Worcester Business Journal

10 Worcester Business Journal | June 12, 2023 | wbjournal.com Reducing medical paperwork Artificial intelligence offers ways to improve the burdensome electronic health records process, but a leading Westborough company urges caution amid innovation BY ISABEL TEHAN WBJ Staff Writer G irish Navani is comfortable with change. at's how he came to co-found eClinicalWorks, a healthcare technology company, in 1999 without a life science background. He's always been excited about change, and that's how he has approached technological innovation during his tenure as CEO of the Westbor- ough company, which has long worked to change the landscape in electrical health records. With that same excitement Navani is looking at the next change: the increased presence of artificial intelligence in health care. "e change cannot cause chaos," Navani said. A measured approach needs to be taken in its implementa- tion, and it cannot become the driving force in medical record keeping, he cautioned. AI is a co-pilot. at's how Navani, Sameer Bhat, vice president and fellow eClinicalWorks co- founder, and Dr. Eric Alper, a physician at UMass Memorial Health in Worcester, all describe how artificial intelligence technology should be used in medical records. "e AI isn't doing medicine," said Alper, who is chief clinical informatics officer and senior vice president, chief quality officer in addition to his medical practice at UMass Memorial. ough the technology shouldn't take the driver's seat, the three believe AI in medical records might be the solution physicians have been waiting for, aer years of burdensome electronic health record processes. e average physician spends an equal amount of time entering medical records and processing subsequent orders aer seeing a patient as they do with the patient directly, according to data from German-based online provider Statista and industry journal Annals of Internal Medicine. For physicians who oen see upwards of five patients an hour, a technology that can summarize records in advance of ap- pointments, document information from the appointment, and create boilerplate for ordering follow-up procedures and prescriptions may alleviate or remove a significant time suck. Solving inefficiencies Electronic health records, EHRs, have transformed dramatically over the past 10 years, said Alper. "It's not just a medical record. It's so much more than that," he said. EHRs facilitate a tremendous infor- mation exchange, he said, with functionality that allows sharing of important patient documentation easily. Where before physicians might have to walk across a hospital's campus to view X-ray charts, now they are able to access them immediately. "It's just a click away," Alper said. While EHRs provide ben- efits, they can create efficien- cies in certain areas, including documen- tation requirements from insurance and legal departments. At UMass Memorial, the AI technolo- gy in use is still in very early stages, said Alper. Still, he believes the technology will create a market change on EHRs across the board. "AI as a co-pilot will be the next phase of the electronic health record," he said. at's where technology like what eClinicalWorks is developing might be able to bridge a gap. "e technology can solve 90% of that problem of inefficiency," Bhat said. eClinicalWorks hopes to lead the progress into that phase. At eClinical- Works, multiple forms of the new AI are being assessed for development into the new horizon of assistive technology. One is the voice-recognition soware, which physicians can use to expedite documen- tation processes. Some features of the voice soware have been in use for sev- eral years at eClinicalWorks. Navani said this will have a larger role going forward, potentially for use as a translator. Other developments at eClinicalWork- ers include the ChatGPT model, which analyzes text and can provide summaries Dr. Eric Alper, physician and informatics officer at UMass Memorial A mock-up of eClinicalWorks software Girish Navani, CEO of eClinicalWorks, expects the threshold for AI use in health care to continue to increase.

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