AI in Healthcare! The most crucial industry ever!
COVID-19 has made us realize the potential loopholes within our healthcare system that need improvement for better outcomes. The situation pushed us to adopt new technologies and make significant changes that streamline healthcare facilities for everyone.
One prominent technology is AI, which is making strides in the entire healthcare industry, from simple registration to drug trials, discovery, patient care, and admin work.
The global healthcare industry is expanding while posing several challenges.
Today, businesses and hospitals need an innovative, tech-powered solution that can redefine diagnosis, monitoring, and treating patients, while reducing costs and intensive workloads. Thus, they want to invest in technologies like AI, GenAI, and machine learning to improve healthcare for everyone.
$2.8 billion has already been invested in AI Healthcare companies in 2024. Talking about benefits and huge business opportunities ahead of healthcare, let’s explore the detailed role of AI in improving end-to-end healthcare.
First, we need to understand where the existing healthcare systems are lacking and how AI resolves them with the real-world application of AI to healthcare.
The healthcare industry is vast, thus it comes with several challenges and loopholes that are the biggest stopper to its improvement. Let’s explore each challenge.
Healthcare has become a prime target for cyberattacks due to stored personal and health information, putting patient’s lives at risk. Last year,
Healthcare worker costs keep rising. Last year, they went up by 6.5%. If trends continue, the cost will cross 11% each year until 2027.
Several factors are causing these high costs:
Healthcare systems are cutting administrative and management jobs, which adds more stress to the remaining staff and leads to burnout and high turnover.
The value-based care (VBC) model rewards doctors for better patient results, not just for doing more services. It aims to improve care and cut costs. However, it has some problems:
EHR systems, which store patient information, are often hard to use. This can delay care and make patients unhappy. Clinicians spend too much time entering data instead of helping patients. Getting approval for treatments can also be slow, which impacts the quality of care.
Apart from this, more challenges pertain within the healthcare industry like data collection, analysis, patient experience, admin workflows, regulatory challenges, and more.
All these challenges need AI-driven solutions that can help streamline end-to-end healthcare systems. Let’s explore how AI machine learning and other technology help us solve these challenges.
AI can improve how we diagnose, treat, and monitor patients by analyzing large amounts of data and finding diseases and trends. AI helps with tasks like reading medical images and looking through health records to predict problems.
AI’s impact on healthcare is huge. It will change how we handle health data, diagnose diseases, and create treatments. With AI, doctors can make better decisions faster, save money, and manage medical records more efficiently. AI promises to make patient care quicker and more accurate, leading to better treatment and experiences.
Let us explore- top Healthcare AI applications.
IBM’s Watson is leading the way in AI. This advanced system was created to answer questions quickly and accurately. It has been key in improving natural language processing (NLP), which helps machines understand human speech.
In 2011, IBM introduced a healthcare version of Watson, helping to bring AI into the medical field. This move paved the way for other tech companies like Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon to make their own innovations in healthcare.
As technology grows, machine learning offers exciting chances in healthcare. It helps doctors diagnose better, tailor treatments to individuals, and solve old problems in new ways. Machine learning can teach computers to spot patterns and make predictions from large amounts of data that doctors might overlook. This can directly improve the health of communities.
The main aim of machine learning is to boost patient care and provide new medical insights. It can confirm doctors’ choices by using predictive algorithms. Benefits of Machine Learning in Healthcare.
For example, Cohere Health uses AI and machine learning to improve the process of getting approval for medical services. By using real-time data and smart technology, Cohere brings together patients, doctors, and health plans. Their goal is to make the process smooth and deliver good, affordable care.
With the advent of IoMT, medical devices and apps talk to each other over the internet. Many devices now use Wi-Fi to connect and share data through cloud platforms. This enables things like remote monitoring, tracking medical history, and using information from wearables.
For instance, in India, sensors in ambulances send patient information to hospitals before the ambulance arrives. As more devices become internet-connected, the IoMT is expected to grow rapidly.
In healthcare, NLP is crucial because it can analyze and interpret large amounts of patient data.
As NLP technology advances, it can help healthcare providers manage patient information more effectively and enhance patient care.
For example- Augmedix provides AI tools for medical documentation used by hospitals, doctors, and medical groups. Their tools use natural language processing and speech recognition to save time, boost productivity, and make patients happier.
Amazon has a tool called Amazon Comprehend Medical. It helps healthcare companies and doctors find useful information in medical records, accurately code those records, and identify patients for clinical trials. The tool uses natural language processing to read and analyze these documents to find the information needed.
One of the biggest challenges of the healthcare industry is increasing labor costs, errors due to manual tasks, and personnel shortages. Thus industry needs a solution that can help reduce significant costs and streamline workflows with automation.
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) automates repetitive tasks in healthcare, allowing medical staff to focus more on patient care. RPA uses software robots to handle routine tasks like data entry, appointment scheduling, and billing more efficiently. This can lead to significant time savings, fewer errors, and improved patient satisfaction.
For example- Accuray CyberKnife uses AI and robots to target cancer tumors accurately. Doctors can customize treatments for each patient by tracking tumors in real-time.
A rule-based expert system is a basic type of artificial intelligence. It uses set rules to solve problems based on expert knowledge. The goal is to turn a human expert’s knowledge into specific rules for handling data.
In healthcare, these systems help with clinical decisions. They help diagnose conditions by analyzing patient symptoms and history, support treatment planning with personalized care recommendations, and manage medications by alerting them to potential drug interactions. Additionally, they streamline administrative tasks like appointment scheduling and billing, while ensuring compliance with medical guidelines.
By applying expert knowledge, these systems enhance decision-making, reduce errors, and improve overall patient care.
IoMT is a part of the Internet of Things (IoT) that connects medical devices to healthcare IT systems through a network. These devices help monitor patient health, share important data, and manage appointments.
Generative AI is a type of artificial intelligence that can create new data from existing information. In healthcare, it has many uses. It can fix incomplete images, improve image quality, and make new medical images for training.
Generative AI can also create easy-to-understand health information for patients and help design prosthetics and implants. It’s useful for making training simulations and materials for interns. As AI technology improves, there will be even more ways it can make healthcare better and more efficient.
Here are some benefits that make the difference.
Many developing countries have poor healthcare, which means higher health risks and shorter lives. AI can improve this by providing better diagnosis and treatment. Special apps help healthcare workers from different places work together to support people in need. For example, Ada helped during global pandemics by letting people check their symptoms and manage their health better.
AI tools use patient data to check past and current health problems. They compare this information to make more accurate diagnoses. Many healthcare apps have analyzed millions of symptoms and can even predict future health issues. For example, Google’s Verily app helps predict genetic diseases. This lets doctors prepare for future health problems and improve hospital management with better predictions.
AI makes healthcare faster and cheaper. It speeds up patient exams and diagnoses, cutting costs significantly. For example, AI can quickly find biomarkers that indicate diseases, reducing the need for manual work. This automation helps save more lives by speeding up action. AI is also cost-efficient, reducing the number of lab visits needed. As a result, many healthcare organizations have adopted AI recently, with 88% more using it this year.
Crowded healthcare places can be confusing. AI helps by guiding patients through data and directing them to the right spots. This makes their experience better. A study shows that 83% of patients dislike poor communication. AI also offers 24/7 support. For instance, the Babylon app checks symptoms and provides current medical info based on user answers.
AI helps doctors create treatments that are just right for each person. It uses the patient’s history to recommend the best treatment, reducing the risk of side effects. For example, AI can recommend specific medications or therapies just for you, based on your health profile. This makes treatment more effective and reduces side effects. It helps improve your health outcomes and ensures you get the best care for your needs.
Here is the list of top AI applications in healthcare.
AI helps diagnose diseases and recommend treatments. For example, IBM’s Watson for Oncology looks at patient data to suggest personalized cancer treatments, making clinical decisions better. It uses advanced computing to solve specific medical problems.
AI helps manage large amounts of patient data quickly and accurately. For example, Google’s DeepMind Health uses AI to analyze patient records and help doctors find patients who might get worse. In one case, their AI system reduced false alarms by 25% in UK mammography scans, compared to usual methods, while still catching all real issues.
AI is improving medical imaging by analyzing pictures to help diagnose and treat diseases.
For example, GE Healthcare’s Edison platform uses AI to quickly check MRI and CT scans, helping doctors find problems faster.
AI helps with remote patient care, making it easier and more accessible. Patients can get real-time support, share health data, and receive advice without visiting the hospital. AI helps analyze this data to spot trends and problems early, for better care. For example, Philips’ HealthSuite Digital Platform uses AI to monitor vital signs.
AI-powered virtual assistants and chatbots can transform remote patient care. They help medical staff by handling simpler tasks, like giving health advice and medication information quickly. This reduces wait times for patients. For example, Healthily’s chatbot checks symptoms and offers medical advice.
Drug discovery is a challenging and time-consuming process. From invention to trials, it takes significant time, and only 9.6% of drugs reach the markets after successful trials. Despite several automation tools, progress has been limited.
But, AI speeds up finding new drugs and vaccines. It quickly identifies possible drug candidates or vaccine targets, working faster than traditional methods. AI can also predict how well and safely these compounds will work.
Healthcare research often needs large and varied datasets. Generative AI can create synthetic patient data, providing useful resources for different research projects.
Generative AI could change how medical reports are created, making things better for both healthcare providers and patients.
The US Justice Department reports that 3% of healthcare claims are fraudulent, leading to a $100 billion loss each year. AI can help spot invalid claims and speed up the processing and payment of legitimate ones. It also helps prevent patient data theft. Top healthcare providers like Harvard Pilgrim Health are using AI to combat fraud. They rely on AI systems to spot suspicious claims and behavior.
AI is significantly transforming healthcare administration by streamlining processes, enhancing efficiency, and improving patient and provider experiences. Here’s how:
Wearable technology, or wearables, are smart devices that help people monitor and improve their health. These devices are worn on the body and use apps to collect health data. The information is sent to the cloud, where it is processed and shared with users to help them better understand and manage their health.
AI and ML unlock opportunities in the healthcare industry. It has the power to transform remaining challenges to much extent. Venturing into the healthcare industry is complex but with the right tool and AI integration, you turn opportunity into success.
But, integration is not the endpoint, AI poses challenges while implementation that must also be considered.
AI needs a lot of good data to work properly. However, healthcare data is often messy and spread out, making it hard to collect and organize. Frequent changes in patients’ insurance and doctors add to the difficulty. In some areas, it’s even tougher to digitize and organize data due to poor systems.
Doctors often don’t understand how AI works, which is called the “black box” problem. They might not know why AI makes certain recommendations, which can be risky. Experts who know both healthcare and AI are needed, but they are rare.
Strict privacy laws protect medical records, making it hard to share data with AI systems legally. Patients must consent to their data being used. Medical institutions need to follow these rules carefully to ensure data is accurate and protected.
Many people, including patients and doctors, are worried about AI. Doctors don’t want robots to replace them, and patients are unsure about relying on machines for their health.
When video doctor visits started during the pandemic, many were unsure. Patients need to understand how AI can improve their care, like with robotic surgery, which offers less scarring and faster recovery. Building trust in AI is important for its successful use in healthcare.
Besides these challenges, some challenges come after AI adoption that can have a huge impact. Let’s see what challenges come with AI.
The growth of AI in healthcare is driven by lots of data and patients being more active in their care. However, there are challenges to address:
Using AI in healthcare raises several important ethical issues that need careful attention to protect patients and ensure fairness. Here are some key points.
AI in healthcare raises issues like patient consent, algorithm bias, and accountability. Develop clear guidelines and check for bias in AI systems. Make sure tech vendors are transparent and regularly audit their AI algorithms.
Generative AI in healthcare can be misused just like any other technology. For example, someone could alter AI-generated medical images or records to trick doctors or tamper with patient data for fraud. To prevent these issues, strong security measures like authentication, encryption, and monitoring are essential.
Adding generative AI to existing healthcare systems can be tricky. Healthcare organizations often have different IT setups, face compatibility problems, and must follow strict regulations. To integrate generative AI smoothly, careful planning, teamwork, and investment in technology and staff training are needed.
Accuracy issues with AI in healthcare can lead to significant problems, including potential lawsuits. If an AI system makes incorrect diagnoses due to errors in its algorithms or data misinterpretation, it can result in incorrect treatments and harm to patients.
Such mistakes not only jeopardize patient health but also expose healthcare providers and AI developers to legal actions. Ensuring the reliability and accuracy of AI systems is crucial to prevent these risks and maintain trust in medical technology.
Healthcare regulations are always changing, which can make it hard for organizations to keep up. Staying compliant with these updates takes a lot of time, effort, and resources.
Healthcare organizations must constantly adjust their practices and systems to meet the latest standards. This means regularly reviewing new regulations, updating procedures, and training staff to ensure they are following the current rules. Keeping up with these changes is crucial for providing safe and effective care, but it can be challenging and costly.
New technologies in healthcare help businesses handle current challenges and are becoming more popular with patients. According to HIMSS, over 50% of patients want more flexible hospital services.
The growing demand for digital services is a big reason why healthcare businesses use technology. In Europe, healthcare spending is about 11% of GDP, and medical technologies make up around 7.6% of this spending.
AI can help fill gaps in healthcare staffing by providing support for both hospital and home care. For example, AI tools like DeepMind assist with analyzing medical images, while chatbots like Babylon Health offer virtual assistance at home.
AI is improving how healthcare data is managed. It makes electronic health records (EHRs) more useful by analyzing and organizing data, helping with better decision-making. AI can also predict needs and automate tasks, making patient care more efficient.
Digital twin technology creates virtual models of systems and human bodies. In hospitals, it helps test and improve processes and treatments. It could even model the brain in the future, helping with precise medical recommendations.
AI is advancing in mental health care, with chatbots offering virtual therapy and tools to detect signs of mental health issues. Applications like Talkspace provide support through text-based therapy, and Spring Health uses AI to monitor for depression or anxiety.
Explainable AI (XAI) is making strides in helping healthcare professionals understand AI decisions. This boosts confidence in AI for diagnosing, treatment planning, and patient care. XAI is crucial for meeting regulations, as it clearly explains how AI systems make their decisions, addressing accountability and ethical concerns.
The market for XAI was valued at $5.10 billion in 2022 and is projected to reach $24.58 billion by 2030, growing at a rate of 21.5% per year from 2023 to 2030.
Countries and organizations are joining forces to use AI in healthcare. They believe AI can greatly improve medical care, like diagnosing diseases and creating personalized treatments. The World Health Organization (WHO) is making rules to ensure AI is used fairly and protects patient privacy. Big tech companies, hospitals, and universities are also working together to develop AI solutions for diagnosing diseases, finding new drugs, and managing patient care.
However, the future of AI in healthcare just started. AI has a vast potential to open doors to new opportunities and better care facilities.
AI algorithms have huge potential, but using them effectively requires deep technical skills, experience, and resources. It’s not just about technical know-how; it’s about handling big data, training AI, and constantly improving to find better solutions.
OnGraph understands how AI fits with business goals in healthcare, avoiding common mistakes and maximizing returns. Here’s why working with an AI software development company is beneficial.
Why Choose OnGraph?
AI has a profound impact in transforming supply chain management to improve efficiency across workflows and operations.
Well, the healthcare industry is already complex, any mistake can turn into a disaster. Here are some challenges that you might face.
Connect with our experts for guidance and smooth AI implementation.
The average cost depends on the type of AI solution you want, the size of the project, and other factors.
Yes, we offer one month of free support post-deployment for any type of development solution.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR