Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Dr. Brian Patterson, Physician Administrative Director for Clinical AI, UW Health

Transcript

Dr. Brian Patterson, Physician Administrative Director for Clinical AI, UW Health · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  Philips is a health tech leader focused on
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  innovation that improves the health and well-being of
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  people. Our health care technology and informatics solutions
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  help care teams diagnose, treat, and manage more
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  patients with greater precision, speed, and confidence across
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  the care journey. With Philips, clinicians are empowered
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  with streamlined insights in the moments that matter
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  for every patient. Better care for more people.
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  Philips.
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  This is Gracelyn Keller with the Becker's Healthcare
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  Podcast, and we are recording live at the
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  tenth annual health IT digital health and RCM
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  meeting. I'm currently joined by Brian Patterson, who
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  is the physician administrative director for clinical AI
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  at UW Health. Brian, thanks for being here.
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  Let's have you start off by sharing a
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  little bit more about yourself and your work
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  in health care.
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  Thanks. Happy to be here.
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  I am a practicing emergency physician. I've been
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  at UW Health for twelve years, going on
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  thirteen now.
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  I started in the research space researching,
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  the development and,
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  implementation
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  of AI tools, especially in the emergency department
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  space. And that work kind of transitioned me
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  over to the administrative side,
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  where I've been doing more and more work
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  helping set up our clinical governance of AI
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  tools and helping lead rollouts of clinically facing
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  tools at UW Health.
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  Perfect.
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  And so, yeah, let's let's start right there
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  with AI, because nearly half of medical practices
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  reported
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  using AI in some capacity in the past
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  year, and it remains a key topic for
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  health IT leaders.
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  So from your perspective, what are the use
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  cases that are making the biggest difference right
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  now, and how are you leveraging them in
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  your organization?
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  So there are an exploding number of use
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  cases of AI in health care. I think,
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  the area where we're seeing the most tools
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  that have actually been deployed and are making
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  change right now is probably in the revenue
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  cycle space where we have a host of
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  tools at various spots in the billing and
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  coding cycle that are helping to make work
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  more efficient, more effective.
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  Certainly, we're using these, and seeing good results.
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  On the clinical side,
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  I think Ambient has become sort of the
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  killer app that, you know, most
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  physicians are talking about.
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  People are looking at which organizations they're gonna
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  go to based on whether they have Ambient
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  already.
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  We are actively rolling this out at UW
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  Health and having really good results there.
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  And then the sort of upcoming AI use
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  case that I think is going to continue
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  to get bigger is the idea of summarization
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  and related clinical knowledge retrieval. As charts get
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  bigger and bigger for patients, the ability of
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  these AI tools to surface the information physicians
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  need when they need them is gonna continue
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  to be seen as a huge advantage.
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  I think right now these tools are are
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  still growing, and you're not seeing as much
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  buzz around them as around
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  ambient, but I think that's gonna shift as
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  people start to get more and more use
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  out of them as these tools develop.
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  And as virtual care expands from AI enabled
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  tools and remote monitoring to broader digital health
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  platforms, introducing new technology can bring challenges.
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  So what advice do you have for leaders
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  navigating everything from governance to patient engagement? And
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  can you share an example of how your
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  organization has balanced innovation with operational constraint?
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  Well, I think when we talk about AI,
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  because the technology is so revolutionary,
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  there's been this tendency to try to rebuild
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  everything from scratch. And I think,
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  very often
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  what I find myself saying to folks who
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  are coming to me with AI tools is,
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  well, how would you do this if it
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  wasn't AI? I think we need to step
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  back and recognize that in some ways, AI
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  is very different from everything else we've done
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  before. But in a lot of ways, the
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  change management
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  is the same and that a lot of
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  our organizations are very good at rolling out
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  new technologies, and we can fall back on
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  the knowledge that we already have and the
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  structures that already exist. I think AI is
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  revolutionary, but that doesn't mean you need to
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  rebuild your entire hospital's governance. In a lot
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  of places, this is so big that it's
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  being put in everywhere,
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  And that means that we can still use
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  our same systems of governance to move it
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  forward.
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  And how are you seeing recent legislation, both
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  state and federal, affect health care organizations and
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  health IT specifically? And have you adjusted strategy
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  in response?
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  So I think there's been, in the AI
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  space, a couple trends. One is maybe less
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  of a focus on regulation.
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  And then also in the broader health care
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  sense, I think there's been more of a
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  focus on margins with legislative changes.
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  So there is sort of this ability that
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  makes it feel perhaps even more wild west
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  than it was before where a lot of
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  folks are turning things on,
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  just to try to get revenue where they
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  can.
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  I think it is important to realize that
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  just because these things aren't
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  regulated as they might have been,
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  there is still a lot of liability and
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  a lot of room
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  to deploy these in ways that we may
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  regret later. I think my big worry is
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  that,
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  some health care systems start to put these
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  things out in ways that may blow up
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  in the industry's face, and then it makes
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  it tough for all of us to move
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  the AI technology forward.
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  And final question as we wrap our conversation
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  up. I'd love to know your top piece
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  of advice for health care leaders as they
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  prepare for further advancements in technology and rising
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  demands for care.
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  I think my advice being a,
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  clinician in AI is to continue to evolve
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  clinicians in the process. I think when we
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  look at these AI technologies, it's really easy
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  to see these as things that are being
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  housed in IT and it's coming into the
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  clinical practice to disrupt it. But the other
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  way to look at these are that these
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  are clinical tools that can be developed with
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  clinicians and rolled out with clinicians, with clinical
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  informaticists.
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  And if this change is coming and feeling
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  like it's from within the practice of medicine
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  as opposed to being imposed on us, it's
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  gonna be a much smoother transition and a
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  much more successful way to actually help the
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  patients.
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  A 100%. Well, Brian, thanks so much for
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  joining me today on the Becker's Health Care
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  podcast and sharing your thoughts and insights on
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  these topics. Again, we are recording live at
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  the tenth annual health IT digital health and
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  RCM meeting. Thank you.