Healthcare workforce artificial intelligence startup Olive closed $106 million in a financing round that included participation from St. Louis-based Ascension's healthcare venture fund, according to a Sept. 17 news release. The latest financing round brings Olive's total fundraising total to more than $220 million to date. The company's AI workforce technology, which has been adopted by more than 600 hospitals, helps automate tasks in various departments such as IT, supply chain, revenue cycle and clinical administration. This year, Olive has reported a surge in demand for its AlphaSites, on-site command centers that deploy and manage AI workers to measure value for health systems. The company's team has grown to more than 360 employees this year, with 67 new workers joining in August.

The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care commissioned The Topol Review: Preparing the healthcare workforce to deliver the digital future, as part of the draft health and care Workforce Strategy for England to 2027 – Facing the Facts, Shaping the Future. The Topol Review, led by cardiologist, geneticist, and digital medicine researcher Dr Eric Topol, explores how to prepare the healthcare workforce, through education and training, to deliver the digital future. Dr Topol appointed a Review Board and three Expert Advisory Panels. HEE provided the secretariat team to facilitate the Review. The Topol Review is now published and it makes recommendations that will enable NHS staff to make the most of innovative technologies such as genomics, digital medicine, artificial intelligence and robotics to improve services.

Technology in healthcare is perhaps at its most valuable in areas where skills shortages are at their strongest. Nowhere is this perhaps more so than in social care, so it's interesting to read the latest research briefing from the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST), which looks at the use of robotic technology in social care. The report suggests that whilst the need for support in the sector is considerable, it remains far from certain whether robots can play a leading role in plugging that gap. "Many of the robots and robotic devices developed for social care appear to still be at the conceptual or design phase," the authors say. "A key question is whether robots and robotic technology can integrate into existing social care environments, and with current technology, or replace them altogether."

Accenture identified five forces that would likely have an impact on the healthcare industry now. These forces, which it said will converge in three to five years, include: intelligent automation; the liquid workforce; the platform economy; predictable disruption; and digital trust. Kaveh Safavi, M.D., J.D., senior managing director of Accenture's health practice, said with these five forces, the health industry will increasingly tap digital technologies to augment human labor, personalize care and free up time to focus on where they are needed most. "The outcome of a people-first, digital health strategy is that it liberates the healthcare workforce to focus on more meaningful work that requires judgment and personal interaction," he said. According to the industry report, "Accenture Digital Health Technology Vision 2016, the health industry will increasingly embrace intelligent automation--powered by artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and augmented reality – to streamline basic tasks, such as collecting patient intake data, enabling clinicians to focus where their training and experience have the greatest value. An Accenture's survey found that roughly seven in 10 health executives are investing more in machine learning and AI-related technologies than they were two years ago. Nearly half of health executives also reported extensive use of automation for IT tasks (48 percent) and customer interactions (47 percent). The future workforce will also be empowered by technology to scale clinical expertise to many patients, from wherever that doctor is working. Accenture said this increasingly liquid workforce will allow health organizations to adjust and adapt to meet today's dynamic demands. As patients expect the on-demand services they enjoy in financial services, entertainment and retail to permeate their health experiences, new options will emerge to tailor interactions and augment care services. The report estimates that by the end of 2019, roughly four in 10 people (42 percent) in the healthcare workforce will be contractors, freelancers or internal temporary positions. The platform economy will likewise use digitally enabled business models to capture new growth opportunities and link patient experiences across the health ecosystem. Accenture estimates that demand for health application programming interfaces (APIs) will grow 10-fold by 2021. Nearly 4 in 10 health executives surveyed (39 percent) believe that these online-based services – such as self-scheduling appointments, accessing records and tracking a patient's activity from hospital to home – are very critical to their business' success. And just as platforms are disrupting traditional care models, Accenture believes predictable disruption will force health executives to expect the unexpected. "To that end, 86 percent of healthcare executives feel pressure to reinvent their businesses before they are overtaken by competitors, or disrupted out of their markets.