Artificial intelligence and machine learning have been enhancing and improving healthcare processes for years now. But the advent of generative AI and the refinement of predictive models, have ushered in a new era where the technology is improving iteratively via frontline user feedback. Several recent product announcements show this trend at work.

Revving up prior auth efficiency

Cloud IT vendor athenahealth has set an ambitious goal over the next three years to eliminate half of the administrative burden private practices manage on the revenue cycle management side.

To increase the speed, accuracy and quality of RCM processing, the company said in an announcement Thursday that AI-powered enhancements it made this year decreased claims errors at practices' front desks, eliminated claim lags after patient encounters and streamlined prior authorizations.

Practices have said they spend nearly two full days on prior auth tasks each week, athenahealth said, so the company launched authorization management services to expedite the process.

"With athenaOne's authorization management, we’ve transformed our authorization process from a bottleneck into a streamlined operation," Angela Szymblowski, director of clinical operations at South Texas Spinal Clinic, said in a statement.

By moving away from manual authorizations, the specialty clinic reduced patient wait times from six to eight weeks to as little as five days, "allowing us to provide the tests and procedures our patients need while also improving our financial performance," she said. 

To achieve the efficiency athenahealth's automation provided, "we would need six or more full-time employees dedicated to prior authorizations."

New OS platform is refining data analytics

Tuva Health's new open-source data platform allows providers, payers, research institutions, life science companies and their partners to develop new methods that refine analytical models in order to improve patient outcomes and operational efficiencies, the company said Thursday.

As new methods and approaches for crunching data are developed, the entire open-source community reviews them for accuracy. Once released, every customer and partner can then run the vetted approaches on their data.

Tuva Health said in the announcement that it is collaborating with more than 25 partners, including Oscar Health and CareAbout Health, which have integrated the platform to reduce costs and increase data transparency. 

"True tech companies in healthcare find we are solving the same problems over and over again," Mario Schlosser, Oscar's cofounder and president of technology, said in a statement. 

"We believe it is necessary for us to collaborate – creating open-source solutions and improving data interoperability to make healthcare work better." 

Supporting frontline leaders with insights

University of Cincinnati Health, an integrated academic health system serving the greater metro area in Ohio and Northern Kentucky, selected Laudio's AI-driven leader operations platform to address persistent nurse burnout and turnover challenges, according to an announcement Wednesday.

By streamlining workflows for its 7,500 frontline team members across two of its main hospitals and ambulatory clinics, UC Health will utilize the technology to free up capacity, helping frontline workers spend less time on administrative tasks and more on daily leader-employee interactions, the company said.

The workflow hub aggregates data from multiple healthcare operations systems and streamlines administrative work with built-in capabilities, Laudio said. The platform surfaces employee insights, trends and indicators and offers AI-driven recommendations that can help leaders prioritize high-impact actions.

"Frontline leader enablement and engagement are prerequisites to a thriving frontline workforce," Dr. Russ Richmond, Laudio CEO and cofounder, said in a statement.

It's giving leaders "enhanced visibility into their teams and streamlining workflows to save time," Rob Wiehe, UC Health senior vice president and chief operating officer, added.

"Making data easily accessible and actionable for our frontline leaders is a key focus." 

Use of the technology has enhanced efficiency, but also created opportunities to strengthen the culture at UC Health, Margie Zyble, the health system's chief human resources officer, said in the statement.

"Empowering our people is a top priority in our cultural evolution."

Enhancing precision with frontline feedback 

Dallas-based Spectral AI, which focuses on AI-driven wound diagnostics, announced Monday that, by incorporating frontline feedback, it has enhanced critical care platform improvements by increasing diagnostic accuracy and improving workflow integrations for the benefit of patient care.

The updated software products, also used by burn centers, met U.K. and Australian regulatory milestones for medical diagnostics, according to the company.

"As we get additional feedback from real-world usage, we will continue to improve DeepView’s performance and impact on patient care," Dr. J. Michael DiMaio, Spectral AI's chairman of the board, said in a statement.

"The feedback from the UK has been extremely encouraging and affirms my belief that DeepView can contribute significantly to enhanced patient care."

Andrea Fox is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.
Email: afox@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.