When Dr. Tra’chella Johnson Foy greets her patients, she positions herself across from them with her back to the computer. Then, she takes out her phone and asks for permission to record the appointment.
“It listens in on our visit so I can give my full attention to you,” explains Foy, a family physician at Baptist Health in Jacksonville, Florida, while maintaining eye contact with her patient.
Foy and her colleagues at Baptist Health have been utilizing the DAX app, powered by artificial intelligence, developed by Microsoft’s Nuance division since the previous year. The app transcribes the comments made by doctors and patients, and generates a formatted clinical summary for electronic health records.
Dr. Trachella Johnson
CNBC
The app allows doctors to forego typing up notes during patient visits and eliminates the need to complete them at night. This practice, often referred to as “Pajama time,” hinders doctors’ quality of life as they find themselves charting and noting even when they should be winding down for bed, as described by Foy.
The Impact of Tackling Burnout
Addressing burnout in healthcare professionals and empowering doctors and nurses to combat it is a key priority for Aaron Miri, the Chief Digital and Information Officer at Baptist Health.
“Leveraging AI allows healthcare to achieve new economies of scale,” says Miri. “By eliminating administrative redundancy and bureaucratic overhead, professionals are able to work at their highest capacity.”
A study conducted by the National Bureau of Economic Research reveals that approximately 25% of healthcare costs are attributed to administrative processes such as documenting visits, securing insurance pre-authorization, and processing bills. The adoption of AI technology to simplify these tasks could potentially lead to cost reductions of 5% to 11% for hospitals, 8% for physician groups, and 10% for health insurers over the next five years.
However, the initial investment in AI implementation may not come cheap. An Advisory Board survey indicates that one in four healthcare executives expects a 25% increase in costs for artificial intelligence and analytics.
Larger health systems like Baptist Health may have better funding opportunities for this investment compared to smaller hospitals. Additionally, they are more likely to have the necessary technical staff to integrate new AI solutions.
Miri highlights the potential benefits, stating, “If the cost is justified by significantly improving patient satisfaction and physician productivity, then the answer is clear.”
Balancing Technology and Human Involvement
In the current scenario, hospital systems using generative AI programs to automate administrative tasks require doctors and nurses to review the automated documents before they are added to medical records.
Dr. David Rhew, Chief Medical Officer and VP of Healthcare for Microsoft’s Worldwide Commercial Business, explains the approach, saying, “Organizations are selecting high-impact use cases while ensuring to mitigate risks and find scenarios where human involvement is necessary.”
However, concerns arise that automation could eventually phase out the need for human professionals as organizations strive to cut costs and improve efficiency.
Former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb expresses his worries, stating that generative AI could potentially eliminate jobs by creating “large language models that operate fully automated, parsing the entirety of a patient’s medical record to diagnose conditions and prescribe treatments directly to the patient, without a physician in the loop.”
Patient sentiment towards AI implementation in healthcare is also mixed. According to a recent survey conducted by CNBC, nearly two-thirds of respondents expressed discomfort with using AI for medical diagnosis.
Dr. Lloyd Minor, the dean of the Stanford School of Medicine, adds his concerns about how rapidly evolving technology could impact patient access to care.
“My greatest fear is that medical data will be used in negative ways, either to hinder access to appropriate healthcare or to distort the delivery of healthcare,” explains Minor. He has taken part in launching an initiative to promote responsible AI usage.
In an effort to address these concerns, the White House has attained commitments from seven leading U.S. companies in AI to collaborate on building safeguards into the technology. Google, Amazon Web Services, and Microsoft are among the companies participating, as they have all introduced generative AI products for healthcare.
As healthcare systems become more frequent targets for hackers and data breaches, maintaining privacy standards becomes crucial. The rapid advancement of generative AI poses a challenge, as safety measures for the technology are constantly trying to catch up.
Rhew emphasizes the importance of responsible AI principles in shaping the future, saying, “As a society, it is crucial that we embrace responsible AI implementation to ensure that positive actors shape its trajectory, preventing negative consequences.”
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