Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1526981
48 INNOVATION Why Kaiser Permanente went all in on generative AI By Giles Bruce K aiser Permanente decided to embark on the largest generative AI project in healthcare to date aer considerable demand from clinicians and positive feedback from patients. e Oakland, Calif.-based health system rolled out an ambient listening tool from healthcare artificial intelligence startup Abridge to providers across its 40 hospitals and over 600 medical offices Aug. 15, starting with family and internal medicine and some specialties. "is has been the fastest implementation of a technology in my over 20 years at Kaiser Permanente," Desiree Gandrup-Dupre, senior vice president of care delivery technology services at Kaiser Permanente, told Becker's. "e demand and interest from the clinicians has been driving us to launch this quickly and also make sure that we're being as efficient as we could with the right amount of quality." e health system piloted the smartphone app, which listens in on medical appointments and automatically dras notes for the EHR, in its Washington market, where it was popular with patients and providers. Kaiser Permanente engaged over 1,000 physicians and other clinicians to evaluate the accuracy and quality of the AI- generated notes. "From an AI perspective, that quality assurance process will be something that we'll be leveraging as we look at all other tools in the future that have that type of capability built into it," Ms. Gandrup- Dupre said. e health system said the financial terms of the deal are confidential. Ms. Gandrup-Dupre said Kaiser initially looked at multiple solutions but picked Abridge based on safety, privacy and reliability and because it was a good cultural fit. Kaiser providers who used the tool reported less time spent looking at the computer and more eye contact with patients, who had high satisfaction scores during the AI-aided visits. "e clinician community was so supportive, it allowed us to go very quickly," Ms. Gandrup-Dupre said. "Everyone's excited that we've been able to make such a difference in our patient care experience." n Why Emory Healthcare created an Epic application By Giles Bruce A tlanta-based Emory Healthcare developed an Epic application that alerts clinicians when patients with sepsis might benefit from a different treatment. The health system created the artificial intelligence algorithm to suggest which patients might be good candidates to switch from traditional saline IV fluids to balanced crystalloids at the time of the fluid order. So far, over 70% of Emory providers have accepted the recommendation in Epic and changed treatments. "Our physicians always make the final call over any data and AI algorithm," Emory Chief Data and AI Officer Joe Depa told Becker's. "They can choose to opt in or opt out of the trial at any time." Emory has been researching the tool as part of its PRECISE (Precision Resuscitation with Crystalloids in Sepsis) AI trial funded by Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente's Augmented Intelligence in Medicine and Healthcare Initiative. Kaiser provided $750,000 over two years for the study. "Besides the novel approach to testing an AI algorithm, what makes this trial unique is the speed of implementation," noted Sivasubramanium Bhavani, MD, the project's lead investigator and an assistant professor at Emory University School of Medicine. "Researchers from other institutions have been surprised at how fast we have taken an algorithm from development to validation to a systemwide clinical trial." More than 200 patients have enrolled in the study to date. The AI algorithm runs in the background of the Epic EHR to identify potential candidates in Emory's emergency departments and intensive care units in near real time. "We are firm believers that if done responsibly, AI can help improve patient outcomes, enable groundbreaking research, and ultimately help make our physicians' and clinical care teams' lives easier," Mr. Depa added. n Why this hospital is building – not buying – its software By Naomi Diaz P hoenix Children's is charting its own course by focusing on in-house soware development, a strategy that contrasts with the broader healthcare industry's trend toward outsourcing technology solutions. David Higginson, executive vice president and chief innovation officer at Phoenix Children's, told Becker's that pediatrics is oen underserved by vendors that may view the pediatric market as less lucrative due to the relatively small number of large independent