Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
The promise of artificial intelligence in healthcare has been clear for years, but the healthcare industry is only just starting to see large-scale deployments.
There are many issues to be tackled before large-scale deployment can happen. Michael Meucci, president and CEO of Arcadia, a health data platform company, works on some of these issues every day.
Meucci predicts better AI and workflow integration, and sees a holistic patient view as the cornerstone of AI applications. Those imperatives, along with reducing tension in the AI lifecycle, will be three big priorities for hospitals and health systems in 2025, he said.
Q. You say acting on AI abundance via workflow integration will be a major play in healthcare in 2025. Please elaborate.
A. While pilot programs demonstrated AI’s potential, true integration into daily workflows remains rare, and scaling successful AI applications remains a top priority for 2025. For AI to truly reshape healthcare, it must become a seamless part of care team workflows, transitioning from isolated systems to integrated, actionable tools at the point of care.
By embedding AI in workflows, healthcare organizations can make the leap from passive AI – like ambient listening or automated note-taking – to active decision support that clinicians can trust and rely on.
AI’s effectiveness hinges on its ability to support, not interrupt, clinical workflows. Integrating AI into real-time decision-making processes at the point of care involves creating systems where clinicians don’t need to step out of their routines or rely on additional tools.
Instead, clinicians should have AI-driven insights available directly within their current interfaces and processes – for example, the electronic health record. AI should serve as a silent partner, augmenting the abilities of clinical teams without demanding additional steps.
For healthcare leaders, the call to action is clear: prioritize investments that enhance workflow integration over isolated AI functionalities. Building infrastructure that facilitates AI’s real-time availability and directly feeds into clinical operations will yield sustainable gains.
As these systems mature, they will ultimately lead to an era of scaled AI deployments, moving AI from a novelty to a critical, reliable resource embedded within the fabric of healthcare delivery.
Q. You point to the need for a holistic patient view as the foundation for AI application across the enterprise. What will this look like?
A. In 2025, a true holistic patient view will be the cornerstone of AI applications that enable all staff to foster deeper, holistic patient interactions. Achieving this requires a robust data infrastructure that harmonizes data sources like clinical, claims data and social determinants of health data, so AI can draw insights that support patient-centric care regardless of who interacts with the patient.
A comprehensive and longitudinal patient view enhances the value of AI by providing a reliable foundation of patient data that anyone across the enterprise can consistently trust and leverage. For example, this single view enables AI to generate recommendations that align with the patient’s complete medical and social context.
Imagine an AI-driven call center where staff can view not only a patient’s insurance benefits but also relevant health information, like open care gaps, enabling agents to answer questions and act, like nudging a patient about a screening, with empathy and precision.
The holistic approach means whether a patient is interacting with clinical staff, support personnel or even financial services, they receive informed support tailored to their unique health journey.
To make this vision a reality, healthcare leaders must prioritize data standardization and invest in systems that promote scalable access to real-time data. With these investments, healthcare organizations can empower every employee to act as a knowledgeable touchpoint in the patient’s care journey.
This paradigm shift – where everyone has access to patient insights – enhances the patient experience by transforming all interactions into opportunities for proactive, patient-centered care management.
Q. You predict provider organizations will be working to reduce push-pull tension throughout the AI lifecycle. Please explain.
A. Healthcare organizations find themselves caught between a strong drive to adopt AI systems and significant internal resistance due to regulatory, ethical and logistical concerns. This “push-pull” tension reflects the broader industry conflict of pushing forward with AI advancements while hitting roadblocks that slow deployment.
To overcome this in 2025, healthcare leaders must adopt strategies that simultaneously fuel AI innovation and streamline governance, compliance and risk management – establishing AI as a core component of their operations without creating additional hurdles.
The acceleration of AI must be purposeful, target high-impact tasks you can automate to free up human resources for higher-value work. Healthcare executives should begin by identifying low-value, time-consuming tasks that AI can take over, like data entry or basic patient queries.
Delegating such tasks to AI enables clinicians and their staff to focus on complex, patient-facing interactions. Strategically automating repetitive functions will help organizations improve productivity and reinvest gains in expanding the reach and effectiveness of AI systems across the enterprise.
Follow Bill’s HIT coverage on LinkedIn: Bill Siwicki
Email him: bsiwicki@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication
