As generative AI such as ChatGPT is being touted as a new tool that can significantly reduce administrative burdens on providers, hospitals and health systems are proceeding with caution when it comes to the technology.
Here is how three hospitals and health systems having been regulating their use of generative AI to ensure privacy and safety is met before the tech is deployed in a clinical setting:
- Vish Anantraman, MD, chief technology officer at Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic, told CNBC that Mayo has created "safe sandboxes" that allow staff to test applications of Google's generative AI technology. According to Dr. Anantraman, this helps staff identify where the technology can be the most helpful.
- Chapel Hill, N.C.-based UNC Health CIO Brent Lamm told Becker's that it has begun piloting Epic and Microsoft's generative AI technology to answer patient inquiries in online patient portals. Mr. Lamm said UNC Health is conducting a "specialty-specific" approach with the technology to assess what areas it is most effective in. For example, does it work in primary care or cardiology?
- Christopher Longhurst, MD, chief medical officer and chief digital officer at UC San Diego Health, told Becker's that teams at the health system have been examining Epic and Microsoft's generative AI technology, which it is piloting, for potential for bias and worsening of health inequities. UC San Diego Health is also collecting data to see if the tool actually makes clinicians' jobs more efficient and to see if patients find ChatGPT's responses helpful.