EHR vendors and the companies that build on their platforms are pitching health systems a growing lineup of tools, many of them powered by AI and marketed as ways to save clinicians time, flag at-risk patients earlier or take work off staff’s plates.
In July, CIOs and chief digital officers at the largest U.S. health systems told Becker’s that AI was the most overhyped trend in healthcare IT. This time, Becker’s asked health system technology leaders a narrower question: What is the most overhyped EHR tool, and why? Here are six tools named by five executives:
1. Ambient AI clinical documentation. Saving physicians time on notes doesn’t transform care delivery until it produces measurable gains in patient access, provider productivity, clinical outcomes or financial performance, said James Wellman, vice president and CIO of Nathan Littauer Hospital & Nursing Home in Gloversville, N.Y. His organization is implementing ambient AI now, and he called it a valuable technology that is becoming a standard part of clinical workflows.
“I want our providers and organization to understand that by itself it is not the answer to all of our problems and if we overhype it then we risk missing our bigger goal,” Mr. Wellman said. “The real opportunity isn’t teaching AI to document what happened during an encounter. It’s enabling AI to help coordinate what needs to happen next.”
2. Autonomous AI agents. The industry is getting ahead of itself in suggesting AI can independently manage complex clinical workflows without substantial human oversight, said Darrell Bodnar, CIO of Whitefield, N.H.-based North Country Healthcare. He acknowledged he has also described autonomous AI agents as one of the biggest opportunities ahead, and said AI is already delivering value in clinical documentation, document summarization and coding guidance.
“I truly believe it will get there, but some of the technologies I have seen offered as mainstream tools really need to be examined with caution and diligence before deployment,” Mr. Bodnar said.
3. AI tools that haven’t been validated. AI tools that haven’t been validated across institutions or over time are a “staggering” category, said Curtis Cole, MD, chief global information officer of Ithaca, N.Y.-based Cornell University. His team now tests tools more rigorously and has removed algorithms, and in some cases entire vendors, when their claims didn’t hold up.
“It is disappointing, but I guess not surprising, that most vendors don’t do rigorous tests before they make fabulous claims. It shouldn’t be up to the customer to do the basic research,” Dr. Cole said.
He pointed to the pressure young companies face to drive sales rather than establish value.
4. Predictive risk scores without a clear next step. Predicting deterioration or readmission has limited value unless the care team knows what to do, who is responsible and whether the intervention improves outcomes, said Usman Akhtar, MD, chief medical informatics officer of Arlington, Va.-based VHC Health. His pick: predictive risk scores that appear in the EHR without a clear action to follow.
“Too often, the prediction gets more attention than the workflow that makes it useful. The real test is whether the tool helps clinicians act earlier and more effectively without adding another alert to interpret and manage,” Dr. Akhtar said.
5. Interruptive clinical decision support alerts. Even well-designed alerts can be reactive, disruptive and disconnected from the moment the information would help most, said Jason Joseph, chief digital and information officer of Corewell Health, which has dual headquarters in Grand Rapids and Southfield, Mich. He called them “part overhyped and overleveraged,” even though health systems have long relied on them as one of the few ways to bring clinical guidance into the workflow.
“Too often, we interrupt clinicians to identify a problem after the workflow has already created it,” Mr. Joseph said.
6. Enterprise clinical reference subscriptions. Access to evidence-based guidance is valuable, but organizations have long tolerated high subscription costs without much visibility into utilization, changes in clinical decisions or improvements in care, according to Mr. Joseph.
“Providing access is a service, but access alone is an incomplete measure of value,” he said.
Until vendors can show measurable benefit, he said, health systems should consider whether targeted subscriptions funded through continuing medical education, departmental or individual professional development budgets would better match actual need.
“The value of clinical knowledge should not exempt its delivery model from scrutiny,” Mr. Joseph said.
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