AI in Health Care

BY SUSAN SHELLY

ChatGPT has garnered a lot of attention since it was launched in late November 2022, with experts predicting it will influence the way people in many industries — including health care — work and learn.

There is general agreement that ChatGPT, a sophisticated, artificial intelligence (IA) chatbot developed by San Francisco-based startup OpenAI, can be employed in health care to perform tasks such as sorting and prioritizing information, generating patient records, writing reports, and improving patient information.

Despite the fact that a study in February revealed ChatGPT could answer enough practice questions to correctly pass the U.S. Medical Licensing Examination, there are many uncertainties regarding its accuracy, especially for applications such as diagnosing patients.

AI-based programs other than ChatGPT, however, are already employed in health care, including the systems serving Lancaster County.

Radiologists have used AI to help analyze x-rays and CT scans for years. AI-based programs are used in drug discovery and development, transcribing medical documents, remotely treating patients, and numerous other applications, with additional uses emerging.

Lancaster Physician reached out to the health systems serving Lancaster County to learn more about how they are currently using AI and their thoughts on how AI may impact the future of health care. Penn State Health, WellSpan Health, Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health, and UPMC responded.

Penn State Health

Artificial intelligence can be used to enable medical providers to spend their time more effectively, allowing them to have more interaction with patients instead of sifting through data and dealing with administrative business.

That is the hope of Dr. Will Hazard, who specializes in neurocritical care and anesthesiology and serves as the medical director of Penn State Health’s Virtual Care Unit Center.

“I’m not looking for AI to take work away from me,” Hazard said. “I’m excited for AI to make me more efficient and a better physician for my patients. I’m looking for AI to let me do what I went into health care to do.”

Hazard said the use of AI in health care is not new but has shifted to a different level with the advent of recent technologies, including ChatGPT.

And while the quick rise of AI is energizing, it also raises some questions and uncertainty.

“It’s a really exciting time, but it can seem a little terrifying,” Hazard said. “What we’re seeing is that AI builds the need for more AI, and nobody is quite sure what all that’s going to look like.”

For example, he said, AI can be used to collect information from medical devices that monitor patient blood pressure or glucose levels at home and send it to a physician’s office or other location. But that data needs to be processed, signaling the need for additional AI that can do so in the absence of staff members to sift through the information and assess what it means.

“What are the medical ramifications of having all that data?” Hazard asked. “With all that data out there, what are you going to do with it?”

Penn State Health currently employs AI in a variety of ways, some of which have been in place for years.

Hazard cited a Viz.ai program that uses computer vision to determine whether a patient is having a stroke and identify whether the stroke is compatible with catheter treatment to remove clots. The program significantly reduces the amount of time it takes to administer and interpret a series of scans and identify and begin treatment.

“It’s a great time saver because it saves a doctor the time of sorting through a stack of images to determine the appropriate treatment,” Hazard said. “We always say ‘time is brain’ when it comes to a stroke, so this is an extremely valuable tool.”

Penn State Health utilizes natural language chatbots that enable patients to report symptoms and otherwise communicate with providers. AI is employed in the oncology department, and radiologists have been using AI to interpret images for years, reinforcing the fact that AI is a tool that can assist, not replace, medical providers.

“Radiology didn’t go away as a specialty when AI came on the scene,” noted Hazard. “I think of AI as a consultant, or a backup. It’s an extra safety net.”

As shortages of physicians and other health care professionals continue, AI will become increasingly important in assisting with important aspects of diagnosing and treating patients. It also is able to quickly analyze large amounts of data generated and stored by health care organizations, something that can help providers optimize their time with patients.

“We all went into this to take care of patients,” Hazard said. “I’m hopeful that AI will be a valuable tool to let us get back to doing just that.”

Wellspan Health

Of all the artificial intelligence-based technologies already employed at WellSpan Health, a program known as DAX is a favorite of many providers, including Dr. Hal Baker, senior vice president and chief digital and information officer.

The Nuance Dragon Ambient eXperience technology captures dialogue between a physician and patient and converts the conversation into clinical notes, enabling the provider to focus solely on their patient.