Dive Brief:

• Artificial intelligence was ranked the most exciting emerging technology in the healthcare sector for the fourth year in a row, according to a survey of executives by the Center for Connected Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. 
• Eighty-five percent of respondents agreed that AI should head the list, suggesting leaders think the technology has “significant potential” to improve administration, operations and clinical care, according to the report.
• Executives also said AI is the technology that showed the most improvement for the second year in the row, citing advancements in large language models and generative AI.

Dive Insight:

The survey, which collected responses from 55 leaders at hospitals and health systems, comes as interest in AI — and concerns about its safe and equitable use — have spiked over the past year and a half.

Generative AI, or algorithms that can create new content like text or images, is a particularly hot topic for executives, according to the survey. A number of technology companies have recently launched products that aim to help clinicians document patient care, search for information across notes and other clinical data and draft messages to patients. 

Leaders said using the technology for documentation or automating other clinical tasks could also alleviate clinician burnout.

Although health system leaders are looking forward to AI’s potential, the excitement “must be balanced with a commitment to high-quality care for patients and protections of their data and privacy,” Robert Bart, chief medical information officer at UPMC, said in a statement.

Experts, lawmakers and researchers have raised concerns about accuracy, accountability and bias if AI is too rapidly or carelessly implemented at healthcare organizations.

The survey also found healthcare leaders are prioritizing using technology to alleviate patient care, access and provider burnout challenges — problems that were cited in last year’s report too. 

But AI wasn’t the only promising healthcare technology for executives. Thirteen healthcare leaders in the survey also noted that telehealth and virtual care technology have improved over the past two years. Telehealth was a much more niche method of delivering care before the COVID-19 pandemic, but use soared as providers and patients shifted to virtual options to avoid spreading the coronavirus.  

Utilization has declined from pandemic heights, but executives in the survey noted the benefits of telehealth, like patient convenience, fewer missed appointments and increased access to specialty care.