Healthcare & AI Notes

ED Challenges in Ontario

• Increased patient turnover and illness complexity.
• Average ED wait times exceeded 18 hours in 2023, far beyond the 8-hour standard.
• Overcrowding led to patient-safety issues, violent incidents, and reduced patient experience.
• Limited funding and labor shortages hinder capacity increases.

Potential of AI in Healthcare

• Big-data analytics and AI can predict disease spread, improve supply chains, and aid vaccine development.
• Unity Health aimed to share AI solutions to improve patient care but faced challenges.

Challenges in Partnerships and Collaboration: Failed ED Forecasting Tool

• Unity Health's AI tool for ED patient forecasting showed promise.
• Initiative to share the scheduling algorithm with other hospitals in Ontario.
• Hospitals saw potential to improve patient flow, reduce wait times, and optimize resource allocation.
• Sharing the algorithm for free fostered collaboration.

Scaling Challenges

• Limited data infrastructure at recipient hospitals hindered effective utilization.
• Non-embedded workflows: dashboards not integrated into existing processes, leading to low adoption and abandonment.