Charleston-based MUSC partners with startup to develop AI platform

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The Medical University of South Carolina health system and Quai.MD, a deep-tech startup offering an artificial intelligence (AI)-based clinical pathways platform, entered into a strategic licensing agreement to advance their unique platform.

This agreement will impact physician productivity, patient outcomes and hospital billing efficiency by highlighting and tracking possible clinical pathways and the diagnostic decisions of patients, an MUSC Health news release stated. Clinical pathways are tools that guide evidence-based health care, translating clinical practice guideline recommendations into clinical processes of care in an effort to deliver the optimal individualized patient care possible.

Clinical pathways and protocols, as they exist today across health care, can lead to variability in the hospital setting as they are not always specific to each patient undergoing care, the release stated. Quai.MD will support physicians in their workflow patterns and synthesize the protocols and pathways that MUSC Health leadership will define, the results of which will improve physician documentation and ensure billing efficiencies.

“Clinical pathways are ubiquitous in theory but are only partially utilized in practice. Physicians feel empowered by our platform because our AI-engine tailors the pathway to the specific patient while allowing physicians full flexibility to choose whatever path they see fit,” said Dr. Chen Shapira, chief medical officer with Quai.MD, in the release. “Quai.MD helps providers take the right path to reach a decision quickly and precisely while reducing care variability.”

MUSC will begin implementation of the AI solution in 2023.

“Running a health care system requires maintaining a constant balance of cost control and optimal care quality,” said Lisa Goodlett, CPA, chief financial officer at MUSC Health. “Adhering to clinical pathways helps to reduce cost while increasing the quality of care. Quai.MD can help us take those pathways developed in our academic facility and proliferate them throughout the system – to raise the overall standard of care while increasing efficiency and revenue.”