Sumit Rana, the executive vice president of research and development at Epic, a prominent electronic health records company, is actively engaged in advancing artificial intelligence initiatives within the realm of health IT. His primary focus involves leveraging AI to support healthcare professionals in their current practices and future endeavors.
Epic has integrated AI and ambient listening technology into its systems to enhance patient-provider interactions significantly. This innovative approach enables physicians to automatically generate progress notes from conversations with patients during consultations. Additionally, it facilitates the instantaneous creation of draft responses to patient inquiries, provides updates on a patient’s recent developments since their last visit, and streamlines medical coding processes through AI assistance.
In an in-depth discussion with Healthcare IT News, Rana delved into the various applications of artificial intelligence within Epic’s framework and beyond.
Q. Epic’s utilization of AI and ambient listening technology aims to enhance patient-provider interactions. Are these technologies currently dependable according to health IT leaders at provider organizations?
A. Rana adopts the stance of a “skeptical optimist” when evaluating these technologies, emphasizing the importance of critical inquiry. He underscores the significance of maintaining human oversight in AI-driven processes, particularly those involving generative AI tools. Clear communication of AI involvement in workflows and robust auditing mechanisms are vital considerations for ensuring reliability and user experience.
Q. Epic’s EHR now incorporates AI for generating progress notes from patient-provider conversations. Could you elaborate on this process and the observed outcomes?
A. Physicians seek patient consent to record consultations for documentation purposes using a mobile application. The AI captures ambient dialogue during the session, subsequently drafting a summary for the physician’s review and modification. This innovative approach has yielded substantial benefits across various sites, including significant time savings, reduced post-clinic workload, and enhanced documentation quality.
Q. How does Epic’s AI facilitate the creation of draft responses to patient queries, and what impact has this had?
A. The AI presents providers with pre-fetched patient data to aid in formulating responses, streamlining the process and enhancing response quality. Initial feedback indicates improved efficiency, reduced data retrieval efforts, and the generation of more descriptive and empathetic patient responses. Customization of AI-generated responses to align with individual provider styles is crucial for maintaining a natural and personalized communication approach.
Q. In what ways does AI within Epic’s EHR inform providers about updates on patients since their last visit?
A. Epic’s AI capabilities include summarizing previous patient notes tailored to specific care contexts, enabling providers to quickly grasp relevant information. The feature emphasizes the importance of contextual relevance in summarization and allows providers to verify the source data, enhancing trust in the technology and reducing the risk of inaccuracies.
Q. How is Epic leveraging AI for medical coding assistance, and what are the anticipated benefits?
A. Epic’s AI aids in suggesting procedure and diagnosis codes based on clinical documentation, streamlining the coding process and improving efficiency. While the feature is undergoing final testing before release, internal assessments have demonstrated its effectiveness in translating clinical documentation into billing codes accurately. This initiative aligns with Epic’s broader goal of automating administrative tasks to enhance operational efficiency for healthcare organizations.
