Editor’s Note: This is the second part of a two-part interview. To read the first part, Click here.
National Children’s Hospital, in Washington, D.C., makes strong use of AI technologies in both clinical and administrative settings throughout the organization. While many hospitals and health systems across the country have begun to explore fragmented AI projects and limited use cases, Children’s National is slightly ahead of the pack.
One of the reasons it’s been able to move forward more quickly is that it has one person overseeing everything related to AI and machine learning technologies: Alda Mezzaco, chief data and AI officer at Children’s National.
Yesterday, in the first part of this two-part conversation with Misako, I talked about how to do just that AI leaders need a deep understanding of clinical technologies and processes They need strong leadership abilities, effective communication skills, and the ability to speak with a variety of stakeholders.
Today she gives a breakdown of Children’s Nation’s use of AI, offers a deeper look at one AI project she’s particularly proud of and its results, and offers other IT executives looking to become an AI CEO some advice for the journey. .
Question: Please talk at a high level about where and how Children’s National Hospital is using AI today.
A. We benefit from AI in a few areas. At a broad level, it’s decision support, looking at patients, and creating efficiencies, both in the clinical environment and in the office environment. We’ve also had a lot of success with predictive analytics.
Using AI, the organization’s goal is to enhance our ability to reach decisions faster when we talk about patients and diagnoses. Looking at the treatment plans and steps that are part of those treatment processes to ensure that they are personalized and that we have an effective way to track and document the notes created as part of those office visits and hospital visits.
We are looking to improve resource allocation as well and ultimately improve outcomes for patients and operational workflows. The majority of our AI work is currently focused in this area.
Question: This time, more specifically, I hope you can describe and discuss a specific AI project that you are proud of and that is working well for the organization. What are some of the results you are seeing? How did you supervise this project?
A. One of the things I’m very proud of that we’ve put into practice recently is here Cooperation with Microsoftwhere we brought in our technical team and collaborated with Microsoft technical experts as well.
The goal was to create and facilitate a quick sample session. We wanted to build four rapid prototypes in less than two days. We’d heard the concept of fail fast, so we wanted to work with top experts in the field to be able to understand some of the ideas we were interested in and how successful we were at building some of those prototypes to see if it was even possible. It will be effective in our daily operations.
We had over 10 departments come in and participate as part of this process, really putting the team science into practice. We’ve had a great partnership with Microsoft. It was a successful initiative. In just two days, we finished building four prototypes.
Overall emphasis has been placed on the ability to search documents such as policies and procedures and change the way people interact with data and information stored in policies and procedures. Instead of having to look at a document, you can ask the AI the question and get an answer without having to do a lot of research. We’ve been able to build a prototype around that.
We then focused on some clinical space where we targeted notes resulting from hospitalization, and created summaries of those notes with a different persona in mind. A note that can be sent to the patient’s parent, a set of notes written in the patient’s language, it’s something they can understand.
Another option could go to the primary care physician, another could go to our revenue cycle department so they can understand some of the billing aspects of what was provided in the care. We’ve also done something we call the next best action, which is focused on looking at all the appointments that could come after that interaction and engagement we had with the patient and compiling them into a shared list that can then be followed up on.
If a doctor makes a recommendation to see a specialist or return to that office or have a certain test done, it will all be compiled by AI and make it very easy to find all the recommended information for the patient. We’ve also looked at some very specific methods Change some fatigue and alertness It happened in healthcare and we experimented with a system in that field just to see what was possible.
Lots of opportunities and lots of ideas that resulted from this collaboration.
S. What three or four pieces of advice would you give to other IT executives looking to become a chief AI officer in a hospital or health system?
A. I have three or four I can share. The first is to understand the clinical landscape, and ensure that the person has a deep understanding of the clinical workflow and the challenges in that workflow. This can happen in partnership with someone in the organization, but this knowledge goes a long way in identifying areas where AI can bring real value.
Another topic revolves around enhancing cooperation. We talked about that yesterday as well, so just building strong relationships with your clinical operational IT teams. This collaboration leads to successful implementation of AI.
Another one is to find a way to stay up to date. AI technology moves very quickly, so keeping up with all the latest developments, all the regulations, and all the new things we see every day can be a challenge. Finding a way to stay in touch with new initiatives, new opportunities, some evolving technologies, and some compliance rules that will be released.
Then finally, just focus on responsible use and ethics. Just to prioritize the time it takes to really think about AI deployment and take responsible usage considerations into practice and ensure that patient data, privacy, and security, that they’re always at the forefront so that we can innovate and deliver great technology, but do it safely and in a responsible way.
To watch a video of this interview that contains additional content not included in this story, visit Click here.
Editor’s Note: This is the third installment in our series, Chief AI Officers in Healthcare. To read Part 1, an interview with Dennis Chornenky at UC Davis Health, Click here. To read Part 2, with Dr. Karandeep Singh of UC San Diego Health, Click here.
Follow Bill’s HIT coverage on LinkedIn: Bill Siwicki
Send him an email: bsiwicki@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS media publication
