How rural hospitals, Silicon Valley can head off the AI digital divide

LAS VEGAS — Lightning-fast evolution in artificial intelligence and growing adoption of the models is giving rise to concerns that AI could exacerbate existing divides between technological haves and have-nots in the healthcare industry.

But all types of providers — regardless of location or finances — can adopt AI, experts said Monday at the HIMSS conference in Las Vegas.

It’s just a question of knowing how.

Rural hospitals, smaller systems and health clinics without a massive IT infrastructure should reach out to AI companies to discuss potential partnerships, said Graham Walker, co-director of advanced development at Kaiser Permanente’s medical group, during a panel.

Providers can get access to AI products in return for use of their facility as a testing ground, Walker said. That’s valuable for AI developers, who want to train and test their models and prove that they actually work in the real world.

“A lot of the startups and smaller companies want some access to health systems. It’s much harder to get into large health systems than a solitary hospital. And so you can very well imagine a world where there’s some mutual benefit there,” Walker said.

Smaller providers can also band together to research and share information on tools that work for them, said Brenton Hill, head of operations at the Coalition for Health AI, a health AI standards consortium. They can explore joint purchasing arrangements, or benefit by knowing which AI products have already been validated by other hospitals with more resources.

“The more people that you can get to buy into a concept, come together and do it, the better price you’re going to get, the more leverage you’re going to have,” Hill said. “We have 1000-plus hospitals that need a solution. Can we identify what they need, prioritize that and then partner with a vendor and come together and do this so it’s mutually beneficial?”

And smaller providers almost benefit from their lack of existing partnerships with tech companies, said Tanay Tandon, the CEO of provider automation company Commure. Without a relationship with a vendor, no one is nudging them toward a specific product or fix. Instead, they’re unencumbered to explore a variety of solutions and find what works best for them.

“Some of the best AI tools out there are free and accessible online,” Tandon said. Because of that,“we’ve seen physicians all over the world in rural clinics get access to ambient documentation,” which listens and records patient visits.

Similarly, price shouldn’t be a barrier for smaller providers much longer, according to Tandon.

The introduction of more low-cost AI models — including DeepSeek, a Chinese model with performance metrics akin to those released by leading U.S. companies, but offered at a fraction of the cost — means these AI tools will likely get cheaper, the CEO said.

Yet it’s important that providers put in the work ahead of time to have a clear view of the problem they’re trying to solve, whether that’s improving billing processes, prior authorizations or patient triage, said Brian Spisak, program director of AI and leadership at Harvard University’s National Preparedness Leadership Initiative. That way, providers can be ready to jump on inexpensive and helpful AI products when they emerge.

As for AI vendors, companies should also be open to exploring deals with smaller providers — and should view those as a partnership, not a sales relationship, given the importance of ameliorating the numerous struggles providers face, experts said.

Current challenges for U.S. providers include labor shortages, inflation driving up the cost of medical supplies and inadequate insurance rates for some patient care. Most of these are trickier for rural facilities to navigate. And such facilities are already used to being left behind when it comes to technological advances — though some research suggests the digital divide may be shrinking, mostly due to improved access to the Internet in rural areas, the cost of technology, insufficient broadband access and poorer-performing devices have proved perniciously difficult to overcome.