Tag: Artificial Intelligence

Lee Discusses AI in Healthcare

Issues in Healthcare, MHA In The News, Top Issues - Healthcare
Jim Lee speaks with Mid-Michigan NOW about AI.
Jim Lee speaks with Mid-Michigan NOW about AI.
Jim Lee speaks with Mid-Michigan NOW about AI.

Jim Lee, senior vice president, data policy & analytics, MHA, appeared in a story about artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare aired by Mid-Michigan NOW on April 23.

Lee discussed how AI is being used by hospitals and providers to assist with medical data and information and to reduce administrative burden.

“AI and healthcare is sort of like having a super smart assistant that helps doctors and nurses by quickly sorting through mountains of data and medical information,” said Lee.

Lansing political news outlet Gongwer also published two articles on April 23 that quote MHA representatives.

MHA CEO Brian Peters appeared in a story covering the newly launch Protect MI Care coalition to protect against Medicaid funding cuts.

“[Medicaid is] the financial lifeline that keeps hospitals, mental health providers and nursing homes open,” said Peters. “Cuts at this scale would lead to facility closures, creating health care deserts that hurt everyone, regardless of how they’re insured.”

MHA Chief Nursing Officer Amy Brown also appeared in an article following her testimony in the House Health Policy Committee in support of House Bill 4246, which would add Michigan to the nurse licensure compact.

“An important tactic to improve our ability as a state to attract talent and make it easy for nurses to choose Michigan to practice is to join the nurse license compact,” said Brown. “Hospitals continue to prioritize recruitment and retention efforts, but with the aging demographics of our state and the lack of participation in the compact hinder our ability to recruit younger nurses to replace the many nurses nearing and entering retirement.”

Members with any questions regarding media requests should contact John Karasinski at the MHA.

MHA Podcast Explores the Role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Healthcare

Member News, MiCare Champion Cast
MiCare Champion Cast graphic featuring an episode focused on the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Healthcare

The MHA released a new episode of the MiCare Champion Cast exploring the role artificial intelligence (AI) plays in healthcare today and what it will look like in the future. The episode features Bruce Brandes, president of Care.ai and Monica Holmes, a PhD candidate in bioinformatics at the University of Michigan and current member of the MHA AI Task Force.

Early in the discussion, Brandes and Holmes highlighted the ways smart technologies have been used for years when it comes to data analysis, disease diagnosis, radiology, clinical documentation, language processing and more.

“For the first time – maybe in my career in healthcare – it’s obvious that the status quo is no longer an acceptable option,” said Brandes, who has over 30 years of experience in executive management and entrepreneurial thought leadership. “This is real – you need to understand it, you need to be intentional and deliberate and have a strategic plan.”

Both Brandes and Holmes emphasized throughout the episode that AI cannot replace the essential role humans play in healthcare. The goal, in most cases, is to optimize a more efficient workflow, improve healthcare quality, advance diagnostics and enhance medical research.

“On the academic side, it’s improving our ability to do better research, which leads to better insights and ultimately better health outcomes for patients when it’s translated over to the bedside,” said Holmes, who also serves on the board of Trinity Health’s Chelsea Hospital as chair of patient quality and safety.

Listeners can expect to learn more about how patients and providers are responding to AI tools (including virtual nursing) and get answers to commonly asked questions related to transparency, health equity, regulation and cybersecurity.

Care.ai, an MHA endorsed business partner, powers more human care through the first and only AI-enabled Smart Care Facility Operating Platform, which deploys smart sensors throughout care facilities. These sensors continuously and ambiently monitor clinical and operational workflows, learning from them to predict, prevent and protect; alerting and engaging care teams in real-time and improving common challenges such as fall prevention, pressure injury prevention, hand hygiene compliance, rounding adherence, automated documentation, virtual rounding, virtual sitting and more.

The episode is available to stream on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud and YouTube. Those interested in learning more about Care.ai or the MHA EBP program can visit the business services webpage or contact Rob Wood at the MHA. Questions or idea submissions for future MiCare Champion Cast episodes can be sent to Lucy Ciaramitaro at the MHA.