The Role of AI in healthcare – A conversation with Dr. Tina Shah, Chief Clinical Officer at Abridge
The Role of AI in healthcare – A conversation with Dr. Tina Shah, Chief Clinical Officer at Abridge
The dynamics of technology in healthcare are ever-changing. But like most things in life — change isn’t always a bad thing! As our modern lives evolve so should the technology that aids us in receiving our care. Healthcare technology evolution, though, isn’t just about the patient experience with innovation to streamline how we get from A to Z (though that is so critical). Improving workflows with automation should also decrease the burden on our providers. The providers who are holding the weight of that same modern world on their shoulders — are being told to see more patients, more efficiently with less staff than ever before.
And as providers’ appointment numbers increase, so does the work to close them out — documentation, reviewing, charting and so much more. In fact, for every hour spent with patients, providers spend 2 hours on related administrative tasks. Enter AI. Perhaps one of the most dynamic changes in healthcare technology is the increasing use of automation to aid in provider panel management, opening up these highly skilled professionals to put the human touch back in healthcare.
This month, we sat down with Dr. Tina Shah, Chief Clinical Officer at Abridge to discuss how she and her team are changing the game with their AI platform for clinical conversations and arming providers with technology that aids in their efficiency and effectiveness and most importantly combats burnout.
Let’s start broadly. It feels like we’re going at lightning speed these days. Can you talk a little about the changing landscape of Artificial Intelligence in healthcare?
That is such a big question. The pace of change in this field is so fast. This conversation we’re having today could look different in even three months. Because of the press around AI, there is a general concern that we’ll suddenly replace all doctors with it, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth, as we need to frame AI as a tool that can support doctors to be even more effective in caring for their patients. At Abridge, we’re tackling low-hanging fruit and reducing the time clinicians spend on documenting visits by producing an AI-generated note that doctors can quickly review and finalize. One of the most exciting areas in AI is developing solutions that help clinicians and their teams function at their highest level so they can focus more on their patients.
Helping providers with efficiency is so key, especially when we’re in a clinician shortage. How are you and your team using AI to reduce provider burnout?
One of the first principles we should hold about AI is that the tech needs to work for clinicians, not the other way around.
AI helps reduce provider burnout in several different ways. First, our technology can alleviate administrative burdens for the clinical frontlines. How many times have you heard of providers working long hours to document patient visits? We call this after-hours work “pajama time,” and physicians hate it. Abridge uses generative AI to listen to the conversation and create medical notes — for the clinician and for the patient. Abridge reduces the after-hours time clinicians spend documenting visits from hours to minutes.
The second way Abridge reduces provider burnout is by putting humanity back in healthcare. With generative AI completely capturing clinical conversations, providers can be present with their patients. I call it the “eyeball theory.” We’re not typing while someone tells us their symptoms. We’re looking at them. And because we don’t have to expend as much effort for accurate documentation, we have more time to spend with patients, and that allows us to deliver the highest quality of care. Think of an OB doctor who is sitting with a postpartum mom for her regular six-week check-up. There is so much to discuss and so many resources for the provider to share. AI takes care of the administrative work and can focus on the mom. No gap in care.
So AI helps providers extend their reach much farther than they could before. Do you think this relates to AI acting as “co-pilots” within healthcare?
Yes, definitely. A co-pilot is almost like a buddy to the patient or provider. This is a great way to frame how we should be using AI. It’s an adjunct to enhance the human part of healthcare and help us doctors be the best doctors we can be.
AI is often discussed as being great for “back-stage” functions instead of “front-stage” functions with clinicians and patients, but it seems you feel like it has a place for both. Can you expand on that a little?
There is a role for both. We separate it into those buckets because of the risk factors related to them. The back-stage function is the clerical task we spoke about earlier. There is a relatively low risk in using AI to fill out patient-medical-history forms to use for billing and revenue-cycle functions. But that doesn’t solve the front-stage problem: Our massive workforce shortage. So many American families don’t have access to basic care. AI helps increase capacity by supporting clinicians. Here’s an example: AI can remind an overworked provider that her patient missed a key ultrasound, making it easy for the provider to keep her patient’s care on track. With the help of AI support, that provider can now devote more time and energy to connecting with her patient. As I said, we should put humanity back in healthcare. Some 42% of providers we work with say they feel more present with their patients because of our AI solutions. So yes, there is absolutely a role for both.
That’s amazing and so needed. On that note then, how does Abridge get integrated into healthcare systems? Can you talk a little about the process?
The most important thing about integration is it never disrupts the provider's workflow. That would be counterproductive to what we’re trying to do! That is critical for any company introducing new solutions. For Abridge, science is at the core of our company and, because of this, we have dedicated teams to make our technology as seamless as possible. We’ve implemented it in as little as eight days. But I think what excites me the most about this level of sophistication is that using Abridge requires little training. We cannot add more burden to providers with hours of training. Instead, let's send teams demo videos. Let’s work intuitively, right out of the box, like an iPhone. Even providers that are not early adopters to technology tell us how easy it is for them to integrate Abridge into their workflows. We create something that’s so usable that it doesn’t require instruction.
Conclusion
In a world of accelerating advances in AI, it can sometimes feel like innovators are creating for the sake of creating, with grandiose dreams to replace human functions. But that simply isn’t our vision. Humans aren't the problem with our healthcare system — they're the solution. Abridge is building generative AI technology that helps doctors be doctors again. And that's what is so exciting to me, because we need them to be.
