AI implementation is expensive and necessary, but that’s where the agreement ends.
LAS VEGAS – The healthcare industry is spending billions of dollars to realize the value of artificial intelligence, but the ROI is hard to calculate, according to panelists speaking during the Executive Session at the HIMSS26 Global Health Conference & Exhibition here on Monday.
“The new cost of doing business is what we’re running into a lot,” said Joe Longo, senior vice president and chief digital information officer of Parkland Health and a panelist at the session “Discovering New Sources of Revenue from Within: Using AI as a Strategic Driver.”
There’s a lot of skepticism when it comes to drawing a hard line on ROI, Longo said. If ambient AI gets doctors out of pajama time, will they just end up seeing more patients, Longo asked, referring to the time physicians spend doing clinical documentation after hours.
“That’s a hard ROI miss,” Longo said. “But is it worth it? Yes.”
Ten years ago, tech people were looking to solve tech problems, Longo said. Now they’ve spent the last three years solving people problems using tech.
The CFO is looking for a hard line and a shorter time frame to realize financial benefits than the CIO believes is possible, according to Ray Lowe, senior vice president and CIO at AltaMed Health Services. It takes three months to get a contract and six months to implement, and CFOs are looking for answers shortly after that.
“I used to butt heads with the CIO, who never understood the clinical,” said Dr. Brett Moran, senior vice president and chief health officer of Parkland Health.
There’s been a divide between the clinical and technical sides, but that is changing, he said.
“We, as a health system, have matured a lot,” Moran said.
There’s a realization that “soft ROI” is meaningful.
Soft ROI is harder to measure than hard ROI, but this kind of AI can make clinicians’ lives easier, resulting in happier staff and longer retention during a time when staffing shortages are rampant.
“Soft ROI is in the workforce,” Moran said. “It’s the new norm in healthcare.”
There’s soft ROI in having more symbiotic tech for the clinical teams, said Dr. Jose Mayorga, senior vice president and chief quality officer at AltaMed Health Services. Saving on costs is the second consideration when using AI to help treat cancer sooner.
The first consideration, according to Mayorga, is, “if we find that cancer early, we’re saving that person’s life.”
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