Toward the goal of enabling more "efficient, responsible and future-focused" deployment of artificial intelligence and machine learning across healthcare, Nuance this week announced that it's joining with The Health Management Academy to cofound an initiative designed to optimize AI deployments for clinical decision support, patient experience, operational efficiencies and cost reductions.

WHY IT MATTERS
The Academy is working with Nuance to launch The AI Collaborative, which aims to convene hospital and health system leaders to compare notes on their artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) deployments and work together on targeting leading-edge, new use cases, the companies said.

The AI Collaborative will officially launch this September at the headquarters of Nuance's corporate parent, Microsoft, officials said, and there are plans for annual summits in the years to come.

The early focus will be on events around analytics, digital strategy and clinical transformation, with perspectives from providers, payers and life sciences organizations.

"We are thrilled to expand our partnership with Microsoft and Nuance to introduce The AI Collaborative, a new program at The Academy designed exclusively for clinical and operational executives who lead their organization's approach to investing in AI as a strategic initiative," said Renee DeSilva, CEO of The Academy. "Our members have expressed their desire for a dedicated space to explore AI in healthcare and its enormous potential to improve outcomes and clinical workflow."

THE LARGER TREND
Recent Healthcare IT News feature stories and case studies have shown how AI and ML can help manage unstructured data, improving care management for at-risk patients and enabling improvements for social determinants of health.

Listen to this recent episode of HIMSSCast to learn more about the role AI can play in boosting health equity.

Our coverage has also shown how AI is increasing the effectiveness of point-of-care ultrasounds, improving monitoring and documentation in labor and delivery wards, and helping reduce no-shows and missed appointments.

At HIMSS22 earlier this spring, Nuance and Cerner announced an expansion of their decade-long AI collaboration, further weaving Dragon Ambient eXperience technology into Cerner's Millennium electronic health record. The deeper integration of ambient and conversational NLP [natural language processing] into Millennium will help streamline workflows and improve provider experience, the companies said. The goal is also to expand patient access and improve care outcomes with "clinical documentation that writes itself."

ON THE RECORD
"The key to successful healthcare innovation using AI is understanding at a deep level the problems that you're trying to solve and focusing on the outcomes you want to achieve," Peter Durlach, chief strategy officer at Nuance, said in a statement.

"The AI Collaborative can bring together multiple technical, business and clinical stakeholders to prioritize deployment of solutions for clinician burnout, patient engagement and health system financial stability, while accelerating innovation in precision medicine, drug discovery, clinical decision support and other promising use cases across the entire healthcare ecosystem."

Twitter: @MikeMiliardHITN
Email the writer: mike.miliard@himssmedia.com
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS publication.