Brent Matthewson, VP, Chief Data Officer at Wellstar Health System, discusses the uses of AI like ChatGPT for a health system.
Using AI for good: Making better healthcare predictions
When a loved one is hospitalized, we often wish we could do more for them. We are constantly searching for more information to understand what the patient is going through and when they can go home.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has been helping provide more information to our team members on the frontlines – and saving lives right here at Wellstar.
The Epic Deterioration Index (EDI) alerts physicians and staff when a patient’s score falls below a certain level. This score takes into account vital signs, lab results, nursing assessments and other data points.
Think of it as a progress report card your child brings home from school. Those grades indicate areas the student needs to focus on and improve over the next few months. In healthcare, however, decisions must be taken in moments, which is where the EDI is helpful.
The EDI can analyze and summarize all data into information that enables physicians to act faster and save lives. Scores are calculated every 15 minutes throughout the hospitalization, meaning that action can be taken immediately whenever a patient crosses the acceptable threshold in any of these periods.
While your student trying to understand Newton’s laws of motion may go weeks without an update on their grade, care teams receive an alert in minutes if patients start showing warning signs.
“We have rolled it out at Wellstar Kennestone Hospital. It’s doing really well. We’re going to look at other predictive models that we can roll out, especially as we build our own capabilities with data science,” said Brent Matthewson, VP, Chief Data Officer at Wellstar Health System.
For Brent, this model and other forms of AI allow hospitals to be proactive rather than reactive. The advantages are threefold.
“People live better lives, have better outcomes and it reduces costs,” he said.
AI will not replace your care team, but it can build confidence in the next treatment steps. For patients, this means that they’re constantly monitored for changes in their health state. Families can rest easier, knowing that their loved one is never away from receiving the treatment they need, when they need it.
One study by LeeAnna Spiva, Ph.D., AVP, Nursing Practice and Operations, and other colleagues shows that nurses who are more confident evaluating patients with deteriorating conditions were able to improve outcomes by intervening sooner.
How do you see tools like EDI benefiting patients at Wellstar and across other hospitals? Let us know your thoughts and questions below.
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