As CEO of Hackensack Meridian Health, Garrett runs New Jersey’s largest health network with 17 hospitals, 500 patient care locations, 35,000 team members and 6,500 physicians. He is also a regular participant at the World Economic Forum’s annual gatherings in Davos, Switzerland. While Davos is sometimes dismissed as a playground for purveyors of conventional wisdom, Garrett takes the conference seriously. And now, he is taking it even more seriously as the chair of the WEF’s Health and Healthcare Community, a leadership role that puts him at the center of crucial policy discussions for two years.

Perhaps not surprisingly, artificial intelligence was a major topic throughout the event. “What we decided to do was to look at our four health care priorities through the lens of artificial intelligence,” Garrett said. “The four major pillars, if you will, in terms of the priorities, were increasing access to health care around the globe, closing some of the disparities that exist in terms of health equity issues around the globe as well. The third pillar was improving value, improving outcomes for health and health care. And the fourth was climate change’s impact on health and health care. … How could artificial intelligence help us achieve some of the goals under those four priority areas?”