From WisPolitics.com/WisBusiness.com …
— Even as earlier concerns around AI in healthcare are being addressed, new issues are popping up for the quickly evolving technology.
That’s one conclusion from yesterday’s WisPolitics-State Affairs and Wisconsin Technology Council event at the Medical College of Wisconsin. The luncheon explored the use of AI in addressing healthcare workforce shortages.
Outgoing MCW President and CEO Dr. John Raymond warned of emerging dangers for the use of AI in healthcare.
“Initially, the pitfalls were with the quality of the data that were included in training sets, and the tendency of some of these algorithms either to hallucinate or … make things up, and that was a real concern,” he said. “Those are mostly, not completely, but mostly under control now.”
But newer concerns around data privacy and disclosures of how AI and personal data are being used are taking center stage, as ambient AI notetaking systems become the norm for clinicians. A recent survey from the American Medical Association found more than 80% of clinicians now use AI in their everyday practice.
“The ethics of the use of AI and disclosure to your patients about how you’re using their data, how it’s being processed, whether it is HIPAA-compliant in terms of security, compared to the electronic health records … Those are real concerns, and we need to monitor those,” Raymond said yesterday.
The discussion noted the potential for AI to take some of the workload off of providers to reduce burnout, as well as applications in diagnosing disease, improving the patient experience and aiding doctors’ decisionmaking.
But all of those benefits are only possible when the underlying technical infrastructure is in place, according to UW-Milwaukee Prof. Lu He, an expert in healthcare informatics. She said that poses a real issue, especially for efforts to support underserved communities and rural areas.
“Using AI, we’ll assume they have a smartphone, they will have a good enough system enabled to run those large language models or even speech recognition softwares,” she said. “But in many communities, those infrastructures simply don’t exist, and it’s actually becoming a burden for the patients.”
In addition, she noted a lack of “human infrastructure” to maintain and fix AI systems when they break down, adding “there’s a long way to go” to ensure the technology can benefit everyone.
Meanwhile, a workforce specialist with the Wisconsin Hospital Association yesterday called for being “careful but also move quickly,” noting the pace of change in healthcare has been accelerating for decades.
“AI is going to move even faster than other technology and electronic health records,” said Ann Zenk, WHA’s senior vice president of workforce and clinical practice. “That’s good news, because we have a population challenge in Wisconsin. All Boomers like me are retiring, and we’re also increasing healthcare demand.”
See the full story here.
— Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez says cuts to Medicaid under the GOP’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act will worsen healthcare cost challenges for Wisconsin residents.
Rodriguez, who’s running for governor as a Democrat, spoke this morning during an online news conference organized by Protect Our Care. She highlighted her background in nursing, noting she observed patients put off care “until something treatable turned into a crisis” as well as parents struggling to afford the cost of insulin for their child.
“I’ve also been to all 72 counties in the state as lieutenant governor, and the number one thing I hear in every county, red, blue, urban, suburban, rural, is they cannot afford the healthcare, and they can’t get it when they need it,” she said. “This Republican bill just made every bit of that worse.”
She noted 900 hospitals, nursing homes and clinics around the country are either closing, at risk of closing or cutting essential services due to the Medicaid cuts, including three in rural Wisconsin.
“When the only hospital for 40 miles closes its doors, a heart attack becomes a death sentence,” she said. “A complicated birth becomes a tragedy. And that’s what’s coming, and Republicans knew that when they voted yes.”
Rodriguez targeted GOP U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany in her comments today, noting “he voted for it, he owns it and from what I can tell, he does not care.” Tiffany, who represents the 7th CD in northern Wisconsin, is also running for governor.
In an emailed statement responding to today’s remarks, Tiffany noted Rodriguez said she wants to craft the state budget “behind a curtain” and is now proposing “another government-subsidized health care plan without providing any estimate” of the cost to taxpayers.
“We have seen how this plays out before with Obamacare, when Democrats like Nancy Pelosi said we had to pass the bill to find out what was in it, and premiums have nearly tripled since then,” he said. “As governor, I will require upfront hospital price transparency, enforce work requirements for welfare, protect taxpayer dollars from funding health care for illegal aliens, and expand options so families, not the government, can choose what works best for them.”
— The rate of older adults in Wisconsin visiting the emergency room due to a fall has been steadily rising since 2020, according to new figures from the Wisconsin Institute for Healthy Aging.
More than 55,000 adults aged 65 and older in Wisconsin went to the emergency room due to a fall in 2024, the report shows. Nearly 13,000 were hospitalized and at least 1,800 died.
The institute notes that’s more than triple the number of deaths from motor vehicle crashes across all age groups for that year.
Meanwhile, the age-adjusted rate of unintentional falls among state residents aged 65 and older has risen from fewer than 500 per 100,000 population in 2020 to more than 600 per 100,000 in 2024.
Jill Renken, the institute’s executive director, says providing greater access to fall prevention programs could “make a real difference” for older adults facing this risk.
The report points to the group’s Stepping On program, noting it’s been found to reduce falls by 31% for participants. It involves weekly workshops on assessing fall risk, assistive tools such as canes, travel safety, bone health and more, in addition to exercise routines.
“Falls are common and can have a big impact on someone’s life, but they don’t have to be a normal part of getting older,” Renken said. “We know what causes most falls, and we know how to prevent them. There are easy things we can all do to build resiliency and lower the risk of falling.”
See the release below and read the report.
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