There are hundreds of artificial intelligence tools and technologies on the market right now, which can make it hard for some leaders to determine what is worth investing in. For Nariman Heshmati, MD, chief physician and operations executive at Fort Myers, Fla.-based Lee Health’s Physician Group, the decision comes down to which tools will improve quality of care “without creating new problems.”
Dr. Heshmati told Becker’s he’s excited for what AI will do in the future, such as summarize patient charts. His system is also exploring AI for message triage, note generation and visit routing.
But the technology comes with some uncertainties.
“Part of the challenge is that there are so many players in the AI healthcare space right now,” he said. “So there’s the question of which companies are still going to be around in a year or two and have a viable product. You don’t want to implement something that’s going to be discontinued or unsupported.”
Another important consideration is the accuracy of the product.
“We need to trust not just that the answer [the AI is generating] is right, but that it’s right 100% of the time,” he said. “Up until now, most AI solutions couldn’t show us why they were giving a particular response. Saying ‘it’s mostly reliable’ isn’t enough if we don’t understand how it’s generating the answer.”
However, more AI products are supplying citations to show where its data was pulled from, which allows users to verify and build trust with the program.
“I’m optimistic that things are improving quickly,” he said. “We’re going to see a lot of advancements, but the challenge remains: we don’t yet know which tools will be cost-effective, scalable, and backed by companies that will be around for the long haul. AI really does have the potential to improve how we deliver healthcare. But like anything else, we have to make sure there are no unintended consequences. It has to genuinely improve quality of care without creating new problems.”
