Expert care providers spend as little as 27% of their time on actual patient care[1], which means the rest of their time is spent tracking down test results, scheduling patients, and deciphering charts. That’s all valuable, but is there a way to get clinicians back to doing what they do best? At GE Healthcare, we believe AI implementation can serve as a part of the solution for more productivity and better patient outcomes.

Better use of budgets

Patient outcomes are the driving force, but resources are a consideration too. Healthcare plays a big part in the global economy but, in the United States, healthcare spending can significantly outpace GDP growth. So the problem, in part, is efficiency. Improving productivity in healthcare delivery may help change the dynamic.

Not a silver bullet

Artificial intelligence itself is not a product. AI is a technology we use to make products work better and more efficiently, calibrated toward a specific purpose. It can triage specific cases for faster response, help improve exam scheduling, and take the mundane tasks out of clinicians’ days. Simply put, if healthcare solutions focus on efficiency, then the doctors can focus more time on their patients.

Seeing it in action

 Let’s use a small hospital imaging department for example. With an average of 600 exams scheduled per day, typically about 30 people won’t show up. This means lost time and opportunity to provide care. With Edison™ No Show application, we can get those no-shows down to 6, which is a 75% increase in productivity[2].  

We’ve created the Edison™ Ecosystem to be just that—a place where developers and clinicians can get what they need, innovative solutions with precision integration at a large scale. And the integration meets the healthcare providers where they are, whether it be on the cloud or via other platforms.

By allowing AI to work for us to create efficiencies through the Edison Ecosystem, we believe the outcome will be allowing clinicians to spend more time with patients.

Want to learn more? Karly Yoder, Vice President and GM will be presenting at this year’s HLTH2020 on October 9, 2020.  Register today at HLTH.com.


[1] Harvard Business Review, November 2018

[2] McKinsey & Company report "The Productivity Imperative for Healthcare Delivery in the United States", N Sahni, P Kumar, E Levin, S Shubham, Feb 27, 2019