With staff burnout and turnover a continuous problem in senior living and care, new technology and software geared toward healthcare administration has promised to assist caregivers, not overburden them.
At least one expert cautions that innovations to date have not been up to the task.
The adoption of electronic health records failed in this regard, as user interfaces have not always helped clinicians enter documentation or helped patients understand messages about their conditions, healthcare expert Kevin Johnson, MD, said in an interview for the journal JAMA.
Johnson, professor at the University of Pennsylvania who heads the biomedical communications Johnson Lab, wrote last year about EHRs’ shortcomings, although he expressed optimism that they would be a more effective tool in the future.
One of the problems today is that there aren’t strong metrics to measure cognitive burdens of either patients or providers when using a tool such as an EHR or artificial intelligence, Johnson said.
To make sure AI doesn’t experience the same pitfalls as previous innovations, Johnson recommended more clinical trials for new tools, such as automated transcriptions of medical consultations.
Specific to AI, Johnson also brought up the concern of “algorithmic fairness” and the issue of existing biases, such as data that ignores demographic differences, impairing patient outcomes.
Johnson, however, expressed strong optimism that those developing new technology were learning from past issues and were incorporating feedback from those who work in healthcare.
“With the unveiling of what’s now being called generative AI, large language models, ChatGPT, everyone is seeing that the genie’s lamp has been opened and we’re having our wishes,” he stated. “No question, we are now in a place where AI is going to be a part of healthcare in a very visible, meaningful, and pervasive way. We’re all very excited.”
