How the Benefits of AI in Healthcare Can Serve Your Business

The global penetration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) impacts numerous industries including healthcare. AI helps healthcare specialists expedite numerous tasks, enhance operational efficiencies, and facilitate complex procedures.

The overall benefits of AI in healthcare are hard to overstate, as the technology can successfully replace humans in multiple routine tasks and fulfill those jobs faster and cheaper. Therefore, all stakeholders in the sector—including physicians, patients, and healthcare administrators—can save time and effort and improve treatment processes.

AI continues to grow and reinvent itself. Modern intelligent solutions enable us to understand, learn, act, and even predict. This is already a huge leap forward from AI-based surgery-assisting robots, which appeared in earlier stages of AI adoption in medicine. Healthcare applications make an appealing market for AI developers, and large tech companies such as Microsoft actively invest in the associated innovations. It’s no surprise that statistics forecast a global revenue of $34 billion from healthcare AI tools by 2025. 

However, tech progress comes hand-in-hand with certain limitations. The risks of artificial intelligence in healthcare should be carefully assessed along with the opportunities this relatively new technology can offer. 

The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare

A continual increase of data in modern medical institutions on the one hand, and the swift development of analytical and computing techniques on the other, create a vast array of use opportunities for AI. So, what exactly is the role of artificial intelligence in healthcare? 

Apart from automating multiple tasks, AI can help embrace advanced clinical practices, enhance research, and offer new technological capabilities for personalized treatment. Ultimately, AI solutions can bring communication between patients and caregivers to a new level, improve treatment results, and add value. 

Today, there are already numerous amazing examples of AI and ML implementations in medicine.

Investors realize the benefits of AI in healthcare and show strong interest in the industry. Research shows that globally, healthcare AI companies brought in a record-breaking $2.5 billion in the first quarter of 2021 in 111 deals. That’s 140% compared to $1 billion raised in the first quarter of 2020.

AI offers a giant potential to all stakeholders in the healthcare industry. Let’s go deeper into the benefits and risks of artificial intelligence and discover how a medical institution can optimize its outcomes by embracing the technology.

Benefits of AI in Healthcare and Medicine

• Obtaining real-time data
  
  In order to address a medical issue and give the right diagnosis, a practitioner primarily needs accurate information collected at a particular time. Armed with AI, healthcare professionals can instantly leverage precise data, thereby enhancing and optimizing the decision-making process. Therefore, the treatment becomes more cost-efficient and less time-consuming. Caregivers can also increase patient engagement in their treatment process by providing critical data via mobile devices. Real-time analytic tools can send immediate alerts for any kind of emergency.
• Streamlining operations
  
  AI has the power to change healthcare practices from the ground up. In particular, the technology can expedite and simplify all tedious, routine tasks. For instance, intelligent radiology technology can recognize important visual markers, relieving a practitioner from hours of meticulous analysis. Other solutions aim to automate scheduling appointments, track patients’ health, and provide recommendations for care.
• Saving time and resources
  
  Administrative strains in healthcare require a huge investment of time and human effort. This is only one of the areas where automation can save medical professionals precious time working with their patients, giving diagnoses, and prescribing treatments. AI thereby is able to accelerate operations and prevent hefty expenses. Apart from this, such technologies as deep learning and natural language processing can aid physicians in determining medical necessities. Traditionally, this vital clinical procedure would take hours of reviewing a patient’s history.
• Enhancing research
  
  All research heavily depends on collected data. Empowered by AI, healthcare specialists can accumulate large volumes of data from a variety of sources. Thus, they become able to act upon large and continually growing amounts of information and consequently perform more effective analyses. Based on real-time data, research becomes more precise and accurate. AI assists in detecting early symptoms, and telehealth solutions significantly aid in tracking patient progress.
• Reducing stress
  
  Finally, physicians all over the world experience unpleasant occurrences such as burnout. About 50% of primary physicians experience stress from time pressures, emotional intensity, and other working conditions. By streamlining operations and automating tasks, AI reduces the workload on medical professionals.

Potential Risks of Artificial Intelligence in the Healthcare system

OnceNow that we’ve gone through the main benefits of AI in healthcare, it’s crucial to outline the challenges this technology could bring.

• The necessity of human supervision
  
  One of the disadvantages of artificial intelligence in healthcare lies in the fact that it still requires human surveillance in order to be leveraged efficiently. For example, surgery robots operate based on logic, not empathy. So far, only a human practitioner can properly react to certain behavioral observations that can reveal or prevent complications.
• The importance of including social variables
  
  The services provided to patients often extend beyond addressing the physical condition. Sometimes, recommendations for patients should consider social, economic, and historical factors. For example, when patients need to be assigned to a certain care center, they may have personal preferences or economic restrictions, which AI would be unable to take into account.
• The threat of unemployment
  
  The benefit of automating jobs has its downside: AI can eliminate jobs for humans. Experts project that AI can displace or destroy 75 million jobs by 2022. Drastically reduced job opportunities are primarily caused by growing AI integration across industry sectors. Therefore, social factors are crucial to consider before the adoption of the promising new technology.
• The possibility of mistakes
  
  Regardless of how advanced your system is, there can always be some data gaps. Lack of data on specific illnesses and environmental or demographic conditions may lead to a misdiagnosis or faulty prescriptions. Although tech experts are continually working to address this potential issue with AI, the existing knowledge may still overlook the specifics of certain groups.
• Security risks
  
  Like in any other sphere where a data network is employed, AI systems are susceptible to security risks. Among the problems with AI in healthcare exists cyberattacks, which become smarter in parallel to the overall advancement of AI. Therefore, regularly updated countermeasures should be put in place to ensure the proper security defense.

How to Maximize the Benefits of AI in Healthcare

After assessing the pros and cons of artificial intelligence in healthcare, practitioners may ask themselves what they should do to take maximum advantage of the technology. AI is still new, and its implementation may contain numerous pitfalls. Experts recommend performing several critical steps to make sure the process will run seamlessly and counter the main challenges of artificial intelligence in healthcare. 

• Start with a simple use case
  
  The vital step towards embracing all the benefits of AI in healthcare is to make sure that the system will work properly and be fruitful. Therefore, introduce AI in your organization by applying it to the most repetitive tasks. This way, you’ll have great potential to enhance efficiency and further extend the use of the technology. Before starting the integration, identify the clinical problems to address and how AI tools can improve staff productivity and patients’ experience.
• Make sure your colleagues and patients are properly informed
  
  Some healthcare executives may lack confidence in the advantages of AI solutions.This is understandable, since the technology is rather new. However, you can address most concerns by properly explaining how AI technology works and which economic value it could bring in your specific case. Educate hospital executives on the opportunities these advanced tools can offer. Eliminate the common fear with regard to AI—the technology is not going to replace jobs, rather enhance working conditions and streamline workflows. Reassure your patients that AI solutions will only supplement doctors’ activities while data security will remain the top priority.
• Choose a reliable technology partner
  
  Technological migration is never an easy path. To make sure that your journey will go smoothly, you should select a skilled engineering vendor. Qualified professionals will help you properly address technological challenges, provide the proper training to your colleagues, and ensure AI scalability. Ultimately, they will competently manage the entire AI implementation and fine-tune processes to guarantee efficient outcomes.

Wrapping Up

As one of the largest disruptors of practically all industries in the world, AI can hugely affect medical institutions. However, similar to any other advanced technology, artificial intelligence poses challenges in healthcare. This sector carries specific concerns that need to be addressed prior to technology adoption. Therefore, organizations should be aware of the main pros and cons of AI in healthcare to succeed in their transformation.

In line with the global tendencies, our experience demonstrates that the proper implementation of AI brings solid dividends. NIX United specializes in artificial intelligence solutions that help customers occupy leading positions in their industries. Our profound technical knowledge and vast experience allow us to build your solution from the ground up and continually enhance it to bring you maximum value. We will bring cutting-edge technology to your service and make it work for you in the long run.