Introduction to AI in Healthcare
Artificial intelligence (AI) is being used in new and exciting ways to improve healthcare. Recently, IBM and Google announced separate initiatives that use AI to expand enterprise intelligence services and surface clinical information at the point of care.
New AI Agent at Seattle Children’s
Google Cloud is partnering with Seattle Children’s Hospital to launch an AI agent called Pathway Assistant. This agent streamlines access to critical, evidence-based information within the hospital’s clinical effectiveness program. The tool can help providers improve patient outcomes for more than 70 diagnoses. The partners built the clinical decision-making tool with Google’s Gemini machine learning models on Google Cloud’s Vertex AI platform to enhance clinical decisions and reduce provider workload burdens.
How the AI Agent Works
The AI agent quickly synthesizes text, images, and the latest medical literature at the point of care, which could take up to 15 minutes if done manually. This is a significant step forward in delivering quality care, according to Dr. Clara Lin, the hospital’s vice president and chief medical information officer. The tool also reduces provider workloads and extends the "collective wisdom of all the medical professionals who authored the pathways" to providers using the AI consultant.
IBM Expands Enterprise Intelligence Services
IBM announced the acquisition of New York-based Hakkoda, a data and AI consultancy. This acquisition will help IBM’s clients build an integrated enterprise data infrastructure that can fuel AI-driven business processes. The addition of Hakkoda’s specialized data platform expertise expands IBM’s data transformation services portfolio, which could speed up clients’ data modernization efforts.
Benefits of the Acquisition
The acquisition of Hakkoda will enable IBM to deliver value faster to clients as they transform with AI. Hakkoda is also a Snowflake partner, adding core and advanced certifications to IBM’s portfolio, and an advanced-tier partner of Amazon Web Services.
A New SDOH Accountability Framework
To optimize member health outcomes and better inform social risk management decisions, Socially Determined, Mathematica, and MedeAnalytics are collaborating to develop a data-driven, actuarially validated framework. This framework will assess the ROI of decisions around social determinants of health. The partners will use MedeAnalytics’ Health Fabric platform, which combines strategic advisory services and AI, to measure SDOH impacts and deliver actionable insights.
Goals of the Framework
The goals of the framework are to empower healthcare organizations to improve patient outcomes while simultaneously reducing costs and enabling measurable impact for the communities they serve. The partners will focus on providing robust financial impact assessments that could create a more complete picture of member populations and result in better resource optimization.
Conclusion
In conclusion, AI is being used in various ways to improve healthcare. From expanding enterprise intelligence services to surfacing clinical information at the point of care, AI has the potential to revolutionize the healthcare industry. The new AI agent at Seattle Children’s, IBM’s expansion of enterprise intelligence services, and the new SDOH accountability framework are just a few examples of how AI is being used to improve healthcare.
FAQs
- Q: What is the name of the AI agent launched by Google Cloud and Seattle Children’s Hospital?
A: The AI agent is called Pathway Assistant. - Q: What is the purpose of the SDOH accountability framework?
A: The purpose of the framework is to assess the ROI of decisions around social determinants of health and optimize member health outcomes. - Q: What is the name of the platform used by MedeAnalytics to measure SDOH impacts?
A: The platform is called Health Fabric. - Q: What is the goal of IBM’s acquisition of Hakkoda?
A: The goal of the acquisition is to help IBM’s clients build an integrated enterprise data infrastructure that can fuel AI-driven business processes.
