Earlier this month, I newly broke up GE HealthCare has revealed its planned second acquisition as an independent company. and signed an agreement to acquire Caption Health, which has developed AI-enabled routing software for ultrasound imaging.
The mentoring program allows more physicians to use ultrasound with confidence, said Carly Yoder, MD and digital director of ultrasound at GE HealthCare. AI has become a hot topic in healthcare, but she notes that it is more important to focus on what it can do rather than the novelty of the technology.
“Nobody now talks about software as something important to have, right? We’re all used to language like, ‘What does software enable your phone to do that it couldn’t do before?'” “When it comes to artificial intelligence, we are still involved in the technology, as opposed to the results.”
Yoder sat with him Mobi Health News To discuss the deal and the industry’s changing views on artificial intelligence.
MobiHealth news: General Electric recently signed an agreement to acquire Caption Health. Can you tell me a little bit about how this deal works within GE’s larger strategy?
Carly Yoder: My previous role at GE HealthCare for five years was building our AI practice, and I’ve been in this ultrasound-focused role for nearly two years now. GE HealthCare has strength and focus when it comes to AI. When we looked at our ultrasound suite, and we looked at what Caption Health had created — they created something really new for the space, which is a scan guide.
So it’s the AI that helps you get to the right photo, rather than understanding what’s in that photo. And what this does is it expands who can use ultrasound. requires an incredibly powerful tool, and puts it in the hands of primary care physicians, the emergency room, and the doctors [general practitioners]People who, in the past, may not have been comfortable with ultrasound.
The vision of our ultrasound franchise is for ultrasound to be a tool that can be used by almost every physician in almost every clinical setting in almost every country in the world. This is a very important piece of the puzzle for expanding reach.
MHN: I saw an interview you did several years ago where you were discussing a survey in which health systems said they didn’t see AI as a priority. That was in 2018. How do you think this point of view has changed?
Yoder: Every year I am amazed at the progress that is happening in the field of data science. We at GE HealthCare are fortunate to have some of the brightest minds at the intersection of data science and healthcare. But I think some of these developments have more to do with how we integrate and deploy AI than with how we build it.
So even in 2018 — maybe 2019, 2020 — you can build really good data science. But if you didn’t make it invisible in the workflow, it was heavy. It was hard to use. I’ve been using this example for maybe five years, but it looks like Google Maps, right? If you had to go to a different app to see the change in orientation — or, God forbid, a different phone — you’d never use it.
There are just some usability criteria that I don’t think we necessarily got right with the first generation of how we think about AI. But I think one of the big improvements we’ve made, which has been a big focus at GE HealthCare, is [thinking about]How do you build something trustworthy? How do you post it invisibly? Then how do you engage users to understand how to use it in their workflow?
Build, publish and share. Because if you only focus on design, you will never see the change management or adoption that you will see if you figure out how to integrate it the right way.
MHN: IIt’s interesting that you’re referring to workflow, because that’s something I hear a lot with any digital health tools. If it wasn’t part of a doctor’s workflow, they wouldn’t be able to use it easily. Can you explain a little bit how you see working with AI?
Yoder: Within your existing workflows, this means that they must be integrated into the tools you already use today. This is the first step. You can’t add new screens, you certainly can’t add new steps. It should be invisible and just help you be more effective at what you do.
But I also believe that AI will offer new courses of action. You know, I’m thinking of EMR. We’ve had a very painful paper process and created a very painful digital process. How do we take a moment to reimagine workflow with the advent of AI?
Multimedia AI is the true north and the future we want to reach. How can we bring all the data surrounding the patient together and inform clinicians on the right path forward? That’s really what GE sees as the future when we talk about precision care, when we talk about our services Strategy on D3.
How do we take all the data around a patient and run AI on it to inform the best paths of care for any patient? This is not where we are today, but this is the future we can pursue, as long as we take these additional steps to use the AI that exists today to achieve better access and achieve better efficiency.