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Staffing shortages in healthcare are a buzzword that keeps buzzing. A wave of departures since the pandemic has left hospitals and clinics struggling to fill critical roles. Enter AI (again). As healthcare facilities grapple with the demand for skilled workers, AI is emerging as a potential game-changer, offering a helping hand to overburdened staff.
Here are some thoughts on the subject.
Healthcare professionals have to be trained on how to safely use AI technology and there will inevitably be a learning curve that comes with the newness of these tools.
Public Market Update: Average Sector Performance
Let’s first take a look at the HealthTech market.
HealthTech is doing rather well (friendly reminder: these values reflect the entire HealthTech industry, not Langar’s HealthTech ETF). We are still eliminating those stocks trading at below $1 in an effort to prevent skewing of the analysis. However, this month we did include some winning hands.
📋️ Clinical Trials has skyrocketed thanks to GeneDx stock increasing over 1500% this year. They have doubled down on gene sequencing in newborns, now allowing for screening of over 250 diseases not currently in standard newborn screening.
🏥 Hospital Operations is doing well as a result of radiology departments utilizing those newly approved FDA technologies, and cybersecurity companies that are helping to beef up firewalls.
🖥️Access to Care likely will continue to lag until the government can figure out that paying for telehealth coverage is a good thing.
🤖 Decision Support was worth a deeper dive. Tandem Diabetes Care, Inc. (insulin pumps) is up 50% but Dexcom, Inc. is down over 60% (continuous glucose monitoring), which may be a result of GLP-agonists taking over and helping Type 2 diabetics (but Type 1 always requires insulin). Interestingly, Augmedix, Inc. (dictation software) is down as well, thus contributing to the overall negative subsector performance. As you’ll read below, dictation software currently being used is actually helping clinicians; however, Microsoft just announced a partnership with Epic in August, which may be what caused this slump. So time will tell how this company will continue to trend. Another winner worth mentioning: Butterfly Network, Inc. (remote ultrasound), up 67% YTD.
With AI in healthcare becoming more ubiquitous, the success or failure of companies will likely be determined by the accuracy of the AI tools, ease of use, and how quickly they can be incorporated into clinician workflows and patient care.
Learn more about each sector by clicking here: |
Articles Worth Reading
The Impact Of AI On Healthcare Staffing Shortages
It is not easy to replace those that have left clinical care. It takes time to educate and train new professionals. For nursing specifically, the US Chamber of Commerce estimates there will be 193,100 job openings through the year 2032, but only 177,400 new graduates likely to enter the workforce by that time.
Those left still working are grappling with increased work load and sicker patients.
With AI in the picture, it makes sense to consider how AI tools and technologies can help fill in the gaps in care.
Some avenues include:
👩💼Administrative Assistance: AI tools can assist with notetaking, scheduling, and staffing tasks.
⌚️Remote Monitoring: Information sent directly from patients to clinicians can reduce time needed to make follow up phone calls, for instance, or help with quicker triage.
🏥Optimizing Operations: Using AI on the backend to analyze data and discover patterns can help institutions and departments make better decisions.
💵Financial Benefits: AI can assist with quicker hiring and onboarding processes, cutting back on time needed for new hires, and reduce costs.
📆Matching Staffing & Scheduling: AI can improve predictions for number of staff needed to match patient census.
Of note, none of these mention replacing a healthcare professional; rather these are ways AI can assist current staff to make day-to-day operations more streamlined. The reduced administrative workload is also thought to help reduce burnout, a key factor driving the staffing shortages.
There are already success stories of AI being used in these areas; read our latest article to review how these innovative tools have helped, and what these examples may indicate for the future of AI in healthcare.
Opinion
A Doctor’s Perspective
We discuss AI and healthcare a lot here, and for good reason. We’re concerned about its safety in patient care, the liability issues that may arise, and the benefits for the industry itself.
With staffing concerns, the goal is not to replace workers - I truly believe that cannot be done or done well - rather, the idea is to improve the workplace to help with retention, and also streamline hiring.
A study by Accenture found:
92% of clinicians believe that too much time spent on administrative tasks is a major contributor to burnout.
93% of clinicians agree that applying automation to remedy time-intensive documentation processes will be beneficial.
All the areas listed above in the featured article can be extremely time consuming. If AI tools can help free up even a few hours, or reduce the workload strain by even a small amount, the impact on workers can be huge.
AI-enabled dictation software is already making its way through various practices, and has proven to help clinicians finish up their notes prior to leaving work (an often unheard of phenomenon).
While the annoyance of training with a new system will ultimately be a challenge, the upside is potential hours saved, and likely happier clinicians that hopefully decide not to quit.
—Sanjana Vig MD,MBA (Anesthesiologist)
In the News
Interesting Articles From Around the Web
To round out the newsletter, here are some other interesting happenings in HealthTech.
🧑🦳2/3 of patients with complex health issues feel more comfortable making appointments via chatbot.
🧑🤝🧑350,000: the number of people this AI tool in Australia helped to triage and manage their symptoms at home.
🩺Home health providers are benefiting from app modernization that reduces downtime.
🎀October is breast cancer awareness month, see what the CDC says and be sure to get the check ups you need!