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AI In Healthcare: Managing Health Intelligently

By Laxmikant Khanvilkar

Artificial intelligence has revolutionized every aspect of our life, be it education, financial services, sports or healthcare. AI finds usage in every other area that encompasses healthcare, which includes providing solutions to patient query, assisting with surgeries and even developing new pharmaceuticals. AI’s introduction is truly benefitting both patients and healthcare systems.

Benefits of artificial intelligence in healthcare

Statista, a German online platform specialized in data gathering and visualization, has projected artificial intelligence (AI) healthcare market value to be worth $187 billion in 2030 from $11 billion in 2021. The stupendous growth potential underlines considerable changes likely to undergo in field of medical services providers, hospitals, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

These changes would be brought about by better machine learning (ML) algorithms, more access to data, cheaper hardware and the availability of 5G contributing to the increasing application of AI in the healthcare industry, accelerating the pace of change. AI and ML technologies can sift through enormous volumes of health data—from health records and clinical studies to genetic information—and analyze it much faster than humans.

AI can help make healthcare operations more efficient

In recent times the healthcare organizations are using AI to improve the efficiency of all kinds of processes, from back-office tasks to patient care:

• AI and automation can help managed administrative workflow in an effective by streamlining processes by eliminating mundane/repetitive task, generating computer-assisted documentation, keep medical records as thorough as possible etc.
• AI can also help with accurate coding, information sharing between departments and billing.
• AI virtual nurse assistants—which are AI-powered chatbots, apps or other interfaces—can be used to address several questions raised by patients.
• Through AI, a patient can ensure error-free self-administers medications, leading to better health outcomes and reduced healthcare costs and hospitalizations.
• AI can play a crucial role in allowing surgeons to operate in tiny spaces instead of doing open surgery. AI-enabled robots can work around sensitive organs and tissues, reducing blood loss, infection risk and post-surgery pain. Robotic surgery often means less scarring and shorter recovery times than traditional surgery.
• Fraud in the healthcare industry is enormous, and raises the cost of consumers’ medical premiums. AI can assist in assessing insurance claims, and detect fraudulent claims.

AI will improve healthcare user experience

It is observed that poor communication remains a critical factor for conflict. Recent study shows that with the help of AI technologies like natural language processing (NLP), predictive analytics and speech recognition can lead to healthcare providers having more effective communication with patients.

AI can also improve accessibility in times of medical emergency or even during the pandemics. It is found very effective in in healthcare diagnoses as well.

According to Harvard’s School of Public Health, although it’s early days for this use, using AI to make diagnoses may reduce treatment costs by up to 50% and improve health outcomes by 40%.

AI in healthcare organizations can mean better health monitoring and ensuring timely preventive care.

As health and fitness monitors become more popular and more people use apps that track and analyze details about their health, they can share these real-time data sets with their doctors to monitor health issues and provide alerts in case of problems.

One benefit the use of AI brings to health systems is making gathering and sharing information easier. AI can track patient data more efficiently than humans can. Through AI and machine learning, health organizations can connect disparate information that previously might not have been gathered and analyzed, allowing a more unified look at patients’ health.

Organizations are also using AI to help improve drug safety. AI reduces the need to test potential drug compounds physically, which is an enormous cost-savings. High-fidelity molecular simulations can run on computers without incurring the high costs of traditional discovery methods.

AI governance in healthcare

As AI gains importance in healthcare delivery and more AI medical applications are developed, ethical and regulatory governance must be established. Issues that raise concern include the possibility of bias, lack of transparency, privacy concerns regarding data used for training AI models, and safety and liability issues.

The World Health Organization (WHO) report called Ethics & Governance of Artificial Intelligence for Health has identified ethical challenges to using AI in healthcare, identifies risks, and outlines consensus principles to ensure AI works for the public’s benefit.

Future and potential of AI in the healthcare ecosystem

AI provides opportunities to reduce human error, assist medical professionals and staff, and provide patient services 24/7. As AI tools continue to develop, there is potential to use AI even more in reading medical images, X-rays and scans, diagnosing medical problems and creating treatment plans.

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