2025 Mark McKenna Lecture

In Collaboration with the IDN Summit

Sunday, August 24^th 2025

J.W. Marriott, Desert Ridge, Phoenix, Arizona (Grand Canyon 6)

4:00 Lecture followed by Reception 5:00-6:30

Junaid Bajwa, MBA, MRCGP, MRCS, FRCP, MBBS, MSc, BSc

Senior Partner, Flagship Pioneering

Medicine: An Exercise of our imagination

Health systems are under increasing strain—from rising demand and workforce shortages to fragmented care and unsustainable costs—driving an urgent need for innovation. Artificial intelligence is emerging not just as a tool, but as a potential collaborator and trusted teammate across the care continuum. This lecture will explore how human-centred, reliable AI can help transform healthcare delivery, from diagnosis and treatment to the logistics and supply chains that underpin clinical operations. It will also examine how AI is enabling more personalised, data-driven patient pathways while reshaping clinical workflows. And as AI takes on more predictive and administrative functions—as clinical reasoning becomes widely accessible—how might the profession and practice of medicine fundamentally evolve?

The lecture and pre-lecture session, ÁI in Action: A Practical Learning Experience are without cost to ASU faculty, students and the general public.

Dr. Bajwa will explore:

The current challenges, and apply a framework to analyze health systems Identify key systemic pressures—such as workforce shortages, fragmented care, and rising costs—and explain the need for innovation in healthcare delivery.
The potential of AI as a collaborator in the care continuum – supporting clinicians across diagnostics, treatment planning, logistics, and supply chain management.
How AI-driven tools are enabling more personalized, data-rich, and efficient approaches to patient care, and how these tools integrate into day-to-day practice.
How the profession and practice of medicine may change as AI assumes more predictive, administrative, and cognitive functions—shifting clinicians toward more strategic, empathetic, and human-centric roles.

Dr. Junaid Bajwa, Senior Partner at Flagship Pioneering

Dr. Junaid Bajwa is a Senior Partner at Flagship Pioneering, leading the UK division and serving as a Science Partner for Pioneering Intelligence globally. He is also a practicing physician with the UK’s National Health Service. Previously, as Chief Medical Scientist at Microsoft Research, Junaid focused on integrating trusted, reliable, and human-centered AI into medicine, leading strategic partnerships and spearheading Responsible AI initiatives. With extensive experience in primary and secondary care, public health, and roles as a payer and policy maker, Junaid’s work spans healthcare systems across the US, Europe, Australia, the Middle East, and Singapore.

Academically, he holds positions as a Clinical Associate Professor at University College London (UCL) and as a Visiting Scientist at both the Harvard School of Public Health and NTU in Singapore.

https://www.flagshippioneering.com/people/junaid-bajwa

About the Mark McKenna Lecture Endowment

The annual Mark McKenna Lecture recognizes McKenna’s contributions to developing the health sector supply chain, bringing key innovators and thought leaders in health care to ASU to speak on current health care issues, and highlighting the importance of the supply chain in improving organizational performance and clinical practice.

McKenna, in his role as President of Novation (1998-2006), was a 2004 founding member of

the Health Sector Supply Chain Research Consortium (HSRC-ASU) and a continuous supporter of bringing academia and industry partners together to solve major problems across the health sector supply chain. McKenna’s career spanned both the supplier and provider sectors in healthcare, including senior management positions with Imed Corp., Baxter Healthcare Corp., and VHA Inc. He also served as chairman of the Health Industry Group Purchasing Association (HIGPA) and was elected to the Bellwether League Healthcare Supply Chain Hall of Fame (2010).

Event contact: gene.schneller@asu.edu

Sponsored by:

Arizona State University, Department of Supply Chain Management;

W.P. Carey School of Business, CAPS Research in collaboration with the IDN Summit