⚕️Ambient AI in Healthcare

Good Morning! Venture capital deal activity in Artificial Intelligence (AI) for healthcare has surged the past five years, growing twice as fast as the tech industry overall.

More exciting news for HealthTech aficionados with high hopes for AI/ML in healthcare: a record one in four healthcare investment dollars now goes to companies leveraging AI.

DEEP DIVE
Ultimate Checklist For Deciding Between Custom vs Off-the-Shelf EHR

EHRs are a huge investment for medical practices and health systems. Off the shelf EHRs have shorter time to market but are generally geared towards larger practices.

Smaller practices are often required to use a version of the software designed for larger systems. For some, it can be a tremendous success, while for others it can be a tremendous risk with steeping costs associated with it.

If you’re grappling between the choice of getting a bespoke EHR custom developed or opting for off the shelf EHR software from existing vendors, here are the questions that should help you decide.

1. What is the current workflow of the healthcare organization? What are the issues? What needs improvement? And how will the electronic health record integrate into the system?

2. What is the size of the facility – solo practitioner, small clinic, mid-sized, or large hospital? Each size has different data management and feature requirements.

3. What is the budget for the custom EHR development or off-the-shelf EHR purchase? What’s the budget for maintenance and support?

4.  Is there an in-house IT team? Or a need to bring in external support?

5. Which features do you need?

6. Does the EHR adhere to HIPAA compliance or not?

7. Will the EHR scale if the practice is extended?

8. Is the chosen EHR user-friendly?

9. What’s the timeline? Off-the-shelf are deployed faster than custom EHRs.

Read the complete guide to choosing between custom vs off-the-shelf EHR software here.

PULSE POINTS
Latest Breakthroughs This Week

Here’s the most important breakthroughs and advancements we spotted in the healthcare technology space this week.

• AI in Cancer Diagnosis: Researchers at NYU Langone Health's Perlmutter Cancer Center and the University of Glasgow developed an AI-powered tool that distinguishes between adenocarcinoma and squamous cell lung cancers with 99% accuracy. Additionally, the tool predicts the timing of a cancer's potential return post-treatment with 72% accuracy.

• Ambient AI: Physicians at Tampa General will use the Nuance’s DAX Copilot to enhance productivity and elevate patient experience. This AI-powered ambient listening tool securely captures patient stories, including symptoms and observations, and converts multi-party conversations into clinical summaries in seconds. Unlike voice-to-text transcription, DAX Copilot identifies voices, captures patient history, detects key observations, and integrates seamlessly with Tampa General's existing platforms.

• Healthcare Voice Assistants: When Houston Methodist installed Amazon Echo Dots in its pharmacies and patient rooms, the time for orders to be signed and medications administered was halved. Alexa, the voice assistant, answers patient questions about medications and helps verify orders for bleeding reversal agents. If Alexa cannot answer or recognize a medication, it sends a message to the pharmacist via the EHR. Pharmacists can then call the patient through the Echo Dot to provide assistance.

• Pediatric Remote Patient Monitoring: The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia has developed 11 remote management programs for pediatric patients, monitoring conditions such as lung abnormalities, epilepsy, and concussions. The hospital initially focused on infants born with a single heart ventricle, providing them with a mobile app and digital monitoring devices for telehealth check-ins and vital sign monitoring at home. The digital stethoscope allows remote cardiac assessments, detecting significant findings that impact treatment for one in eight enrolled patients.

• Stats: The first quarter of 2024 marked the strongest merger and acquisition activity among hospitals and health systems since 2020. For-profit systems, in particular, are making a lot of moves in the hospital market.

• Cybersecurity: The White House has partnered with Microsoft and Google to provide free and discounted cybersecurity resources to rural hospitals nationwide. Microsoft will extend its nonprofit program to offer grants and up to a 75% discount on security products for critical access hospitals and rural emergency hospitals. Google will provide endpoint security advice, fund software migration, and pilot tailored security packages for rural hospitals and nonprofits.

EXPERT SPOTLIGHT
Shahid Mohammed: Centers Of Excellence For Tech Innovation

This week, HealthTech Zen got in touch with Shahid Mohammed, a technology leader with proven expertise in building high-performance cross-functional teams.

How do you see the role of technology evolving in patient care over the next decade?

Technology will significantly benefit clinicians and administrative staff through capabilities like Ambient AI and robotic process automation (RPA).

Ambient AI can provide non-invasive data capture and natural voice processing during clinician-patient interactions, reducing administrative burdens on doctors/nurses. This allows them to remain focused on providing quality care versus manual data entry. 

RPA solutions can automate repetitive, routine administrative workflows and processes like patient intake, billing, scheduling, etc. This drives efficiencies and frees up staff to concentrate on higher-value tasks. The time/cost savings and reduction in human error creates a force-multiplier effect for healthcare organizations.

What role does/will artificial intelligence play in your current and future projects?

AI is indispensable to my present initiatives and future objectives. At present, we are employing it to improve risk models, claims auditing processes, and the prediction of patient healthcare requirements.

AI is also playing a crucial role in automating medical necessity policy reviews, enhancing HCC capture rates, conducting comprehensive risk adjustment reviews, and generating longitudinal views with summarized medical record timelines. Additionally, we are leveraging AI pose estimation to enhance patient safety and preventive care by identifying fall risks and implementing proactive interventions to prevent injuries and improve overall patient outcomes. 

How do you foster a culture of innovation within your technology teams?

The establishment of dedicated Centers of Excellence is the first step in the process of cultivating a culture of innovation.

These offer a structured environment for subject matter specialists to specialize and advance domains such as AI, data science, and machine learning, while also disseminating best practices throughout the organization. The CoEs serve as innovation centers, ensuring that efforts are in accordance with strategic objectives and regulatory requirements. 

Continue reading here

DECODER
What Is Ambient AI In Healthcare?

Ambient AI in healthcare integrates AI into the healthcare environment to provide continuous, context-aware support. Ambient clinical intelligence combines developments from AI, machine learning and voice recognition software to transcribe and interpret healthcare documentation.

Instead of taking painstaking notes during a patient interview, doctors can communicate naturally while ambient AI works in the background to automatically convert their words into a digital record. The results integrate seamlessly into the patient’s electronic health records, allowing doctors to access the data at any time. 

Ambient AI aims to create a responsive, efficient, and patient centered healthcare environment.

Read more about ambient AI and how it is imacting healthcare here.