Many people believe that artificial intelligence can revolutionize senior care, including, understandably, those who have created companies and organizations that offer AI-enabled services.
In an environment where older adults are skeptical of AI-led healthcare, however, and in an industry often slow to adopt new tech, it is essential to build a level of trust, says Praveen Soti, CEO of HealthEM.AI.
HealthEM.AI is a data management company that addresses cost of care and matching patients with caregivers.
In using AI to assist with tasks such as creating a patient risk profile, the key is to demonstrate how and why the AI is functioning, Soti told the McKnight’s Tech Daily on Monday.
“If our AI is making a recommendation to the care manager, how do they trust what recommendations are coming in?” Soti said. “We allow the care manager to see why the platform is making a recommendation, and that creates confidence in the system.”
HealthEM.AI recently announced a partnership with WellBe Senior Medical, which has patients who primarily are served by Medicare and Medicaid Advantage programs.
For older adults and risk profiles, AI can look at more than 100 million readmission incidents and incorporate new events in real time, to offer recommendations, Soti said.
Although Soti described HealthEM.AI’s process as fine-tuning the “secret sauce” behind language-learning models, that doesn’t mean end users can’t have a solid understanding of why a decision or recommendation was made.
The other key to engender use of AI tools is to “infuse” the system into a caregiver’s existing routine, so that it doesn’t feel like a novel or intrusive process, Soti said.
“It’s not something where you click on a button and say, ‘Tell me what to do,’ ” Soti said. “It doesn’t sit outside of the workflow.”
HealthEM.AI is one of many emerging tech startups that are using AI for care management. Another platform, AUGi, was co-developed by Maplewood Senior Living and Inspiren to help predict fall risk within Maplewood’s communities. Other AI tools, such as iQueue Autopilot, are meant exclusively for caregivers and administrators, to streamline scheduling and staffing.
The last AI application especially is indicative of how experts believe the technology should be deployed within healthcare: as a supplement, not a replacement, for caregivers and staff members.
“Humans will always be there,” Soti said. “What we want to see is the AI boost and assist the productivity of the interactions the care manager is having today. That improves the quality and cost of care.”
