Workers are experiencing anxiety about artificial intelligence (AI).
More specifically, a lot of workers are worried that AI is going to make them expendable on the job. Consider a recent survey that found more than three-quarters of 2,000 employed Americans saying they’re concerned that AI will cause job loss in the next 12 months. More than 40% of those same employees said they’re “very concerned” about AI’s potential to put humans out of work.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has launched an initiative that plans to rely on AI to actually reduce workers’ stress, rather than add to their woes. The agency recently announced the Artificial Intelligence Tech Sprint, an initiative that “encourages innovators across America to create AI-enabled tools to reduce burnout among healthcare workers” by reducing their administrative burden, according to a VA statement. The winning solutions will help clinicians take notes during medical appointments and/or integrate patients’ medical records, and the winning teams will receive $1 million in total prizes, according to the VA.
The announcement of the initiative came just one day after the Biden administration issued a new executive order that included a number of “sweeping actions” designed to drive the safe and responsible development of AI, and ensure responsible and effective government use of AI.
The AI Tech Sprint will have two areas of focus, according to the VA, and applicants will be able to choose to apply to one or both tracks, depending on their interests.
The Track One Tech Spring, “Ambient Dictation for Clinical Encounter Notes,” seeks AI-enabled solutions for generating transcripts and key details from ambient recordings of patient encounters in primary care, mental health and space care settings with the Department of Veterans Affairs, according to the agency.
The Track Two Tech Sprint, “Community Care Document Processing,” seeks AI-powered systems “capable of ingesting a diverse range of records from community providers such as patient encounters and complex medical documents, for the purposes of sharing key points with VA providers and increasing the continuity of care the VA delivers to veterans. (Those interested in applying for the AI Tech Sprint can do so here.)
The VA has identified reducing burnout among healthcare workers as “a top priority,” and is just one component of its efforts to address the issue, according to the agency, which launched the Reduce Employee Burnout and Optimize Organizational Thriving (REBOOT) in 2022. The VA also says it is hiring employees at record rates to provide more support to healthcare workers at the 170 VA medical centers and outpatient clinics across the country.
“AI solutions can help us reduce the time that clinicians spend on non-clinical work, which will get our teams doing more of what they love most: caring for veterans,” said Under Secretary of Veterans Affairs for Health Shereef Elnahal, MD, in a statement. “This effort will reduce burnout among our clinicians and improve veteran healthcare at the same time.”
15 November 2023
Category
HR News Article