Similar to other fields, the healthcare industry is witnessing a surge of interest and excitement surrounding artificial intelligence (AI), especially within the last year. As an innovative technology, it holds the promise of revolutionizing healthcare in many ways, including enhancing decision making, optimizing operations, and delivering personalized patient care. What once was viewed as a trend of the times now stands as a transformative shift on par with the industrial revolution.
But amidst the interest, healthcare leaders are faced with distinguishing between what’s hype and what’s “doable-right-now.” How do we identify AI solutions that are suitable for our organization? How can AI be responsibly integrated and deployed enterprise-wide? How can we ensure our employees trust in AI and are equipped with the skills needed to leverage it? Leaders are grapping these questions and many more. These are just a couple of pressing questions leaders are grappling with as they navigate AI adoption within their organizations.
In a recent roundtable discussion, healthcare leaders and Divurgent Advisory Board members spoke with Divurgent of their approach to AI adoption. Through the exchange, valuable insights, challenges, and opportunities within healthcare organizations emerged.
Identifying AI Use Cases and Selection
Recognized for its potential in enhancing operations, empowering clinicians, and improving patient outcomes and experiences, determining where to begin and which AI solutions to use is complex.
As one participant stated, when considering AI use cases, it’s crucial to differentiate between pursuing valuable applications of AI and merely chasing trends. The reality is AI implementation can be costly and organizations must carefully evaluate the return on investment. “It’s very expensive to implement and if I am to implement it at all,” said one leader, “I need to make sure I can find worthy value to justify that cost.”
To foster innovation and collaboration, one executive took a proactive step of circulating an organization-wide memo. The aim was to raise awareness of AI, emphasize it’s importance, generate curiosity, explore potential applications, and identify strategies for a safe and affordable implementation. The overwhelming response provided valuable insights into identifying AI solutions that would work best for the organization’s specific needs. And because of the emphasis on the organization-wide engagement, AI will likely have a better chance of adoption.
One notable challenge emerged for an organization who found themselves duplicating efforts with a vendor who could deliver solutions more rapidly. This led to a first-time shift in their approach from a hands-on one to a reactive one. Because the development cycles are moving so rapidly with their commercial partner, they now had the opportunity to step back and assess available AI solutions even before matching to what needs they have.
Additionally, one participant shed light on the importance of recognizing the spectrum of innovation capabilities within the healthcare field. Each hospital and its vendors should evaluate their position on the innovation spectrum and determine whether AI adoption is suitable for them. The needs of one hospital may differ significantly from another, requiring a tailored approach to AI implementation and deployment. For those newer to innovative technologies, it may be helpful to look at AI technologies with large ROI potential that also minimize the fears often associated with AI.
Establishing a robust governance committee was unanimously agreed upon as essential for strategically evaluating and selecting AI technologies for adoption, as well as ensuring accuracy and efficacy of AI in production.
Establishing AI Governance and Responsible Deployment
Creating an AI governance committee is crucial for healthcare organizations, even if they’re not ready to implement yet. Given the rapid development of AI technologies, participants agreed that it was only a matter of time before its eventual integration into healthcare practices. Having an AI governance committee plays a vital role in overseeing the organization’s readiness for adoption, identifying suitable solutions, and ensuring proper implementation steps are followed. With AI having the potential to revolutionize healthcare, governance enables organizations to also address ethical, regulatory, and security challenges associated with its use.
The participants agree that while AI may seem like just another technology, it does hold capabilities that will extend far beyond what healthcare executives and clinicians have seen in the past. “Maybe they said the same thing when the stethoscope or MRI machine was invented,” said a participant, “but [AI] has legs to be significant, and that’s why the additional attention is warranted.”
To ensure holistic consideration of AI adoption and usage, assembling a committee with diverse roles is key. One leader shared that while their committee members weren’t AI experts, they include representatives from various departments, such as ethics, legal, clinical, HR, and IT. By incorporating these wide-ranging perspectives, the committee can better navigate complex issues and ensure responsible deployment of AI technologies.
Some organizations are also developing an innovation committee that includes a formal governance process that will allow innovative projects to be approved. One committee uses a detailed IT governance scoring grid, repurposed from their IT projects, and is built into the process of selecting AI technologies. With strategy high on their list of reasons to adopt, the most important question committees are asking themselves is “does it improve efficiency?”
As for deploying AI responsibly, all agreed that starting with a cautionary, low risk approach is best. “We’re doing it less in the patient facing area first to minimize any missteps before we go patient facing,” said one participant. “For example, with Epic drafting of chart responses, we’re only doing so where there’s a human in the loop and where we can ensure that the quality level is going to be high.”
With all participants acknowledging the largest gap in their committees is not having an AI expert onboard, many say it’s become a “learn-as-you-go” approach. “One of the first steps we’re taking is to bring this group up to speed and bring in an outside expert to give an AI 101.” Adding to this, one participant mentioned offering an AI 101 class to all employees, inclusive of all roles and departments, recognizing that most may eventually need to use AI.
AI Talent & Upskilling
With a large number of employees lacking technical and clinical expertise of AI, and with AI developing rapidly, participants are recognizing the importance of educating and building awareness around AI within their existing teams. With a shortage of highly skilled AI professionals in the current job market, as the amount of expertise has yet caught up with demand, they expressed that instead of relying solely on hiring new expert talent, they’re prioritizing the upskilling of employees who already understand their hospital’s operations.
Having trust in AI technology was identified as a crucial factor influencing their employee’s willingness to learn how to use and adopt it within their roles. “Instilling AI into your technology, operations, and architecture is a much harder thing to do at scale, [with] a big deciding factor of adoption [being] how much the technology is trusted,” said one participant.
It was shared that many employees are expressing concerns around AI replacing their roles. While it was said that the clinician who adopts AI will replace the clinician who doesn’t, AI itself is in no way meant to replace employees. Instead, AI is seen as a tool to not only help clinicians make more efficient diagnoses, but to also relieve departments and individuals of overwhelming workloads. By targeting groups and departments within the organization that need the most assistance first, such as clinicians drowning in charting work, acceptance of AI adoption becomes greater because they see tangible benefits that improve their workflows.
So, is AI just another technology? Yes – but it’s clear it will be transformational. It’s not the first and it won’t be the last, and healthcare leaders are recognizing its significance. They emphasized the importance of preparing for the potential (and eventual) integrations of AI. Also, fostering open communication, transparency, and education within the organization is seen as essential for finding success with AI adoption.
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