AI-Powered Innovation in Healthcare: Exploring the Latest Medical Software Solutions

“Everyone’s talking about AI.”

That’s the best way to summarize the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society’s (HIMSS) 2024 conference in Orlando, FL in just four short words. HIMSS typically delves into conversations that are at the crest of the wave—such as analytics or telehealth in the past—and, this year, conversations took place around artificial intelligence (AI) safety and guidelines along with how AI is actually being used by healthcare systems.

As the World Economic Forum notes, there is both “excitement and uncertainty” about AI’s potential as healthcare systems begin to reap the benefits of AI while managing the risks. Already, chatbots are saving medical professionals plenty of time on their paperwork, freeing them up for more urgent tasks that contribute to patient well-being with exhilarating new possibilities—such as a study by the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) that shows how AI is nearly twice as accurate as biopsies when determining the aggressiveness of some kinds of cancer.

So, how do healthcare systems benefit from AI? What cautions should be heeded? This post explores AI medical software and platforms and expert opinions about the challenges being faced as the industry navigates the AI revolution—plus how our healthcare IT company can help.

Setting the Context

Any new endeavor requires a strong foundation for success, and AI is no exception. As CommonSpirit Health CIO notes, healthcare’s adoption of AI should follow the structure of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to create a solid base for future innovations.

From the foundation up, here are the steps:

1. Technology core
2. Security
3. Applications
4. Business intelligence
5. Patient engagement
6. Transcendent healthcare

AI Healthcare Software

Here are summaries of several cutting-edge healthcare AI software brands: their features and benefits. These are not reviews or recommendations of them.

Epic AI Validation Software

EHR giant Epic is set to release an AI validation software suite, empowering healthcare organizations to assess AI models locally and monitor them over time. This move reflects Epic’s commitment to ensuring that AI validation standards are tailored to local patient populations and include ongoing monitoring. By enabling healthcare systems to combine local outcome data with information about AI models, Epic aims to facilitate both evaluation and ongoing monitoring in local contexts. The software suite, equipped with intuitive reporting dashboards and automation capabilities, is designed to streamline the validation process and promote transparency in AI use. Additionally, the suite’s open-source framework will enable organizations to incorporate evolving best practices and promote responsible AI use across the healthcare ecosystem.

Multimodal

Multimodal is a medical record processing application powered by AI in which administrative staff members can upload medical records en masse. The scanned records are converted into a searchable digital format with key medical data extracted, analyzed, and stored. Multimodal is designed to facilitate patient diagnoses and treatments with medical records retrieval available for billing reasons and to accelerate insurance claims processing. Patient data is validated to prevent errors or fraud.

To leverage this AI medical software, it must be customized to “understand” the language and format of a healthcare system’s existing medical records. It can be integrated into the organization’s EHR system to streamline workflows.

The company shares case studies across industries.

Phelix

As an AI healthcare software, Phelix states that it saves 75 percent of time formerly spent on repetitive workflow tasks. This platform answers the phone; triages faxes, emails, and EMR messages; schedules appointments; handles referrals; and more to relieve the administrative staff’s burden while keeping people connected. It also manages authorization workflows, automates tasks, and handles intake, charting, and follow-ups. Virtual agents capture notes, send out surveys, and more.

Customized, In-House GPTs

For security reasons, many healthcare organizations don’t want their staff to use a generative pre-trained transformer (GPT) system that’s available to the general public. That’s because inputted data would be forwarded to Microsoft and OpenAI, creating significant privacy-related problems for the healthcare system.

So, Providence Hospital system created its own closed GPT system called ProvidenceChat, and rolled it out to all of its fifty-two hospitals. This system doesn’t learn from users’ prompts, which means that, if a question is asked repeatedly, the hospital system knows it would be a good issue to address in their Epic EHR system.

Staff can use it to make health-related queries but are not supposed to make clinical decisions based on ProvidenceChat’s answers. Most popular queries to date focus on IT/coding (32.3 percent), writing assistance (18.8 percent), general questions (17.5 percent), proprietary data (10.4 percent), and public knowledge about Providence (4.72 percent).

Optum

Optum’s computer-assisted coding automates medical coding to streamline workflows and reduce manual inputs to improve accuracy. This can benefit healthcare organizations through reduced denial rates, faster payments, and boosted revenue captures in ways that save time and money. Optional modules for this healthcare AI software include a coding review module, a reconciliation module, and a coding audit module.

They provide a case study with John Muir Health. Positive results include the following:

• Increase in commercial capture rate: from 50.96 percent (2019) to 60.41 percent (2022)
• Increase in Medicare capture rate: from 69.43 percent (2019) to 71.61 percent (2022)
• Enterprise CAC physician agreed queries increase compared with previous CAC system: 9 percent
• Average monthly increase in CDI case review from 2019 to 2021: 22 percent

Nuance

With Nuance DAX Pilot, medical professionals can boost efficiency and productivity as the AI medical software automates time-consuming, repetitive tasks. Success metrics include the following:

• Seven minutes saved per encounter
• Fifty percent reduction in documentation time
• Seventy percent reduction in feelings of burnout and fatigue
• Three out of four physicians state that DAX improves documentation quality
• Eighty-five percent of patients say their physician is more personable and conversational

As far as awards, Nuance DAX:

• Ranked number one in improving the clinician experience (2022 KLAS Emerging Solutions Top 20 Report)
• Received the silver award for healthcare technology (2022 Stevie Awards)
• Earned an “A” in overall customer satisfaction (KLAS Spotlight)

AIDOC

With the AIDOC brand of healthcare AI software, clinicians can more efficiently consolidate data and streamline communications for more thorough decision-making. They have a radiology-specific AI medical software that provides imaged-based triage and quantifications that are connected to seventeen organic algorithms as well as eight partner algorithms—both FDA cleared. There are also cardiovascular and neurological tracks.

With time-sensitive cases, AIDOC’s mobile app provides real-time notifications with EHR data automatically fed in and a mobile imaging viewer. The application identifies patients requiring follow-ups and tracks these patients with clinical pathway steerage provided with automated outreach to patients, primary care physicians, and clinics.

Overall, more than eighty-three million minutes have been saved in turnaround time with an average of fifty-nine minutes in reduced duration of patient emergency department visits. Additional interventions due to care coordination added $1 million in revenue with more than one hundred clinical studies illustrating the value of AIDOC’s AI healthcare software.

Suki

The Suki Assistant ambiently generates notes, takes care of dictation, recommends codes, and answers questions. EHR integrations with Athena, Epic, Cerner, and MEDITECH include the ability to prechart in your EHR and finish in Suki or do it all in Suki, pulling relevant info in from EHR. Suki works with inpatient, ambulatory, and home health settings along with telehealth appointments for cardiology, family medicine, gastroenterology, neurology, orthopedic surgery, and pediatrics.

Roundup of Industry Insights: Experts Note Challenges

Skepticism exists within the industry about the AI hype. Concerns include how people may not understand how today’s healthcare AI software works and its true utility and potential—as well as concerns over unrealistic expectations. AI, many experts opine, shouldn’t be adopted for its own sake because the industry doesn’t need a solution in search of a problem. Instead, specific problems should be identified and, if AI makes sense for healthcare IT solutions, then—and only then—should it be applied.

Although, someday, there will almost surely be AI EHR/AI EMR systems of high quality, today’s AI medical software lacks this level of sophistication. The reality is that AI cannot yet accurately generate a detailed image of the human hand.

More specific concerns include a dichotomy between what clinicians want (efficiency without complexity) and what IT departments need (easy implementation). Solutions that cater to both are highly valued, but much work needs to be done. Plus, implementing AI solutions in healthcare sounds great on paper before you run into compliance bottlenecks, the complete absence of precedent, and the difficulty of coordinating stakeholders.

There’s also a question about investments in healthcare IT solutions. Does it make sense to create customized GTP solutions when, once the technology improves, EHR vendors are likely to incorporate these innovations into their own proprietary modules and enhancements?

The conversation about the value of healthcare AI software, including AI EMR/AI EHR systems once they’re viable, will continue for years, even decades—and as the technology evolves, HealthTECH Resources will remain at the forefront as a key healthcare IT company in the future of this technology and, therefore a leader and facilitator in the integration of AI technology within healthcare.

HealthTECH Resources Bridges the Gap in the AI Revolution

Our healthcare IT company’s leadership and the professionals in our network focus on continuous learning so they are fully prepared to help the early adopters of AI technology bridge the gap between the solutions of today and those of the future. Our experts offer skilled IT support solutions for seamless implementation and integration of AI platforms.

If you’re looking to collaborate and partner with an outstanding healthcare IT consulting firm to implement AI solutions, we invite you to contact us online or call (602) 903-7961.