Hartford HealthCare Launches New Center for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare

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Hartford HealthCare unveiled its Center for AI Innovation in Healthcare this month. Seeking to harness the transformative power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to safely enhance patient care, Hartford HealthCare launched the Center for AI Innovation in Healthcare. It is the first of its kind in New England, and one of only a few in the United States.

The Center, a culmination of ongoing collaborations with prestigious institutions like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, formalizes Hartford HealthCare’s dedication to AI advancements.

In collaboration with Professor Dimitris Bertsimas, Associate Dean of Analytics at MIT-Sloan, Hartford HealthCare Innovation developed a startup company, Holistic Hospital Optimization (H2O), which uses AI to help healthcare providers optimize the flow of patients and other hospital operations, according to Hartford Healthcare officials. H2O is said to help patients return home more quickly and safely, optimizes staff time spent with patients, and frees up space and services during times of peak demand.

CNBC reported recently that administrative processes like documenting visits, requesting insurance pre-authorization for procedures, and processing bills account for about 25% of health-care costs, according to a National Bureau of Economic Research study. 

Hartford Healthcare’s Center for AI Innovation in Healthcare is rooted in four core elements: research and development, education and training, collaboration and partnerships and ethical and regulatory guidelines.  Numerous research initiatives have been translated into clinical and operational practice, according to Hartford Healthcare, including

  •          Predicting COVID-19 related events

  •          Predicting hospital length of stay

  •          Predicting patient deterioration

  •          Predicting transcatheter aortic valve surgery outcomes

  •          Predicting secondary stroke events

  •          Predicting joint replacement surgery outcomes

  •          Optimizing nurse scheduling

  •          Optimizing operating room efficiency

“As we transform healthcare, we are taking new approaches to innovation. This center is poised to unlock the full potential of AI, ensuring that every algorithm is not just intelligent, but empathetic and ethical,” explained Jeffrey A. Flaks, president and chief executive officer at Hartford HealthCare. “We are committed to pioneering safe, effective and affordable solutions that revolutionize patient care while advancing clinicians’ expertise.”

CNBC reported that in July, the White House secured a pledge from seven of the leading U.S. companies in artificial intelligence to commit to collaborating within the industry to build in safeguards into the fast-evolving technology.  The group included Google, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft — all three have launched generative AI products for health care, according to published reports. 

MIT Management Executive Education recently launched an Artificial Intelligence in Health Care curriculum, described as an “online short course.”  The six-module academic program includes:

Module 1: AI and Machine Learning — Applications and Foundations -Become familiar with supervised machine learning and the types of problems it may be applied to;  Module 2: Using AI for Disease Diagnosis and Patient Monitoring - Examine real-world applications of AI for diagnosis and patient monitoring; Module 3: Natural Language Processing and Data Analytics in Health Care - Use AI to extract value-adding outcomes from medical literature and pathology reports; Module 4: Interpretability in Machine Learning — Benefits and Challenges - Appreciate the importance and benefits of interpretable algorithms;  Module 5: Patient Risk Stratification and Augmenting Clinical Workflows - Discover how AI can be applied to health care interventions and patient care;  Module 6: Taking An Integrated Approach to Hospital Management and Optimization - Investigate a holistic approach to optimizing health care processes.

Last fall, more than 30 healthcare organizations founded the Vision, Alignment, Learning, Implementation, and Dissemination of Validated Generative AI in Healthcare (VALID AI) collaborative, which aims to explore generative AI’s potential to advance clinical care and medical research.  VALID AI consists of healthcare payers, providers, nonprofit organizations, and research and technology organizations to establish a “collaborative AI sandbox” to bolster integration, validation, and implementation efforts across healthcare, Health IT Analytics recently reported.