Patients and physicians should be lobbying politicians to increase regulatory control for digital health tools, believes Sarah Worthy, CEO of Texas-based healthcare management company DoorSpace.

Recently, Google announced it was funding 15 AI-powered projects, including digital health initiatives, to improve provider experience and patient access to care, via its commitment to advancing the UN sustainable development goals. This move represents a continued interest in deploying AI in a wide range of industries, including healthcare.

“It’s fantastic to see innovative AI startups getting funding,” said Worthy. “As much as I value pragmatism for AI, it’s only because I see so much opportunity for us to use AI to make transformational change within industries and society and we need to be informed, practical and mindful as we lay this early AI foundation.”

She believes there are two perspectives to consider when regarding healthcare and AI. First, look at where are the investments and startups working on the most important problem in US healthcare today: the clinician turnover crisis. All these apps are patient-centered, and many will require clinicians to invest time to learn how to use before they can safely incorporate them into their care practice.

Secondly, look at the percentage of companies that are providing a direct-to-patient interface within their platform. Digital technologies are enabling the point of care to be delivered wherever the patient is more often. This is going to bring up more questions about regulation, pricing, who’s responsible for paying for care delivered via these digital apps, and other issues.

“The FDA approves more than 200 new medical devices a year,” she said. “Hundreds of other digital health apps and software programmes are launched each year and yet a physician or nurse is still only able to invest time to learn about a few of these. We are putting more innovative tools into the patient room than clinicians have time to learn and utilise. This is one of the main reasons behind the high turnover of clinicians. They’re being asked to work 27 hour days and then told when they struggle to take yoga and build resilience. This madness has to stop and the solution here starts with the media and the investors who are failing to ask questions about how these innovations will impact the clinician experience in delivering care.”

So she said the answer when it came to incorporating AI into healthcare was collaboration for regulation to protect both patients and clinicians.

“Patients and their physicians should be working together to lobby politicians at both state and federal levels for regulation to protect patients and put more regulatory controls around these digital health tools,” she said. “These products are happy to promote all the possible benefits while being quick to avoid any conversation about the real harms their algorithms and fast-food-healthcare methods can cause patients. We need to make sure they’re held accountable and kept honest if we want a reliable, digital healthcare system.”

For more information on DoorSpace, see doorspaceinc.com.