Eden English, Senior Medical Director of Informatics at UCHealth and a respected author, shares her insights on the use of AI to ease clinician burnout. She discusses how tools like PamChat streamline communication by drafting replies to patient messages. The conversation also delves into refining AI prompts to improve response accuracy and the critical need for clinicians to oversee AI-generated messages. English highlights the challenge of misinformation, particularly around vaccines, and the ethical considerations of integrating AI in patient care.
The integration of Augmented Response Technology (ART) aims to alleviate clinician burnout by automating patient message drafts, enhancing workflow efficiency.
Ongoing fine-tuning of ART is essential to ensure accuracy and uphold ethical standards in patient communication, emphasizing transparency and trust.
Deep dives
Introduction to PamChat and Its Functionality
PamChat, now referred to as Augmented Response Technology (ART), is designed to assist healthcare providers by generating draft replies to patient messages within their existing workflows. This technology uses generative AI to create a draft response that clinicians can review, edit, or discard before sending. The user interface seamlessly integrates into the standard message management system, allowing healthcare staff to streamline their responses to the overwhelming volume of patient inquiries. Ultimately, this tool aims to reduce the cognitive load on providers while maintaining the quality of communication with patients.
Addressing Clinician Burnout and In-Basket Burden
The development of ART was motivated by the rising levels of burnout reported among medical professionals, particularly stemming from the increased in-basket message volume exacerbated by the pandemic. During this period, the number of messages that providers needed to handle grew by approximately 350%, highlighting the urgent need for supportive measures in healthcare environments. The integration of AI technology is seen as a potential solution to lessen workload pressures by automating parts of the communication process, allowing clinicians to focus more on patient care rather than administrative tasks. This tech partnership aims to help retain healthcare professionals in their roles while ensuring patient messages are answered efficiently.
Continuous Improvement and Ethical Considerations
The deployment of ART involves constant fine-tuning based on user feedback, focusing on improving the prompts that guide the AI in generating responses. Clinicians are encouraged to ensure accuracy and relevance in the information provided by the AI, maintaining a vigilant approach to prevent the dissemination of misinformation. Ethical considerations surrounding transparency with patients have also been a priority, prompting the implementation of messages that disclose AI involvement in communications, reinforcing trust and accountability. As the technology evolves, there is a significant emphasis on ongoing training and awareness to ensure that the tool enhances, rather than compromises, the quality of patient care.
The burden of responding to clinician inbox messages may be a contributor to burnout. Eden English, MD, of UCHealth joins JAMA+ AI Editor in Chief Roy H. Perlis, MD, MSc, to discuss her recent study published in JAMA Network Open, which examined the use of large language models to reply to patient messages. Related Content: