In a world of rapid technological advancements, the future of healthcare is increasingly shaped by digital tools, artificial intelligence, and the urgent need to address capacity challenges.
Sameer Badlani, executive vice president and chief strategy officer and digital officer at Fairview in Minneapolis, offered a unique perspective on what innovation will look like in the healthcare industry over the next two to three years at the Becker's Health IT + Digital Health + Revenue Cycle Conference in early October.
Artificial Intelligence has dominated headlines and industry conversations, with promises of revolutionizing everything from clinical diagnostics to administrative workflows. However, Dr. Badlani urged healthcare executives to approach AI with caution. While AI has enormous potential, its success lies in its thoughtful application, not in its novelty.
"AI has existed for 30-40 years," Dr. Badlani said, noting that AI is not a new phenomenon in research and large enterprises. "I heard about neural networks and machine learning and automation in the year 2000."
But things are different now. Back in the early 2000s, AI was focused in research labs as scientists tried to solve problems on how to train computers to write algorithms that could do complex things. AI was in the researcher's domain. Then, in the 2010s, AI became the domain of big companies with large data science and machine learning programs. Companies like Expedia and airline scheduling systems, to price supply and demand for flights. Big companies with a lot of money hired top data scientists to tackle the issues.
"The difference now is think of this generation of AI as the developer's era," said Dr. Badlani. "We had the research era, company era and now the developer's era. Why do I say that? Every one of us, our kids, our parents, can go online with an email account and get a ChatGPT account. This notion that you can control AI use is futile from the beginning. In fact, we need to turn it on its head and use crowdsourcing as a way to make progress here."
To do exceptional work, hospitals would need to hire top-dollar engineers or hire consulting firms. What can organizations without a big budget do? Dr. Badlani says make the most out of opportunities to connect with others and crowdsource to find solutions with AI.
But he also offers a word of caution: "The bigger the hype, the higher the hangover." As the excitement around AI reaches its peak, Badlani predicts a likely "trough of disappointment" when expectations are not fully met. He encourages organizations to continue experimenting and applying AI thoughtfully, even when the initial hype fades.