Discussion around Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare (AIH) is gaining momentum, with regulatory bodies like The Joint Commission (TJC) and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) examining its potential uses. This was evident when TJC highlighted the role of AIH in achieving sustainable healthcare during the recent RAISE conference.
In a healthcare system burdened by staff shortages and increasing costs, the idea of “sustainable healthcare” involves longevity and scalability in care delivery. Therefore, it’s important to consider if AIH aligns with this goal. The publication “To do no harm – and the most good – with AI in health care” suggests that AIH could be a route towards sustainable healthcare and outlines a potential path to adoption.
Firstly, AI can be utilized to augment clinical practice. With the ongoing radiologist shortage, AI could be used to analyze and prioritize abnormal findings in test and imaging results. This increased efficiency could result in better patient outcomes and lower care delivery costs.
However, it’s not enough to simply implement AIH; clear guidelines for the proper utilization of AI in healthcare and education on its use are necessary. A high-quality AIH vendor should provide the required resources to help health organizations optimize their use of the technology. Moreover, healthcare organizations should establish guidelines around optimal use and training requirements for their teams.
Additionally, it’s crucial to define clear and measurable outcome expectations for AIH. These objectives should involve improved health outcomes, faster access to care, improved clinical workflows, and increased productivity to indicate how AI is achieving sustainable healthcare goals.
While some urge caution against rushing into large-scale AI adoption, the potential of AIH to address significant operational and care challenges makes it urgent. In particular, AIH can provide immediate operational, financial, and patient care benefits.
However, achieving sustainable AIH cannot be accomplished by simply adopting point solutions or standard vendor offerings. Instead, sustainable AIH must be approached via holistic partnerships that cater to the needs of the entire organization. In a healthcare landscape that treats varied disease states with different care teams, a platform is the most dependable method for deploying, measuring, and running AI at scale.
Ultimately, AI has great potential in the execution of sustainable healthcare. Yet, its adoption should be strategic, with an emphasis on augmenting clinical practice, establishing utilization guidelines, and training programs. Likewise, clear outcome expectations ought to be outlined, and the need for fully integrated, large-scale AI deployments should be acknowledged. With these practices, healthcare organizations can harness the promise of AIH and drive optimal patient care, all while lowering costs.
