| | | Watch for healthcare AI to increase its footprint in the patient-safety domain over the coming year. That’s the word from Stacey Caywood, chief executive officer at Wolters Kluwer Health. “Imagine an AI helper app that works 24/7 in the background to identify instances where healthcare providers may miss a potential test or therapy for a patient or—worse—illicitly divert medications from patients, potentially doing harm,” Caywood writes in an “expert insights” blogpost from the company. “Stopping drug diversion with AI is just one example of AI scaling system-wide to comprehensively improve patient safety.” Caywood also expects AI to streamline clinical workflows and improve clinician workforce development. She’s one of several Wolters Kluwer thought leaders quoted in the post. All the contributors set expectations for healthcare AI in 2025. Here are five key excerpts. 1. The next 12 months are likely to set the stage for incremental—as opposed to abrupt—change. “Implementation of new federal and agency policies will take time,” predicts Peter Bonis, MD, Wolters Kluwer Health’s chief medical officer. “Advancement in AI applications will continue to be constrained by workflow, competing priorities and economic considerations driving uptake.” More from Bonis: ‘The greatest progress at scale will likely continue to be in AI applications that drive revenue optimization, although some technologies like ambient listening will make progress due to their immediate promise to streamline workflow and document pain points.’
2. The success of clinical GenAI will largely depend on the degree to which it incorporates the human touch. “GenAI is positioned to play a role in improving patient care in 2025, but more work needs to be done to improve consistency and ensure that patients receive the highest quality care,” states Wolters Kluwer Health’s CEO for clinical effectiveness, Greg Samios. “This starts by defining responsible GenAI so that we can enhance efficiency and reach our destination of superior patient outcomes.” More from Samios: ‘When thinking about the year ahead, I believe we can’t lose sight of the human touch or the quality interactions and trusted data that help push us forward.’
3. AI and VR will rewrite how future nurses prepare to practice. “In 2025, the fusion of AI and virtual reality will transform how students, residents, researchers and new-to-practice providers, nurses and healthcare professionals develop essential skills,” forecasts Julie Stegman, Wolters Kluwer Health’s VP of health learning and practice. “By integrating AI and VR, healthcare educators can create immersive learning environments, personalized learning paths and real-world simulations that mirror what life will be like when caring for patients.” More from Stegman: ‘These expert solutions can help decrease the time it takes to onboard and ease the transition growing pains that new employees can face.’
4. AI will improve healthcare ‘one second at a time.’ “I anticipate we’ll see an increase in innovation and integrations to bring evidence-based recommendations directly into the clinical workflow,” predicts Wolters Kluwer Health product & solutions VP Yaw Fellin, “reducing the number of clicks needed to improve documentation, provide patient education and receive clinical decision support.” More Fellin: ‘Just a few seconds can make all the difference in healthcare, and with each click saved, we can significantly reduce the cognitive burden on our healthcare professionals and foster more meaningful interactions with patients.’
5. GenAI may—just may—deliver measurable ROI for healthcare in 2025. “In 2025, GenAI in healthcare needs to shift from potential to practical value, focusing on delivering tangible benefits for professionals and patients in the system,” writes Holly Urban, MD, Wolters Kluwer Health’s VP for business development. “With this transition from hype cycle to value cycle we will continue to see focus on how GenAI can reduce some of the administrative burden of providers with tools such as ambient scribes.” More from Urban: ‘Improved efficiency is always a top priority with healthcare leaders, but the continuing friction between payers and providers—coupled with potential regulatory changes with the new [Trump] administration—will make this focus even sharper. GenAI can play a critical support role.’
There’s more. Read the rest. |
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| | | Access the 2024 Executive Handbook: Ten Transformative in Healthcare - What was top of mind for healthcare executives this year? What trends will shape 2025? Nabla's Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Ed Lee, MD, MPH, was recently interviewed for the 2024 Executive Handbook: Ten Transformative in Healthcare, offering his perspective on how AI is enhancing clinical workflows and setting the stage for the future of patient care. From shifting federal healthcare policies to the emergence of disruptors beyond traditional health systems and pressing cybersecurity challenges, discover the key insights shaping the industry. Download the full handbook here. Assistant or Associate Dean, Health AI Innovation & Strategy - UCLA Health seeks a visionary academic leader to serve as its Assistant or Associate Dean for Health AI Innovation and Strategy and Director for the UCLA Center for AI and SMART Health. This unique position offers the opportunity to shape and drive AI vision and strategy for the David Geffen School of Medicine (DGSOM) and ensure translation of innovation in our renowned Health system. This collaborative leader will work with academic leadership, faculty, staff and trainees to harness the power of AI to transform biomedical research, decision and implementation science, and precision health. Learn more and apply at: https://recruit.apo.ucla.edu/JPF09997 (tenured track)
https://recruit.apo.ucla.edu/JPF10032 (non-tenured track) |
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| | | Buzzworthy developments of the past few days. - Hospital boards should be grilling their CEOs about AI. Among the pointed questions the trustees or directors ought to ask: What is our AI strategy? What new revenue opportunities can be ushered in by using AI? And Do you, as CEO, have the right resources to make good decisions about AI? The suggestions are from a pair of industry CEOs who have compiled 50 AI quiz items that board members could pose to every member of the C-suite. And that’s across pretty much every sector of the economy. The result is a light yet meaty thought exercise published in the Journal of Business & Artificial Intelligence. Check it out.
- Downstream of the C-suite, hospitals’ AI governance committees should demand true transparency from AI vendors. Many are likely to do more of that in 2025, having learned from their mistakes up to now. But that doesn’t mean the vendors will suddenly stop guarding their intellectual property with all they’ve got. This clash of interests could become a “major source of tension when it comes to healthcare AI” this year, warns Brian Anderson, MD, chief executive officer of the Coalition for Health AI, aka “CHAI”. In an interview with MedPage Today, Anderson also comments on the regulatory climate developing around healthcare AI. “There is a level of caution and thoughtfulness that I’m hearing more from the regulatory community recently,” he says. Regulators realize they’d be putting the cart before the horse, he adds, if they were to “create a robust regulatory process that’s not informed by where private-sector innovators are going.”
- And by the way, Dr. Anderson is having a moment. As is his CHAI. Politico headline on New Year’s Day: “The government can’t ensure artificial intelligence is safe. This man says he can.” Clarifying subhead: “Brian Anderson is ready to shape the future of AI in healthcare—if Donald Trump will let him.” Informative article.
- Balancing AI risk vs. AI innovation is important in every industry. But in healthcare it’s genuinely critical—a potential matter of life and death. The risk side of the equation isn’t hard to wrap one’s mind around. It may be the other side that causes the most consternation. After all, it’s a risk of sorts to move so cautiously that you fall behind. “Your AI strategy will either put you ahead or make it hard to ever catch up,” explains Dan Priest, the new chief AI officer at PwC. “If we take a lesson from the Internet era, a lot of those early movers ended up being winners for the next 10 to 20 years. We expect to see something very similar for [organizations] that embrace AI today, both early on and in a trustworthy way.”
- When it comes to infusing AI with humanity, a little confusion can be a good thing. This can be the happy case when AI research and development involves experts from different disciplines. Take it from computer scientist James Landay, PhD, co-founder of Stanford’s Institute for Human-centered Artificial Intelligence. “You’ll experience confusion, but sometimes that confusion leads to new ideas and new ways of looking at things,” Landay tells McKinsey Digital. “For example, we’ve had people working on large language models who are looking at natural language processing. And then they run into an ethicist with a background in political science who questions some of the things they’re doing or how they’re releasing their software without particular safeguards.” You do the math. More of Landay’s thinking on human-centered AI here.
- Evolution finessed by human intervention turned terrifying wolves into Yorkshire terriers. Could AI similarly alter the course of human evolution? Up to a point, it just might, suggests one evolutionary biologist. “Perhaps AI, online searchable knowledge and social media posts that ‘remember’ who did what to whom will carry more of our memory burden,” writes Rob Brooks of the University of New South Wales. “If so, perhaps human brains will evolve to become even smaller, with less standalone memory.” Over many generations, he adds, cumulative changes in the same vein could chip away at such human niceties as friendship, intimacy, communication, trust and intelligence. “In a nontrivial way,” he concludes, AI could well “alter what it means to be human.” Cheers. I guess.
- Oh no. Another set of 2025 predictions? Yes. Sorry. But it’s another good one. CIO.com finds experts looking forward to small language models, humanlike (but non-AGI) reasoning abilities, AI agents that talk to each other, true multimodal AI and more. And how about mass customization of enterprise software? “Companies build custom software all the time, but now AI is making it accessible to everyone,” explains Rakesh Malhotra, head of digital and emerging technologies at Ernst & Young. “Having the ability to get custom software made for me without having to hire someone to do it is awesome.” Read the rest.
- We hadn’t heard of the Journal of Business and Artificial Intelligence until this week. Better late than never. Along with the helpful article noted in the top item above, the publication currently has a think piece up that AIin.Healthcare can’t help but recommend. The title alone is worthy. In “The Coming Enshittification of AI,” tech expert James Ryan explains his concern. “The big players could build audiences by offering valuable services and then start ‘monetizing’ with sponsored links, sidebar ads and then, eventually, answers influenced by sponsors in subtle ways that the user isn’t even aware of,” Ryan writes. “If these tactics are successful, advertisers would have no choice but to jump on board. Welcome to the AI enshittification dystopia where all results are sponsored!” Read the whole thing.
- Recent research in the news:
- Funding news of note:
- From AIin.Healthcare’s news partners:
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