Government Healthcare Policy, Business and Technology

Digital tools can turn mundane tasks like scheduling appointments into money-saving opportunities.

Modern Healthcare: Every time a patient doesn't show up or reschedules an appointment, a health system loses money.

That may sound like a minor problem in an industry dogged by astronomically high costs that show little sign of falling, but like an untreated ailment, minor problems often evolve into bigger ones.

Minor problems also tend to be great matches for new digital tools, like machine learning and natural language processing. While much of the hype focuses on artificial intelligence for clinical uses—diagnosing patients and predicting outcomes, for instance—AI-based tools are actually great for more mundane tasks, like self-service scheduling.

Read article