Navigating the Digital Transformation Maze in Healthcare

I had the opportunity to attend Becker’s IT Conference in Chicago last week, where everyone was discussing how to harness technology to improve healthcare.

Here are the 3 key themes I walked away with:

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All Bets are on AI to Improve Healthcare

The vendor exhibition hall was full of vendors with “AI” in their name, and almost every vendor booth had marketing material mentioning AI in some capacity, such as “powered by AI” or “AI-enabled”.

It was also the most discussed topic in the panel sessions that I attended. In fact, attendees began to roll their eyes every time it was mentioned, as they were growing tired of hearing about it in every session! There was a lot of discussion on the promise of AI, AI pilots, and their outcomes, risks, best use cases for AI, and how to scale AI.  

I noted that the following AI use cases appeared several times in panel discussions:

• Inpatient wearables that monitor vital signs to predict patient deterioration
• Ambient listening for provider and nursing documentation
• AI-powered triage and patient portal messaging
• AI-powered clinical decision support for imaging
• Conversational AI (voice and text) to complete routine tasks such as rescheduling appointments and medication refills

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Virtual Care: The Future is Now

The shift to virtual care is proving invaluable. One participant noted,

“When diagnosed with cancer, having virtual care allows loved ones to join the conversation, providing essential support.”

This flexibility can significantly enhance patient engagement.

Another panelist who worked at a children’s hospital discussed significant growth in the number of patients they manage remotely (from 400 to 12,000), leading to a 45% reduction in NICU re-admissions.

I also heard about a situation in which a patient with chest pain was unwilling to wait in a busy ED and instead used a health system’s same-day virtual appointment to talk to a clinician. The patient got scheduled for a Cath lab procedure later that week and bypassed the ED altogether.

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Digital Tools Improve Patient Experience

Many health systems discussed how they are using digital tools to improve the patient’s experience.

One health system discussed how they are using virtual AI Medical Assistants to respond 24/7 to patient portal messages about their care. The project resulted in an 86% message buffering rate (meaning 86% of patient portal messages were answered via the Virtual Medical Assistant bot), and the remainder were triaged to a clinician for further clarification.

The importance of capturing patient feedback immediately cannot be overstated.

One organization discussed using text-based technology to gain feedback in real-time from inpatients as well as patients who were seen after a clinic appointment. If the patient responds with a thumbs down, it is routed to a service recovery work queue, and the patient receives a call.

In one example, a dissatisfied patient was called after their appointment, and it was discovered that an ultrasound was not performed during the appointment. The patient was brought back in for the ultrasound, which identified the need for a life-saving procedure.

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The journey of digital transformation in healthcare is filled with challenges and opportunities. If you’re interested in discussing strategies for navigating this landscape, please submit our contact form to request more information!  

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