Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1525993
25 INNOVATION Rural Indiana health system signs generative AI deal By Laura Dyrda Richmond, Ind.-based Reid Health is the latest health system to ink a generative AI deal with Abridge. e health system, which serves around 280,000 patients in Indiana and Ohio, began offering Abridge to select clinicians six months ago and has decided to expand access systemwide, according to an Aug. 8 press release. AI integrates within Reid's Epic workflows to automate clinical documentation in real time. "Abridge is expanding access to care. e freed-up time has increased efficiency for the entire care team to where we've dropped responses to patient calls down to seconds," said Muhammad Siddiqui, vice president and CIO for Reid Health. "You don't have to be at a massive, urban healthcare system to have access to AI technology that makes a meaningful difference in the lives of providers and their patients." During the first six months of use, Reid was able to reduce the time it takes to respond to patient calls by 87%, decrease clinician aer-hours documentation time by 60% and drop effort needed to complete notes by 86%. Earlier this year, Abridge received $150 million series C financing with an investment from NVIDIA and announced partnerships with Christus Health in Irving, Texas, UVM Health in Burlington, Vt., Sutter Health in Sacramento and UChicago Medicine. n Why Mayo Clinic is partnering with an AI company By Naomi Diaz R ochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic is partnering with artificial intelligence company SandboxAQ to explore the potential of AI-driven magnetocardiography technology. The collaboration seeks to leverage AI to enhance the precision and effectiveness of heart disease detection and monitoring, according to an Aug. 8 news release from SandboxAQ. Under the collaboration, Mayo Clinic researchers will evaluate SandboxAQ's MCG imaging system, known as CardiAQ. This mobile device utilizes magnetic sensors and advanced AI algorithms to offer rapid, radiation-free visualization of the heart's magnetic signals. The partnership's initial phase will focus on a clinical study comparing MCG data with angiography findings and will be conducted at Mayo Clinic throughout 2024 and 2025. The study aims to explore the potential of MCG technology in improving cardiac diagnostics, according to the release. n Which parts of healthcare are off limits to AI? By Giles Bruce e AI physician will not see you now — or ever, for that matter. As artificial intelligence proliferates in healthcare, health system leaders told Becker's that human providers will always be part of the medical field, with their — AI-aided — treatment recommendations being discussed with patients and family members. "Any patient care decisions — whether to participate in a clinical trial, to take a new prescription, to proceed with a potentially risky surgery — that ultimate decision should be made by patients and their caregivers or family members, obviously in consultation with their physician or provider," said Joe Depa, chief data and AI officer of Atlanta-based Emory Healthcare. While eliminating humans from healthcare may seem like the realm of science fiction, Chinese researchers are reportedly developing an AI hospital that could launch later this year, Mr. Depa noted. at would never happen here, he added, because of regulations and ethical considerations. Patient consent should also be required for "digital twins," where AI creates computer replicas of patients to help with treatment decisions, or even to watch AI-generated videos, which Emory Healthcare is experimenting with, he said. However, Mr. Depa said nothing on the administrative side of healthcare should be off limits for AI. "Anything that is non-patient- facing, you should absolutely be leveraging data and AI to the fullest to help reduce administrative burden and take the cost of care down, and that includes rev cycle, that includes call centers," he said. Automating those tasks will give healthcare providers more time to focus on patient care rather than, say, determining what is covered by insurance, he added. "My take is that it will be very hard to 'carve out' parts of healthcare that are off limits," said Nigam Shah, MD, PhD, chief data scientist of Palo Alto, Calif.-based Stanford Health Care. "Instead my take is that we should focus on finding the right approaches for human-AI teaming in a manner that ensures that agency and fiduciary responsibility of care are not eroded away." Having humans involved in all healthcare decisions is not only ethically the right thing to do, but it also helps with healing, said Dennis Chornenky, chief AI adviser of Sacramento, Calif.-based UC Davis Health.