Clinical Digital Assistant: Redefining healthcare for providers and patients

Oracle, the tech giant led by Larry Ellison, is making a significant move in the healthcare sector. At its annual health conference in Las Vegas a couple of months back, the company introduced a new AI-driven tool, the Clinical Digital Assistant, which is set to transform the way electronic health records (EHR) are managed. This technology promises to automate administrative tasks for healthcare professionals, enabling them to focus more on delivering quality patient care.

This development comes at a time when businesses across various industries are rapidly embracing generative AI. However, healthcare organisations have been somewhat cautious in their adoption, primarily due to concerns about trust and issues like bias in AI outputs, as highlighted in a recent survey by GE Healthcare.

Oracle’s AI assistant aims to address some of these concerns. It’s especially relevant for healthcare teams facing staffing challenges, a problem that is expected to worsen in the coming years, with an estimated shortage of 18 million healthcare workers by 2030. Additionally, it is designed to enhance the patient’s experience by providing better self-service options.

The Oracle Clinical Digital Assistant is a Game-changer

It enhances the EHR solutions by streamlining the process of managing patient data, from reviewing previous treatments to prescribing medications. Current EHR systems often require clinicians to interact with the system, which can be time-consuming and disrupt the patient care experience.

The digital assistant responds to both text and voice commands, offering healthcare providers a versatile tool. During appointments, clinicians will no longer need to interact with a screen to access critical information. Routine tasks like retrieving the latest MRI scans and prescription details can be managed by simply communicating with the assistant.

How Does it Work?

When prompted, the assistant retrieves relevant information from the database, including images and documents, presenting them in a coherent order. This allows physicians to make informed decisions about patient treatment quickly. Furthermore, the assistant remains active throughout the appointment and uses generative AI to handle administrative tasks, such as note-taking, and offers context-aware suggestions for actions like scheduling labs and follow-up appointments.

The Clinical Digital Assistant is built on Oracle’s broader Digital Assistant platform, which has already been adopted by several organisations, including FedEx, Echo, Exelon, Equity Residential, and Razer.

Enhanced Benefits for Patients and Providers

Besides improving clinicians’ workflow, the Clinical Digital Assistant offers several advantages for both patients and providers. Patients can use the assistant for tasks like scheduling appointments, making payments, and seeking medical information by asking questions in natural language, similar to how consumers interact with models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Providers can integrate the assistant with their secure portals to provide patients with useful information, such as appointment reminders and requests for lab reports.

While some of these capabilities are currently rolling out, Oracle expects a full rollout within the next 12 months. This move is part of Oracle’s broader initiative to advance generative AI in various sectors. Earlier, the company introduced generative AI features in its Fusion Cloud Human Capital Management (HCM) offering, simplifying HR tasks. Larry Ellison, Oracle’s CEO, also confirmed plans to develop a new cloud service in collaboration with Toronto-based Cohere, enabling enterprises to train their customized Large Language Models (LLMs).

Oracle’s commitment to healthcare innovation is poised to usher in a new era of patient care and administrative efficiency, redefining the industry’s approach to generative AI.