Plugin Intelligence and its Impact on Healthcare!

Hello again friends and colleagues,

Over the last 30 years, the world has seen numerous technological revolutions. The Internet, smart phones, and social networks have transformed the way we live, work and interact. The emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is poised to be the next big revolution.

Generative AI

Generative AI which is a subset of AI, is an approach that uses machine learning models to generate new content such as images, text, and even music. Unlike other types of AI that are designed to recognize patterns in existing data, Generative AI is designed to create new data by learning from existing patterns. It accomplishes this by using neural networks to generate new data that is similar to the data it has been trained on. This approach has enormous potential in various fields, including medicine, entertainment, and education, as it allows machines to create content that is virtually indistinguishable from that created by humans.

Application Programming Interface

APIs are protocols and tools that allows software applications to communicate with each other. It's essentially a set of building blocks that software developers can use to create new applications or add functionality to existing ones. APIs provide a way for different software applications to interact with each other seamlessly, allowing for data to be shared and utilized in ways that would not be possible otherwise. By using APIs, programmers can integrate functionality from other software applications into their own applications without having to build everything from scratch. This allows them to create applications in less time and at a lower cost.

Generative AI gets an API

The recent integration of Generative AI and APIs (ChatGPT API became available two weeks ago) will revolutionize software applications and devices with the addition with intelligent conversational capabilities. By leveraging the power of Generative AI, developers can create software that is more intelligent and responsive, with the ability for conversational instructions and responses. APIs make it easy for developers to access this functionality, enabling them to integrate it with just a few lines of computer code. This will lead to increased productivity and cost savings in fields such as healthcare, entertainment, and education.

Generative AI APIs and Healthcare

The integration of Generative AI models into healthcare workflows will lead to significant cost savings. For example, the cost of using ChatGPT, which can pass the United States Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE), to read or write 350,000 words is just $1 (a 90% reduction that was announced at the same time that the API was released), while an equivalent human with USMLE certification would cost around $2,500. This significant cost difference will lead to a paradigm shift in how healthcare providers perform their duties, with the potential to generate significant cost savings for healthcare providers.

Generative AI will be used to summarize patient records, predicting the likelihood of diseases, and suggest treatment plans. With Generative AI now available for easy integration into Electronic Health Records (EHR), will deliver summaries of patient records to clinicians just before the evaluate a patient significantly enhancing their ability to provide quick and accurate diagnoses and treatment.

The integration of Generative AI into healthcare workflows is also likely to lead to a significant increase in productivity and quality. Healthcare providers will delegate the majority of administrative tasks to the AI and will be able to spend more time in direct patient care which will significantly improve both clinician and patient care experience and satisfaction.

The Economic Impact of Generative AI on Healthcare

The economic impact of Generative AI on healthcare organizations will vary by the type of entity. Below I will consider the impact on hospitals, medical groups and health plans.

For Hospitals, the reduction in the amount of time and labor required to collect and manage patient data will lead to a reduction in administrative costs. Opportunities also exist to improve revenues by capturing incentives tied to improved outcomes and patient satisfaction.

For Medical Group, Generative AI will significantly improve physician productivity by facilitating the clinical encounter and eliminating administrative work. Some early studies show that Generative AI can double productivity of professionals performing cognitive work similar to that performed by clinicians. Clinical work studies are surely forthcoming.

For health plan, Generative AI will likely significantly impact risk management. By analyzing EHR and other narrative patient data that has so far been difficult to mine, Generative AI models can facilitate the identification of high-risk patients and highlight opportunities for preventive services, leading to reduced costs and improved patient outcomes. Additionally, the potential to improve provider network communication and management is significant. Generative AI will allow for the individual-level customization of provider communication and interactions improving provider satisfaction and efficiency.

We are in the very early stages of the Generative AI. It's hard to believe that the underlying technology is only years old and the first useful products became available only months ago. The rate of development is dizzying. We have much to learn but the potential is huge. Organization which move quickly to integrate AI into their business models will ride an exponential curve that will make hard for laggards to catch up!

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See you next week,

Sam