Chicago-based CommonSpirit CIO Daniel Barchi fears that putting too much faith in artificial intelligence could divert providers from more urgent matters, Politico reported May 8.
"I'm excited about the use of AI, yet I worry that it distracts us from the care that we need to do every day," he told the publication. "It's easy to focus on the bright and shiny objects and forget about the challenges of day-in and day-out medical care."
Mr. Barchi said he believes AI has a lot of potential, but that nurses and physicians also need better medical equipment, updated pharmacy databases and coordinated care strategies.
Additionally, he said healthcare's complexity makes it difficult to build AI systems that can account for the industry's nuances.
"Because healthcare is so bespoke in every way, it's hard to create tools that automate processes in a massive, scalable way that have financial benefit," he told Politico.
Despite his concerns, Mr. Barchi said CommonSpirit has more than 100 AI tools, some of which it built and others it purchased.
"I think AI is key to how we're going to care for patients in the future," he said. "And yet we can't focus on the future in a way that ignores the care that we deliver today."