Hoboken, N.J. — Wiley and IQVIA released a new cross-sector report examining the promise and challenges of artificial intelligence across the healthcare value chain.
The report, titled Scientific Discovery & AI: The Science-to-Patient Journey, draws on discussions among more than 25 senior leaders from pharmaceutical research and development, academic medicine, health systems, AI and technology companies, publishing organizations and learned societies.
The report is based on insights from The Summit, an invitation-only, two-day working session co-hosted by Wiley and IQVIA in May. The session opened with remarks on AI and organizational change from Ethan Mollick, a professor at the Wharton School, author of Co-Intelligence and the forthcoming Co-Existence.
Participants included senior leaders from organizations such as Novo Nordisk, Microsoft, Amazon, Salesforce, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Heart Association, JAMA Network, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Michigan, Mapúa University, South Dakota State University, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, BMJ Group, the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Queen Mary Intellectual Property Research Institute and Turbine.
Wiley and IQVIA said a major focus of the report is the gap between AI’s technical capabilities and the healthcare system’s ability to absorb and apply them. The report says AI is accelerating the journey from scientific discovery to patient benefit, but faster progress at one stage can create challenges at another.
The report identifies five high-potential directions for the healthcare ecosystem: using AI to support wet lab target identification and validation; sharing vetted failed experiments to reduce unnecessary repetition; deploying patient-facing AI tools to help people navigate health systems; combining the scholarly record and real-world data as a trusted alternative to general-purpose AI search; and feeding real-world evidence back into trial design, clinical guidelines and upstream research.
“For AI to deliver its full promise in healthcare and science, all parts of the system must be engaged. AI has vastly increased the speed at which we can resolve molecular identities and surface new candidates — but if the publishing model, clinical development infrastructure and real-world adoption don’t keep pace, those discoveries won’t reach patients as quickly as they should,” said Armughan Rafat, Wiley SVP, Chief AI & Data Analytics Officer. “That’s the conversation Wiley and IQVIA have convened. We didn’t set out to produce consensus, but rather to surface an honest diagnosis.”
Rob Kotchie, IQVIA President, Real World Evidence & Clinical Technology Solutions, said AI is already reshaping every stage of the healthcare value chain.
“AI is already reshaping every stage of the healthcare value chain, but the real opportunity lies in connecting those stages into a continuous learning system. What emerged from The Summit is a clear need to move beyond isolated innovation toward integrated evidence ecosystems – where clinical research, real-world data and advanced analytics work in unison. By closing the loop between discovery, development and real-world outcomes, we can accelerate not just insight generation, but meaningful impact for patients,” Kotchie said.
The report also highlights structural barriers to broader AI adoption. Wiley and IQVIA said participants consistently identified incentives as an obstacle, with the current system often rewarding behaviors that do not fully optimize for science, patients or long-term progress.
The report maps findings from The Summit across four stages of the science-to-patient value chain: discovery and early research, clinical development and evidence generation, validation and dissemination, and real-world adoption and patient impact.
Wiley and IQVIA said their combined roles across evidence creation, peer review and real-world clinical application position them to bring together stakeholders involved in moving scientific discovery toward patient benefit.
