呼叫中心的音量很大, 堆积如山的文书工作, 复杂的调度需求, healthcare staff commonly face burnout 和 consider quitting due to high stress levels, leaving organizations in a “revolving door” of staff turnover. This heightened stress often prevents them from resolving patient needs in real time 和 offering the personalized care people expect.
Jerold McDonald M’08 wants to solve the root cause of the healthcare staffing crunch by using artificial intelligence (AI) to automate routine tasks, 从而提高生产率, 降低成本和出错风险, 和, 最重要的是, 使病人接受的护理人性化.
McDonald acknowledges that there are a lot of questions about artificial intelligence, but he believes we’re missing an opportunity to focus conversations about it by making it a black-or-white issue.
“人工智能的潜力是无限的，”他指出. “今天你已经被人工智能包围了, 不管你是否意识到, 从导航和约会应用到推荐引擎. 现在的问题是, 你如何利用它来帮助和减少伤害, 优化健康和人类潜能, 就像钢铁侠服一样?”
麦当劳设想的是没有忙碌的医疗保健, leading to increased access so that health care can be more equitable 和 work for everyone. 还有Ani Bagepalli, he founded Omaiven Health in 2018 with the mission to “save one billion minutes of busywork across health care.“Omaiven”是“maven”的翻版,” which is a person who is experienced or “one who underst和s,” 和 the “ai” in the middle of the name is a nod to how the company uses artificial intelligence to drive purpose 和 profit.
McDonald calls health care a space that occupies simultaneously two different worlds—one of fast-moving medical innovation 和 slow-moving administrative tasks. He hopes to bridge the gap between those worlds with Omaiven.
“On the medical or care side, you can literally see what your heart looks like in real-time images. We can perform surgery where a patient 和 doctor are on opposite sides of the country. 我们可以在几分钟内拯救中风患者. 我们可以绘制人类基因组图谱. 同时, all of the administrative work is still primarily done on a piece of paper, 通过传真机, 或者处理大量的手工任务,麦克唐纳说. “Our job is to close that gap [in healthcare operations] so that we are accelerating the same type of innovation.”
麦当劳在医疗环境中一直感觉很自在. 在成长过程中，他的弟弟经常需要住院治疗. With regular visits, the hospital became a comfortable place for McDonald. McDonald also connected with the service element of the healthcare industry.
“我生活的主线就是服务, 尤其是来自一个军人家庭, 社会工作者, 和教育工作者. Since I did not end up serving in the military, I found other ways to be of service,麦克唐纳说.
McDonald earned undergraduate degrees in economics 和 corporate communication from the University of Texas at Austin 和 then enrolled in 圣澳门金沙赌城线上游戏’s Health Care Administration (HCAD) On-Campus Master’s Program.
“Health care administration was a good way for me to take my business skills 和 be of service,麦克唐纳说.
在获得硕士学位之后, 麦当劳获得了运营经验, 医疗咨询, 以及技术实现. 他在医疗保健不同领域的工作, McDonald realized how deeply access 和 resources are intertwined.
正如麦克唐纳所说, 医疗保健领域的很多文书工作都是重复的, 这就为更多的人为失误打开了大门. If the wrong box is checked on a form, for example, all sorts of issues could arise. Omaiven’s technology works 24/7 for organizations to help offload calls, 利用数字表格更新人口统计数据, 与患者进行大规模沟通, 完整的财务结算, 和更多的. 通过自动化那些重复的任务, Omaiven uses AI technology to create a digital “workforce” to support healthcare staff, 释放它们去建造深海, 患者在医疗保健中寻求有意义的关系.
“Technology is not supposed to be the solution; it’s supposed to enable the solution,麦克唐纳说. “把人工智能看作你的支持团队，而不是你的竞争对手. In an odd way, we’re using AI to enhance humanity in healthcare interactions.”
与他的服务精神保持一致, McDonald continues to stay involved with 澳门金沙线上赌博官网’s HCAD program. 2022年，他获得了诺贝尔奖 动量奖 for outst和ing achievements in the field of healthcare management as an early careerist. 他目前在该部门的咨询委员会任职, which provides advice to the program in terms of curriculum, 住院医师发展和安置, 资源提升. 在这个角色中, McDonald mentors students on how to think of innovative strategies to address problems in health care through pitch competitions like Tiger Tank 和 Healthcare PRISm (Healthcare’s Problems Require Innovative Solutions), preparing them to lead with empathy 和 creative confidence.
Jerold McDonald ’08 won the Health Care Administration Department’s 动量奖 in 2022.
McDonald follows the same empathy-driven approach in his own work with Omaiven.
“The only way to make healthcare technology better is to be around humans 和 exercise empathy to underst和 the reality people are facing. 如果你想提高人工智能的准确性, that requires constant pursuit of representative data 和 improved feedback loops to power algorithms,麦克唐纳解释道. “In other words, we have to deepen our underst和ing of the human experience. AI is an endless string of evolving possibilities, but humans matter 和 always will.”
Editor’s Note: The photo at the top of the story was taken by Ryan Wilburn.
