How AI Will Shape The Healthcare Industry in 2024
The rise of complex data in the healthcare field means the industry will seek to increase its usage of new technology, such as artificial intelligence (AI), in order to sift through all the new data. The more AI is adopted into healthcare facilities, and as patient trust in the science grows, the faster AI will develop. The more developed AI gets, the more reliable it will be in hospitals, and the more it will help healthcare workers.
With the growth AI is experiencing and will continue to experience in the coming years, it is ready to make changes to the healthcare industry and the way patients receive care. Keep reading to see just how AI will shape the healthcare industry in 20234 and beyond.
How AI is changing healthcare
AI implementation in healthcare has just begun on a large scale. Many healthcare organizations have begun using AI in their workflows, and to improve the way they seek information about their patients. Hospitals have found AI can help with giving patients accurate diagnoses, treatment recommendations, and improve patient engagement. It is also forecasted that AI will bring in $150 billion in annual savings by 2026 in the United States, marking it as a way for healthcare to change its budgeting processes.
Artificial intelligence is changing healthcare in more ways than just patient interaction. It can also help with contact tracing to prevent disease, and offer more information when looking to improve processes and decision-making, such as diagnosing conditions. The improvements are made by using the data AI gathers. Physicians and hospital leaders can look at everything AI has acquired and make updates as needed.
AI helps understand medical data
Due to the increased use of technology, and the major advancements healthcare has experienced in recent years, medical knowledge will soon double every 73 days. This amount of data is too much for any healthcare facility to sort through.
AI that has been implemented in hospitals has been found to help with this process. According to Forbes, "AI can assist with many clinical problems as long as governing and regulatory bodies can determine how to regulate the use of algorithms in healthcare." This means as long as there is someone there to check that the algorithms are working correctly, the AI system can track all of the new data.
After seeing how useful AI has been for many hospitals, there is an urgency for the rest of the healthcare field to adopt AI into their systems.
Improving Patient Experience Through AI
In addition to helping sift through massive amounts of data, AI and machine learning are playing a significant role in:
- Diagnosis
- Patient Scheduling
- Nurse Scheduling
- Natural Language Processing in EMR
- Patient Satisfaction Analysis
- Medication Safety
- Financial
Collective health data from around the world can give powerful insight into managing one's health. With AI, systems are able to sift through this information in a matter of seconds. Then, it can diagnose and accordingly prioritize the various complex and acute cases. As a result, AI reduces and mitigates the risk of preventable medical scenarios and avoids unnecessary interventions such as surgery.
AI can also improve medication administration and safety. Hospitals can use AI to watch for administration errors, especially with medications that can be administered by the patient. AI systems alert medical staff when an error has occurred, so nurses can correct it before any adverse effects take place. By catching any errors early, healthcare staff is able to watch medication administration closer, increasing accuracy and improving their patient’s safety.
When it comes to patient and nurse scheduling, there are optimized programs and chatbots to help streamline the process. AI chatbots can act as customer service while also scheduling patients for the best time that works for them. While nurses can use AI programs to schedule their shifts ensures they will not be overworked, and experience burnout.
AI Provides the Right Treatment at the Right Time
AI and machine learning can go through terabytes of genetic data and process / understand faster than humans. This data includes various languages, sources, and starting locations. When information is presented from machine learning, clinicians can treat patients individually and understand outcomes through a cause-and-effect model.
For example, before using AI, cancer patients all received the same general treatment for their cancer. This resulted in high failure rates. Once hospitals began using AI’s pattern recognition tools, they were able to provide their patients with access to personalized treatment plans tailored to their exact genetic makeup and lifestyle.
The use of AI’s pattern recognition tools will impact the pharmaceutical industry as well. Top pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies use algorithms to shorten the drug development cycle. It's been found that AI can generate cost savings of up to 60% and shorten timelines by four years against the industry average.
Transforming Delivery of Care Through AI
As hospitals continue to incorporate AI and machine learning, the more they are transforming the way nurses deliver healthcare. Operations are becoming automated, including patient admittance and discharge, staff scheduling, financial collections, and other administrative tasks. By automating these processes, nurses are able to free themselves from more repetitive, administrative work, and spend more time face-to-face with their patients.
These same AI programs are improving processes for medical imaging and overall hospital treatments. AI helps radiologists spot details that escape the human eye in medical imaging diagnostics. This allows hospital workers to reduce errors and catch early diagnoses.
AI in 2024 and Beyond
AI is in its infancy when it comes to healthcare. It's essential for healthcare organizations to keep on top of the ever-changing technological advancements, as they will quickly see the benefits and keep up with other leading healthcare organizations. According to Tractica, the healthcare AI-powered tools market will exceed $34 billion worldwide by 2025, making it even more important for healthcare to implement this technology on a grand scale.
Before hospitals implement AI in their facilities, however, they have to ensure they have a clear guide that sets them up for success. This includes checking all legal, ethical, and regulatory issues associated with AI-collected patient data. Patient privacy is of the utmost importance in healthcare, so ensuring the AI-powered solution can adhere to any need is the most important step.
It is evident AI can easily surpass other leading technologies used in the healthcare industry, so it's essential for healthcare leaders to invest time now into how their healthcare organizations can best utilize AI tools come 2023 and beyond. AI in the healthcare industry will continue to improve costs, service quality, and accessibility. Contact Altus to learn how our computer workstations can pair with AI to offer streamlined workflows and improved patient experience.