Innovaccer CEO Abhinav Shashank.
Courtesy: Innovaccer
As doctors and nurses face historic rates of burnout, Innovacer says artificial intelligence is here to assist.
The health-care data company on Monday announced a set of AI agents which might be designed to automate repetitive, “low-value” tasks for clinicians.
“We just haven’t got enough capability within the health system to essentially serve everyone to the degree that they deserve,” Innovaccer CEO Abhinav Shashank told CNBC in an interview. “The necessity for an agentic workforce to complement our caregivers is de facto, really high.”
AI agents can complete specific assignments without human intervention. They’re sweeping across all industries as the subsequent phase of AI takes root, and are of particular importance in health care because of burnout, labor constraints and the quantity of administrative work required of medical practitioners. A shortage of 100,000 critical health-care staff is predicted by 2028, in line with consulting firm Mercer.
Clinicians spend nearly nine hours per week on documentation alone, in line with an October study from Google Cloud.
Shashank co-founded Innovaccer in 2014 to construct a platform that might streamline information exchange across the health-care system. In recent times, the corporate has been constructing additional applications that can assist doctors, care managers and administrative staff work more efficiently.
Innovaccer serves greater than 60 million patients within the U.S. every day, spread across greater than 100 health systems. The corporate announced a $275 million funding round in January, from investors including Generation Investment Management, co-founded by Al Gore, Kaiser Permanente and Microsoft’s M12.
The corporate’s suite of AI agents is named Agents of Care. It initially includes seven different agents, though Shashank said Innovaccer will add more over time. The corporate also plans to open up the platform so startups and customers can construct their very own agents, he added.
Innovacer shared demo videos with CNBC of its agent for protocol intake and one other for referrals.
For protocol intake, Innovacer collects basic information from patients and may coordinate care manager follow-ups, the corporate said. It’s voice activated and calls patients by phone to ask questions like, “Are you able to please tell me in your personal words what brought you to the emergency room?;” “Did your doctor clearly explain your diagnosis to you?;” and “Have you ever noticed any changes in your pain levels?”
The agent converses with the patient in a natural cadence and may reply to specific details and problems. Within the demo, a patient had fallen and hurt her ankle and was having trouble getting her pain medication. The agent said it will share that information with a care manager and scheduled a followup call for later that day.
The referral agent can also be voice activated and calls patients to attach them with the suitable specialists. Within the demo, the agent helped a patient select a date and time for an appointment with a cardiologist and added a reminder to bring her photo ID, insurance card, an inventory of medicines and relevant medical records.
Innovaccer’s other recent agents are for routinely booking and managing appointments and for providing 24-hour support for patient inquiries.
Shashank said if the corporate does its job well, its agents could help bring more care to patients and reduce clinician burnout in a “very meaningful” way.
“If AI can have an effect anywhere, health care is the one place where it’s really, really needed,” he said.
The corporate has been testing the agents at five health systems. Shashank said the agent for protocol intake has been the most well-liked to this point since calling and checking on patients might be so time consuming.
Innovaccer is rolling out the suite to its existing customers, and said it should be widely available in two to 3 months.
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