The Value of AI Within Healthcare

Perspectives on Health and Tech

Discover the Value of AI in Healthcare

Are you interested in using AI tools to drive operational efficiencies within your organization, but not sure where to start? Listen in as two industry experts from HIMSS and Oracle discuss how AI is helping to transform healthcare operations and how to consider implementing AI technology in a healthcare organization. Hear about how AI is being used in healthcare today, risk factors to consider before implementing AI tools, and how AI can be used to boost clinician satisfaction while helping to reduce operational waste.

Featuring:

Mary Ann Borer, Senior Copywriter, Strategic Marketing Services, HIMSS

Matt Patterson, Executive Director of Oracle Health AI, Oracle

Listen as they discuss:

- How AI is being used in healthcare IT today and the impact it is having on the industry (1:00)

- Key factors that are important to consider before implementing AI technology in healthcare systems (6:45)

- Clinical and healthcare business workflows that may be best suited today for AI applications (8:20)

o Automation vs augmentation

- Key risk factors to consider when adopting AI in clinical practices (12:20)

- Which aspects of AI may add the most value to help improve the efficiency of current processes (15:22)

- What’s to come for healthcare AI in the future (21:35)

Notable quotes:

“My number one area of opportunity in healthcare, that’s best suited right now, today, for artificial intelligence is addressing physician and clinician burnout.” – Matt Patterson (9:47)

CTA:

Learn how Oracle is working to reduce the documentation burden on physicians and elevate the patient experience with the Oracle Health Clinical AI Agent.

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Episode Transcript:

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:38:08

You're listening to Perspectives on Health and Tech. A podcast by Oracle with conversations about connecting people, data, and technology to help improve health for everyone. In this episode, you'll hear a conversation recorded by HIMSSCast where the host and guest speaker delve into unlocking the value of AI within healthcare. Your host for this session is Mary Ann Borer and the guest speaker is Matt Patterson.

00:00:38:10 - 00:01:05:11

Mary Ann

Hi, I’m Mary Ann Borer with HIMSS. Today I'm joined by Matt Patterson, executive Director of Oracle Health AI at Oracle, and we'll be talking about unlocking the value of AI within health care. Matt, thanks for joining us today.

Matt

Thanks for having me, Mariana. I'm excited to be here.

Mary Ann

Wonderful, Matt. Can you start off by telling us a little bit about how artificial intelligence is being used in healthcare IT today, and what impact does it have on the industry?

00:01:05:13 - 00:01:31:21

Matt

Yeah, absolutely. And I'll start just kind of a brief introduction of my, my experience here leading into, what's been one of the most exciting chapters in my career. But I've spent about 15 years in health care, serving in a variety of different health care entities across the globe to extract value from technology investments. So have had the opportunity to really work with some large scale players across the globe.

00:01:31:23 - 00:01:56:14

Matt

And that's enabled me to learn some from some of the most innovative, forward thinking leaders across the industry on a variety of use cases. So I really started, in the heat of the adoption of core EMR technology during the meaningful use era. And throughout that journey, you know, 15 years ago till today, standing up care management programs to support value based care, you know, revenue cycle optimization initiatives.

00:01:56:14 - 00:02:22:03

Matt

Most recently, I led a venture around, a lab is strategy to advance diagnostic capabilities, which is another topic, but one that I believe, you know, diagnostics has so much room for, for growth in the future. But that's often back of mind for health care organizations today. But again, as I noted, this AI initiative is really the most fun that I've had in my career.

00:02:22:05 - 00:02:54:01

Matt

Of really just the value that it's bringing to healthcare professionals. To start off, just, you know, backing up a little bit around AI and healthcare, it's obviously the buzz of the last, you know, 12 plus months. But AI has been in health care for nearly half a century, and I refer to it as classic AI. It's used to carry out a specific task that a human typically performs, recognizing patterns and data to predict and drive what might happen next, or summarize what's already happened.

00:02:54:03 - 00:03:28:13

Matt

Or making suggestions. What's really happened in the last 12 plus months is within healthcare is leveraging generative AI. That's the newest development in healthcare that leverages massive amounts of data and computing power to look at things in a much broader context and generate something completely new. So GenAI generate documents that can summarize existing information. It can translate a document and extract information and classify text based on a specific request.

00:03:28:15 - 00:04:07:01

Matt

ChatGPT is obviously if anybody has actually tested that, it's a really good example of ask a question and it will give you a very succinct, summarized answer that's structured better than a lot of what humans can do. And so that's really where we're seeing this substantial shift in the healthcare industry is this shift from classic AI, which is if this happens, then I can drive this result to generative AI that truly can create something completely new around automation of administrative tasks, looking at precision medicine, etc..

00:04:07:03 - 00:04:29:06

Matt

And as you think about just the impact on what generative AI can really bring to healthcare AI, I go back to what Bill gates, an article he wrote in 2023 after he really he had a meeting with OpenAI and it started to click for him around what AI is really going to mean foundationally for a variety of industries.

00:04:29:06 - 00:04:55:15

Matt

But, you know, in his article, he was kind of focusing on health care. And, and he said this “AI will become as fundamental as the creation of the personal computer. It's going to change the way people operate to face some of healthcare's most significant challenges and rising costs, lack of equitable access and aging populations, doctor, nurse burnouts and global pandemics.”

00:04:55:17 - 00:05:37:22

Matt

We're already seeing a lot of those impacts at different levels, leveraging GenAI so, you know, rising he mentioned rising costs. Today we're, we're driving operational efficiencies across health care around more efficient scheduling, claims processing, supply chain management and eliminating waste of supplies through real time forecasting, timely interventions of care that can eliminate readmissions and higher acuity costs.

00:05:37:22 - 00:06:06:16

Matt

So we're impacting the cost curve already through AI, lack of equitable access to care. Social determinants of health is a big thing that we're embedding into a EMR today to provide an Uber access so somebody doesn't miss their appointment. And doctor nurse burnout. So I'm going to get into more of that today because that's where I'm spending a lot of my time within Oracle is addressing administrative tasks through leveraging AI.

00:06:06:18 - 00:06:32:07

Matt

In short, the integration of AI and healthcare. It truly is transforming the industry by improving accuracy and diagnostics and treatment, reducing costs, and ultimately leading to better patient outcomes. But we'll get into some of this today. It also raises important considerations regarding data privacy, like the ethical use of AI, how to put controls around it, and the need for regulatory oversight.

00:06:32:07 - 00:06:48:00

Matt

So overall, it's playing a crucial role around the evolution of health care. It's making it smarter, more patient, more efficient and more patient centered. But important to put controls in policy as organizations look to bring AI into your organizations,

00:06:48:03- 00:06:55:12

Mary Ann

What are some key factors that you consider important before implementing AI technology in health care systems?

00:06:55:14 - 00:07:28:12

Matt

It's one that I receive often. Where do we start? So the possibilities when you really dig into the technology of cloud hyper-scalers, the capabilities are endless, which is exciting. Yet it's also overwhelming when you really kind of dig in to what the possibilities are. So where to start is hard. And so a lot of clients and folks that I'm working with week in, week out, I give them this simple advice : start small and start now.

00:07:28:14 - 00:07:59:09

Matt

You can go address low risk use cases. Now to learn the technology, understand how to wrap your arms around it, and put controls and protocol around it before you get to those larger scale, higher risk use cases such as do I drive a diagnosis directly to a physician into their physician workflow, you're going to want to put a higher level of protocol controls and risk management around that type of larger AI.

00:07:59:11 - 00:08:15:00

Matt

We'll call it recommendation. In comparison to something like, how do I go create a draft note for a physician to have to review? So in short, my recommendation is always start small, but get going now.

00:08:15:02 – 00:08:25:09

Mary Ann

Now that's an excellent point. And let me add to that a little bit and ask you which clinical and health care business operations do you feel are best suited for AI today?

00:08:25:11 - 00:08:52:24

Matt

So as I mentioned on the front end, I've been fortunate, to have a variety of experiences across, the healthcare entities I've worked with throughout my career. And, I'll tell you, from my experience, it's all of the functions of the healthcare system that need automation and really need to have the opportunity to eliminate manual process and waste, supply chain.

00:08:53:00 - 00:09:21:00

Matt

You know, I mentioned AI, more effective predictive analytics to eliminate waste, huge opportunity across our healthcare system, of, you know, things that aren't necessarily needed and are wasted on a daily basis, that if we had more effective ways to forecast what's needed and when we could eliminate cost, eliminate that waste within our supply chain management system. Revenue cycle, there is more manual process in rev cycle.

00:09:21:02 - 00:09:47:11

Matt

And there are more tools coming out to augment that. Those manual processes, leveraging AI. So the automation of coding and prior authorizations claims processing, denials, management, a variety of aspects of how we can automate manual process today, predictive analytics to reduce readmissions, health equity programs that I mentioned on the front end. There truly are countless opportunities across the functions of healthcare.

00:09:47:13 - 00:10:20:00

Matt

But my number one area of opportunity in healthcare that's best suited right now, today for artificial intelligence, is addressing physician and clinician burnout. So before I get too far into the why there, I just summarize the where to start through the evaluation of two different concepts. One is automation. The second is augmentation. So think of automation as the automation of a process.

00:10:20:02 - 00:10:56:18

Matt

Creating a note automatically driving a code within for an ICD ten coding. It's addressing an administrative task versus augmentation. Is the AI actually providing a recommendation directly to the end user? I personally believe that as you think about those two concepts, the nature of what health care serves myself, my mom, my dad, my kids, it's so personal that we really do need to be careful with AI.

00:10:56:20 - 00:11:30:24

Matt

And so starting with automation of process and the administrative burden, there is so much opportunity there. My recommendation is start with automate automation. As you as we continue to see the AI improve, which it will exponentially in the coming years, I think that's when we start to look at the augmentation of care. And there are a variety of organizations out there that are continuing to look at this augmentation concept, meaning I want to drive a recommendation of a diagnosis or a treatment plan directly into the clinician workflow.

00:11:31:01 - 00:12:02:20

Matt

But again, my $0.02 starting small. Start with automation of administrative process. And as AI improves, think about da Vinci three to chat GPT four. There has been so much improvement around AI hallucinations, and those hallucinations are real in artificial intelligence. The iterations of AI will just continue to improve. And so as the AI improves, I think that's where there will be our opportunity to get to the next level of that true augmentation of healthcare.

00:12:02:22 - 00:12:05:01

Matt

That will really take AI to the next level.

00:12:05:03 – 00:12:23:01

Mary Ann

That's such a great point, especially when you think about how some of those kind of cumbersome administrative processes that are really a big factor for clinician burnout, what are some key risk factors, not that you would consider when it comes to adoption of AI in clinical practices?

00:12:23:03 – 00:12:35:06

Matt

Regardless of the use case, small or big, there's an associated risk, and it's important that it's articulated to the end users.

00:12:35:06 - 00:13:12:10

Matt

And as organizations think about policy, AI is meant to support human functions or decisions. It is not meant to replace it. So I've spent a lot of time and, you know, in recent months, traveling with providers across the nation to adopt ambient listening technology to automate their documentation within any of our. And when you sit down with the providers, I'm always very clear that the AI generated note is a draft.

00:13:12:12 - 00:13:42:13

Matt

The actions that the AI will recommend are proposed. It's critical that on the front end of the adoption, you really talk to, in this case, the physicians, about what the AI is and what it is not. It is not a replacement of your responsibility as a licensed professional to sign that note or to sign off on that medication or that prescription.

00:13:42:15 - 00:14:17:14

Matt

Right. So from my perspective, as we continue to get to the next level, the education of what artificial intelligence really is meant to be - an assistant, but not a replacement - is critical as we move forward. It's impressive what it is doing. Yet it's also important that clinicians, and end users of the I understand their responsibility. It still lies on them to sign off on as the human and the owner on really the impact of patient care at the end of the day, right?

00:14:17:14 - 00:14:52:10

Matt

So it's about putting the right controls in place so that you can control the AI and wrap your arms around it. You know, AI will, as I've mentioned, fabricate. There was actually an example from my book that I read around, asking that in this case it was for Da Vinci Three about how they knew, how did they learn so much about Metformin and the at that time, Da Vinci three replied with, I received a master's in public health and personal experience with diabetes in my family.

00:14:52:10 - 00:15:14:16

Matt

Well, they I did not actually receive a master's in public health. And so we kind of laugh about it when, you know, you're playing around at home with the power of what, you know, ChatGPT is or in this example, Da Vinci three at the time, but at that is an a hallucination of, you know, what the artificial intelligence is.

00:15:14:16 - 00:15:21:02

Matt

And so it's just very careful that you treat, like you do anything else in life with caution.

00:15:21:04 – 00:15:30:06

Mary Ann

Fantastic. So, Matt, what aspects of AI do you see adding value to help current processes to help transform health care?

00:15:30:09 – 00:15:43:04

Matt

I'm going to go back to my earlier number one opportunity that I believe right now. Current state AI has the opportunity to go advance.

00:15:43:06 - 00:16:16:18

Matt

And it's really providing an intelligent assistant to doctors and nurses to decrease administrative burden and to give some background that everybody knows about. But I've been on the front lines experiencing it in the practices, not at the corporate level or in the C-suite office, but in the provider practices that are doing, you know, every single day serving 25 plus patients in primary care, various specialties, etc. physician burnout is real.

00:16:16:20 - 00:16:36:14

Matt

And, you know, the administrative workload that has been put on to physicians and nurses, it has increased dramatically over the last 20 years. And candidly, it's diminished the noble desire of having young students enter into various health care roles to just help people because there's too much day to day documentation and paperwork. I've got to create these notes and insurance claims and requesting prior offers for lab tests.

00:16:37:16 - 00:17:04:04

Matt

It takes up 49% of a working day for doctors and nurses. So the net of this is that we need strategies to reduce administrative work on doctors and nurses to get back to what they do, provide patient care. And so, again, back to some of the things I've hinted at today automation versus augmentation, precision medicine, and some of these neat things that I am very excited about what it will be.

00:17:05:15 - 00:17:30:11

Matt

But my focus today, right now at Oracle Health is how can we automate administrative tasks to enable physicians, nurses and clinicians alike to get back to patient care? That is where we're going to see outcomes improve there. If you ask any provider - and I had the opportunity down in Knoxville, I won't mention her name, but a physician looked me in the eyes.

00:17:30:13 - 00:17:56:09

Matt

She's adopted our technology. She actually, has a four year old and a six year old, and she was telling me how on Sundays, she will spend anywhere from 4 to 5 hours doing documentation so that on Monday, she's not behind before she goes into the office. And she's got a full patient load. You know, tremendous, patient bedside manner.

00:17:56:11 - 00:18:22:07

Matt

And so, you know, she's a busy physician, bottom line. But still, I'm allowing her to spend time on Sundays that that 4 to 5 hours has gone down to 30 minutes to 1 hour. So the technology that we're providing to her is enabling her to spend four more hours per weekend with her four year old and her six year old.

00:18:23:09 - 00:18:50:15

Matt

And as a mom, that matters. And so what she told me, and she looks me in the eye as I was walking out of her practice, is. Thank you for contributing to the quality of care for my patients. And we have talked about, you know, her four year old and her six year old earlier in our meeting. But the bottom line is that there's direct correlation around physician satisfaction, linking back to patient satisfaction, engagement, and improved outcomes.

00:18:51:17 - 00:19:25:09

Matt

So if the physician is looking me in the eye, as opposed to typing on their computer, I feel engages the patient, I'm going to be more likely to remember what was said during the visit. I'm going to be more likely to follow through with the instructions that the provider has given to me. So I see the most important aspect of who are leveraging AI today, right now, in the near future, is getting clinicians back to what they were, what they went to school to go do, provide patient care.

00:19:25:11 - 00:20:00:08

Matt

It extracts across the entirety of a practice the health care system, the unit, you know, of a given floor. It's about addressing administrative burden. And that will bring attractiveness for young students to enter into health care again. Again, back to that noble desire strictly to help people. So in the near term, that's my focus to really bring back the joy of practicing medicine, I've had the pleasure to hear from countless providers on what this AI technology can really bring from Oracle and, getting them back to their practice and their patients.

00:20:00:10 - 00:20:09:05

Matt

And so that's, that's really it. I think in the short term, where the core focus should be and the excitement that is, AI's bring it into health care.

00:20:10:08 – 00:20:16:20

Mary Ann

Wonderful. Now, Matt, on that note, what excites you the most for what AI can bring to health care in the future?

00:20:16:21 - 00:21:01:23

Matt

So this is the art of the possible, right? And it does. You know, again, as I mentioned, I've had the opportunity to learn quite a bit about the capabilities that exist within Oracle's cloud. And other hyper-scalers have similar capabilities. It really, truly is endless around and to my earlier comment, overwhelming on what it is that we could go do, but to just name, you know, a few examples of really where I think and I'll, I'll go back to that automation versus augmentation to really getting to that augmentation aspect of what we can do to assist health care holistically, leveraging AI.

00:21:02:00 - 00:21:26:10

Matt

What I'm most excited about, and some of this is already starting to come out, with various entities. I think the impact is still, TBD around adoption, etc., but things like personalized medicine, how you can leverage AI to tailor treatments to individual patients by analyzing genetic information. Again, you know, there's a lot of interest there.

00:21:27:12 - 00:22:01:06

Matt

I don't necessarily know that it's being adopted across healthcare systems throughout the globe yet, but it's a very exciting on what I can bring there. And we're just scratching the surface. Medical imaging. So AI can be utilized to analyze medical images, to detect anomalies and aid radiologists in a, in a diagnosis that is very exciting so that a radiologist doesn't miss something if they're doing a night shift. Hypothetically.

00:22:02:06 - 00:22:33:04

Matt

Clinical decision support. So actually getting to the point that the AI can assist a health care provider for evidence based recommendations of patient care, how do you how does the AI potentially, you know, remind a provider or a nurse or a clinician of something they might have missed, right. Drug discovery. I think there's tremendous opportunity around what I can do to accelerate the drug discovery process.

00:22:34:06 - 00:22:57:00

Matt

Going back to, you know, the Bill Gates quote that I opened up with, how do you get ahead of significant things like we just went through in the pandemic? Well, AI can assist us in that as we think about what it can bring to the future. And, the other one, you know, to wrap in a bow is patient engagement.

00:22:58:02 - 00:23:23:09

Matt

I think that we all have our own ways of how it is that we want to engage with, you know, our own bodies, our own health care and AI powered chat bots. It can really know who you are, understand who you are, and how it is best to engage with you to get the best result of the engagement.

00:23:24:09 - 00:23:47:03

Matt

For - Are you doing your walking for diabetes right? Are you filling your prescriptions or not? Have you gone in for your annual wellness check? Are you going and seeing getting your dental exam on an annual basis? Small things that ultimately lead to more healthy populations and preventative care. I think AI has tremendous opportunity just through, you know, the scale of how it can actually analyze data.

00:23:48:05 - 00:24:09:21

Matt

It will take some of the pop health strategies and patient engagement strategies that exist today to the next level. So that's more getting to the augmentation aspect that I mentioned earlier, as opposed to just I think, you know, the core focus of automation, a process that we're that is the more of the here and now today. So, exciting times, a lot more to come.

00:24:10:23 - 00:24:20:03

Matt

And, I truly do believe that we're just scratching the surface of what artificial intelligence will be able to bring to health care. As we look back ten years from today.

00:24:21:05 – 00:24:26:11

Mary Ann

I'm sure looking forward to seeing what comes next. Matt, thank you so much for joining us today, and thanks for sharing your insights with us.

00:24:27:14 - 00:24:40:21

That’s all for this episode. Be sure to subscribe to Perspectives on Health and Tech Podcast. For more insights from industry experts. Visit oracle.com/health or follow Oracle Health on social media.