Optimism High as Data Drives Better Healthcare

The Journal of AHIMA surveyed health leaders about what they think will be some of the major issues facing health information professionals throughout 2024. Here are their responses:

Lauren Riplinger, AHIMA Chief Public Policy and Impact Officer

“From a public policy perspective, AI artificial intelligence (AI) will continue to be the topic du jour in 2024. Expect Congress to grapple with considerations related to AI including patient privacy, risk management, liability, intellectual property, and bias. Whether passage of any AI-related legislation will occur remains unclear given the compressed congressional schedule due to the general election in November. Opportunities to leverage social determinants of health data (SDOH) will also be a key focus for organizations as we increasingly see regulations at the state and federal level emphasize the importance of this data and the need to collect, share, and use SDOH data.” 

David Lareau, CEO of Medicomp Systems, a provider of diagnostically connected patient data solutions

“In the realm of healthcare, interoperability stands as a beacon of progress, promising to reshape our understanding and delivery of care by 2024 and beyond. As we move forward, the integration and alignment of diverse medical terminologies will play a pivotal role in forging a more connected and efficient healthcare system. This evolution in data exchange will not only facilitate seamless information sharing across various healthcare platforms but also enhance care coordination and patient outcomes. As a result, we can anticipate a future where healthcare providers can focus more on delivering high-value care, supported by a unified language of medical data, thereby reducing the risk of errors and improving the overall patient experience.”

Pawan Jindal, MD, CEO of Darena Solutions, a provider of fast healthcare interoperability resource (FHIR)-enabled interoperability for electronic health records, providers and payers

“In 2024, the integration of AI into point-of-care clinical decision-making and advanced analytics will be a primary focus to enhance patient outcomes. The evolving FHIR standards will support seamless interoperability and secure data exchanges with minimal disruption to current workflows. Upholding patient privacy and ethical data management practices will continue to be critically prioritized, significantly shaping the policies and procedures in health information management.”

Calum Yacoubian, MD, Director of Healthcare Strategy at Linguamatics, an IQVIA company that delivers a healthcare NLP-based AI platform

“With the interest in unstructured clinical data spiking due to the emergence of large language models and generative AI, I expect a lot more attention to be put on unlocking the value of these data. I predict that healthcare leaders will increasingly look to AI-based technologies such NLP to recognize more of the value of these data. For instance, information related to the severity of a patient’s disease or their SDOH can be extracted from medical records and used to prioritize care and identify patients at most risk of progression or complications. I think we are at an inflection point where more and more clinicians will work “hand in hand” with AI.”

Dianne Koval, RHIA, Chief Operating, Privacy, and Compliance Officer at MedAllies, a national healthcare connectivity services provider

“In 2024, the health industry will more fully realize the benefits of interoperability with the enforcement of the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement [TEFCA]. TEFCA was created under the 21st Century Cures Act with the goal of establishing a universal floor for interoperability by developing the infrastructure model and governing approach for users in different networks to securely share basic clinical information. We will see the continued advancement of interoperability as policies and technological approaches become more consistent, leading to increases in the volume and utility of health information exchange that ultimately will generate better decisions, more positive patient outcomes, and lower costs.”

Brandi Meyers, Vice President of Revenue Operations at MDClone, a data analytics and synthetic data company

“Healthcare organizations will increasingly realize the value that they can gain from using synthetic data to maintain patient privacy while also giving researchers rapid access to patient data. Synthetic data is information that has been derived from original or real data, and it tells the same story as that original data, but it holds no information pertaining to real patients. We are seeing synthetic [data] as a major growing trend in our industry, but we’re also seeing incomplete solutions so organizations need to consider carefully how data synthetization tools fit into their overall technology ecosystem.”

Amanda Bury, Chief Commercial Officer at Infermedica, an AI health company that works to improve preliminary symptom analysis and digital triage

”In 2024, the focus will shift to empowering patients as they gain greater control over their healthcare choices. The extensive integration of AI in healthcare is not only set to enable well-informed decision-making and streamlined care navigation, but also cultivate a more robust partnership between patients and healthcare providers. Embracing this patient-centered approach, healthcare companies are positioned to transform care delivery, allowing individuals to actively engage in managing their health. This shift will lead to improved outcomes and heightened patient satisfaction.”

John Showalter, MD, Chief Product Officer at Linus Health, a digital health company focused on enabling early detection of Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia

“More data is almost always better, especially when more data doesn’t require more time. Taking something like the classic clock drawing test and capturing hundreds of metrics 120 times (or more) per second using the digital sensors in an iPad is an elegant way to get more data. This extra data has been shown to predict cognitive impairment, specific neural pathway impairment, and even pathology like amyloid deposits. Getting the right data in the shortest time possible is going to be key in finding and treating Alzheimer’s disease.”

Anoop Sarkar, Chief Technology Officer of emtelligent, a clinical-grade natural language processing (NLP) software company that serves health systems, payers, and life sciences companies

“In 2024, we’ll see expanded use of large language models (LLMs) that are trained on larger, more diverse data sets. These LLMs enable enterprise-level medical NLP systems and the extraction of information from enormous collections of unstructured medical text data. Aligning NLP systems to medical ontologies like SNOMED-CT (and others) is key to giving clinicians useable insights at the point of care that are also verifiable on the original source data.”

Heather Randall, Chief Compliance Officer of Sphere, a financial technology company that works with health systems

“Data breaches continue to frustrate the healthcare industry, with the average cost of a healthcare breach exceeding those of all other industries. Accordingly, providers will continue to invest in security and compliance technology that protects patients’ sensitive health and financial data. One potential way to safeguard patient information is to de-identify data before it is entered in any system that leverages or is accessed by AI-enabled tools or services.”

Gary Hamilton, CEO of InteliChart, which offers patient engagement solutions for healthcare providers

“Today’s patients have expectations that are greatly influenced by industries outside of healthcare. They want instant access to their health information and online tools for scheduling appointments and messaging their provider because they can do similar tasks through retail, banking, and travel websites. If patient engagement technology doesn’t align with these expectations, providers risk their patients looking elsewhere for care. To truly engage and empower patients, providers will need patient engagement technology designed for each stage of the patient’s journey. Ongoing engagement is the foundation for better overall health outcomes and will ultimately allow providers to take full advantage of the value-based care benefits these tools provide.”

Damon Adams is content production editor for AHIMA.