New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based Northwell Health has reduced the number of days that pancreatic cancer patients wait until they receive a biopsy, oncology visit and treatment initiation with its new navigation and artificial intelligence program.
Northwell piloted an AI and patient navigation collaboration for patients with new suspicion of pancreatic cancer. Before the program, patients experienced a mean of 22 days to biopsy, 32 days to oncology visit and 56 days to treatment initiation from the radiology report.
The pilot program added AI into the patient navigation system to help flag and prioritize patients, cutting the time between first imaging studies and seeing the clinician, David Rivadeneira, MD, physician-in-chief and clinical strategic initiatives at Eastern Region Northwell Health and director of Northwell Health Cancer Institute at Huntington, told Becker's.
When a patient receives a CT scan with findings that suggest pancreatic cancer, AI sends the scan to the clinical team and navigators for review. The review prioritizes patients and expedites appointments with clinicians specializing in pancreatic cancer.
In the first month after implementation, the program reduced time to biopsy to a mean of seven days, outpatient oncology visits to 15 days and treatment initiation to 34 days.
"Every day, every week counts," Dr. Rivadeneira said. "I think AI will have more and more implications throughout cancer care in terms of identifying best practices and best treatments. I think that will only continue in the future."