Healthcare decision makers have been gradually exploring opportunities in AI in recent years, but grappling with the coronavirus over the past few months has ramped up their interest significantly.

That’s according to a report recently released by the Center for Connected Medicine based on a survey of over 100 healthcare executives conducted in partnership with KLAS Research.

Clinical decision support is the most common use case executives have in mind for new AI, although many are considering using for revenue cycle management moving forward. One current hurdle to expanded use of AI, the survey found, is that most of the data being collected by health systems are not formatted for use by AI.

“They’re being collected for something else, and the AI has historically been secondary," said Pamela Peele, chief analytics officer at UPMC Health Plan and UPMC Enterprises. "Thus, getting data in shape for use by AI is a heavy lift and requires a big investment in talent and technical resources. Many health systems say they want to do AI, but few are making the investments needed to achieve it."

On the other hand, the impact of the pandemic is clear, the report noted, “as half of respondents reported using AI in response to the pandemic for applications such as clinical decision support, management of beds, staffing and devices, and analytics – experience that is boosting interest in the technology and pointing to greater utilization in the year ahead.”

The report wasn’t focused exclusively on AI but on the overall impact of the pandemic on how healthcare organizations have been incorporating technology into their systems. Telehealth also stood out, with nearly half of respondents saying they'd shifted to virtual care as an innovation priority.

"Within just over a week, we went from no telehealth to 2,000 telehealth visits per day. We are kind of just getting back into our original technology priorities," said one CMIO respondent.  

Nine in 10 respondents said they'd been fully able to meet telehealth demand for care, aided by relaxations in regulations around virtual care.  

As for other expanded uses of AI, 57% of respondents said they are optimistic or very optimistic that innovations in revenue cycle management can happen in the coming year, and predictive analytics, AI, bots, and automation were cited as the most-needed technologies to improve revenue cycle management as health systems look for opportunities to be more efficient.

"2020 has been quite the curveball for healthcare," said Adam Gale, president of KLAS, in a statement. "Thankfully the foundations for digital care had already been laid, allowing organizations to rapidly shift focus and continue to provide excellent care in our new, remote world. While we look forward to an eventual return to normalcy, I hope many of the digital advancements of this year aren’t forgotten.”