AI is shifting from a novelty to a critical resource embedded in healthcare
The promise of artificial intelligence in healthcare has been clear for years, but the healthcare industry is only just beginning to realize it large-scale implementations.
Many issues still need to be resolved before large-scale implementation can take place. Michael Meucci, president and CEO of Arcadia, a health data platform company, works on some of these issues every day.
Meucci predicts better integration of AI and workflows, and sees a holistic patient view as the cornerstone of this AI applications. These imperatives, along with reducing tension in the AI lifecycle, will be three major priorities for hospitals and healthcare systems in 2025, he said.
Q. You say that capitalizing on the abundance of AI through workflow integration will play a major role in healthcare by 2025. Please explain this.
A. While pilot programs have demonstrated AI’s potential, true integration into everyday workflows remains rare, and scaling successful AI applications remains a top priority for 2025. For AI to truly reshape healthcare, it must become a seamless part of workflows of care teams, moving from siled systems to integrated, actionable tools at the point of care.
By integrating AI into workflows, healthcare organizations can make the leap from passive AI – such as listening to the environment or automatically taking notes – to active decision support that physicians can trust and rely on.
The effectiveness of AI depends on its ability to support, not interrupt, clinical workflows. Integrating AI into real-time decision-making processes at the point of care involves creating systems in which physicians do not have to step out of their routines or rely on additional tools.
Instead, physicians should have AI-powered insights readily available within their current interfaces and processes – for example, the electronic health record. AI should serve as a silent partner, augmenting the capabilities of clinical teams without requiring additional steps.
For healthcare leaders, the call to action is clear: Prioritize investments that improve workflow integration over isolated investments AI functionalities. Building an infrastructure that facilitates the real-time availability of AI and directly contributes to clinical operations will yield sustainable gains.
As these systems mature, they will ultimately lead to an era of scaled AI deployments, transforming AI from a novelty into a critical, reliable resource embedded in the fabric of healthcare.
Q. You point to the need for a holistic patient view as the foundation for AI adoption across the enterprise. What will this look like?
A. By 2025, a truly holistic patient view will be the cornerstone of AI applications that empower all staff to foster deeper, holistic patient interactions. Achieving this requires a robust data infrastructure that harmonizes data sources such as clinical data, claims data, and social determinants of health data so that AI can draw insights that support patient-centered care, regardless of who interacts with the patient.
A comprehensive and longitudinal patient view increases the value of AI by providing a reliable foundation of patient data that everyone across the enterprise can trust and leverage consistently. For example, this single view allows AI to generate recommendations that reflect the patient’s entire medical and social context.
Imagine an AI-powered call center where staff can view not only a patient’s insurance benefits, but also relevant health information, such as open gaps in care, allowing agents to answer questions and take action, such as prompting a patient about a screening, with empathy and precision.
The holistic approach means that whether a patient interacts with clinical staff, support staff or even financial services, they receive informed support tailored to their unique health journey.
To make this vision a reality, Healthcare leaders must prioritize data standardization and invest in systems that promote scalable access to real-time data. With these investments, healthcare organizations can enable every employee to act as an expert point of contact in the patient’s care process.
This paradigm shift – where everyone has access to patient insights – improves the patient experience by transforming all interactions into opportunities for proactive, patient-centered care management.
Q. You predict that vendor organizations will work to reduce the push-pull tension throughout the AI lifecycle. Please explain.
A. Healthcare organizations are caught between a strong push to adopt AI systems and significant internal resistance due to regulatory, ethical and logistical issues. This “push-pull” tension reflects the broader industry conflict of making progress in AI while facing obstacles that slow its implementation.
To overcome this by 2025, healthcare leaders must adopt strategies that simultaneously drive AI innovation and streamline governance, compliance and risk management – making AI a core component of their operations without creating additional hurdles.
The acceleration of AI should be purposeful and focus on high-impact tasks that you can automate to free up staff for higher-value work. Healthcare leaders should start by identifying low-value, time-consuming tasks that AI can take over, such as data entry or simple patient questions.
By delegating such tasks to AI, physicians and their staff can focus on complex, patient-centered interactions. Strategically automating repetitive functions will help organizations improve productivity and reinvest profits into expanding the reach and effectiveness of AI systems across the enterprise.
Follow Bill’s HIT coverage on LinkedIn: Bill Siwicki
Email him: bsiwicki@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication