Serene Perkins, Chief Medical Officer of Providence Medical Group, spoke about the role of artificial intelligence or AI at the AI Innolation conference on AI Innovation and Anchorage's AI Innovation conference.
She outlined the AI tools Providence already used by the entire network of healthcare facilities in Alaska and six other states.
She said one AI tool that Providence is built in is using artificial intelligence to analyze patient messages to providers. This identifies patients at the highest risk so that health care providers can respond quickly.
“It's like suicidal thoughts,” Perkins said. “We need to get it to the top of our inbox. We need to make sure we have a mental health counselor who can get in touch with that person right away.”
Perkins said the AI tools are compliant with HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portableness and Ausaustability Act, a federal law that protects patient privacy.
She said the biggest possibility of AI interventions in the long term is managing chronic diseases and illnesses.
“We can use AI to actually attack them, monitor patients more frequently, and prevent them from reaching places where they need to be hospitalized.
She said Providence has also recently launched a program that incorporates wearable glucose monitors using AI to help manage diabetes.
As a patient, Perkins said she experienced the benefits of AI when her doctors used AI transcriptional note-taking services during their annual physical examination.
“I could sit there and have a 20-minute in-person conversation that wasn't bothering me not to forget what I was saying, I didn't see her type on the computer, I turned my back from me, went through it on my own, went through it on my own, I went through transformation,” Perkins said.
However, she said using AI is a huge responsibility. “We have to be in charge of that.”
Perkins said AI could help manage other types of chronic diseases, such as depression and cancer. But she said for now Providence is persistent in using artificial intelligence for diabetes and heart health care. She said she can get these applications correctly and show that patient outcomes are improving, and she can use AI to help treat other health conditions.
