After nine months of research, a Washington State University sociologist concludes rural clinics aren’t ready for artificial intelligence
A Washington State University sociologist has concluded after a nine-month study that rural health clinics aren’t ready for artificial intelligence implementation.
One of 25 fellows selected for the National Institutes of Health AIM-AHEAD leadership program, Anna Zamora-Kapoor, a WSU sociologist and assistant professor, partnered with Three Rivers Hospital in Brewster, Washington, to identify whether using AI -generated text messages and text-based intervention would help schedule and follow up with patients who have an increased risk of lung cancer.
In her final presentation last month at the Washington State Academy of Sciences Annual Symposium, Zamora-Kapoor concluded, however, that rural clinics might not be ready for such an AI effort after experiencing multiple barriers throughout the nine-month long project.
“We observed a lot of barriers in implementing this very simple study – barriers related to the clinic not being able to reach out to their patients,” Zamora-Kapoor said.
Zamora-Kapoor, alongside her team at the clinic, said they identified 144 eligible patients for the lung cancer screening and generated a “direct” and a “polite” text message through ChatGPT to see which message would encourage patients enough to schedule an appointment.
After sending one of the text messages to each of the 144 eligible patients, eight patients who received the more direct text message scheduled an appointment, while only two patients who received the more “polite” text message scheduled an appointment.
The most surprising result was the percentage of text messages that bounced back.
“More than 50% of the messages that we sent bounced back from the patients, showing that the clinic doesn’t have a way of contacting their patients,” Zamora-Kapoor said. “This is concerning in the case of if they need to coordinate an evacuation or something serious where they need to reach out to people quickly.”
Zamora-Kapoor said text messages bouncing back could happen for a number of reasons: lack of updated phone numbers, limited access to the internet and smartphones with restricted texting capabilities.
And with the patients in the study being over 50, it’s likely it’s a combination of all three.
Additionally, Jamie Boyer, chief operating officer of the hospital and who was a contributor of Zamora-Kapoor’s research project, said she believes it could also be because of the large Hispanic community in the area.
About 83% of the people living in Brewster are Hispanic, according to DATA USA. Many work in agriculture and were included in the study.
“Because of where we are located, we have a really high population of Hispanic culture here,” Boyer said. “Some of the numbers are from Mexico or they’re just a different kind of number so there are those challenges too, and we did get some of that.”
Although the study had lack of communication as the main barrier, Boyer said this research project allowed them to move closer in understanding how to use AI in their hospital and expand their strategies that will help reach out to their patients.
“We’re not there yet, but we would love to be, and not every rural hospital and clinic are the same,” Boyer said. “Some have more technology than we do – so I think we’re a little bit behind, but I don’t feel like we’re extremely behind.”
Similarly, Zamora-Kapoor said that this project was an important starting point for the hospital and hopes she can get another grant to focus more specifically on how the hospital could help reach out to Hispanic and Latino residents.
“This study only touches the surface of the current challenges that clinics experience,” Zamora-Kapoor said.