AI, machine learning, and NLP are revolutionizing healthcare through data analysis. Premier Inc. exemplifies this transformation, showcasing how AI optimizes patient selection for trials, identifies diseases like lung cancer, and enhances dementia care. By diversifying clinical trials and predicting supply shortages, AI ensures equitable healthcare access and efficient supply chains. While AI complements human expertise, its rapid data processing capabilities reshape healthcare, promising improved patient outcomes.
The evolution of AI is already making significant strides, ushering in a range of improvements in healthcare. Premier Inc., a digital transformation company collaborating with numerous healthcare providers, demonstrates how machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) are reshaping the industry by harnessing structured and unstructured data to optimize operations, enhance care delivery, and elevate the patient experience.
In a recent virtual congressional briefing hosted by Premier Inc., it was revealed that healthcare facilities and systems are effectively employing artificial intelligence for various purposes. These include improving patient selection for clinical trials, mitigating disruptions in healthcare supply chains, early detection of diseases, and reducing patient wait times.
Premier Inc. believes that while AI can play a crucial role in advancing healthcare and fostering innovation, it should not replace the practice of medicine. Nevertheless, one area where AI can make a substantial impact is in connecting underserved patients with clinical trials, as it helps identify high-quality, standardized, and diverse data representative of real-world clinical practice. Such data, coupled with AI, machine learning, and NLP, can significantly augment research efforts.
The utilization of both structured and unstructured data has allowed Premier to expedite the matching of appropriate patients with clinical trials, with unstructured data, such as narratives from discharge summaries and clinician-patient conversations, proving particularly valuable. Radiology and histology are examples of healthcare domains where AI’s potential is being showcased, serving to complement and innovate healthcare practices.
One remarkable application involved analyzing lung scans during the COVID-19 pandemic. Premier collaborated with the largest health information exchange in the U.S. and life science partners to leverage AI, machine learning, and NLP techniques. The analysis of 6.3 million patient records took a mere three weeks, uncovering 152,000 patients with pulmonary nodules, potentially indicative of lung cancer. This rapid analysis demonstrated AI’s revolutionary capacity to process vast amounts of data at a speed unattainable by human efforts.
AI is also proving its worth in predicting Alzheimer’s disease and enhancing dementia care. By leveraging structured and unstructured data, Premier’s data ontology assists in early patient identification, contributing to early intervention for Mild Cognitive Impairment. AI-driven techniques are also instrumental in accelerating clinical trials, addressing recruitment challenges, and potentially reducing costs significantly.
Another critical aspect where AI is driving change is the diversification of clinical trials. Historically underrepresented populations, such as Black Americans and Latinx individuals, have been addressed through a model that starts with data-driven identification of eligible patients and then recruits physicians and healthcare systems accordingly.
Furthermore, AI, NLP, and machine learning are being applied in healthcare administration and supply chain management. These technologies enable the prediction of supply shortages, helping health systems take proactive measures to ensure adequate medical and surgical supplies. In addition, automation is streamlining the prior authorization process, reducing manual efforts and improving efficiency for both patients and healthcare providers.
In conclusion, AI’s integration into healthcare is already generating a multitude of benefits, from enhancing clinical trials and early disease detection to optimizing supply chains and streamlining administrative processes. While AI will never replace human expertise in healthcare, its ability to innovate and supplement the industry is undeniable, offering the potential to significantly improve patient care and outcomes.
