The Era of AI in Health Care: Enhancing Care, Not Replacing It
Discover how AI is helping physicians improve diagnostics, streamline documentation and enhance patient care while keeping human expertise at the center of medicine.
At its core, artificial intelligence (AI) is technology that enables computer systems to perform complex tasks, such as recognizing patterns in large amounts of data and using those patterns to support decision-making.
Hospitals generate enormous amounts of data every day: lab results, imaging studies, vital signs, and clinical notes. In 1950, medical knowledge doubled every 50 years. By 2020, it was projected to double every 73 days.
AI systems are designed to review this data quickly and present the important data to physicians so they can make decisions about the care of the patient.
One of the most common uses of AI in hospitals is early warning systems. These tools monitor a patient’s vital signs, lab results and other data. If the system detects patterns that suggest a patient is getting worse—such as signs of infection or respiratory distress—it can alert the care team earlier than traditional methods. This can lead to faster treatment, and in some cases it can save lives.
AI can assist radiologists by highlighting areas on X-rays, CT scans or MRIs that look abnormal, helping to reduce oversight and improve efficiency.
Torrance Memorial Medical Center has integrated several imaging tools that use AI learning to detect nodules on chest scans and guide the diagnosis and treatment process. ClearRead by Riverain Technologies highlights tiny nodules on chest scans that the human eye might miss. PowerScribe by Nuance Communications helps define a treatment plan for the nodule before the process moves to Torrance Memorial’s lung nodule tumor board to confirm the AI diagnosis and treatment.
Another important area using AI is documentation. Doctors and nurses spend a significant amount of time entering information into electronic medical records. New AI-powered tools can help draft clinical notes, summarize patient histories and organize information which helps reduce administrative burden and allows clinicians to spend more time with patients.
Currently 165 Torrance Memorial physicians across 15 specialties utilize AI to assist with documentation, such as Clinical AI Agent, Oracle’s ambient listening and documentation software. Physicians now spend 27% less time documenting while increasing patient and physician satisfaction.
AI is also improving hospital operations. Predictive models can help forecast how many patients are likely to arrive in the emergency department, how long hospital stays may last or which patients are at higher risk of readmission. This helps hospitals plan staffing and allocate resources more effectively.
Human judgment, empathy and clinical expertise are central to patient care and AI works best when it enhances—not replaces—the clinician’s role.
As technologies continue to evolve, Torrance Memorial is focusing on safety, privacy and fairness. When used thoughtfully, AI has the potential to make care safer, more efficient and more personalized for patients and families.
This article is authored by Gina Sulmeyer, MD, chief medical informatics officer and chief of emergency medicine at Torrance Memorial Health.
