Jacob Kupietzky is President of HealthCare Transformation, a company dedicated to providing hospitals with experienced interim executives. Not long ago, if you wanted to explore the intersection of healthcare and artificial intelligence (AI), you'd be confined to the pages of science fiction. Not anymore: In recent years, AI has evolved from what's possible to what's practical, and consumers and practitioners alike have been increasingly drawn to the possibilities of how AI can revolutionize healthcare. While the promise of AI in this field is just starting to be realized, we are already seeing it have a real impact on patients' lives right now. Here are three ways AI is disrupting the practice of healthcare today.

As US health systems prioritize financial recovery and innovation in the wake of the pandemic, the pressure is on to re-evaluate their infrastructure and emerging technology investments, and to ensure their efforts not only support the future of healthcare delivery, but also provide services more efficiently and cost-effectively. While there is no widely agreed-upon definition of a smart hospital, healthcare executives are nonetheless working toward their visions of the hospital of the future. The digital solutions that health systems are deploying today--like AI--are effectively steps in their evolution into smart hospitals. Several experts Insider Intelligence spoke with agree: A smart hospital triggers action. It effectively leverages AI and machine learning to not only learn from the data, but also act on the data by building automation around it.

As US health systems prioritize financial recovery and innovation in the wake of the pandemic, the pressure is on to re-evaluate their infrastructure and emerging technology investments, and to ensure their efforts not only support the future of healthcare delivery, but also provide services more efficiently and cost-effectively. While there is no widely agreed-upon definition of a smart hospital, healthcare executives are nonetheless working toward their visions of the hospital of the future. The digital solutions that health systems are deploying today--like AI--are effectively steps in their evolution into smart hospitals. Several experts Insider Intelligence spoke with agree: A smart hospital triggers action. It effectively leverages AI and machine learning to not only learn from the data, but also act on the data by building automation around it.

Not only do a majority of healthcare organizations currently have an artificial intelligence strategy in place, more than half (59%) believe AI will deliver tangible cost savings within three years, according to a new survey from healthcare services group Optum. Confidence in AI and its potential to improve healthcare operations and services is surging, as hospitals increasingly invest in these technologies and see returns. About 83% of the executives surveyed said their organization has an AI strategy in place, and another 15% are planning on creating one. The third annual survey polled 500 senior healthcare executives from hospitals, health plans, life sciences organizations and employers. The Covid-19 pandemic has further spurred investment in AI, with 56% of executive saying they accelerated or expanded their AI deployment timelines in response to the public health crisis.

Healthcare executives today believe AI will deliver value for the industry faster than previously thought, according to a new survey of senior healthcare executives representing leading hospitals, health plans, life sciences organizations and employers. The third annual Optum Survey on AI in Health Care found that 59% of respondents expect their organizations to see a full return on their AI investments in under three years. That's up 90% since 2018, when only 31% of respondents expected to break even that quickly. The overall anticipated time frame to achieve ROI was 3.6 years in this year's survey, down from 5.3 years in 2018 and 4.7 years in 2019. Confidence in recognizing cost savings from AI appeared to increase as organizations progressed on the maturity curve. Among those who identified themselves as being in the late stages of AI deployment, 57% indicated they'd achieve their ROI in less than two years, as compared to respondents in the early (33%) and mid (26%) stages.

Interest in artificial intelligence (AI) is soaring in the healthcare industry, according to a recent Optum survey of 500 US healthcare executives from hospitals, health plans, life sciences organizations, and pharmaceutical and device companies. The survey found an 88% increase this year in the number of healthcare leaders who said their organizations are implementing an AI strategy compared to 2018. Sixty-two percent of the respondents said they had implemented such a strategy, up from 33% last year. The average organization expected to invest $39.7 million in AI over the next 5 years ― $7.3 million more than was estimated last year, Optum found. Many respondents also anticipated a return on investment (ROI) in the near term.

Matthew Michela, president and CEO of Newton, Mass.-based Life Image, says there are three questions healthcare executives need to ask when assessing the value of an artificial intelligence product for radiology. Life Image provides access to points-of-care and curated clinical and imaging data. According to the company, it delivers large-scale, heterogenous, de-identified imaging sets that are linkable to other longitudinal data. What follows are the three questions Michela says healthcare leaders must ask about artificial intelligence products for radiology. Question 1: Does the Product Solve a Relevant Clinical Problem?

Interest in artificial intelligence (AI) is soaring in the healthcare industry, according to a recent Optum survey of 500 US healthcare executives from hospitals, health plans, life sciences organizations, and pharmaceutical and device companies. The survey found an 88% increase this year in the number of healthcare leaders who said their organizations are implementing an AI strategy compared to 2018. Sixty-two percent of the respondents said they had implemented such a strategy, up from 33% last year. The average organization expected to invest $39.7 million in AI over the next 5 years ― $7.3 million more than was estimated last year, Optum found. Many respondents also anticipated a return on investment (ROI) in the near term.

Get the latest in healthcare leadership, news, and innovation. There's never been a more exciting time to be in the digital healthcare space than right now. With the explosion of content capabilities, endless social opportunities and underpriced attention in so many platforms – there's a huge amount to be excited about. Health technologies encompass all the devices, medicines, vaccines, procedures and systems designed to streamline healthcare operations, lower costs and enhance quality of care. Artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, voice search, chatbots and virtual reality (VR) are among the most promising health technologies in 2019.

Add Novant Health to the growing list of health systems that have opened institutes dedicated to artificial intelligence. The health system, based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, launched the Novant Health Institute of Innovation & Artificial Intelligence (AI), which will use AI to enhance personalized patient care. The institute will focus on the advanced technologies required to provide highly personalized care and accelerated solutions with actionable data and insights for preventive prediction, diagnosis and treatment to Novant Health's patients, the health system said. Novant Health consists of 640 care locations, including 15 hospitals and hundreds of outpatient facilities and physician clinics servicing patients in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. To drive this work, Novant will partner with the health system's physicians as well as technology companies, research organizations, universities and other healthcare organizations to leverage the work already in place within Novant Health's digital products and services team.