Health systems see digital health investments that pay off

Health systems across the U.S. understand the importance of prioritizing digital and augmented intelligence (AI)—also known as artificial intelligence—to meet patient needs, address workforce challenges, reduce costs and improve care quality. But many organizations are not investing enough in these critical areas, according to a recent report on health systems’ investment priorities in digital health.

Nearly 90% of health system executives said digital and AI transformation is a high or top priority for their organization, yet 75% reported their organizations are not yet able to deliver on that priority. This is because they have not sufficiently planned or allocated the necessary resources, says a report from the consulting firm McKinsey & Co.

Additionally, 70% of respondents expect the highest impact to be virtual health and digital front doors, which are technology-based platforms that can help patients interact with their physicians and manage their care. For example, digital front doors can be patient portals, mobile applications, telehealth platforms, virtual waiting rooms, online scheduling and digital billing.

Meanwhile, 51% of health system executives ranked budget constraints as a key obstacle to investing at scale across all digital and AI categories of interest.

From AI implementation to EHR adoption and usability, the AMA is making technology work for physicians, ensuring that it is an asset to doctors—not a burden.

Here are some of the top digital areas where organizations have invested money and what members of the AMA Health System Program—which provides enterprise solutions to equip leadership, physicians and care teams with resources to help drive the future of medicine—are doing to increase their focus on digital and AI transformations.

1. Virtual health to drive patient experience and success

   1. The Kaiser Permanente Advanced Care at Home program combines home visits, telehealth encounters and remote patient monitoring connected to specialized command centers that coordinate services to help achieve a 30-day readmission rate that is lower than the national average. And importantly, the program also keeps patients connected to their homes and everything inside them that is conducive to their healing. Learn more about the Kaiser Permanente program and how it drives patient experience.

2. Digital front door

   1. A single mother of three young children who was working hard just to make ends meet was a frequent visitor to a local emergency department in the Sanford Health system for depression. The care team enrolled her in a low-tech, text-based remote patient-monitoring program at Sanford Health. It saved her life. Find out how Sanford Health’s digital program keeps patients engaged and improves care.

3.  Acute care workflow and throughput

   1. As many health systems and organizations work on advancing value-based care to prioritize patient outcomes and cost efficiency, a new tool has emerged as a partner: AI. The integration of AI within value-based care aims to enhance diagnostic accuracy, optimize treatment plans and streamline operations, ultimately improving the quality of care while reducing expenses. But despite its potential, the adoption of AI within health care faces some hurdles that can delay use within value-based care. Discover how Baptist Health uses AI to improve existing workflows.

4. Remote patient monitoring

   1. For a patient with a chronic condition who is coming home from the hospital, it can be overwhelming trying to follow discharge instructions. After a trying hospital stay, the last thing they may want to worry about is how to install a self-measured blood pressure monitor. But what if there were a way to take the guesswork out of technology installation and use? Officials at the Geisinger integrated health system believe they have found a way, and it involves partnering with a well-known name in consumer technology: Best Buy’s Geek Squad. Learn more about how Geisinger leverages the Geek Squad to improve remote patient monitoring.

5. Contracting or value-based care

   1. While the complexity of value-based care arrangements can bewilder even the brightest minds in health care, Bayhealth finds that a patient-focused mindset helps to keep things simple. For physicians and their care teams at Bayhealth, the focus on value-based care has meant helping a woman in an abusive relationship find a way out, helping a patient living in a tent find an apartment and get surgical treatment for his cataracts, and delivering lifesaving treatment for a brain bleed discovered during an annual wellness visit. These are just a few of the memorable cases that stand out, but the broader numbers also make the case for Bayhealth’s approach.

6. Virtual health to address labor shortages

   1. Physician shortages are affecting health care systems nationwide, which can have long-lasting effects on public health. And while the physician shortage in the U.S. has become a growing concern in recent years, Mid-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group has emerged with a notable increase in hiring. Part of this is due to search engine optimization using AI to source candidates and exploring the power of health care AI to reduce administrative burdens.

7. Advanced analytics, AI, machine learning and generative AI

   1. With so many patient messages coming into a portal, it’s possible to miss important details, especially if a message were long and convoluted. But by using AI as a tool, physicians get an assist in message analysis. Ochsner Health collaborated with EHR vendor Epic to launch Microsoft Azure’s OpenAI's GPT-4 language model last fall. Learn how Ochsner Health uses AI to read messages more closely by highlighting essential pieces of information that are important for physicians to review.

8.  Cross-site capacity management

   1. The high rates of maternal mortality and morbidity in the U.S. are unacceptable, so leaders at The Southeast Permanente Medical Group decided to do something about it and created the “cocoon pregnancy care model.” Learn more about how this model blends telehealth and remote-monitoring innovations with traditional elements such as counseling across the medical group.

9. Robotics or physical automation

   1. Kill the cancerous tissue with radiation therapy and leave the healthy tissue untouched. Save the patient while sparing them as much as possible from treatment side effects. These are simple oncologic goals but executing them can be made difficult because the patient's picture—the literal position of their anatomy—can change daily. That is where technology guided by AI and supervised by physicians and other clinicians at Henry Ford Health can help ease the burdens on patients and give them some precious time back to lead their lives.

10. Hospital at home

    1. Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, an integrated 10-hospital health system serving the Puget Sound region, continues its tradition of providing innovative, user-friendly health care with the launch of a program that helps patients recover at home instead of in the hospital. Learn more about Virginia Mason Franciscan Health’s Home Recovery Care program.

Visit AMA Advocacy in Action to find out what’s at stake in supporting telehealth and other advocacy priorities the AMA is actively working on.

Learn more with the AMA about the emerging landscape of augmented intelligence in health care (PDF).