google with the NLRB. The union alleged that Walker’s message was an “overly broad directive” and said that a breakup could impact workers’ roles. The NLRB in March ruled that Google must allow workers to speak on such topics.

Google’s settlement states that the National Labor Relations Act gives employees the right to form, join or assist a union. It notes that Google is not rescinding its prior clarification that states employees may not speak on behalf of Google on this matter without approval from the company. The settlement also adds that Google will not interfere with, restrain or coerce workers in the exercise of their rights.

Despite the settlement, spokesperson Courtenay Mencini said Google did not agree with the NLRB’s ruling.

“To avoid lengthy litigation, we agreed to remind employees that they have the right to talk about their employment, as they’ve always been free to and regularly do,” Mencini said in a statement to CNBC.

The settlement by Google comes at a “crucial moment” ahead of the remedies trial, the Alphabet Worker’s Union said Monday.

“We think the potential remedies from this trial could have impact on our wages, working conditions and terms of employment,” said Stephen McMurtry, communications chair of the Alphabet Workers Union-CWA, told CNBC.

WATCH: Google’s cloud strategy amid tariff turmoil