24 Oct 5 Examples How AI is Revolutionizing Health: The Future of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare

Artificial intelligence is beginning to take-off in healthcare despite the industry’s notorious resistance to change.

By mirroring the architecture of the human brain, AI technology unlocks the learning potential of machines. Using the power to self-adapt and self-optimize, machine learning algorithms are able to continuously improve.

As machine learning has dramatically changed results across other industries, it’s no wonder that healthcare leaders are currently investing in healthcare-specific AI applications. Over the next few years, leaders in healthcare will be leveraging AI technology along with the clinical expertise to improve healthcare outcomes.

In order for the benefits of AI in healthcare to have their intended effect, healthcare leaders need to champion the advantages of AI technology and become important stakeholders.

This article will highlight the intersection of AI growth and healthcare. Here five examples of opportunities for AI applications in real-world healthcare environments that will have healthcare executives and medtech business developers see how artificial intelligence in hospitals and medicine is moving from hype to reality:

Chatbots for Automated Patient Outreach

The future will have chatbots powered by machine-learning taking over administrative tasks and more. Appointment booking, billing, insurance verification and referrals to specialists can be easily made on a smartphone or computer thanks to AI-equipped healthcare technology.

Healthcare-specific chatbots can save hospitals and healthcare businesses on reduced labor costs and missed appointments. For example, 1missed appointments cost the U.S. healthcare system an astronomical $150B each year. Digital reminders administered by chatbots have the power to improve an inefficient scheduling process and lower stress levels on the healthcare staff and patients by providing patients with a streamlined experience for booking and keeping appointments.

Whether you are already familiar with the use of automation in the healthcare business or not, within the next 5 years, chatbots will most likely be a key part of hospital management. As basic automation has started to take place, it’s not a question of whether chatbots will have a place in healthcare, but a matter of who will be the leaders with the foresight to rapidly implement this new technology.

Remote Monitoring for Chronic Conditions

Wearable devices and smartphone apps will allow healthcare providers to remotely monitor patients with chronic conditions.

New AI technologies can manage, control, monitor and record medication dispensing and consumption. It can also monitor vitals and important markers while securely storing data in the cloud for instant access. Anomalies in blood pressure or temperature, for example, can activate a sequence of alarms to notify the patient and healthcare workers so that the appropriate response can be taken.

These applications mark the beginning of lasting innovation in Health Tech. AI applications will allow the patient and healthcare businesses to virtually manage diseases more effectively from wherever the patient is located.

Artificial Intelligence in Diagnostics and Decision-Making

Supercomputers have the ability to process billions of patient records and medical images in a matter of seconds. This technology is getting closer to enabling medical professionals to make more accurate clinical decisions.

Universities, healthcare AI companies, and leading healthcare centres around the world are leveraging AI-technology to tackle the challenges of medical imaging analysis.

AI can take the burden off of healthcare professionals in making routine diagnostic decisions and afford medical staff with the ability to focus on more unusual or complex cases that require complex and creative human problem-solving. The addition of AI technology also has a promising potential to reduce human error in diagnostics.

Enhanced Robotic Surgery

According to Frost & Sullivan 2, by 2025, 80% of surgeries will likely be performed by robots.

For years, robotic technologies have helped surgeons make microscopic and stable movements to successfully perform minimally-invasive procedures with a shorter recovery time. Now, thanks to machine learning, robotic surgery devices have shown to be a promising area of innovation. For example, the da Vinci system, one of the most commonly-used robotic surgery devices employs AI technology to help increase a surgeon’s precision in movement.

Future uses of AI include automating and regulating surgical procedures while qualitatively assessing a surgeon’s skills. It can also help streamline surgical procedures with suggested actions or checklists that can help reduce human error.

Health IT Security

Security breaches are all too common in healthcare. In the U.S. alone 90% of hospitals have been cyber attacked in the past 2 years. As more and more healthcare data moves online, healthcare systems will become bigger targets.

Security breaches often occur through internal sources. Because healthcare data is accessed by clinicians, billing departments and administrative staff, keeping data secure in the healthcare environments has proven to be particularly challenging.

With smart AI applications such as biometrics, AI technology is quickly working to meet the needs of the complex security needs of the healthcare system.

AI security is growing rapidly and according to Gartner 3, the world’s leading research and advisory company, 75% of security software applications will feature AI by 2020.

Incorporating AI into healthcare security infrastructure is going to be a requirement for ensuring that sensitive patient data is kept safe from security threats.