AI Podcast Series: How AI is Changing How Hospitals Work

Artificial intelligence has made remarkable advancements in recent years, with the potential to revolutionize the health care industry. From aiding in disease diagnosis and treatment planning to optimizing patient care and streamlining administrative tasks, AI systems can enhance medical outcomes and improve the overall efficiency of health care delivery.

However, along with these promising advancements, we must also critically examine the ethical dilemmas and regulatory hurdles accompanying AI integration in our health care systems.

In this second episode in Santis’ AI Podcast Series, Ben King and Zahava Uddin discuss the use of artificial intelligence in health care, specifically through the lens of administrative efficiencies. We talk about the GE HealthCare Command Center approach and how it's used to optimize acute care utilization. Zahava also shares her industry perspective on the role of predictive analysis and machine learning across hospitals to balance work loads, improve patient flow and support transitions in care.

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Zahava Uddin is a Managing Director with GE HealthCare’s Command Center team. She helps health care organizations re-engineer clinical operations and implement capabilities for real time orchestration of patient care delivery.

At the core of this work, is the planning, design, build and activation of Real Time Apps that prompt timely action by expediters and front-line care teams across the organization to eliminate delays, solve care progression barriers, level-load demand and de-risk issues. In many instances, the deployment of these Apps is accompanied by the development of a hospital command centre department that proactively monitors capacity pressures and other risk and provides a centre of gravity for learning and culture change.

Since joining GE HealthCare (GEHC) in 2000, Zahava has worked in both Canada and the US on hospital capacity strategy, workflow re-engineering, health care facility design, capital equipment planning and hospital command centers. Prior to GEHC, Zahava worked in administration at an academic health sciences centre in Toronto and at a health care consultancy that develops functional programs for Canadian hospital redevelopment projects.

Zahava has an MBA in Health Services Management and a BSc in Biochemistry, both from McMaster University. She is a Six Sigma Black Belt and a Certified Health Executive with the Canadian College of Health Leaders. She routinely presents on topics related to seamless patient care and digital transformation at forums that have included the Brazil National Congress of Private Hospitals, TECHNA, Canada’s National Health Leadership Conference, DASH Toronto and Canadian Healthcare Infrastructure.