The title of this post was the question that Samsung Healthcare posted to me:
Hi John! How do you see emerging tech like #AI and #MachineLearning improving efficiency in clinical settings?
— Samsung Healthcare (@SamsungPulse) April 11, 2018
Here was my knee jerk response:
1000% yes! I envision the day that #AI and #machinelearning basically do the documentation for the doctor. Then, the doctor just has to verify and sign off on it. Plus, it will automatically alert the doctor as needed in the exam room. https://t.co/yyubsfPfaN
— John Lynn (@techguy) April 11, 2018
At least a couple people strongly agreed including this one:
This x 100! The voice recognition software should connect to EHR, and fill in the blanks at doctor's visit. Everything is there, just needs to be plugged together
— AJ Montpetit (@ajmontpetit) April 12, 2018
AJ is right that the tech is nearly there to do all of this. I suggested that they key is going to be the person that packages it the right way.
This is a lesson we all learned from the iPhone. Very few things within the iPhone were unique and new. It was how Apple packaged all of the components that made it special. I think it’s going to play out the same when it comes to physician documentation. All of the NLP, Voice Recognition, Machine Learning, and AI tools are out there. Everyone will have access to them, but how they’re packaged is going to make all the difference.
All of that said, I don’t see this too far off. We’re already starting to see elements of it, but the entrenched players will have a hard time doing this. They’re already getting rich off of their existing products, so they’ll continue to make incremental improvements. Some startup company is going to come along and package this all the right way and win.
Plus, let’s be clear that one of the biggest parts of the packaging will be how it transitions users from the old way of thinking to a new approach. However, once the doctor sees it in action, they’ll see it as magical. Compared to the forms they’re doing today, it will be magical.
Who do you see offering this? Are any of the EHR vendors brave enough to do this? It’s so badly needed by so many.
Great article John! We agree that technology needs to make the jobs of clinicians and Doctor’s easier – and not add more steps. We at Swift Medical work on bringing Machine Vision and Machine learning closer to the patient to improve care, but also reduce the workload for the clinicians using our Digital Wound Management app.