Christopher C. Lee/Photomochi Studio Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More
The implications for AI in healthcare are vast and significant — however, medical facilities and institutions shouldn’t be too hasty in implementing it, Daniel Yang, VP of AI and emerging technologies at healthcare organization Kaiser Permanente , said onstage at this year’s VentureBeat Transform .
Yang, who is also a practicing medical doctor, outlined his organization’s steady, deliberate approach to adopting the groundbreaking technology.
“There’s a tremendous amount of hype and opportunity in this space,” Yang told the audience. “We really need to see the evidence, see that it works, see that it’s safe, that it’s effective in real world settings.” Advanced alert monitoring saving hundreds of lives
The “antidote” to chasing after the bright, shiny object of AI is really doubling down on an organization’s core mission, Yang emphasized
For Kaiser Permanente — which has 250,000 employees, 40 hospitals and 618 medical facilities — that core mission is “pretty simple”: Delivering safe, high-quality care that is also affordable. That in mind, the goal is to build directionality into their AI strategy.
“We want to decrease disparities and inequities in the communities we serve, and we want to support and allow our employees to thrive,” said Yang.
One successful AI application at Kaiser Permanente is its advanced alert monitoring program, he noted. Using predictive analytics, the app identifies hospitalized patients that are likely to clinically decompensate (get sicker) in the following 12 hours. For instance, if a patient is hospitalized for hip surgery, the programs can try to predict whether they may get infected or suffer a pulmonary embolism and unexpectedly land in the ICU.
Algorithms assess risk every hour using real time data from electronic health records, Yang explained. This includes a patient’s vital signs, their medical conditions and laboratory results, among other data. The app can then alert if risk increases above a certain threshold or if other red flags flare up.“The idea is we can intervene earlier, thereby reducing or preventing that negative outcome,” said Yang.He explained that Kaiser […]
How Kaiser Permanente is using gen AI to ‘paradoxically’ make care more human again
