How Generative AI Can Improve Process and Workflow in Healthcare

My esteemed colleague, Dr. Mark Schildt, sent me an interesting article in JAMA on Generative AI (GenAI) and health care that was published November 30, 2023. It's a very worthwhile read entitled "Will Generative Artificial Intelligence Deliver on its Promise in Health Care."

The key takeaways were these:

1. Healthcare has always been slow to adopt technology and with very mixed results, but that may change with the accelerated adoption of GenAI we've seen to date.

2. We still need to figure out how to deliver better care by optimizing workflows and processes, by eliminating the things that serve no real purpose and get in everyone’s way. In IT, we often refer to that as technical debt, so we can refer to this as process debt. It's time to pay up.

3. GenAI is evolving at an amazingly fast pace and healthcare organizations can safely begin to leverage GenAI by addressing administrative burdens, waste, and non-value-added-but-necessary tasks. Automating and improving those things that waste time and resources is a natural target with relatively low risk.

There were many more excellent points in the article, but from a CIO perspective, these were the three elements that really stood out. As we look at how we can renovate our healthcare systems, including our IT systems, we will be able to leverage many of the current and emerging use cases of GenAI to that end. Maybe this time around, we'll be able to make deeper, lasting improvements.

How do you see new applications of GenAI being implemented safely in your healthcare organization in the next 12 months?