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GE Healthcare earned the FDA's stamp of approval for its AI-powered mobile X-ray device that it designed in collaboration with UC San Francisco, marking the first time the FDA has cleared a tool of its kind. Dubbed Critical Care Suite, the device enlists AI algorithms to scour X-ray images to more efficiently detect and alert radiologists of pneumothorax — or a totally collapsed lung, which afflicts 74,000 people in the US each year, GE Healthcare reports. Business Insider Intelligence

Here's how GE Healthcare's AI-enabled X-ray device could ease radiologists' day-to-day operations:

The device can slash time to diagnosis, which means hospitals can optimize radiologists' time as shortages hit the US healthcare system hard. GE Healthcare's device can cut the time it takes radiologists to diagnose and treat collapsed lung — which can take close to nine hours using traditional methods, according to research cited in Europe PMC. CNBC reports that the mobile device can shave this time down to as quickly as 15 minutes. Investing in tech that reduces the time radiologists spend with each patient could give hospitals some serious relief as they look for ways to stretch out a thinning workforce: The US will be down over 39,000specialists, including radiologists, by 2032.

And the tool hauls highly critical patients to the top of radiologists' priority list, reducing radiologists' workload and increasing efficiency for these high-paid specialists. If the device detects pneumothorax, it not only sends the image to the radiologist for review, but it also pings a technologist to signal a that it is a time-sensitive critical case. This is a useful feature for overburdened radiologists: Traditionally, nearly two-thirds of exams are marked "STAT" — or urgent — when not all are actually critical, GE says. This could create a backlog for radiologists and have them spending time on lower-need patients, which could weigh on the docs' efficiency — and hospitals' budgets: 20% of diagnosis costs are related to salaries, so hospitals can generate substantial savings if AI can improve the utilization and efficiency of highly paid radiologists

There are barriers still holding back physician-facing AI products — but we expect these to dissipate in the next five years as C-suite leaders continue to warm to the tech.

Many doctors remain skeptical of AI, but that should become less of an issue as the tech is poised to become more widely implemented in hospitals. While 49% of US doctors report feeling anxious or uncomfortable with AI, over half of health system execs say AI in diagnostics or imaging will be high impact by 2024 — signaling they might be ready to take the plunge. To alleviate doctors' concerns and make for a more streamlined implementation process, hospitals should consider doctors' input about what they need out of the AI solutions being invested in: For example, some developers, like Nvidia, have democratized AI solution development with the American College of Radiology to help engender trust around the tech.

And while many hospitals aren't following through with strategies now, more health systems are planning on channeling funds into AI efforts. Despite the hype, only about one-quarter of hospitals using AI for clinical decision-making felt they were implementing it "extremely" or "very" well in 2018. But that could change looking ahead: Health enterprises' top IT priorities in 2019 were accelerating digital health initiatives and investing in AI and analytics, and health firms will sink more than $2 billion annually into AI-based medical imaging by 2023. It's likely we'll start to see hospitals get more serious about setting up designated funds for AI efforts — and products that expedite diagnostics and imaging are a good bet.

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