- New tools like ChatGPT have sparked debate about how AI can transform healthcare.
- The potential is immense, but today’s healthcare system is leveraging AI for more mundane tasks.
- Four healthcare system leaders shared how they are using AI to manage emails and help doctors take notes.
With the advent of viral tools like ChatGPT, industry players are dreaming about how artificial intelligence could revolutionize healthcare.
A kind of AI-powered chatbot designed to generate text and images from written prompts is said to be able to diagnose rare conditions and even pass the U.S. medical licensing exam. Questions and concerns have been raised about the potential of this technology to replace doctors.
But for now, the U.S. healthcare system is using various forms of AI to solve more mundane, less controversial problems.
They’re using AI to clean up and prioritize doctors’ inboxes, convert audio from patient visits into summaries, and create staffing plans. All of this is to allow clinicians to spend less time on the computer and more time with their patients. These applications may not lend themselves well to science fiction plot lines, but hospital leaders predict they will have a major impact on healthcare.
“Most of the problems facing nurses and doctors today are boring,” said Scott Arnold, chief information officer at Tampa General Hospital.
“Robots will not provide care or make decisions for people. Teachers will be able to make decisions faster,” said Arnold. .
As a result, you can save a lot of money. A working paper released in January by experts from consulting firm McKinsey and Harvard University estimated that the adoption of AI by hospitals, physician groups, and health insurers could cost the United States $200 billion to $360 billion a year in healthcare costs, or It is estimated that there could be a reduction of about 5% to $10. %.
Some healthcare systems are also experimenting with using AI to diagnose disease. For example, using AI tools, he rechecked his x-rays for signs of cancer that a busy radiologist might have missed. However, the health care system is generally cautious about introducing this technology into high-risk clinical care.
The healthcare system still has a long way to go. Some say they are testing the AI in small pilot programs to make sure the results are accurate and the data is protected.
Here’s how four healthcare systems are using AI to tackle some of their biggest challenges.
Sutter Health uses AI to manage patient messages
Dr. Albert Chan, Chief Digital Health Officer, Sutter Health.
sutter health
California-based Sutter Health is considering using AI to help doctors manage the amount of messages they receive from patients, said Dr. Albert Chan, the health system’s chief digital health officer.
The healthcare system is working with electronic medical record company Epic to use AI to classify messages. Chan said that AI could ultimately open up new possibilities, such as using AI to flag messages from patients that need urgent review by clinicians.
He said doctors are inundated with emails, much of which could be handled by another staff member.
“If we can improve that, we know it will be much easier for doctors and patients to connect to what really matters,” he said.
Sutter said Epic’s partnership with Microsoft will make it one of the first healthcare systems to use generative AI (the same technology as ChatGPT) to craft answers to patient messages.
According to Chan, Sutter is also using AI in other ways. For example, he leverages tools from his startup Ferrum Health to help a radiologist find signs of lung cancer in her x-rays.
AI helps UPMC document patient visits
Chris Carmody, UPMC Chief Technology Officer, said:
UPMC
Chris Carmody, chief technology officer at UPMC, said Pittsburgh’s healthcare system has been using AI for years. In particular, UPMC helped develop Abridge, a startup that uses AI to record doctor-patient interactions and convert audio into notes.
About 3,000 UPMC physicians have tested Abridge and provided feedback to help improve the tool, Carmody said. He added that the goal is to integrate the tool into his UPMC’s electronic medical records so doctors don’t have to spend so much time recording patient visits. .
Carmody said UPMC is also testing whether AI can comb through unstructured data, such as discharge summaries, to identify patient symptoms and use them to help doctors know how to treat patients. increase.
“Tools around AI, machine learning, and generative AI will help us realize the precision medicine we’ve been talking about in technology for years,” he said.
Tampa General Hospital streamlines staffing with AI
Scott Arnold, chief information officer at Tampa General Hospital, said:
Scott Arnold
Tampa General Hospital is working with Palantir Technologies to use AI to help nurse administrators efficiently staff wards, said Chief Information Officer Arnold.
He said Palantir’s tool analyzes available nurses and their skill sets and creates a staffing plan based on what nurse managers say they need for each shift. He added that the tool has saved Tampa General hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Hospitals are also working with Palantir to predict when hospital beds will be empty and ready for new patients, allowing patients to move through the hospital faster. “It’s a big math problem for us to figure out right away,” Arnold said.
Ardent Health Services liberates in-person nurses with AI-powered tools
Marty Bonic, president and CEO of Ardent Health Services, said:
Ardent Health Service
Ardent Health Services, based in Nashville, Tennessee, is deploying an AI-powered tool from startup Care.ai that brings a virtual nurse to a patient’s bedside to eliminate “the tedious and time-consuming process of patient care.” I was able to run “flanks”. President and Chief Executive Officer of the Health System.
Deployed at one of Ardent’s hospitals in New Mexico, the tool allows virtual nurses to connect to patient rooms via clinical software and video to monitor patients, issue discharge orders, and administer patient medications. It will be documented, Bonick said.
He says Ardent’s in-person caregivers are now able to focus on treating acute conditions and administering medications.
A representative for Ardent said it plans to expand its partnership with Care.ai to implement virtual attendance to improve access to specialized care in rural communities.
Separately, Ardent partnered with a Nashville venture studio called SwitchPoint Ventures to create an AI company that addresses healthcare provider problems. The first company they created was Winnow, which is designed to use predictive analytics to improve how the healthcare system recruits doctors.
