Doctors have a few simple AI asks

Presented by Better Medicare Alliance: The ideas and innovators shaping health care

Dec 19, 2023 View in browser   By Daniel Payne, Erin Schumaker, Carmen Paun and Ruth Reader Presented by CHECKUP Ehrenfeld on stage at HIMSS in San Diego | Daniel Payne/POLITICO “Truthfully, physicians' priorities for digital health adoption are actually quite simple.” American Medical Association President Jesse Ehrenfeld American Medical Association President Jesse Ehrenfeld has some advice for artificial intelligence developers if they want to see their tech used by doctors nationwide. He explained how docs see the tech — and what they’re pushing for — at the AI in health care summit at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society conference in San Diego last week. The AMA recently asked doctors how they felt about using AI in their practices, Ehrenfeld said. The survey revealed their excitement that AI could improve care and ease burdens — but also some trepidation. Cautionary tales: Prior experience with new tech tools has some doctors worried, he said. Clinicians were promised big improvements with the advent of electronic health records — now loathed by many providers. And some tools had problems baked into them that were never fixed, he said. Pulse oximeters, for example, are known to misread blood oxygen levels in people of color but continue to be used. “We’ve already seen too many examples of systems that have had biased training data or a failure to imagine other design flaws that have unintentionally and invisibly caused harm to patients,” he said. To convince doctors to adopt the new technology, these questions must have good answers, he said: — Does it work? — Will I get proper payment? — Will I be liable? — Will it work in my practice? New systems: Ehrenfeld argued that new regulatory and safety systems must be created — including within the Food and Drug Administration — to ensure AI products are reliable and trustworthy. The AMA isn’t sitting back amid the changes. The group is working to form, validate, fund and ultimately influence how AI makes its way into medical practice. A message from Better Medicare Alliance: We support policy solutions to strengthen Medicare Advantage and improve the beneficiary experience. Our policy priorities include modernizing prior authorization, establishing marketing guidance clarity, and improving provider directories. Learn more about Better Medicare Alliance's recommendations for Medicare Advantage priorities.   WELCOME TO FUTURE PULSE San Diego | Daniel Payne/POLITICO This is where we explore the ideas and innovators shaping health care. What do garter snakes and elephants have in common? They both form social groups centered around females, Science reports. Share any thoughts, news, tips and feedback with Carmen Paun at cpaun@politico.com, Daniel Payne at dpayne@politico.com, Ruth Reader at rreader@politico.com or Erin Schumaker at eschumaker@politico.com. Send tips securely through SecureDrop, Signal, Telegram or WhatsApp. Today on our Pulse Check podcast, host Ben Leonard talks with Carmen, who takes stock of the fentanyl epidemic and its devastating impact over the past year. Listen to today’s Pulse Check podcast   A message from Better Medicare Alliance:   THE LAB Researchers plan to use AI to study how the brain responds to medication. | AFP via Getty Images “A patient takes medicine, but how does a doctor know if it’s working?” Eleftherios Garyfallidis, principal investigator and associate professor at the Indiana University Luddy School of Computing, Informatics and Engineering, wonders. The National Institutes of Health has awarded him a $2.3 million grant to develop AI-powered software tools that aim to answer that question by studying the brain. Why so? Garyfallidis is known for his work using MRI data to create 3D models of the brain and building open-source software, such as a medical imaging library. The research team plans to push that work forward by developing open-source software that researchers can use to study how different brain regions are connected and how they work. The award is part of the larger NIH BRAIN 2.0 Initiative, which is tasked with building new tools and technology to better understand the brain’s networks and speed up neurotechnology. What’s next? If successful, Garyfallidis’ work could help neurosurgeons and researchers studying white matter in the brains of patients with neurological diseases. A message from Better Medicare Alliance: More and more seniors are choosing Medicare Advantage than ever before, including in rural communities. In 2023, 40% of all eligible Medicare beneficiaries in rural counties were enrolled in an MA plan—nearly four times the share in 2010. As rural Medicare Advantage enrollment grows, the program is making care more affordable for rural communities because Americans in rural areas are more likely to face financial challenges than those in urban areas. Medicare Advantage covers all of the same services as Fee-For-Service (FFS) Medicare, but offers additional cost protections, including an annual cap on out-of-pocket expenses and additional benefits that support beneficiaries' overall health, like dental and vision. Ultimately, beneficiaries save $2,400/year on average compared to FFS Medicare beneficiaries. Read about our proposed solutions for improving and maintaining care for seniors.   WASHINGTON WATCH Rathmell's now in charge of the National Cancer Institute. | Courtesy of Vanderbilt University Medical Center Dr. W. Kimryn Rathmell has inherited a key role in President Joe Biden's cancer moonshot: She starts this week as director of the National Cancer Institute. Her charge: Help achieve Biden’s goal of reducing the cancer death rate by 50 percent over 25 years. Who is she? Rathmell hails from Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where she was chair of medicine and physician-in-chief. She’s known for her research on rare kidney cancers and treating patients with the disease. In addition to publishing hundreds of research papers and studies, Rathmell has also written about ethical issues in science, like cancer drug shortages and conflict of interest in science publishing. Praise all around: “Dr. Rathmell begins her new role at an important time,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “The President and First Lady reignited the Biden Cancer Moonshot to dramatically accelerate progress in the fight against cancer — and NCI is helping to lead the charge.” Rathmell is the second woman to lead the institute after Dr. Monica Bertagnolli departed last month to lead the National Institutes of Health. “I am thrilled to welcome Dr. Rathmell to NIH,” Bertagnolli said in a statement. “She is a fantastic combination of researcher and clinician who deeply understands the process of translating lab research into effective cancer treatments.”   Follow us on Twitter Carmen Paun @carmenpaun Daniel Payne @_daniel_payne Ruth Reader @RuthReader Erin Schumaker @erinlschumaker   Follow us

To change your alert settings, please log in at https://www.politico.com/_login?base=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.politico.com/settings This email was sent to rouf@idiot.cloudns.cc by: POLITICO, LLC 1000 Wilson Blvd. Arlington, VA, 22209, USA Unsubscribe | Privacy Policy | Terms of Service