The latest report from the KLAS Arch Collaborative highlights the perceptions of 66 healthcare executives. Researchers wanted to understand their current adoption, plans, and challenges using generative artificial intelligence to make electronic health records work better for healthcare providers.
While respondents indicated excitement about generative AI, researchers said in the report that many do not yet know where they will use AI in their organizations. Those with a strategy want to improve documentation, patient communication and workflow efficiency.
WHY IT MATTERS
To gather the perspectives of healthcare leaders for the perception survey, KLAS asked about current use of genAI and vendors, the technologies they plan to implement, and their thoughts on the biggest opportunities and challenges of generative AI in healthcare .
Most organizations that responded to the survey – from large and small hospitals to outpatient clinics and home health agencies – said they are likely to purchase and implement generative AI by 2024.
“While only 25% of respondents interviewed have implemented generative AI solutions, 58% say their organization is likely to implement or purchase a solution within a year,” the KLAS researchers said.
Those currently using genAI – larger organizations – report working with tools offered by EHR vendors such as Epic, as well as Google, Nuance, AWS and others, researchers said.
In addition to having more resources, larger healthcare systems also have data that is more readily available — along with data scientists driving implementation, they pointed out.
Accuracy and reliability are the top concerns, as respondents worry that inaccuracies, biases and AI hallucinations would negatively impact patients and decisions.
“It is also important that solutions are proven reliable by users,” KLAS said of the healthcare leaders.
Cost/ROI is the second most cited challenge, followed by security/privacy, as organizations must encrypt data and implement strict access controls to protect protected patient information.
KLAS said it plans to publish further general AI insights with the Center for Connected Medicine early next year.
THE BIG TREND
Epic is using AI to change the way EHRs work, listening to conversations between patients and providers in more than 30 locations, said Sumit Rana, executive vice president of research and development.
“One site reported an average savings of five and a half hours per week,” he said Healthcare IT news last month.
“Another study looked at the time physicians spent after clinical hours, and they saw a 76% reduction in the time physicians spent after clinical hours, which I think is quite substantial.”
Tom Hallisey, head of digital health strategy at the Healthcare Association of New York and a board member at Columbia Memorial Health, said he advises organizations to ensure top leaders are deeply involved in the AI selection process to ensure AI implementation goals are measurable and specific. are.
“To ensure the best impact of AI investments, start a committee to collect and prioritize ideas, guide resource selection, review pilot results, and help scale up,” he said.
Hallisey will be there HIMSS AI Forum later this month to offer hospitals and healthcare systems looking to evaluate or already implementing AI strategies for adopting AI in healthcare.
ON THE RECORD
“By using generative AI, respondents hope to automate the process of generating clinical notes, summaries and reports from patient data, saving a significant amount of time,” the KLAS researchers said.
The HIMSS AI in Healthcare Forum will take place December 14-15, 2023 in San Diego, California. More information and registration.
Andrea Fox is editor-in-chief of Healthcare IT News.
Email: afox@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.