The advent of AI has disrupted the market for many sectors, and healthcare is not an outlier in this regard. Ever since the applicability of AI in processing complex information was realised, the effect of AI on healthcare has been momentous. Medical data can now be processed much more quickly and with fewer errors thanks to AI. Furthermore, AI-tech has made medical processes more cost-effective, while giving patients a more personalised experience.
With the advent of AI tech, the dynamics of data storage and medical processes have seen a paradigm shift. As a result, accountability has become essential with regard to fairness of data usage and maintaining ethical standards. Thus, AI usage demands constant auditing for the sole purpose of identifying pressing concerns and improving AI-based service by approaching and resolving them. In this article, we will try to look at the disruptive effect of AI on the healthcare sector, while also shedding light on the challenges that it faces and need to be addressed.
Disruptive impact of AI on healthcare
AI has been phenomenal in evolving the healthcare industry and putting a lasting impression on how the industry will function in the future. These are some of the aspects of the AI effect on healthcare:
- Improved diagnostics: With superior data processing, AI algorithms can analyse medical reports and detect health-related anomalies in patients. By doing so, it can predict health risks so that the concerned individual can take preventive measures prescribed by medical professionals. Furthermore, AI has the effective ability to analyse treatment strategies and find out the most efficacious oner, which can then be applied to the concerned patient. Moreover, from the vast data that AI gathers and processes, existing drugs can be improved on and new drugs formulated for better results.
- Increased efficiency: AI can understand work allocation efficacy and suggest the best way to optimise workflow to achieve the best possible output. Therefore, hospital stays are made shorter and the need for readmissions reduces remarkably as the frequency of timely interventions hits a high. As a result, the hospital operations become smoother, and the overall hospital costs reduce for the patients, making it a win-win for both.
- Patient engagement and awareness: In the absence of AI, the knowledge gap between the patients and the medical facility is enormous. AI, however, changes the dynamics quite a bit – educating patients about the nature of their ailment and tipping them on apt self-management of the same. This information supply can empower the patients, leading to better health outcomes and the nurturing of an informed pool of patients for the future.
- Managing chronic ailments better: AI technology can be integrated with remote monitoring devices to constantly track the health conditions of a patient. Thus, the effects of the diet he follows and or activities he performs on his health can be understood in real time, prompting better medical advice. Following this strategy would also mean fewer visits to the hospital and a lowered risk of aggravating the existing illness.
- More accurate treatment plans: AI can make life easier for medical professionals with advanced treatment plans for patients based on their medical history. Combining manual processes like data entry with its analytical prowess, AI can devise more effective treatment plans for patients. Thus, medical complexities in the case of complicated ailments can be avoided because the treatment would be based on copious medical data.
Challenges that need attention
AI technology, while hugely beneficial, needs to be monitored so that it is suitable for safe, universal usage.
- Data privacy: Since technological systems powered by AI handle large volumes of sensitive data, accountability is required for any sort of data breach.
- AI bias: Since AI caters to a huge population through healthcare services, it is important to rid it of possible biases against certain demographic groups. The already palpable effects of such bias have to be studied so that they can be minimised and an ethos of inclusivity can be established.
- Job loss: The fear among people regarding job loss has to be eradicated by educating them about AI. Certain sectors like NBFCs have integrated AI down to their basic functioning, thus promoting AI as an assistant to the actual human workforce that the former cannot replace.
The future of AI healthcare
The future of AI healthcare is already there before our eyes: speedy diagnosis of maladies, effective tracking and processing of ailment-related data, and better health outcomes. However, the online marketplace will be ridden with competition, going by the rules of the market, and the prerogative for AI-tech owners here is to maintain the same standards over time. AI enterprises must continue to build on the robust framework that they started out with, working on challenges like data privacy and AI bias, to build a sustainable future for both – AI and humans who benefit from it.
