Community Spark 💡: Automating Patient Safety Data Reporting with Generative AI

Problem Statement

In the healthcare sector, timely and accurate reporting of patient safety data to high-level leadership is crucial. However, the manual process of extracting information from emails, creating pivot tables, generating charts, and then summarizing the data for leadership was time-consuming and error-prone. This led to delays in providing actionable insights, impacting decision-making at the leadership level.

Solution Overview

To address these challenges, we developed an automated solution leveraging Automation Anywhere and Generative AI. The bot integrates with Outlook to automatically read incoming emails, extracts the relevant patient safety data, and then creates Pivot Tables and Pivot Charts in Excel. Once the charts are generated, they are saved as images and sent to Azure OpenAI to request a summary of the visual data for leadership review.

Implementation Considerations

1. Outlook Email Integration:
   • The bot connects to Microsoft Outlook to read incoming patient safety-related emails. Using email filters and predefined rules, the bot can automatically identify and extract relevant data from emails, reducing the need for manual sorting.
2. Data Processing with Excel:
   • Upon receiving the email, the bot processes the extracted data by creating Pivot Tables and Pivot Charts in Excel. These visualizations allow for easy identification of key metrics, trends, and insights related to patient safety, which are crucial for leadership decision-making.
3. Chart Export and Image Conversion:
   • The Pivot Charts generated in Excel are automatically saved as image files (e.g., PNG or JPEG), ensuring that data visualization is easy to share and integrate into reports. This step reduces the time spent on formatting and manual report creation.
4. Integration with Azure OpenAI:
   • Once the charts are saved as images, the bot sends these images to Azure OpenAI. The AI then generates a summary of the data, highlighting key insights and trends for the Patient Safety Analyst to present to high-level leadership. This summary provides actionable insights without requiring manual analysis of the charts.
5. Generative AI Prompts:
   • A key part of the solution is the use of Generative AI to create relevant and coherent prompts. These prompts guide the AI to produce summaries based on the images provided, ensuring that the outputs are aligned with the needs of the Patient Safety Analyst and leadership.

Key Benefits

1. Enhanced Reporting Efficiency:
   • Automated Data Processing: The entire process, from email extraction to data visualization and summary generation, is automated, reducing manual intervention and improving reporting speed.
   • Real-time Insights: By automating the report generation and summary creation, leadership can receive up-to-date insights on patient safety metrics, enabling faster decision-making.
2. Improved Data Accuracy:
   • Reduced Errors: Automation eliminates manual data entry and processing errors, ensuring that the metrics presented to leadership are accurate and reliable.
   • Consistent Reporting: The automation ensures that every report is structured in the same format, making it easier for leadership to compare data over time.
3. Operational Efficiency:
   • Time Savings: The automation of data extraction, analysis, and summarization saves valuable time for Patient Safety Analysts, allowing them to focus on higher-value tasks such as strategy and analysis.
   • Scalability: The solution is scalable and can be extended to handle a larger volume of patient safety data or additional departments, without requiring significant additional effort.
4. Enhanced Decision-making:
   • Data-Driven Insights: By leveraging Generative AI, the system automatically provides key insights and trends, making it easier for leadership to take informed actions based on the summarized data.
   • Better Communication: The use of visuals (charts and images) in conjunction with summaries allows for clearer communication of complex data to leadership, improving overall understanding.
5. Cost Savings:
   • Reduced Manual Effort: Automation reduces the need for staff to manually create reports, freeing up resources for more strategic work and reducing overall labor costs.
   • Minimized Errors: By automating the data collection and reporting process, the solution helps prevent costly mistakes that could arise from manual errors.

What I Learned

• How to Use Generative AI Package: This project allowed me to learn the ins and outs of using Generative AI, specifically how to integrate AI models like Azure OpenAI to process visual data and create valuable summaries from images.
• How to Create GenAI Prompts: Crafting effective Generative AI prompts was a crucial part of this project. By fine-tuning prompts to extract specific insights from images, I learned how to guide the AI to generate summaries that are relevant, concise, and impactful for decision-makers.
• How to Create Pivot Charts and Pivot Tables in Automation Solutions: I gained hands-on experience in creating Pivot Tables and Pivot Charts within the context of Automation Anywhere, learning how to automate the creation of these powerful data tools. This allowed for easy visualization of patient safety metrics, helping leadership make data-driven decisions with more clarity and efficiency.

Conclusion

The integration of RPA with Generative AI in the healthcare setting has transformed the way patient safety data is reported to leadership. By automating data extraction, visualization, and summarization, we improved reporting speed, data accuracy, and decision-making, while also freeing up resources for more strategic tasks. This project exemplifies how intelligent automation, combined with the power of AI, can enhance operational efficiency and drive business value in critical sectors like healthcare.

Asif Shaikh – MVP, Lead Architect – Novatio Solutions LinkedIn URLs :   https://www.linkedin.com/in/asif-shaikh-279a6695/