Hardware

What Should Healthcare Organizations Know About AI PCs?

As tech companies unveil devices with advanced chips and artificial intelligence features, health systems need to sift through what’s relevant for their needs.

Sam Baker

Sam Baker is a business development manager for CDW focusing on Microsoft for healthcare.

Kevin Kaiser

Kevin Kaiser is the director of CDW's AI practice. He has more than 20 years of experience in the data and technology services industry.

As artificial intelligence continues to dominate headlines, especially as major tech companies announce new PCs with purported advanced computing power, healthcare organizations may be interested in how these new devices could suit their workflows.

After all, health systems learned during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic that they were capable of setting up remote work and virtual care options in a matter of days or weeks instead of the typical months or years. They found that they could reimagine workflows and support better collaboration across departments and facilities. They’re continuing to explore different approaches to care delivery as they adapt to workforce challenges and find ways to attract and retain care teams. And they’re supporting clinicians with tools to improve medical decisions.

However, as healthcare IT teams consider device lifecycle management and budget constraints, the shiniest product may not always be the best fit for their organization’s needs. These teams often have to do more with less, optimizing their current environment as much as they can.

So, what does this new era of the AI PC mean for healthcare organizations, and how can they sift through the buzz to get to what’s germane for them? For now, healthcare-specific capabilities are sparse, but organizations may want to keep an eye on the possibilities.

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Healthcare’s Cautious Modernization with Device Management

Healthcare has shown that though it may lag behind other industries in tech adoption, it can modernize to meet patient demand and deliver much-needed care. Remote patient monitoring and hospital-at-home programs extend care beyond hospital walls. Virtual nursing provides bedside nurses with support from other nurses remotely so patients can be monitored without having to travel from room to room.

These approaches are likely to require devices with increased compute, mobility and bandwidth capabilities. And health systems will especially have concerns about compatibility, interoperability and regulatory compliance. When a new OS is released, what will that integration look like? Will teams need to train on any new components? These considerations will all be viewed under more of a microscope than a general consumer would need to.

These new AI PCs include advanced chips that will improve overall performance and can leverage the latest Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technologies. Neural processing units, or NPUs, can execute AI tasks more efficiently and with less power than CPUs and graphics processing units.

EXPLORE: Harness the power of Copilot for Microsoft 365 in healthcare.

Setting a Foundation for the Future of Clinical Work

For now, healthcare organizations may not feel the need to switch over to AI PCs, but certain features have potential for growth.

One major issue health systems continue to face is clinician burnout, worsened by repetitive administrative tasks that take up a lot of time. This year’s AI PCs are expected to help with productivity: Microsoft’s Copilot+ PCs have a Recall feature to help retrieve information more readily. And with more applications offering AI-powered features, these new PCs should handle such work better.

For these features to work and improve, however, healthcare organizations must establish strong data governance and management. Whether it’s structured or unstructured data, how effectively that data is stored and managed will determine how efficient these new technologies will be. Ultimately, healthcare organizations want to reduce documentation time for providers so they can spend more time with patients.

This article is part of HealthTech’s MonITor blog series.