Academic health systems are being "threatened" by external pressures, but their leaders say that digital technology such as artificial intelligence can help keep them afloat.
"Academic healthcare centers are threatened in a way they've never been threatened before," Anne Klibanski, MD, president and CEO of Somerville, Mass.-based Mass General Brigham, said Sept. 23 at the health system's World Medical Innovation Forum in Everett, Mass., covered by Becker's. "The future of academic healthcare systems is in incredible jeopardy."
These health systems are "fundamental to the basic science" and training the "next generation of leaders" in healthcare, she said at a panel discussion. But Mass General Brigham starts each year about $1.5 billion behind, with increased costs and revenue that is "flat or going down."
More than 50% of hospitals are in the red financially, hurt by the "tremendous" cost of labor to go with inflation and supply chain challenges, Rod Hochman, MD, president and CEO of Renton, Wash.-based Providence, said during the session. Rural hospitals are shutting down every month, with smaller health systems now at risk of doing so as well.
Is technology the answer?
Dr. Klibanski cited Mass General Brigham's collaborations with 20 tech companies, from Microsoft to ambient AI startup Abridge. She hired her top tech leader, Chief Information and Digital Officer Jane Moran, from consumer products giant Unilever. The health system has grown its hospital-at-home program, which has shown "lower costs and better outcomes," into the largest in the country through a partnership with Best Buy Health.
"You've got to get outside of healthcare and you've got to look more broadly," Dr. Klibanski said. "We have to partner more broadly. We have to get out of the mindset of 'we do everything ourselves'.
"And adopt new technology in a very different way. We have invested very heavily into moving into the digital world."
Ninety-five percent of Mass General Brigham providers who were offered generative AI-powered ambient clinical documentation to reduce burnout took advantage of it, she noted. "When have we ever had anything with a 95% adoption?" she asked.
AI can also help human resources screen for the best job candidates, she said.
"Those repetitive human functions are the first places we should tackle with AI," said Kevin Mahoney, CEO of Philadelphia-based University of Pennsylvania Health System, at the panel, citing revenue cycle.
AI can also have public health benefits, by determining which patients should get in fastest for diagnostics and treatments rather than making people wait based on when they call in for appointments, he said. "We need doctors and nurses practicing at the top of their licenses," with technology by their side.
Dr. Hochman said he hired a CFO from T-Mobile and other leaders from Amazon and Microsoft, who "really changed our culture." Providence also deployed the "single largest instance of Epic in the world" and one enterprise resource planning system across seven states.
The health system also developed its own internal ChatGPT and bundled its data with peer organizations through a collective called Truveta rather than handing it over to Big Tech. "Folks like us know how to use it for good, not evil," he said.
Providence also uses AI to ease provider in-baskets and operating room scheduling, which he called "worse than landing planes at O'Hare."
AI is "going from Galileo's telescope to the Hubble to the Webb," he said. "We are going to see things in our lifetime that we haven't seen before."
Health systems need "highly longitudinal, highly curated data" to improve care and reduce costs, Dr. Klibanski said. A shift toward value-based care is also needed.
Only 40% of healthcare costs go toward care delivery so administrative spending has gotten out of control, Dr. Hochman said. He said one solution is to offer "primary care for all" in America, which would allow clinicians to provide care "the way they want — to use virtual care, use nurses, use everything else."