Message from AHVAP President

Dear AHVAP Members,

Spring is in full bloom! The month of April is a beautiful time of year. It gives way to new beginnings and tends to revitalize us all when the warm weather starts to return. I hope you all have a chance to spend relaxing time with family and friends during Spring Break. Recently, I have been reading several articles focused on machine-learning, AI, and chatbots. These articles have been highlighting ways AI technology can influence healthcare, supply chain, value analysis, and overall improve patient care. Some of the successful and practical applications of using AI is in the imaging space where it can offer physician decision support when reading scans that could be ruling out cancerous tumors. Not only can this have a positive effect on the patient outcomes and patient throughput, and many of the downstream radiology processes can become more efficient over time, like scheduling and reduced time to read and chart on the imaging results.

Another way to use this type of technology is in supply chain logistics and sourcing. Having a better understanding of weather patterns, road closures, and accidents to re-route the trucks to keep them on schedule or using it to help with strategic sourcing or future capital planning. There are many ways we can use this technology but when do we know when it is not the right choice, and it is necessary to have a human touch or review as a backup? As we gain a better understanding and capabilities of AI, chatbots, and machine learning, we need to remind ourselves about the other ways it should not be used to replace the human review.

I am so proud of all the region and district huddles, collaboration, webinars, professional development and most recently the SE Conference held in Charlotte, NC. Thank you to all our attendees and sponsors for a successful event! This is a best practice, and you will be seeing more of these in the future! These events inspire us and remind us that we are all after a common goal and can work together to better our communities. Keep up the great work!

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Eisenberg, MSN, RN, CVAHP™
2023 President, Board of Directors