Phoenix-based healthcare provider Banner Health expanded its partnership with Los Angeles-based clinical decision software company Regard, bringing clinical support decision-making to clinicians across Banner Health hospitals.   

Regard utilizes algorithms and artificial intelligence to generate clinical decisions, documentation and facilitate clinician-to-clinician communications. Through the partnership, Regard's software will be phased into and embedded in the EHR of Banner’s 33 acute care hospitals, which cover patients in six states. 

"When we started Regard, we saw the need to unlock valuable clinical data stored away in EHRs. Over the past several years, we’ve created an AI tool to streamline EHR navigation, improve patient safety and free up clinician time for direct patient care. We’re beyond excited to continue our relationship with Banner Health as we work together to improve clinical workflows and patient outcomes with a measurable ROI," Nate Wilson, Regard’s chief operating officer and cofounder told MobiHealthNews in an email. 

The company originally partnered with Banner Health for a pilot program at Thunderbird Medical Center in Arizona in 2022. 

"Giving the best care to our community starts with prioritizing our clinical workforce. If we provide innovative tools to make their jobs easier and more efficient, they can spend valuable time in front of patients. We are hoping to streamline critical administrative and documentation responsibilities with Regard’s AI innovation, providing our clinicians more time to listen to our patients," Dr. Susan C. Lee, physician executive at Banner Health, told MobiHealthNews in an email. 

THE LARGER TREND

According to the National Center for Biotechnology Innovation, AI in the clinical setting can increase the time to focus on more patient-centered tasks and improve risk-assessment performance.

The AI market for clinical decision-making is expected to double in the next five years, and the AI health market at large is expected to exceed $22.45 billion, with an annual increase of 36.4% between 2024 and 2030. 

News of the partnership comes as Regard looks to expand use of its clinical decision solutions. Regard recently announced that the company’s solution covers 173 oncology diagnoses. 

Earlier this year, Hamilton Ohio-based Kettering Health partnered with the clinical decision company to integrate Regard solutions into its EHR. 

In August 2023, the company partnered with OpenAI to release a chatbot built on the large language model GPT-4.

In 2022, Regard secured $15.3 million in a Series A funding round along with $5 million in early 2021.

Additional players in the AI clinical assistance space include San Francisco-based Augmedix and real-world data and AI company ConcertAI, which recently acquired cancer research platform CancerLinQ.