November 9, 2026
What it takes to deliver healthcare innovation at the speed of need
By Ylan Kazi, VP, Clinical Analytics & Data Transformation
There’s a tension at the heart of healthcare innovation right now. Families are paying roughly $28,000 a year for health coverage, and they need relief. Advanced technology offers real potential to help—but moving too fast with people’s healthcare isn’t an option.
At Cambia, we’ve found a way through that tension: a framework that lets us move at the speed members need while building in the safeguards their care demands.
This approach is already making a difference. Preventive screenings are happening weeks sooner. Care gaps are getting caught in real time. And more members are getting a better experience.
A framework built for speed and safety
The key has been adopting a rapid prototyping approach that balances speed with rigor.
The results so far speak for themselves.
One of the first solutions we built using this approach is an AI agent that helps our teams identify gaps in preventive care—things like cancer screenings or diabetes management that can keep small health issues from becoming serious. The impact has been substantial. Analysis that used to take 4-6 weeks now happens in 4-8 hours—a 30-60 times improvement that means members get the care they need weeks sooner.
Following that, we built another agent that analyzes cost and utilization trends, and it’s already proven its value. When a data issue threatened to disrupt care for high-need members, the agent caught it immediately. As a result, hundreds of people representing millions in annual care costs received the interventions they needed.
The preventive care agent took about three months to develop and deploy. The trend analysis agent took six weeks. That acceleration isn’t accidental. Each solution we build creates reusable components and learnings that make the next one faster. The framework we developed for the first assistant became the foundation for the second, third and fourth and beyond. And underpinning it all is the Cambia Data Platform—our unified, organized data foundation that means we’re not starting from scratch each time.
Built on collaboration and trust
But just moving faster doesn’t automatically translate to better results. Sustained innovation requires rethinking how we collaborate—and never losing sight of our responsibility to protect member information and safety.
As our teams have leaned into a rapid prototyping approach, we’ve reshaped the relationship between technology and business teams. Subject matter experts who understand member needs now work alongside engineers from the start, bringing real-world perspective that ensures solutions address actual problems. Through tighter partnership, we can catch issues earlier, course-correct faster and deliver tools that perform in practice, not just on paper.
Equally important is our commitment to doing this responsibly. We weave security, privacy and governance into every stage of development—from initial concept through full deployment. Each solution undergoes rigorous evaluation, with strict access controls, clear usage boundaries and ongoing monitoring to ensure it works as intended and protects what matters most.
Innovating at the speed of need
As Cambia CIO Laurent Rotival said recently, we see technology as a means to an end: helping members access care, make sense of their benefits and navigate the healthcare system with less frustration and better results.
That’s what innovating at the speed of need means: not just building faster, but delivering meaningful improvements to real people who can’t afford to wait.