AI’s got a cost problem

The ideas and innovators shaping health care

Jul 08, 2024 View in browser   By Ruth Reader, Erin Schumaker, Toni Odejimi and Daniel Payne TECH MAZE Razmi | Courtesy of Sean Turi of Sean Turi Photo Studio Author, venture capitalist and cardiologist Ron Razmi says AI might play a key role in health care’s future, but that shift will be slow in coming. In his new book, AI Doctor: The Rise of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare, Razmi examines why that is. Cost is a big part of it. Health systems have limited cash for new technology, especially if insurers won’t reimburse them. Razmi talked with Ruth about how that and other problems are slowing AI’s rollout. The interview has been edited for length and clarity. What are the barriers to AI adoption in health care? The buyers of these technologies have to have a return on investment to invest in this kind of thing, and that’s not always clear. Medical centers, pharma companies, people who buy these products can’t be buying 50 apps or 50 new digital products every year. There are one or two use cases they can focus on. Are health systems ready to deploy AI? Digital products, especially health AI products, need data. Our health care information infrastructure was never built with these use cases in mind. Electronic health records were built for billing. A lot of the information is unstructured. There is no accepted template or standards for how you do your notes. Everybody uses their own abbreviations and acronyms, which makes these notes very difficult to work with in terms of extracting what you need to run your model. And information exists in a lot of different places. Without complete medical information all in one place, it becomes extremely risky to run AI models. How do you think we can ensure AI is safe? Insurance companies are saying they’re not going to pay for something unless you’ve shown that it improves patient outcomes and it’s safe. You have to be able to say, “I did a multicenter trial where this algorithm was taken into the real world, and this is how much it improved diagnosis.”   Understand 2024’s big impacts with Pro’s extensive Campaign Races Dashboard, exclusive insights, and key coverage of federal- and state-level debates. Focus on policy. Learn more.     WELCOME TO FUTURE PULSE Boston, Mass. | Shawn Zeller/POLITICO This is where we explore the ideas and innovators shaping health care. People who hit the snooze button repeatedly, or set multiple alarms, aren’t doing themselves any favors, sleep specialists say. They’re merely fragmenting the last minutes of their rest. 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, Erin Schumaker at eschumaker@politico.com, or Toni Odejimi at aodejimi@politico.com. Send tips securely through SecureDrop, Signal, Telegram or WhatsApp.   WASHINGTON WATCH Knudsen is happy House appropriators want to boost funding for the National Cancer Institute. | Getty Images Democrats and many advocates of federal health research were displeased with House Republicans’ plan to slash fiscal 2025 funding for the Department of Health and Human Services by 7 percent. Cancer research advocates had a more nuanced take. How so? The funding bill approved by a House Appropriations subcommittee at the end of June included a $651 million boost for the National Cancer Institute. Karen Knudsen, CEO of the American Cancer Society and the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, said in a statement that she was grateful to see a substantial increase in the cancer institute’s funding but urged the House to provide the same funding level in 2025 for the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health that Congress provided in 2024 ARPA-H, the new funder of high-risk, high-reward research, has backed a series of cancer-related awards and programs since its inception. It would take a $1 billion cut if the bill were enacted — but that cut isn’t likely given Democratic control of the Senate and the White House. “There is a clear relationship between meaningful investment in cancer research and reduced mortality rates in the United States, dropping year over year since 1991,” Knudsen said. “With more than 2 million Americans expected to be diagnosed with cancer in 2024, sustained increased investments are critical to advancing the cancer treatments and cures of the future.” What’s next? The Appropriations Committee must approve the bill before the House can vote on it.   Understand 2024’s big impacts with Pro’s extensive Campaign Races Dashboard, exclusive insights, and key coverage of federal- and state-level debates. Focus on policy. Learn more.     CHECKUP Methadone treatment remains closely monitored and inaccessible to many. | Kevin D. Liles/AP Only 1 in 4 of those who could benefit from medication for opioid addiction received it in 2022, with women and people of color getting medicine less often than their male and white counterparts, according to a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study. The backstory: Slightly less than half of the people who needed treatment, around 4 percent of American adults, didn’t get any. And most of those who were treated weren’t given drugs like buprenorphine or methadone, which help control cravings for more dangerous opioids such as fentanyl and reduce the risk of fatal overdoses. Black and Hispanic patients were least likely to receive any kind of treatment, with medication or not, compared with white patients. Dr. Deborah Dowell, chief medical officer in the CDC’s Division of Overdose Prevention, also noted that adults 35-49 received care more often than those over 50. Takeaway: The researchers hope the report will prompt more people with opioid use disorder to receive potentially life-saving medication. The drugs can prevent up to 80 percent of opioid deaths, according to Dowell.   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://login.politico.com/?redirect=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