Artificial intelligence (AI) is already having an impact on healthcare. It has the potential to improve diagnostics, advance treatment options, boost patient adherence and engagement, and support administrative and operational efficiency.
But AI can also pose challenges. These include the need for trust, accountability, data access, and privacy protection.
Improved Detection
AI is making its presence felt in all areas of healthcare, from medical research to patient care to healthcare delivery. The most notable use of AI in a clinical setting is predictive analytics, enabling providers to identify better patients at high risk for hospitalization or who might benefit from an intervention that could save lives. Similarly, using artificial intelligence to mine and glean data from health records has a myriad of benefits. One of the benefits of AI in healthcare includes more informed care and treatment decisions, fewer medication errors, and improved patient satisfaction. Lastly, a more engaged and empowered workforce is a win for all involved. The best way to explain it is that AI enables healthcare providers to focus on the most important aspects of patient care while providing a more robust means of communication and fostering stronger relationships between patients, their physicians, and caregivers.
Better Diagnosis
The use of AI has many benefits in healthcare, including improved diagnostics, personalized treatment options, patient adherence, and administrative and operational efficiency. It also helps reduce costs.
AI in healthcare uses algorithms that analyze large amounts of data to predict or make recommendations. These include natural language processing (NLP), machine learning, and deep learning.
Artificial intelligence in medicine is a rapidly growing field that is transforming how health care is delivered and improving patient outcomes at scale. It can help improve clinical decision-making and enhance physicians’ judgment by analyzing past, current, and new patient data.
Some of the most common applications for AI in healthcare are in medical diagnosis and drug discovery. These tools can streamline drug development and repurposing processes, which can significantly cut research and development time.
These technologies can also help detect and diagnose diseases by analyzing blood samples, genetic information, and other factors. The use of AI in cancer detection could lead to fewer unnecessary surgeries, more accurate treatments, and better outcomes for patients.
More Personalized Care
The ability to provide personalized care based on a patient’s individual needs and preferences is essential for healthcare providers. This includes language support for patients who may not be able to communicate in their native languages, personalizing messages that are conversational and relevant, and leveraging AI-enabled capabilities like automated workflows, self-service opportunities, and more.
AI can also improve data interoperability by bringing all information systems together and providing physicians with complete, up-to-date, and relevant patient medical histories. This can help prevent unnecessary treatment errors, omissions, and readmissions to the hospital.
This is especially critical for a health system that wants to evolve with the patient over time. This can include monitoring patient progress to avoid gaps in care, filling care gaps that occur when a person goes home or a post-acute facility, and communicating with patients about any changes or transitions in their treatment plans.
Finally, AI can predict health issues and help providers make treatment decisions before a crisis arises. This can reduce the number of emergency visits and save hospitals money.
While AI can enhance clinical diagnostics and decision-making, the use of such solutions will never replace or reduce the need for doctors. Rather, these tools will complement their skills and add to their knowledge base. These solutions will require clinicians to work in collaboration with AI teams and other health professionals to develop solutions that support their work and enable them to deliver effective, evidence-based diagnoses.
Reduced Costs
One of the biggest benefits of AI is its ability to save money for healthcare payers. Many hospitals have already adopted a variety of AI solutions to reduce costs by improving processes and improving patient outcomes.
For example, healthcare organizations can leverage AI to detect revenue leakage and mitigate improper claims payments. This can help reduce improper billing and eliminate wasteful spending. It also helps providers prevent fraudulent claims and ensure accurate care quality.
Another way AI is reducing costs is through improved data analysis. It can identify trends and anomalies in real time and use advanced analytics to define them as fraud or waste, saving healthcare payers billions of dollars each year.
Similarly, it can detect early signs of disease deterioration and help clinicians provide effective care to improve patient health and avoid costly hospitalizations and emergency room visits. It can also improve the coordination of care to help patients comply with treatment programs and stay on track with their goals.
To maximize the impact of these technologies, healthcare organizations need to adopt AI correctly and proactively. They also need to collaborate with staff to incorporate AI into workflows and create an environment that is welcoming to the new technology.
To achieve this, healthcare institutions must develop and implement new specializations within their workforce that will focus on data science and engineering to support AI applications. These new professionals will include leaders in data architecture, data governance, data ethics, and a range of other areas that will be important for implementing AI-based solutions.