Harnessing the power of artificial intelligence.

E lectronic health records (EHRs) are nearly ubiquitous today, and they bring with them a surplus of data and information.1 Nurses have been diligently entering data while documenting our patients’ care and treatments, and we expect to benefit from the digital investment. That expectation may soon be realized through the application of advanced analytics and the capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI). In its essence, AI is a branch of computer science dealing with the simulation of intelligent behavior in computers.2 Combining the experience, knowledge, and human touch of clinicians with the power of AI will improve the quality of patient care and lower its cost.3 Imagine using predictive models to make realtime inferences from a large patient population to generate alerts or predict patients’ length of stay. AI can be used to automatically detect problems and threats to patient safety, such as patterns of suboptimal care or outbreaks of hospital-acquired illness. Data from entire patient populations can be analyzed using AI to discover new evidence and determine best healthcare practices. These exciting advances may be coming sooner than we think. A recent study suggested that about 35% of healthcare organizations plan to leverage AI within 2 years, and Harnessing the power of artificial intelligence 1.0 CONTACT HOUR