In an interactive session at the 8th Annual Becker's Health IT + Digital Health + RCM Meeting, Travis Bias, DO, chief medical officer of clinician solutions at 3M Health Information Systems, led a discussion on the use of technology to improve clinical documentation while reducing administrative tasks for clinicians.
The discussion highlighted the role of conversational AI solutions in streamlining documentation processes. Computer-assisted physician documentation (CAPD) functionality delivers AI-powered proactive, real-time and automated nudges to physicians within their documentation workflows to close gaps— ultimately reducing the need for manual queries and improving the accuracy and completeness of patient records. Dr. Bias also described how this technology interfaces with EHRs as well as downstream CDI and coding platforms, allowing for seamless integration of data.
Editor's note: Quotes have been edited for length and clarity.
Key takeaways:
1: The aim of clinical intelligence is to free up time for clinicians to focus on patient care.
Dr. Travis Bias: "We know clinicians are increasingly asked to do more with less. We know physicians are stressed. We're wanting to build upon our existing knowledge and experience to decrease those headaches that lead to burnout downstream … It's about creating time to care."
2: Automation and artificial intelligence can improve documentation and coding accuracy to better capture the complexity of patient populations — but physician buy-in is a key consideration.
TB: "We see physicians interested in the technology for reasons like accurate quality measurement and risk adjustment. We've seen physician leaders, the champions for this tool, engage their physicians with a focus on quality. Physicians are quite attuned to how their quality is judged by external entities, so their leaders leverage that interest: 'The reason to engage with this tool is to ensure you completely capture the complexity of your patient population and are, thus, accurately judged for the quality of your work.' That's how we've seen organizations get physicians on board — more of a carrot rather than a stick approach."
3: Organizational intentions behind AI-powered automation are largely focused on enhancing the current workforce.
TB: "I think the whole goal of any automation using AI, no matter what type, is to augment the work of the existing staff. It's not about removing CDI teams, it's about supercharging what they're doing.
To hear more from Dr. Bias and how AI is helping to alleviate administrative burden for physicians, listen to this recent Becker’s Healthcare podcast.
Click here to learn more about physician assistive solutions from 3M.