eClinicalWorks AI-Assistant
During the opening session of the 2023 eClinicalWorks National Conference (#eCWNC23), company CEO Girish Navani unveiled a slew of AI-powered enhancements, including:
- Ambient clinical voice to create visit notes (through integration with Sunoh.ai)
- AI automation to help with revenue cycle management
- AI to help reduce no-shows
- Integration of ChatGPT and generative AI to increase efficiency
That final category included two enhancements that generated hearty applause and palpable excitement from the thousands of customers in attendance – AI assistance to manage inbound faxes and AI-powered playlists.
AI Powered Playlist revolutionizing billing automation. #eCWNC23 pic.twitter.com/4uqcdqayEP
— eClinicalWorks (@eClinicalWorks) October 20, 2023
AI for Inbound Faxes
We have written a lot about the continued use of faxes in healthcare (see: Saying We Shouldn’t Use Fax Because It’s Old is Like Saying Email Is Old and We Shouldn’t Use It, OCR + NLP + Fax = A Winning Combination, and Is it Time to Lean into Fax for Provider-Provider Interoperability?). This sentiment was echoed by the attendees at eCWNC23.
Everyone I spoke to about the fax enhancement made a comment about the quantity of faxes they receive in their eClinicalWorks inbox. Today, these faxes must be read one by one by practice staff and then matched to the right patient. Staff also must take the information from the fax and enter it into the appropriate fields in their EHR and take the appropriate action (ie: reach out to the patient for a referral, set up a follow up appointment for an abnormal lab result, etc).
This intensely manual process is time consuming…and is why the audience at eCWNC23 nearly gave Navani a standing ovation as he announced that their new AI-Assistant would be applied to inbound faxes to automate the bulk of the process.
Biggest applause (and actual cheers) for AI-Assistant to help manage inbound faxes. Matching faxes to patients, identifying the fields in the fax, and even interpreting the purpose of the fax (ie: referral request, lab results) #eCWNC23 #HITsm @eClinicalWorks pic.twitter.com/FEUc6qCPKK
— Colin Hung (@Colin_Hung) October 20, 2023
Dozens of eClinicalWorks customers told me how helpful this single feature will be for their practices, with one physician telling me half-jokingly that he planned to tackle Navani in the hallway so he could get this for his practice right away.
AI for RPA
Robotic Process Automation, or RPA, helps automate time consuming, repetitive manual tasks. When applied within an EHR, RPA has the capability to streamline the navigating and clicking from screen to screen.
At eCWNC23, eClinicalWorks announced the combination of AI with RPA in an enhancement called – Automated Playlists. The company defines “playlists” as the series of steps that a user would take to complete an action. It includes navigating through various screens, clicking on specific buttons, and entering certain information. A playlist automates those steps, like a macro does in MS-Office.
Introducing AI Powered Playlist #eCWNC23 pic.twitter.com/2gKHixNmLk
— eClinicalWorks (@eClinicalWorks) October 20, 2023
eClinicalWorks users can create and save a playlist which can then be activated when the exact same steps need to be taken for a different patient.
Now when combined with AI, the system will help recognize the situation and display a short list of playlists that may be applicable. This combination will save users a lot of time and may even make it easier to onboard new staff who may not be familiar with the eClinicalWorks EHR.
The playlist demo station was constantly busy.
Practical AI
The reaction from eClinicalWorks attendees proves that the company is on the right track with AI. Although ambient clinical voice and (in the future) AI-assisted diagnosis may grab the headlines, it is the practical application of AI to reduce workload that customers are excited for.
