How I Used AI to Solve a Pharmaceutical Puzzle

Yoona Kim, 44, wanted to help people access health care.

- REBECCA DECZYNSKI

That desire led her down a compounding path-from an early career analyzing health care cost trends, to pharmacy school, and then to a PhD program in health economics. Eventually, she encountered an important, solvable problem: Millions of people are prescribed suboptimal-and often dangerous-medications each year. So in 2017, Kim and CTO Penjit "Boom" Moorhead co-founded Arine. The platform, powered by AI, recommends safer, more effective medication regimens. It's grown by illuminating the shadowy side of the $1 trillion U.S. pharmaceutical industry.

I always saw gaps in the health care system. My mom is a public health nurse, and even when we were kids, she would bring us to volunteer at public health fairs and county clinics. I remember seeing lines of people out the door-so many people who struggled to get health care.

I spent 20 years in health care in different roles. Most of what I did was evaluate the outcomes of different medical interventions. In 2017, everyone was focused on medication adherence and dispensing and delivery solutions for pharmaceuticals. But I realized nobody was focused on the root of the problem: Are patients even taking the right medications in the first place?