UPMC is exploring the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare delivery. While AI chatbots could help patients access information easily, they cannot replace physicians and care teams. Instead, AI could serve as a copilot to clinicians, helping them provide better care to patients. UPMC is also developing ways to help clinicians provide personalized care through a process called “digital twinning.” UPMC is developing new technology that enables doctors to automatically document contacts with patients while ensuring the privacy and security of patient’s information to be a leader in providing treatment outside of its hospitals or clinics.
Artificial intelligence (AI) developments could revolutionize how healthcare is delivered. Experts at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) claim that ChatGPT and other AI algorithms are already being investigated for their potential to enhance patient outcomes and care. AI chatbots may make it easier for patients to obtain information, but it’s crucial to remember that they cannot take the place of doctors and care providers when it comes to making decisions regarding a patient’s health. Instead, AI might act as a copilot for professionals, assisting them in giving patients better treatment.
UPMC’s Chief Technology Officer, Chris Carmody, reveals that his team is exploring ways to make AI-based platforms like ChatGPT available to the organization’s patients and Health Plan subscribers. For instance, users could connect to a platform and ask questions about their benefits plan or get assistance in finding the best physician nearby. Even as technology develops, AI chatbots won’t be able to give medical advice.
Carmody points out that AI will act as UPMC’s clinical staff’s copilot rather than as a replacement. Connecting patients to clinical trials is one instance of how AI may be employed. To provide the care team with a list of clinical trials that a patient might be eligible for, UPMC is developing a system that would read and analyze patients’ electronic medical records. The decision to discuss choices with the patient is thereafter up to the professionals.
Through a method known as “digital twinning,” UPMC engineers are also creating ways to assist clinicians in providing patients with individualized care. This technology allows clinicians to create a model of the patient with all the same demographics, health conditions, and medications. With this model, the care team would be able to adjust medications or other treatments and see potential outcomes or side effects. It would allow clinicians to test new treatment plans before enacting them so they can determine the best way forward.
In addition to these new solutions, Carmody and his team are looking into ways they can enhance solutions that UPMC has been using for years, including telemedicine. UPMC aims to be a leader in extending care outside of the four walls of its hospitals or clinics. They are continuing to enhance their telemedicine system and explore new ways for clinicians to keep an eye on patients’ conditions while they’re at home.
UPMC is also testing technology that allows physicians to automatically document interactions with patients. Abridge, a business owned by UPMC Enterprises and founded by former UPMC cardiologist Dr. Shiv Rao, is used by a small number of medical practitioners. When a patient and their healthcare provider are speaking, Abridge “listens” to the conversation, picks out the key elements, such as a change in medicine or behavior, and records them for the patient and the electronic medical record. Thus far, responses from patients and professionals have been encouraging.
While these developments are promising, Carmody warns that it might be some time before any of them are used regularly in healthcare. It takes time to get this technology online, and patient and member data protection and security are given first attention. Only until UPMC is certain that a solution can be utilized properly and that its physicians and patients always receive accurate, helpful, secure information, will they begin to implement it.
