Key Takeaways
- Implement automation technologies, such as ambient AI and robotics, to significantly reduce administrative burdens and reclaim clinician time for direct patient care.
- Ensure technology development involves clinicians directly to create seamless workflow integration that removes friction rather than adding it.
- Leverage automated solutions to drive measurable improvements in both staff and patient satisfaction by minimizing non-clinical work and maximizing bedside interaction.
- Adopt a 'start with problems, not solutions' methodology by identifying specific operational pain points before selecting innovative technologies to address them.
- Leadership should champion digital transformation initiatives by focusing on restoring clinician well-being and joy in practice rather than solely on traditional ROI metrics.
Clinician burnout continues to escalate, fueled largely by administrative burdens and cumbersome workflows. In a recent episode of the Clinicians in Leadership podcast, Dr. Stephanie Lahr, MD, CHCIO, Chief Experience Officer at Artisight, shared insightful perspectives on how medical technology, particularly automation and artificial intelligence, is transforming healthcare workflow and clinician experience.
Dr. Lahr's expertise, rooted deeply in both clinical informatics and physician leadership, offers unique insights into how healthcare systems can leverage innovation to significantly reduce friction and restore joy in medical practice."There's a very famous picture from the JAMA of a little girl in an exam room who had drawn a picture, and her doctor was facing the computer with his back to her... [This] changing dynamic between patients and their clinicians [is] because of bringing technology in without proper integration."The Cost of Technology | Humanities | JAMA | JAMA Network
- Clinicians should participate directly in technology development or implementation phases.
- Healthcare systems need to prioritize integration that aligns closely with actual clinical workflows.
- Use of advanced AI-driven solutions like computer vision and ambient technologies can automate routine tasks, allowing clinicians to focus more on patient care.
"We had to think about [technology] very radically differently... without adding friction, but in essence, removing friction through an ambient environment and experience."
- Using sensors and computer vision to automatically capture essential data.
- Seamlessly integrating this technology into existing healthcare workflows.
- Adopting a platform-based strategy to solve multiple clinical problems simultaneously.
"We're built by clinicians and inherently knowledgeable about the complexities and challenges of care delivery,"This clinician-driven perspective ensures the technology Artisight develops truly addresses practical clinical needs.
- Developing dedicated informatics teams to serve as translators between clinicians and technologists.
- Encouraging mutual education—clinicians gaining insight into technology capabilities, technologists understanding clinical workflows.
- Prioritizing strategic alignment by having technology and clinical leaders jointly involved in executive decision-making.
- Start With Problems, Not Solutions: Identify specific, pressing challenges within your organization first.
- Engage End Users Early: Involve clinicians directly in identifying and articulating clinical needs.
- Take Calculated Risks: Embrace innovation cautiously, with appropriate guardrails, allowing room for learning and incremental improvement.
Dr. Lahr advises, "Leaders have to champion this and make this a priority... express the value that technology can bring in ways that resonate beyond traditional ROI metrics."
- Foster a transparent, empathetic environment acknowledging current challenges.
- Clearly articulate a vision for change and engage clinicians in that vision.
- Prioritize innovative solutions that meaningfully reduce administrative burdens and improve clinical workflow.
I think one of the most important things is just for folks to be curious about what's actually happening on the front lines [Music] hello everyone and welcome to the strategy of Health podcast from the American Journal of Healthc Care Strategy my name is Cole Lions and I'm here today with Dr Mary Smith who is the Chief Information officer for a major health system in the Midwest Dr Smith welcome to the podcast thank you so much Cole happy to be here great to have you um Dr Smith we've been talking a lot about automation recently and how it can improve clinical workflows you implemented an automated system in your hospitals recently can you tell us a little bit about that project and what problem you were trying to solve yeah absolutely so like many Health Systems we were facing a huge issue with burnout among our nurses and clinicians um they were spending so much of their time on administrative tasks documentation hunting for supplies just things that were taking them away from direct patient care um we did a Time study and found that you know upwards of 30 40% of their shift was spent on non-clinical work so we wanted to look at how we could use technology specifically Automation and some robotics to take that burden off of them um so we implemented a system for automated supply delivery um using autonomous mobile robots and also looked at automating some of the documentation piece through ambient listening technology reducing the pajama time as they call it um and the goal was really just to let nurses be nurses and let doctors be doctors that's that's fantastic and I love that phrase let nurses be nurses um what were the results I mean did you see a tangible difference in in satisfaction or efficiency oh huge absolutely um you know within the first 6 months we saw a significant drop in um overtime hours because people were getting their work done during their shift um our satisfaction scores among staff went up measurably um and interestingly patient satisfaction also went up because the nurses had more time to spend at the bedside just talking to the patient explaining things not rushing in and out um so it really was a win-win um but it wasn't without its challenges you know implementing new tech always has a learning curve uh but once they saw the benefit they were fully on board that's that's great to hear and I think that point about patient satisfaction rising is is a key one that people often miss when they think about efficiency they think oh it's going to be impersonal but it actually frees up the human to be more human um what's next for you guys in terms of automation are you looking at AI or other areas yeah absolutely we are we are diving deep into AI now looking at predictive analytics for patient flow um trying to predict surges in the ER before they happen so we can staff appropriately um also looking at AI to help with uh inbox management for our primary care physicians which is another huge source of burnout um so really just trying to find all those friction points in the system and smooth them out with technology so that the human connection can really be the center of care again I love that from friction to flow that's a great great way to put it well Dr Smith thank you so much for sharing your experience it's really inspiring to see how technology can actually bring the humanity back into medicine thank you Cole it was a pleasure [Music]
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