Artificial Intelligence

The industry must first get ready for the AI era by building up skills in reading, working with, analysing and arguing with data – also known as data literacy.

The health IT vendor sees creative and cross-sector use of emerging technology among the big trends on the front burner at HIMSS19.

In an effort to deliver on safety for patients through the establishment of protocols around AI, the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists (RANZCR) has created a working group that determines how the technology fits into the world of radiology and healthcare. Composed of practicing radiologists, data scientists, computer scientists and professionals in AI, the working group will explore what AI means for radiologists, the safety of the technology and training needed for doctors to use it. RANZCR President Dr Lance Lawler told HITNA that the group will also be working towards evaluating the impacts of the technology, the ethics of it, as well as how it fits into accreditations and regulatory frameworks. “We’re trying to be proactive with it so that we don’t end up in a situation where implications are not thought through,” he said. “Nowhere have we seen anyone seriously looking at these issues, which is often the way that regulations and new technologies come about. We want the technology to be used so that the benefits of it are reaped without being exposed to undue risk.” According to Dr Lawler, AI is of huge potential to radiology as it’s “very good at image recognition and pattern recognition”, which the field uses for image analysis to diagnose and follow up on diseases. But, even with the increasing hype around AI, there has not been enough work done to understand what the technology is, what it will be good for, what the risks of it are and how it can be applied to deliver better quality, lower cost healthcare to Australian patients, he said. As such, the organisation is embarking on a multi-layered approach to the issue. Dr Lawler said it will be looking into how AI is working in other countries, particularly in the US, with the FDA approving certain AI algorithms for use under certain conditions. “We want to understand their approach, and how that applies to us,” he said. On the other hand, it will be looking at bringing to market a training element that educates medical practitioners about the technology. “This new technology will be a tool that doctors use, so they have to know about this technology in order to deliver safe healthcare to their patients. The training element will look into what they need to know, how it will be delivered, how it will be assessed, etc.” [Read more: Standard bearers: The RANZCR’s journey to establish teleradiology protocols | AI gives robotic wheelchair facial recognition upgrade] The working group is also collaborating with Standards Australia to focus on standards and regulation. “We’re working with Standards Australia to decide what the standards are that need to be met, as well as the minimum standards for the applications of the technology, and then use those standards as the basis for safely regulating it, the way that everything else is regulated in healthcare,” Dr Lawler said. He addressed the need for a more combined, coherent response from government departments to actively investigate the use of this technology and involving medical academia and healthcare providers in strategy for it. “The ministries and regulatory bodies have been conspicuously quiet with AI, so we’d like to start engaging them in even basic discussions about this technology because it will make a very big impact, it’s only a matter of when.” IS AI REPLACING RADIOLOGISTS? Dr Lawler also spoke about concerns that roles will change significantly with AI infiltrating the market, in terms of machines replacing work done by radiologists. “There has been a lot of hype around this technology, some resulting in statements made about the future of radiology. They suggest that radiologists will be replaced by machines. Hypes aren’t based on facts and this is just an assumption,” he said. “There’s always going to be work for radiologists and it may just be an issue of reapplying people to different areas. There is fear of the unknown and the purpose of the working group is to put some shape around this whole issue so that people aren’t afraid of it.” [Read more: AI and machine learning – how soon will it be key to a learning health system? | AI algorithms show promise for colonoscopy screenings] At the moment, there’s very little impact of AI on health and radiology because it’s not being used to its full potential and is still under development, according to Dr Lawler. But he said AI is the “next big thing for the industry” and “is a great move for society as a whole”. “This is because there are some things that AI can do better than humans, but there are also some things that humans do better than AI so, we need to find a way to balance the two to deliver better quality healthcare overall,” he said. “And the best way to do that is to get ahead of the curve than be chasing our tails, which happens a lot in healthcare. “We want to get to a point where there’s an accepted and routine use of certain AI tools for some clinical circumstances. For radiology, that may be for breast cancer or lung cancer screening, or comparing responses to treatment – basically in high volume, repetitive cases that machines can do easily.”

These are two trends the electronic health record giant will be discussing with attendees at HIMSS19 in Orlando.

The specialty pavilion is the destination for leading-edge exhibition, education and networking on the show floor.

"Voice user interfaces are an essential step to humanizing the EHR," says Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Dr. Yaa Kumah-Crystal, who will be speaking at HIMSS19.

AI will be key to the high-intensity modeling needed for personalized care – and New Zealand is offering a unique test bed for the development of new approaches.

Hospitals can use artificial intelligence-driven technologies to automate manual and expensive processes. For instance, communicating with payers has become one of the most arduous responsibilities for revenue cycle departments. This is one of the messages health IT vendor Recondo Technology wants to get across to attendees at the upcoming HIMSS19 conference. "Anyone outside this department would be shocked at the sheer volume of transactions to process," said Eldon Richards, chief technology officer at Recondo Technology. "And payers typically will only go over three at a time on the phone. When you have on average 16,000 queries to wade through a month, that's not going to cut it." The other option – to look up authorization status on the payer's website – is less time-consuming but still requires a lot of staff hours, he added. Automation is the key Automation is a proven alternative that substantially reduces time and human effort to the entire authorization process – from querying the payer's website to find out if prior authorization is required, to automating the retrieval of the payer's answers, said Richards. Recondo Technology will be discussing a variety of trends with HIMSS19 attendees, though two stand out: AI and price transparency. "AI has been under an intense spotlight. Healthcare leaders really need to be able to discern where the ROI opportunities are biggest right now." Eldon Richards, Recondo Technology "AI has been under an intense media and industry spotlight," Richards said. "Healthcare leaders really need to be able to discern where the ROI opportunities are biggest right now. We believe based on our customers' successes that automating revenue cycle management processes are among the most significant ROI opportunities at present with AI – specifically, via robotic process automation, and even more so when this automation is further enabled with machine learning and natural language processing." Interest in price transparency has redoubled since CMS mandated that hospitals must post their chargemaster lists online, he said of the other trend. "That mandate goes into effect this month, so I expect price transparency will be top of mind with many HIMSS19 attendees," he explained. "I would caution that simply complying with this mandate will not be enough to bring true price transparency to patients, as many will be confused to discover that what they will actually pay for services is markedly different than what's on the chargemaster list. So HIMSS19 attendees should be on the lookout for solutions that do give that authentic transparency into cost." Breaking through the AI hype And Richards has more advice for HIMSS19 attendees. "A lot of CIOs and CTOs will be heading to HIMSS19 with the intent to find out where AI is really working, because there's just been so much hype surrounding the topic the last few years," he said. "Now it's time for the rubber to hit the road, so to speak. My advice for separating the 'fake it till you make it' vendors from those who have an authentic AI solution to offer is to look for three basic proof points: cost, time and the use of neural networks." If an AI system can process a lot of transactions in a short amount of time but at a high cost, that's an indicator that human effort was used instead of AI-driven automation, he advised. "If it can process a lot of transactions at a cheap cost but over a longer period of time, that's also a sign that humans were doing most of the work," he said. "These first two proof points are more geared toward evaluating AI technology such as robotic process automation. When evaluating claims that a solution is machine learning-capable, make sure to verify the solution is powered by neural networks versus standard rules-based engines." With price transparency, HIMSS19 attendees should consider the CMS mandate a marketing opportunity to retain more patients, Richards said. "The mandate will drive more potential patients to the hospital's website," he commented. "An online price calculator that's easy to use, gives an accurate estimate of the patient's cost and even provides payment assistance options will give them a reason to schedule services with your hospital."   .jumbotron{ background-image: url("http://www.healthcareitnews.com/sites/default/files/u2556/HIMSSSignJumbotron.jpg"); background-size: cover; color: white; } .jumbotron h2{ color: white; } HIMSS19 Preview An inside look at the innovation, education, technology, networking and key events at the HIMSS19 global conference in Orlando. Twitter: @SiwickiHealthIT Email the writer: bill.siwicki@himssmedia.com

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