powered by:
uhn foundation
how ai can use your medical history to fix rushed doctor visits
5 minute read
while it may seem like a simple exchange, 15 minutes is often nowhere near enough time to allow the patient to express their questions or concerns.
adobe stock
stay up to date on this topic
have you ever sat down with your doctor, explained your medical history to them, and realized you had only a few minutes left to discuss what you initially booked the appointment for? you’re not alone. many people find themselves rushed when they see their physicians, especially for a first appointment. with a system stretched thin and a doctor shortage, it’s hard to find the time to truly be heard.
but a new tech company, firsthx [first history], has developed a tool designed to solve that problem by leveraging advances in ai technology. firsthx “replicates the medical interview” by allowing you to fill out everything there is to know about you, your health and what your doctor needs to know before you even set foot in their office.
“what makes it different than other intake, because we’ve all filled out forms, is that each question it asks is based on the previous answer,” said dr. chris o’connor, critical care physician, founder and former president of think research, and current ceo of firsthx. “it’s adaptive and it’s smart, and as a result, patients love it because it helps them get their story heard.”
the tech behind firsthx
the secret behind the beauty of firsthx’s method is adaptive artificial intelligence. as patients go through the questions, their answer specifically alters the next question, and so on. instead of every patient filling out the same old form, each form is personalized to the individual, giving a clear and comprehensive picture of their unique health.
advertisement
explaining the tech in more detail, though, is “a bit like asking, ‘how does google search work?’”
the data itself has to perform tasks in real time so that it can capture answers and direct the patient to the next question in a meaningful way. along with inputting data, it learns everything a physician needs to know about the patient so that not only are they ready for the appointment, they can also provide even more actionable care.
for example, as the patient fills in their answers, it can consult data on ongoing clinical trials to determine whether that person may be a candidate. it also brings the data together to check for risk profiles for chronic diseases that may develop in the future, giving a complete picture of health alongside ways to address problems they’re experiencing today.
“there’s team coordination, and there’s regulatory, and all kinds of other tasks that the data has to do, and you have to collect it from the patient in a way that they like,” said dr. o’connor. “there are all sorts of things we can do. we can support navigation, we can support patient centralized intake and registries, and just do it as part of the regular care process, and it’s that ability to seamlessly integrate it into regular care that is one of the things that make firsthx very effective.”
sponsored by:
uhn foundation
advertisement
how is the system so smart? it’s built on data presented to it.
“there have been studies that look at, do patients actually get better information out of chatbots versus just going to google searches,” said dr. o’connor. “it’s kind of the same for the most part, and it really has to do with the quality of the information and the data you present to the ai will determine the quality of the information you get out.”
essentially, because the system has been presented with the highest quality data possible, it’s able to call on that data to give patients the highest quality intake when it comes to medical interviews and intake.
“think about your own experience with chatbots. the better the info you give them, the better the output they will give you, and so firsthx creates that structured, comprehensive, relevant data set that enables ai to work effectively,” said dr. o’connor, noting that many people trying to develop ai technology skip that step, but “ai is only as good as the data it works on.”
after all is said and done on the patient side, the doctor has easy access through integration with their specific existing workflow, of which there are many, allowing them to easily read and scan what needs to be known before an appointment ever takes place.
advertisement
giving patients their appointments back
nowadays, physicians don’t have the same kind of time they used to give to patients, through no fault of their own. it’s an overburdened system. unfortunately, those time constraints are leaving patients feeling as though they do not get enough out of their appointments.
“typically, when you see your clinician, you’ve got how many minutes? you’ve got 15, maybe 20. but you don’t have an abundance of time,” said dr. o’connor. “in that time period, they have to collect the data around your current symptoms, past medical history, you know, ask those questions, listen to the answers, sort of figure out what’s going on and then explain to you, here’s what’s wrong.”
while that may seem like a simple exchange, 15 minutes is often nowhere near enough time to go through all of that and allow the patient to express their questions or concerns on top of it.
since it can also calculate health risk scores in other areas, it also gives physicians and patients the chance to be more proactive about their health in a way that’s not possible in today’s time-crunched system.
“all of that takes time,” said dr. o’connor, noting that when there isn’t enough time to address the less urgent things, such as risk scores or medications, “they [doctors] just don’t do it.”
advertisement
“there was a study done recently which showed that if a primary care physician was to do all the practices they should do for their patients in a typical office day, it would take them 26 hours. there’s just not the time to do everything that needs to be done.”
with firsthx, however, every second spent in the office will be geared toward addressing the patient’s current needs and questions, rather than reviewing the patient’s history. that 26-hour window to get everything done gets significantly smaller when there’s a tool in use that takes a whole lot of time off the clock.
the tool improves time management, enables workflows to run seamlessly, and makes it easier to deliver better care in less time. but it can also eliminate one significant issue patients face every day: feeling as though they’re not being heard by those who are there to care for them.
“patients often feel rushed. they feel interrupted. they don’t get their full story heard,” said dr. o’connor. “that’s particularly true for marginalized and disadvantaged groups, but everybody finds it hard … even i’m a physician, i often forget the things to mention in the interview. i leave, and i said, ‘yeah, i should have brought that up, but i didn’t because you lose it in the moment.”
advertisement
he continued, “firsthx prepares patients for the interview so they can get the most out of their time with the clinician, and i think that’s a valuable thing.”
share story
