Artificial intelligence could create smarter EHRs

Intermountain Healthcare has approximately 150 protocols built into its electronic health record (EHR) system, alerting clinicians when the patient information they enter indicates certain conditions and then guiding them through further examinations and potential treatments. A 12-member team of doctors, nurses and analytics experts takes upwards of a year to analyze data and build each protocol, said Marc Probst, the chief information officer at the not-for-profit health system based in Salt Lake City. Recently, though, Intermountain teamed with a company that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to do the same work. But AI works faster and more thoroughly, taking just 10 days to develop a protocol that included additional data points not previously identified, Probst said. "The power in that is amazing. We're going to be in the thousands of protocols soon," Probst said, adding that Intermountain is now piloting AI use in building protocols.