New AI Lab to improve the efficiency of clinical operations

Utrecht University and UMC Utrecht have launched a new AI Lab. The AI Lab for Clinical Operations will bring together researchers from both organisations to improve operational processes in healthcare by making smarter use of data and enabling better decisions about the deployment of scarce resources and capacity.

The AI Lab for Clinical Operations will focus not only on developing AI models but, above all, on putting them into practice in day-to-day healthcare operations. Key areas of work will include planning, process optimisation and decision-making. The Lab will also investigate the broader impact of AI on clinical practice, including ethical and legal considerations.

“We cannot address the growing demand for care simply by hiring more people; there just aren’t enough. So, we need to use the staff and capacity we do have more intelligently,” said Remco van Lunteren, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of UMC Utrecht. “And this is precisely where artificial intelligence can truly help us.”

Bed occupancy and no-shows

Projects within the Lab include forecasting inpatient bed occupancy to support capacity planning and predicting so-called no-shows. “In our outpatient clinics, a proportion of patients do not attend their appointments. Every missed appointment represents wasted capacity and delayed care for another patient,” explained Eric Wolters, a data scientist at UMC Utrecht and coordinator of the Lab. “Using a machine learning model, we can estimate the likelihood of a no-show for each appointment based on patient and appointment characteristics. Importantly, no sensitive patient data are used.”

A dedicated call team then works through a risk-ranked list and contacts patients in advance to confirm their appointments. According to Wolters, these calling procedures significantly reduce the likelihood of no-shows. “Our tests indicate that this approach could prevent around 4,500 missed appointments each year. That means outpatient capacity can be used more effectively and more patients receive timely care.”

The AI Lab for Clinical Operations will develop knowledge and practical applications that are relevant beyond UMC Utrecht. Its long-term ambition is to establish a field lab in which UMC Utrecht and Utrecht University work together with external healthcare partners to develop AI solutions that can be widely adopted across the healthcare sector.