Cardiologists’ Goal With AI: Save Time, Save Money, Save Lives

Artificial intelligence (AI) remains one of the most discussed tools in the future of cardiovascular care, but cardiologists caution that its promise hinges on thoughtful implementation. During a panel discussion, experts emphasized that AI must reduce burden, support equity, and preserve the patient-clinician relationship in order to be truly valuable. These themes were explored during a session on responsible AI implementation and patient-centered care at the American College of Cardiology 2025 Annual Scientific Session (ACC.25).

Experts say the focus should not be on AI itself, but on the broader goal of improving cardiovascular care and access. | Image credit: MrPanya – stock.adobe.com

Making AI Worth the Time

One of the strongest points of agreement among cardiologists in the panel was that AI will only be adopted if it meaningfully reduces the burden on clinicians. Several speakers pointed to the exhaustion that stems from current electronic health record (EHR) systems and documentation demands.

AI’s promise lies in reversing this trend, according to the panelists, who are using natural language processing to turn patient-clinician conversations into structured documentation and using automation to pull patient-relevant data from disparate systems without manual chart review. But this raises an important question for Robert M. Califf, MD, instructor in medicine at Duke University Medical Center and former commissioner of the FDA: Will health systems then require doctors to double—or even triple—the number of patients they’re seeing in the same amount of time, or will the focus stay on spending more quality time helping patients?

“Two-thirds of Americans, to the statement, ‘I have to take care of my own health because no one else cares,’ answered yes,” Califf noted. “Are we going to take care of that, which is what they're asking for?”

Outside of the patient visit, AI has also shown promise in expediting prior authorization, with a few attendees in the crowd saying they’ve used AI for this before. Philip Rackliffe, MBA, president and CEO of Advanced Visualization Solutions, added that AI has a “huge opportunity” helping streamline time-intensive regulatory tasks, such as preparing filings and managing complaint handling processes that often involve hundreds of employees.

“All of those added up together will actually foster faster products to market and a more rapid innovation cycle,” he said.

Trust, Safety, and the Human Element

Another key topic was around trust, including both the trust patients place in clinicians as well as the trust clinicians must have in the tools they use. AI tools, panelists argued, must enhance clinical care without eroding this relationship. Even as AI grows more sophisticated in synthesizing patient data and aligning it with clinical guidelines, Rackliffe said final treatment decisions will still rely on human judgment. The technology may accelerate decision-making and enhance clinical insight, but a physician’s expertise remains the necessary final checkpoint.

“I think there will always need to be the check balance at the end,” he said. “But through that process, we will get infinitely smarter at a pace that you've never seen before.”

Back to automation, Shiv Rao, MD, founder and CEO of Abridge, emphasized that AI can augment and automate, but it comes with risks such as bias—not a new concept in conversations about AI use, but one that can be addressed as long as experts include the “right kind of friction,” he said, which could include regulations or mandated transparency in the tool itself.

“Right now what we're starting to do, as we get closer to something akin to clinical decision support, is that if we're helping a clinician expand their mind on a differential, for example, and they want to include that, then we make sure that they can't finalize the note till they've read the part of the note that didn't come from the conversation that they had,” Rao explained. “If we're introducing new content, then you're forced to review it and adjudicate it before you can move on. I think those sorts of patterns are good friction.”

Advancing Health Equity

AI also has the potential to reduce disparities in care, particularly by supporting underserved populations and health systems that face resource constraints. Speakers noted that the transformative potential of AI is not just in academic medical centers but in enabling community clinics and smaller hospitals to deliver higher-quality, data-informed care. JoAnne Foody, MD, global head of cardiopulmonary research and development and senior vice president at Johnson and Johnson Innovative Medicine, highlighted the opportunity to expand access to evidence-based medicine while ensuring the patient stays at the center.

Embedding AI into tools clinicians already use, such as EHRs, could reduce barriers to adoption and facilitate broader impact. Panelists agreed that to truly advance equity, AI tools must be developed using diverse data, evaluated in real-world settings, and deployed with attention to context, ensuring technology doesn’t simply reflect existing biases but actively works to counteract them.

“Just like there is access for health care, we need to simplify these technologies in ways that we put them at the fingertips of our patients,” Foody said. “And it has to be so compelling and easy to use that, in fact, people don't even recognize that they're using these and integrated.”

Ultimately, speakers agreed that thoughtful implementation, transparent evaluation, and incentives aligned with patient outcomes are key to achieving AI’s potential. The focus, they argued, should remain not on AI itself, but on the broader goal: improving cardiovascular care for patients and the professionals who serve them.

“Our mantra at Abridge has been save time, save money, and ultimately, save lives,” Rao said. “We all have a role to play to just make sure that we're pushing this industry forward using all these new tools, however they evolve, in the right direction.”

Reference

Bhatt A, Berlacher K, Califf R, Foody J, Rackliffe P, Rao S. Redefining cardiovascular care: leveraging data and AI to shape the future of medicine. Presented at: ACC.25; March 29, 2025; Chicago, IL.