The recent AHA Executive Forum in Chicago spotlighted the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on healthcare and opportunities that AI affords providers. Randy Tempest, Senior Vice President of Sales and Relationship Management, and Doug Marcum, Senior Vice President of Technology, represented Meduit at the event as hospital and health system thought leaders from organizations across the country gathered to gain insights into how AI is transforming healthcare.
AI promises to deliver opportunities for improvement in patient outcomes, the patient and clinician experience and the ability to deliver high-value care. Through panels and discussions, the forum addressed a number of critical issues around the future of healthcare.
“With the majority of attendees being physicians, we were able to hear first-hand about how AI will impact clinical outcomes in a positive way and why using AI to drive better financial outcomes will complement the clinical approach,” said Randy. “We were able to exchange ideas at roundtable discussions with healthcare leaders and learn why the revenue cycle must adopt AI solutions as well.”
Reimagining healthcare with AI was a main topic of discussion as well and the fact that in the world of AI, yesterday’s data will not be the same as today’s data.
“There was a lot of conversation around the current healthcare model and that it cannot be sustained as it is today,” said Doug. “Rising costs in healthcare are growing faster than the economy, so the industry must find ways to reduce costs while still maintaining high clinical care and providing financial assistance to patients who need it.”
The forum also covered:
- How applying new AI technologies can help providers make more informed decisions and redesign care to the advantage of patients and the organization
- Ways healthcare organizations have successfully addressed pressing challenges relating to the use of algorithms, predictive analytics and machine learning to maximize the benefit of AI technologies
- How the healthcare workforce will evolve as organizations seek to enhance both human and machine capabilities
- The importance of not looking at AI as software or technology programs but as a partner to work alongside employees to make them faster and more accurate
“One speaker at the event noted that research has shown that one third of tasks can be replaced by AI,” said Randy. “It’s important to remember that AI is not designed to eliminate jobs, but to transform what people do today and how to make it better. AI will remodel the nature of the healthcare workforce.”
To survive rapidly changing technology around AI, providers will need to pivot and adapt in real-time.
“Though there were a lot of clinical people in attendance, most believe the majority of the initial AI changes will happen on the financial workforce and non-clinical tasks,” said Doug. “One speaker estimated that the back office financial and non-clinical tasks would account for 97% of the AI changes.”
Participation in the AHA Executive Forum earned attendees up to 3 hours of American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) Qualified Education Credit.