EHR vendor Epic Systems and Microsoft are training Azure OpenAI on a large collection of information so it can asynchronously draft responses to patient messages for providers, and hospitals and health systems have already begun piloting it.
Here are four health systems piloting the new tech to help physicians respond to patients' questions in online portals:
- On May 23, Chapel Hill, N.C.-based UNC Health said it would begin piloting the new tool with five to 10 physicians. The tool will start with drafting a small subset of "more administrative" type messages.
- UC San Diego Health is already at the beginning stages of its pilot with the new technology. According to Christopher Longhurst, MD, chief medical officer and chief digital officer at UC San Diego Health, initial feedback from physicians and patients from the pilot has been positive, but he said it will take two to three more months to assess if the tool can actually deliver on its promises.
- Madison, Wis.-based UW Health and Palo Alto, Calif.-based Stanford Health Care, like UC San Diego Health, were some of the first health systems to join the pilot, and they have already started using the integration to automatically draft message responses.