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“AI is not meant to replace doctors.”
I’m listening to Angela Adamsa registered nurse and CEO of the AI radiology follow-up management platform Inflo Health. Speaking about why the company is a solution for doctors, patients and the healthcare sector as a whole, she says that AI technology in healthcare is geared towards repairing chaos and damage. “It has to replace all the broken parts of health systems that we can’t keep throwing people at.”
It started when Adams, then a critical care nurse at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina, received a text from a colleague and friend who had gone to the emergency room because of severe abdominal pain. Adams’ friend was rushed into emergency surgery for acute appendicitis. While there, the radiologist discovered a large breast lesion, suspected to be malignant, that required immediate follow-up. The radiologist documented this, but the result disappeared into the system.
“There was no communication with her primary care physician,” Adams recalls. “And so 10 months passed (until) I was late in diagnosis and treatment.”
A subsequent PET scan revealed metastatic breast cancer that had spread to her brain. Adams’ friend died a year and a half later in 2020, the same year Adams co-founded Inflo Health with C.T.O. Nate Sutton.
Adams, whose background extends to critical care nursing, healthcare, and AI leadership — long before AI emerged post-pandemic — uses… artificial intelligence To improve preventive care and follow-up of patients in the field of radiology. It’s built around Inflo Health’s mission, “Never Miss a Tracker.”
If Inflo Health had been in her place, Adam says, her friend would have received a text saying she had a follow-up due to the scan results, and that her doctor would be notified as well.
How Inflo Health uses AI
When radiologists discover suspicious findings on scans that are ordered for something completely different, these discoveries often get lost in the chaos of the system.
According to a 2015-2017 study from the University of Washington and Lahey Hospital and Medical Center, approx 50% of follow-up radiology recommendations are not adhered to (except for mammograms), resulting in delayed diagnosis, legal risks, and increased health care costs. A recent study found that lost follow-ups led to $3 million annual health care costs.
Historically, radiology departments and hospital leadership have done this Conflicting views were held Regarding authorization regarding continued follow-up of patients. Adams says there is often a breakdown in communication in the health care system, but there is also a translation gap, such as when a radiologist’s expertise is not always clearly translated to the doctor who ordered the study. Sometimes, results can be misinterpreted or overlooked.
Modern imaging technology (often augmented with artificial intelligence) She’s become remarkably good at spotting unrelated abnormalities, which Adams describes as “incidental tumors” — findings that weren’t the original reason for the scan, like a breast lesion discovered during her friend’s appendicitis CT scan.
“We see a A 40% increase in imaging (imaging) alone“More results mean more follow-ups that need to be coordinated, which confuses everyone,” Adams says An already stressed system.
While things have changed dramatically in health care, some aspects are seriously lagging behind, Adams says. In the past, a hospital radiologist could contact the primary care physician and escalate the patient’s details in the event of an emergency. Phone calls have now been replaced by automated workflows; However, technology does not necessarily benefit patients receiving care, as important information may be lost.
Inflo Health uses natural language processing and large language models to ensure you never miss radiology follow-up appointments and recommendations.
First, the Inflo platform automatically scans imaging reports, such as X-rays, CT scans, MRIs and ultrasounds, to identify and extract relevant key data and points. While numbers regarding its accuracy are not available, studies They are done to see if this helps or hurts patients, depending on the doctor.
These recommendations are prioritized by urgent or high-risk situations, allowing care teams to identify conditions that require attention first. This method reduces manual tracking, which is… Most follow-up appointments often slip through the cracks.
Inflo Health also integrates with existing workflow systems to monitor follow-up in real time, and tasks are escalated through text messages and provider platform notifications, providing visibility into staff efficiency.
Adams maintains a strict human-in-the-loop approach.
“AI is not replacing radiologists,” Adams tells me. “It is enabling them to provide more reliable patient care.”
According to company data, automation handles 60% to 70% of end-to-end follow-up cases — live scenarios where patients respond to messages and complete their appointments. The remaining cases are escalated to human care coordinators, such as cases involving complex situations with multiple outcomes or oncology patients transitioning between treatments.
Patients and radiologists have greater visibility into the procedure, which can ultimately save lives, according to Adams.
“We put them at the top of the (workflow) pyramid, and AI automation handles the bulk of it so they can focus their time, knowledge and energy on those really complex cases,” Adams says.
The impact of artificial intelligence on healthcare
Adams told me that certain types of AI were being applied in the health system as early as the 1960s, including APACHE Scores (Assessment of Acute Physiology and Chronic Health) to predict mortality, as well as methods for predicting 10-year heart risk — tests that are now an integral part of clinical care.
But the traditional mentality of the health care system holds people back, and inevitably hurts them, she says.
When it comes to adopting technology, health systems are a decade behind other industries, Adams says. In her opinion, throwing more humans at the problem doesn’t help. “At the end of the day, AI and its foundations are just mathematics,” she says.
According to the philosophy behind Inflo Health, when technology is applied to support rather than replace humans, the results benefit not only doctors and their teams’ communication channels, but also the broader healthcare system.
The impact appears to be measurable: working with Inflo Health, East Alabama Medical Center Increased follow-ups by 74%According to American College of Radiology. Additionally, Inflo Health reports that 125,000 people have been affected so far.
This data supports something Adams asserts: “The ultimate goal of technology is to give humans back the two most important things in life you can’t buy: health and time.”
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