by Garrett Holt
Tennessee has one of the robust healthcare sectors in the nation, driven by companies and innovators across our state that are shaping the future of medicine. However, Tennessee’s medical community is not immune to the widespread problems that plague the healthcare field. Burnout is rampant, costs are increasing, and access to care is becoming in many cases more limited. Artificial intelligence, however, is offering a revolutionary opportunity for healthcare and fortunately our state is leading the way.
For example, doctors and healthcare providers across Tennessee are integrating AI technology into their administrative processes, enhancing the quantity and quality of the care they can provide by being able to parse through mountains of data in seconds. Manually completed paperwork is time-consuming, prone to pile up and subject to errors, which may result in treatment delays, risks to patient safety, and increased costs. AI offers a streamlined alternative.
In Tennessee, AI is being used by West Tennessee Healthcare to sort through patient data with high-quality integrity and HIPPA-compliant protection. The hospital system’s innovative interface provides patients with updated and accurate wait times, lab results, imaging diagnostics and personalized discharge summaries. This creates a more efficient process for everyone, decreases burdens on the healthcare system and improves patient care. AI further communicates lab results and discharge summaries in a language patients can clearly understand, without the complexity of medical jargon.
Another doctor in Chattanooga, Tennessee uses AI as a scribe to generate treatment plans and billing information for his patients. This helps reduce the time the doctor must spend on paperwork and increases the time he can spend with his patients, optimizing the patient-doctor relationship. In an industry where a persistent concern is the widespread shortage of staff, this is a critical development. AI is already at work combatting the healthcare industry’s staffing shortage, as studies have shown that the more time doctors spend outside of office hours working on treatment plans and billing, the more likely they are to experience burnout and risk leaving the medical profession altogether. Moreover, AI medical technology has the potential to enhance procedures, track patients’ health insights and assist doctors with decision-making..
Researchers at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UT) and Vanderbilt University are already revolutionizing the way AI is integrated with healthcare. Using AI to generate predictive analytics, UT researchers can anticipate the future needs of patients. This enables medical professionals to provide early intervention, plan for resources, account for patient load and consider best methods in healthcare delivery. Similarly, Vanderbilt researchers are using AI to generate predictive models that test and evaluate treatments, identify patterns of diseases and apply disease prevention.
Of course, there are many applications and developments regarding AI that have yet to be discovered. But there is no question that Tennessee’s innovative leadership and decision to integrate AI with the healthcare industry has brought about positive changes for our state and beyond. Applying AI in the medical field enhances operational efficiency, optimizes patient care and supports biomedical discoveries that work to improve clinical outcomes through education and research. Tennessee needs to stay ahead of the curve on AI, by encouraging this technology’s growth and implementation across our state to enhance our economic offerings.
– – –
Garrett Holt, entrepreneur and former Knoxville political candidate, has worked in medical sales for nearly a decade and is familiar with the latest technology impacting the industry.
