Emtelligent Survey Shows Healthcare AI Users Seek Tools to Unlock More Value From Unstructured Data

AI users in healthcare see significant opportunities in using unstructured data for innovation and predictive modeling, but less than half are fully satisfied with their existing tools for unstructured data tasks. That’s according to results of a survey by emtelligent, a leader in the development of clinical-grade medical AI software.

The online survey of nearly 250 healthcare organization leaders using or considering using AI tools to extract insights from unstructured clinical data shows that most (55%) healthcare organizations have been using AI or natural language processing (NLP) technologies for less than two years.

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The need to extract and organize unstructured clinical data is urgent because roughly 80% of data is in unstructured form, such as clinician notes, PDFs, and faxes. Yet fewer than four in 10 respondents said they currently have a “perfect” solution in place to extract insights from unstructured data (38%), use insights from unstructured data to reduce operating costs (37%), or use unstructured data to drive new product and services development (39%).

The survey also revealed that healthcare organizations have different priorities for leveraging unstructured data depending on their subsector. For health systems, the top use cases for unstructured data include patient summaries, care management, quality improvement, and data analysis. Pharmaceutical companies and clinical research organizations seek to automate data entry and optimize clinical trials, while payers want to use unstructured data to improve quality ratings, risk assessment, and real-world evidence (RWE).

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Other highlights of the survey:

• Healthcare organizations are most focused on leveraging unstructured data to achieve improved patient outcomes and elevated customer service
• Users face multiple challenges when transforming unstructured data to usable data; most (83%) partner with a third party, while 14% will only use tools developed internally
• Data privacy/security and organizational skepticism regarding outcomes and value are the most common barriers to AI implementation
• Most respondents (95%) expect to see measurable improvements from their unstructured data AI efforts in less than two years and 52% in less than one year

“These survey results emphasize the pivotal role unstructured clinical data plays in advancing healthcare innovation, ultimately leading to better patient outcomes and more efficient operations,” noted Tim O’Connell, MD, CEO and cofounder of emtelligent. “This explains why so many organizations plan to collaborate with expert vendors in the coming year to mine insights and optimize their operations.”

Survey methodology: The online survey was conducted from Aug. 26 to Sept. 3, 2024, with data drawn from 247 healthcare provider and payer executives who are familiar with NLP or large language model solutions and for whom unstructured data is relevant to their roles and responsibilities. Only respondents whose organizations were deploying or planning to deploy AI tools to extract insights from unstructured clinical data participated in the survey.

About emtelligent:
Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, emtelligent is dedicated to building AI-powered solutions that transform unstructured data into actionable insights at enterprise scale. Engineered by medical and data science experts, our AI-powered solutions help payers, pharma, health systems, and health tech innovators extract, structure, and integrate their clinical data with unmatched accuracy and speed.

Most AI solutions fall short of healthcare’s exacting standards. emtelligent’s suite of AI-driven products — Document Manager, Medical Language Engine, and Clinical Workflow — represent the most accurate and feature-rich medical AI on the market, helping healthcare organizations improve operational efficiency, reduce administrative burden, and enhance quality of care across the healthcare industry.

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