The terms EHR and physician burnout have become somewhat synonymous lately (see: 6 stats on EHR-related physician burnout and 7 tips to combat it; WRITE SHORTER EHR NOTES, FIGHT PHYSICIAN BURNOUT). You may have been wondering how the major EHR vendors would respond to such criticism? We now have at least part of Cerner's response as announced at the recent HIMSS conference (see: At HIMSS19, Cerner unveils AI tool to fight physician burnout. Below is an excerpt from the article:
[Cerner has release new software called] Chart Assist, a new AI-enabled workflow, to join a suite of systems designed to reduce physician burnout, enhance the clinician’s experience and increase productivity. Cerner’s suite of AI-enabled systems goes beyond traditional processing and focuses on user efficiency to identify gaps and inconsistencies within the patient record....These advancements will help providers address patient care and validate diagnoses, ultimately helping to reduce the physician workload, while supporting the financial strength of the health system, the vendor contended.....The new AI-driven advancement will complement Cerner’s existing workflows to enhance the physician experience with the goal of bringing real change to the industrywide challenge of physician burnout.
The response, as as one might have predicted, is to develop an AI front-end to the Cerner EHR to hide some of its inefficiencies and workflow entanglements of the product. Interestingly and predictably, Cerner's response does not suggest that the problem rests with its EHR but rather cites "gaps and inconsistencies within the patient record" as the fundamental problem. However, let's put this news aside and ask the next reasonable question: Does Cerner (or Epic for that matter) have the talent and expertise to develop an AI front-end to make physicians' interactions with its EHR less stressful and thus ameliorate MD burnout? I have my doubts but time will tell. Here are some articles for additional reading on this topic: Next up for EHRs: Vendors adding artificial intelligence into the workflow; How Front-End Speech Recognition Adoption Impacts EHR Usability; Epic Clinical Documentation Module Utilizes AI Solution; AI can improve EHRs and analytics, but physician input is a must; Using AI to Improve Electronic Health Records).
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