With the rapid growth of artificial intelligence, organizations are optimistic that the technology … [+]
In its latest report titled “The State of AI During Major Burnout in Health Care,” big data unicorn Innovaccer details the progress and current state of affairs regarding artificial intelligence and its extremely rapid growth in healthcare. The report primarily aims to educate and explore AI as a tool to improve efficiency, a tool to enable significant time and cost savings in clinical settings, and also to stimulate a discussion about the opportunities and insights that can help innovators in pushing of forward development.
To do this, Innovaccer conducted the study by surveying around 568 professionals employed in healthcare settings in 368 organizations and the results spoke for themselves; respondents were extremely enthusiastic about the adoption of AI in healthcare. Specifically, nearly 82% of respondents indicated that AI has become important to their operations; 67% indicated they would like AI to reduce their burnout, and 87% of respondents who have not used AI before indicated their interest in exploring use cases to potentially find ways to reduce clinical burnout.
In the context of a rapidly changing healthcare landscape where physicians are increasingly facing escalating levels of burnout, these results make perfect sense. An American Medical Association study published in 2022 found that burnout rates have been at all-time highs in recent years for doctors. This burnout has also been a significant source of attrition for healthcare workers in general, leading to widespread shortages globally and an entirely unsustainable healthcare workforce. Additionally, ancillary industries have capitalized on this phenomenon and lured physicians into non-traditional, non-clinical careers; for example, many physicians have turned to lucrative opportunities in the technology, pharmaceutical, and consulting services industries as a means to earn money and better expand their skills and knowledge bases.
Innovaccer’s own report confirms much of the same; According to his findings, nearly 1/3 of healthcare workers report symptoms of burnout and approximately 64% cite being overworked. The data certainly does not paint a promising picture of the future of the health care workforce.
Innovaccer, founded nearly a decade ago, is now worth more than $2 billion.
Fortunately, rapid work with artificial intelligence for clinical settings is paving the way for the potential break.
Innovaccer itself is a pioneer in this field and has achieved “unicorn status” for how deeply it has been able to integrate its work with healthcare organizations globally. From population health management to organizational maturity assessments and advanced analytics, the firm has grown rapidly and competes with some of the most prominent big data analytics players in the field; in fact, in the last funding discussion earlier this year, the company was said to be valued at around $2.5-3.2 billion.
Undoubtedly, the competition is fierce and other big tech companies are also leaning heavily into this arena and introducing new tools and AI platforms to solve the big data problem in healthcare. Take for example Google’s Vertex AI platform, which provides clinicians/employees with a tool to search their organization’s data to generate an answer based on a user’s question, and even cites the exact source for the answer in a way so users can refer back to the main question. the documentation. Given the multiple sources of data that providers are plagued with on a daily basis, this can provide significant benefits if executed correctly. Other technology companies are tackling real-time workflow challenges, such as with ambient dictation tools. By using artificial intelligence, these tools are making it possible for doctors to reduce the time spent on documentation and administrative tasks and can significantly increase workflow efficiency.
But there is still much work to be done. In an exclusive interview with Forbes, Abhinav Shashank, co-founder and CEO of Innovaccer, remains optimistic about the field and explains how AI can truly make a difference in healthcare… “not just for providers who are dealing with burnout , but also for everyday patients.” Shashank enthuses that if AI can significantly improve efficiency and workloads for doctors, hopefully this can translate to doctors spending time where it’s needed most – with patients to better improve access to care. However, he takes a practical view on the matter and explains that this space will undoubtedly take time to mature and truly add value in a meaningful way. On the topic of how the market is rapidly becoming flooded with multiple players, he explains that eventually, super-specialists are likely to emerge at this intersection of AI, healthcare and data – those who can perfect the platformization of these tools and in end, provide curated and custom services to organizations.
This optimism and drive for innovation globally is ultimately driving the tremendous momentum around AI and its potential healthcare use cases. Time will tell which products and players will survive market forces and truly be able to create a lasting impact on patient care and outcomes.