Thoughtful Adoption of New Health Care Technology Benefits Everyone

In the health care field, our knowledge and capabilities constantly evolve, and with that continual progress comes the temptation to pounce on new technology that boasts an ability to help us better serve our patients or streamline our important work. It is imperative, however, that we responsibly invest in new technology in order to improve care without disrupting the frontline workers who take care of patients. We do not want to be distracted by the shiny new device and invest time and resources in its implementation, only to discover that it does not actually do what we need it to do.

Texas-based St. Luke’s Health recently adopted new artificial intelligence (AI) technology that integrates with a CT Scanner to review images rapidly. The AI software quickly identifies whether a patient has had or is about to have a stroke, and immediately alerts the stroke team by sending a message to their phones. This helps the doctors intervene faster than if the images were held up in a queue, as previously the radiologists read the scans in order as they received them.