HIMSS 2017: Roundtable to address impact of AI, data on patient care

The rapid adoption of electronic medical records and cheapening computing power opened the floodgates for health data, creating a wealth of new sources and applications. A roundtable discussion at HIMSS17—led by James B. Golden, PhD, of PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC)— aims to investigate how this new emphasis on data can benefit patients.

Golden is a veteran of the health analytics industry, working on genome sequencing while completing his doctorate and moving on to data analytics methods in both research and clinical settings. He’s been involved in just about every major trend in health IT, including big data, cloud computing, data warehousing and, now, artificial intelligence (AI).

In his consultant role at PWC, Golden has experienced the clamor for AI technology firsthand.

“We found that when we met with clients they thought AI had the potential to revolutionize what we’re doing in healthcare and they wanted a seat at the table,” he says. “But, we need to get specific about the problem we’re trying to solve before we throw AI at it.”

As AI-based tool such as IBM Watson or Google TensorFlow become more and more accessible to the healthcare industry, the desire to build more powerful applications grows as well. But a more precise approach is needed, says Golden.

“We’re hearing that physicians are overwhelmed with new data and technology,” Golden says. “We can build platforms that can read a thousand medical images a second. The question must be asked; Why are you doing that exactly? Are you trying to replace the radiologist? Can you increase his output?”

Helping Golden answer these questions are several thought leaders in health IT and data analytics, including Cris Ross, Mayo Clinic CIO, and Chris Belmont, MD Anderson Cancer Center CIO. Both speakers are a valuable resource for learning about real world-implementation of AI initiatives, Golden says.

“They’ve undertaken large IBM Watson projects, they can talk about how they started, what worked, what was easy, what was hard,” he says. “Everybody has good intentions, but do we have good consequences?”

Measuring the impact of complex software initiatives can be difficult, but these metrics must be hammered out ahead of time, according to Golden. For example, if you are trying to reduce physician burnout, do you measure vacation days used or patients seen per day?

Also joining the round table are Graham Gardner, MD, MBA, CEO of Boston-based Kyruus and Tufia Haddad, MD, Assistant Professor of Oncology at the Mayo Clinic. Gardner is a co-founder of Kyruus, which offers data-driven referral management and patient access software in an attempt to optimize physician networks. 

Above all, Golden stressed the conversational back-and-forth promised by the session.

“This is a roundtable, a dialogue,” Golden says. “At HIMSS, you’re going to walk around, hear a dozen people talk about Watson, see a thousand different technology vendors—all great stuff, but I want to take a step back and say, are these things making physicians and patient’s lives better?”