Simcha Hyman
Simcha Hyman

The fragmentation of health care data across disparate systems creates significant barriers to efficient care delivery and innovation. Simcha Hyman, CEO of TriEdge Investments, wants to tackle this challenge by leveraging AI technologies to connect these isolated information silos and automate time-consuming administrative tasks that lead to burnout and are liable to human error.

"Considering we're invested in most of the continuum of care in terms of primary care, home care, hospice, nursing homes, as well as pharmacy, it gives us a panoramic view of the health care industry to understand on some level a lot of the dysfunction," says Hyman of his New York-based family offices perspective.

Clinicians consistently identify interoperability as a significant challenge across electronic health record systems, expressing notable dissatisfaction with external integration — only 44% feel their electronic health record adequately connects with outside organizations, according to Klas Research. Physicians frequently highlight this as their primary frustration, emphasizing difficulties in accessing and effectively utilizing external patient data within their current systems.

The consequences of this fragmentation are severe – a Government Accountability Office report found that lack of care coordination due to data fragmentation costs the health care system up to $226 billion per year.

AI can address interoperability challenges through natural language processing capabilities that help standardize information across disparate systems.

Data Infrastructure, AI and Patient Communication

Simcha Hyman's approach begins with creating a proper data foundation. "We're working towards moving portfolio companies over to a shared data lakehouse, where it's easy to then communicate with the data or layer on any type of large language model onto them," he says. This infrastructure allows for a "uniform process across our portfolio companies.

"As an example, if each company was set up in a way where their data was structured in the same way, then if we were to build a model around predicting disease states, then the implementation of using that within each portfolio company wouldn't be that complex."

TriEdge is developing AI solutions that can bridge information gaps without requiring complete system overhauls. At Stanford Health Care, similar AI systems are already helping to enhance communication between providers and patients. Their AI-powered listening technology generates draft clinical notes from conversations, allowing clinicians to focus more on patients and less on documentation. In an early test of the technology, roughly 96% of physicians reported that it was easy to use, and 78% reported that it expedited clinical note-taking.

"One of the pieces of technology that we're working on will give family members direct insight into what's going on with their loved one while they're in a facility, and open up the channels of communication with different department heads in a much more efficient way," says Hyman.

"We're developing technology that makes health information accessible to both families and providers," he continues. "With LLMs, we can now let a doctor enter a chart note and give family members the ability to interpret it based on their level of clinical understanding."

Addressing Administrative Burden and Burnout

Despite a decline in burnout from its COVID-19 pandemic peak, physician burnout rates remained high at 48.2%, with EHR documentation playing a significant role, according to the American Medical Association.A recent Google Cloud survey found that doctors, nurses, and insurance staff face significant administrative burdens, dedicating substantial portions of their workweek — approximately 28 hours for clinicians and 36 hours for insurance personnel — to paperwork such as patient records, claims documentation, and referrals.

This workload directly contributes to widespread burnout, with 82% of clinicians and comparable numbers among medical and claims staff attributing their burnout to administrative tasks. A majority of providers and payors said that the overload not only reduces available time for patient interactions but also heightens the risk of errors.

Generative AI offers a promising solution, with health care professionals expressing strong optimism about its potential to reduce these burdens. Providers (91%) and payors (97%) widely support integrating AI tools, such as systems that simplify document retrieval, automate the creation of clinical documents, expedite prior authorization processes, and enhance efficiency in medical imaging reporting. The general public also favors AI use, recognizing its ability to enable clinicians to dedicate more attention to patient care, thereby fostering a more accurate, efficient, and patient-centered health care environment.

Simcha Hyman recognizes this challenge. "We're working on using AI to optimize workflows within the facilities to better enable providers to do their job," he says.

This aligns with emerging solutions in the field. University of California, San Diego Health has implemented AI to draft replies to patient messages within Epic Systems' EHR, contributing to reduced cognitive burden for physicians by starting with an empathetic draft that they can edit rather than composing from scratch.

The AI Integration Advantage

The AMA's 2024 report on physicians' attitudes toward AI found that they maintain a positive outlook on AI's integration into health care, with 68% recognizing benefits to their practice, up slightly from 65% in 2023. And actual AI use among physicians has notably increased, rising from 38% in 2023 to 66% in 2024

For Simcha Hyman, the key to successful AI integration lies in understanding the real-world problems facing health care organizations. "I think that where AI systems proliferate in health care settings, the knowledge gap between technology capabilities and clinical users threatens to limit adoption," he noted in a recent industry interview with Tech Times.

"Most AI startups building in this space haven't experienced the problems they're trying to solve," he added.

But Hyman and TriEdge are drawing on experience across a variety of health care contexts to develop AI solutions that address genuine pain points experienced by patients and providers.

Based on continued interrogation of operational challenges, TriEdge is investing in health care AI to create practical tools that enhance communication and reduce administrative burdens.

"The immediate technical challenge involves creating systems that can translate complex medical information while maintaining privacy safeguards," Hyman said. "The longer-term challenge involves integrating these systems into existing workflows without disrupting care delivery."

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