It has become almost cliché to say that AI is transforming entire industries. In the case of healthcare, however, that’s a gross understatement.
AI enables unprecedented levels of productivity, faster decision-making, enhanced customer service and insight into new opportunities and potential risks. It does all that for healthcare, too, but so much more.
By leveraging AI, healthcare organizations can become smarter and more efficient in delivering care to growing numbers of patients. They can ease worker shortages and reduce administrative overhead and costs. Most importantly, they can improve clinical outcomes and enhance the patient experience.
That’s not to say there aren’t risks. Integrating AI-powered tools with existing healthcare technologies and procedures can be time-consuming and difficult. Healthcare organizations must also be concerned with patient privacy, the potential for bias and AI “hallucinations.” There’s also the risk that humans will hinder the AI revolution by preserving entrenched interests.
Tapping the power of AI starts in the doctor’s office. AI can record everything discussed during a patient visit and summarize it into an organized clinical note, relieving clinicians’ workloads and enhancing patient satisfaction. Doctors can sit facing patients and have meaningful conversations rather than asking questions and recording the answers into the patient’s electronic chart.
AI can analyze the patient’s symptoms, suggest diagnoses and recommend potential treatments. By searching and analyzing vast amounts of information, all in a matter of seconds, AI can help clinicians make more accurate diagnoses and spot disease markers that might otherwise have been overlooked.
Behind the scenes, AI can analyze diagnostic images and test results faster and more accurately than human clinicians. One study found that AI is twice as accurate as humans at analyzing brain scans to determine when the patient had a stroke and whether it could be treated successfully. Another study found that AI is better than humans at identifying bone fractures. Broken bones are missed in up to 10 percent of cases — the most common diagnostic error in emergency and urgent care settings.
AI can also identify subtle changes in ECG readings and predict type 2 diabetes up to a decade in advance. One promising system can predict the likelihood a patient will develop Alzheimer’s, kidney disease and other diseases by picking up “signatures” long before the patient develops symptoms.
Many time-consuming administrative tasks can be automated with AI, reducing costs and operational overhead. AI-powered chatbots can handle appointment scheduling, send reminders and even reschedule appointments, reducing no-shows and freeing up staff time. These tools can also answer frequently asked questions and provide patients with information and support.
AI can handle data entry and medical coding faster and more accurately than humans. It can also automate the processing of insurance claims, identify errors and expedite reimbursements, streamlining revenue cycle management.
Medical errors have a significant impact on patients, their families, clinicians and staff, and cost the healthcare system as much as $45 billion annually. Many of these incidents are related to adverse drug events, and AI holds promise for helping to prevent medication-related issues.
To achieve these objectives, healthcare organizations must integrate AI-powered tools with their existing systems and equipment. This can be a costly effort requiring specialized talent to overcome technical hurdles. Healthcare organizations must also ensure the security and privacy of patient data to comply with stringent regulations and prevent a costly breach.
There are, of course, ethical concerns. AI models can and do “hallucinate,” and potentially put information in patients’ records that isn’t valid. AI can perpetuate the biases that are pervasive in medical data due to its roots in the studies of white men by white men. Then there’s the challenge of determining who’s responsible when AI makes an error.
Healthcare organizations can benefit from partnering with a technology provider with expertise in AI. Technologent has a dedicated AI practice, with experts who can help organizations identify AI use cases that will deliver the best ROI with the least risk. We can also help break down data silos and put robust security measures in place. Let Technologent be your ally in the healthcare AI revolution.