Evan Hirsch – Rethinking Big Data, You and Your Health

Evan Hirsch is Staff Vice President of Design and User Experience for Carelon Digital Platforms. He leads a team of designers, researchers, and social scientists as they develop the next generation of AI-powered tools to help improve clinical care and patient outcomes.  He has a long history of bringing new products and platforms to market, focused primarily on developing ecosystem-level design strategies that leverage emotional currencies.

Before joining Anthem, he was Managing Partner of Engine Co. 4, LLC, a strategic design consultancy that partnered with clients including Livongo, The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Redbull High Performance, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Trimbos Institute (the Dutch NIMH), Ubisoft and The Pokémon Company. Working with the executive leadership team of the American Medical Association, Evan founded and launched Health2047, the AMA’s innovation arm.  He also co-founded The PlayNice Institute, a company that designs and develops fun, evidence-based games that help children overcome anxiety and depression disorders. In addition, working with USC’s Institute for Creative Technology, he helped productize groundbreaking research for the US Army Research Labs and the Office of Naval Research to leverage AI and digital humans in new products for healthcare and counterterrorism training.

Before focusing his attention on healthcare, he spent 20 years in entertainment leadership roles, including Creative Director at Microsoft’s Live Labs applied research incubation unit and for the launch of the first Microsoft Surface. At Electronic Arts, he was Head of Visual Development for Worldwide Studios. In addition, he’s advised and taught workshops on creative strategy and creating commercial products from applied research for WHO, DARPA, NASA, and the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.  He has been a visiting scholar at Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center since 2009 and a guest lecturer at the Stanford d. School was a member of ACM SIGGRAPH’s Executive Board for five years and is a member of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.