Duke Health CHIO Eric Poon Embraces AI for Innovation
Duke University Health System is investing in roughly 80 AI products as part of its strategy to enhance healthcare through technology. Chief Health Information Officer, Eric Poon, expressed the organization’s willingness to adopt innovative tools despite accepting the possibility of some failures.
‘We know that not everything that we put our hands on or that comes our way is going to pan out,’ says Poon. He emphasizes that the governance of AI must allow for learning from mistakes and iterating quickly, stating, ‘Our governance philosophy is that we need to fail often and fail fast.’
Poon acknowledges the current AI landscape in healthcare as fast-paced and unpredictable, often referred to as the ‘Wild, Wild West.’ He insists on the necessity for responsible governance while encouraging innovation among clinicians and health systems.
One standout initiative at Duke Health is the use of ambient AI in partnership with Abridge, aimed at improving doctor-patient interactions. Over 160 physicians are utilizing this tool to enhance the accuracy of their documentation while reducing their workload. ‘Clinicians have been using voice-to-text technology for some time, but with AI, we can provide more context to the notes that are created,’ Poon explains.
To further optimize their implementations of AI, Duke Health is focusing on refining workflows surrounding AI-generated outputs. Proper governance remains a cornerstone of their strategy, integrating AI considerations into existing technology committees, thus creating a distributed governance process.
Poon concludes, ‘We’ve put a lot of time and effort into responsible AI development.’ This highlights the need for executives in healthcare to embrace AI’s rapid advancements while grounding their practices in solid governance frameworks.
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