The Pace Quickens in Adoption of AI Tools for Clinical Care
By Christopher Cheney
At ProMedica, the adoption of AI tools in clinical care is advancing at a rapid pace.
The Ohio-based health system was among more than a dozen health systems and hospitals that participated in the HealthLeaders AI in Clinical Care Mastermind program this year. In addition to attending several virtual discussions, participants met in person in September for roundtable discussions as part of the HealthLeaders CMO Exchange in Utah.
Two primary factors have contributed to the rapid adoption of AI tools at ProMedica, according to Brian Miller, MD, chief medical information officer and vice president of telehealth.
“First, the increased pace is based on previous lean years that caused us to delay some investments,” Miller says. “But our revenue has been strong over the past year, so we are increasing infrastructure investments such as AI tools across the board.”
“Second, the pace of rollouts of new AI tools has been growing exponentially,” he adds. “So AI vendors are making more AI tools available, and the competition that has generated has driven down the price.”
Growing knowledge about AI technology among the health system’s leadership team is also driving rapid adoption of AI tools in clinical care.
“Our CEO, Arturo Polizzi, has set an expectation that other leaders in the organization need to make themselves knowledgeable about AI and to embrace using these tools,” Miller says.
The rapid pace of AI tool adoption comes with challenges.
“My concern is the sustainability of that pace,” Miller says. “Generative AI tools require an enormous amount of data, computing power, and infrastructure. There is risk associated with the pace of AI tool adoption, including the risk of a bubble developing and the bubble popping.”
ProMedica and other health systems surging forward with AI tool adoption must manage risk, Miller explains.
“Fast growth and adopting AI tools at a rapid pace means that you may not be thoughtful enough in your investments and you may not be validating that you are getting the clinical impact you want as well as the return on investment you want,” Miller says. “The fast pace of AI tool adoption brings the risk of inefficiencies and using tools that may not always be worth the investment.”
Impact of AI tools in clinical care
The most promising potential impact of AI tools in clinical care is improving provider experience.
“We plan to drive a much better experience for our providers with an AI scribe tool, which focuses on the patient-clinician encounter,” Miller says.
“In addition to measuring the impact on burnout, we are looking at whether AI tools are reducing the amount of time clinicians are spending on documentation outside of regular working hours,” Miller says, adding the health system has seen a rise in productivity among clinicians who have used an AI scribe.
The health system is planning on adopting new AI tools that will improve provider experience. One will help providers prepare for a patient encounter by looking at a patient’s history and summarizing the patient’s chart, and another will help providers after a patient encounter with functions such as helping with coding.
“The goals of using AI tools to improve the provider experience include reducing burnout and bringing more joy back into the job,” Miller says.
Advice for AI tool adoption in clinical care
Healthcare leaders need to stay aware of AI tool development by vendors.
“It seems like every software vendor is bringing AI to the table,” Miller says. “This includes startups and big players such as Microsoft. The big players as well as the small players are bringing a wave of AI tools.”
It is also important to work with peers at other health systems and hospitals to assess AI tool adoption in clinical care.
“The most helpful strategy in adopting AI tools in clinical care is collaborating, coordinating, and sharing AI adoption stories,” Miller says. “In Ohio, there are chief medical information officers from more than a dozen health systems that meet on a monthly basis. Over the past year, AI has been the most prevalent discussion topic for this group. We are sharing the experience of adopting AI tools.”
Christopher Cheney is the CMO editor at HealthLeaders.