Hospitals use AI like Microsoft Nuance’s DAX app to fight burnout

if dr Tra’chella Johnson Foy greets her patients, sitting across from them and looking away from the computer in the exam room. She then pulls out her phone and asks permission to record the appointment.

“It’s listening to our visit so I can pay more attention to you,” explains Foy, a primary care physician at Baptist Health in Jacksonville, Fla., while looking directly at her patient.

Foy and other doctors at Baptist Health have been using Nuance’s artificial intelligence-powered DAX app since last year. The program transcribes physician and patient comments and then creates a physician’s clinical summary formatted for an electronic health record.

The app saves doctors from typing notes during patient visits and completing those notes at night. A practice that ordinary doctors are nicknamed for.

“Pajama time – this should be the time you prepare to relax and go to bed. Typically, we’re still drawing and noting things and doing things that improve the patient’s life, but not necessarily our own quality of life,” Foy said.

Administrative processes such as documenting visits, applying for insurance pre-authorization for procedures, and processing bills account for about 25% of healthcare costs, according to one study National Bureau of Economic Research study.

Researchers estimate that using AI to simplify these tasks could help hospitals reduce their overall costs by 5% to 11% over the next five years, while physician groups could see savings of up to 8% and health insurers up to 10%.

But the upfront investment won’t come cheap: An Advisory Board survey of healthcare executives found last year that one in four expected the cost of artificial intelligence and analytics to increase by 25%.

Larger healthcare systems like Baptist may be better able to fund this investment than smaller hospitals, and more likely have the technical staff to help integrate the new generative AI solutions.

“If it had cost me X, but I had made my patients a lot happier and my doctors a lot more productive? Well, there is already an answer,” said Miri.

Currently, hospital systems using the new generative AI programs to automate administrative tasks require doctors and nurses to review the automated documents before they are included in the medical records.

“What companies are doing is they’re looking at these high-impact use cases, but also making sure they’re mitigating the risks and looking at ways that we can choose the scenarios where we put a human first,” he said dr David Rhew, Chief Medical Officer and VP of Healthcare for Microsoft’s Worldwide Commercial Business.

However, there are concerns that automation could push humans into the background as companies seek to reduce costs and increase efficiencies.

Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb worries that generative AI could eventually eliminate some physician jobs by creating “large language models that operate fully automatically, analyzing a patient’s entire medical record to diagnose conditions and prescribe treatments directly to the patient.” , without having to consult a doctor.” the loop.”

“My biggest fear is that medical data will be used in harmful ways, either to block access to proper healthcare or to distort the way healthcare is delivered,” said Minor, who helped found an initiative promote the responsible use of AI.

Last month, health insurer Cigna And UnitedHealthcare were each sued for using conventional computer algorithms to deny medical claims.

“Generative AI should open doors of access and provide avenues for equitable care that did not exist in the past,” Minor said.

In July, the White House secured a commitment from seven of the top US artificial intelligence companies to commit to working together within the industry to build safeguards into the rapidly evolving technology.

The group included Google, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft – all three have launched generative AI products for healthcare.

Healthcare systems are already a popular target for hackers and data thieves, despite strict legal data protection requirements. Generative AI is evolving so rapidly that there are concerns that efforts to develop safety guardrails for the new technology are already catching up.

“It’s very important for us as a society to adopt responsible AI principles to move forward…so that the good actors define the future and don’t let the bad actors potentially define it,” Rhew said.