Buy & Sell AI in Healthcare: Challenges & Insights
AI Revolutionizes EHR Clinical Workflows
artificial intelligence is increasingly being integrated into electronic health record (EHR) systems, promising to reshape clinical workflows. major EHR vendors like Epic and Meditech are embedding AI tools to streamline tasks, enhance data accessibility, and improve decision-making. These advancements aim to alleviate administrative burdens and allow healthcare professionals to focus more on patient care.
Epic’s platform now features AI-driven tools that reorganize text for better readability, generate patient-kind summaries, create hospital course summaries, and translate clinical data into narrative instructions. One notable function is the ability to automatically destigmatize language in notes, such as changing “narcotic abuser” to “patient has opiate use disorder.” Additionally, Epic’s AI can translate medical shorthand into plain language, improving dialogue among healthcare providers. For nurses, AI-generated shift notes and ambient documentation are designed to reduce manual entry and free up time for patient interaction.
Meditech is also advancing its AI capabilities through collaboration with Google. Their initial product, built on the BERT language model, includes a feature called Conditions Explorer. This tool intelligently organizes patient information within the chart, offering a longitudinal view of the patient’s health by specific conditions. Meditech is also using the Vertex AI platform to generate physician hospital course-of-stay narratives and nurse shift summaries. Moreover, the company has implemented ambient scribe capabilities with AI platforms from various vendors.
Beyond EHR vendors, healthcare systems are developing their own AI solutions. For example, Stanford Medicine recently released a homegrown product that uses AI to communicate lab results to patients. These internal projects highlight the trend of healthcare organizations customizing AI tools to fit their specific workflows.
Commure, an AI platform backed by general Catalyst, is also making strides in this area.With partial ownership from HCA, Commure is developing capabilities in governance, revenue cycle, inventory and staff tracking, ambient listening/scribing, clinical workflow, and clinical summarization.
These developments suggest a future where EHRs serve as massive data stores, with AI tools automating many tasks currently performed by human users. This integration could lead to an AI-dominated super system where decisions are made automatically based on care protocols, while humans focus on operational and strategic decisions.
However, this shift raises questions about the role of AI vendors. Healthcare organizations may find that the AI solutions they purchase are eventually cannibalized by their own EHR systems or internal developments. As new and improved AI models emerge, there is also uncertainty about whether to invest in current tools or wait for better, cheaper alternatives.
What’s next
The integration of AI into EHR systems is expected to continue, with a focus on automating routine tasks and improving data-driven decision-making. However, the long-term impact on healthcare workflows and the role of AI vendors remains to be seen.