Welcome to Jim's Blog!

# TODO - Insert zany preamble to capture the readers attention and make them read the rest of the blog

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Well, after reading that enthralling and thought-provoking tale, allow me to tell you a bit about myself. I’m James, a tech professional currently based in Portland, OR. I actually grew up in North Carolina, and moved out here just about 6 months ago, so I’m currently navigating my very first PNW fall/winter. It’s exactly as dark and rainy as I was told it would be, but the Thai food and nature access just about make up for it.

I’ve been interested in technology since I was a kid (the 2008 Iron Man movie basically inspired my entire college/major decision process) but my interest in software didn’t pick up until later in my undergraduate education. At that point, I was nearing completion of my degree in Biomedical Engineering, so I split the difference and took a job at Epic Systems - the massive Electronic Health Records company based in Madison, WI. Since then, I’ve left Epic and the Badger State behind, but I’ve continued to spend my career delivering software to scientists and healthcare analysts to make their lives easier and improve the pace and quality of their work, whether it’s developing a novel drug, improving patient outcomes, or unlocking insights into the state of the American healthcare system. Currently, I’m a Solutions Architect at Komodo Health, where our customers do all three of those things.

As a Solutions Architect, my job is to understand the problems our customers are trying to solve and identify how we can use the tools at our disposal to solve those problems. At Komodo, that means using our vast stores of real-world data, and the analysis platforms we’ve built on top of that data (including Marmot - our new healthcare focussed AI co-pilot) to enable customers to make data-driven decisions that would be impossible without the quantity and quality of data we offer. With the insights our customers gather through our tools and data, they can identify gaps in the healthcare system and develop drugs to fight diseases that would otherwise go untreated (Komodo). Researchers can analyze trends at the population level to make observations that would otherwise go undetected (Komodo). Reporters and watchdogs can look behind the curtain and hold insurers accountable (New York Times). We do a lot of great work, and I take a lot of pride in the role I play in that work.

All that said, this blog is less about what I do in my 9-5, and more about what I do in my 5-9. As is probably the case for anyone reading this, the world around us is being transformed by Artificial intelligence, in ways both positive and negative. On one hand, AI voice scams are on the rise (BECU). On the other hand, cash-strapped organizations like schools and non-profits can use AI to make efficiency gains that could make a world of difference (Bridgespan), and AI detection models can be applied to a huge number of areas, ranging from Alzheimer’s to wildfires (Indiana University, NOAA). And of course, many of us are familiar with the way AI can make our work lives better (or worse, depending on how it’s applied). Accordingly, I’ve set out to try to wrap my head around this new and emerging world. This blog will track my learning - generally through projects I’ll work on, but also through some of the resources I reference along the way.

In my next article, I’ll talk about what my first project is, where I’m starting out from, and what I’ve learned in order to get to this point. See you there!