Trends in Healthcare- Artificial Intelligence

With the advancement in technology, one of the trends in healthcare is Artificial Intelligence (AI). It involves using machines with intelligent capabilities like human beings. There is a high likelihood that it will highly disrupt how healthcare services are administered in the future. Some have it that it is inappropriate to adopt it. However, Artificial Intelligence is bringing modern health care by simplifying the lives of patients, doctors, and hospital attendants by optimizing contact, time of service, and cost. It is evident that the health care industry will be better off than now, and the administration of services will be simple in the coming years. Therefore, the company can address the issue of AI and perform better by adopting different AI technologies. 

Firstly, the company can adopt AI-Powered Chabot, which has brought a shifting paradigm in the health care system. It is a technology in which patients, caregivers, and physicians answer questions provided by the robot. It is mainly used as a symptom checker and recommending a course of action. For instance, it offers patients a series of questions with choices to choose from about how they feel. Besides, the Chabot offers remedies for health care issues that perhaps the clinicians may not have known. In the end, the patient receives the right medication and remedies to counter the disease.

The powered Chabot technology is expected to be the first respondents for engagement by 2023. This type of AI will ease physician’s work in seeking the appropriate medication for the disease. This will also enable them to get well quickly because the right medication is being administered. Generally, AI-Powered Chabot will ease the administering of medication. Our company can consider employing this type of AI because sometimes it becomes difficult for patients to disclose how they feel. However, the company will need to first train medical practitioners on effectively using the technology to avoid damages. However, experts say that this type of AI needs supervision just like a junior staff or member.

Secondly, the company can also consider virtual assistants or robotic doctors. It is another trend in health care powered by artificial intelligence. Virtual assistants focus on patient engagement, growth of lifestyle diseases, and shortage of healthcare practitioners. The current debate on this technology is whether it is likely to replace human physicians or not.  According to Gulf today (2020), experts like Paul Wellener, vice-chancellor of Deloitte, have it that virtual assistants will not replace human physicians but may help them make better and informed health decisions. Deloitte is also one of the companies that employed virtual assistants to help diagnose symptoms and assist clinicians (Burrill, 2018). With virtual assistants, only a limited number of physicians will be needed, thus cutting healthcare services.

Virtual assistants have improved management skills for chronic diseases, thus will reduce the inefficiencies associated with such diseases. Furthermore, it can schedule patients’ daily activities and help track their fitness routines. Besides, it will help coordinate patient-physician conversations leading to a more effective customer care experience. With such technology, the company is likely to do better in the future. Also, if the number of physicians is cut, the cost of services will reduce; thus, the company will offer quality and cost-effective services.  Suki, a Redwood City-based hospital, says that its physicians use virtual assistants to manage medical documentation, as Sennaar (2019) reports.

Thirdly, surgery has been one of the medical actions leading to more deaths alongside ailments. A successful surgery calls for specialized surgeons with specialized instruments. However, not all surgeons can operate every instrument used in surgery, and due to this, many patients die in the line of surgery. However, a new AI technology called robot-assisted surgery has come to aid in this area of medicine. It has enabled many hospitals to retain surgical patients as compared to when it was not being used. The main purpose of this robot is to magnify the operating site using high-resolution 3-D visuals. The company can, therefore, employ robot-assisted surgery technology.

The 3-D visuals will help surgeons at our hospital magnify the operating site leading to a successful surgery. The most common form of surgery that may require the robot is microsurgical operations where it involves operating very tiny organs. In this case, the AI-enabled robot will help in precision and accuracy in the surgery operations, which are the most needed. In return, more surgeries become successful; hence, more patients recover. Through the last five years, Medtronic: Mazor X Stealth has been using robot-assisted surgery to address spine surgery in their patients. The company set aside $1.7 billion to purchase this technology, and sure enough, it has helped in the surgery department (Newmarker, 2019).

Lastly, another AI trend that our company can address is AI-enabled oncology. According to WebMD.com (2020), cancer is the second cause of death in America and worldwide after heart disease. According to the same website, in 2018, approximately 9.5 million people died of cancer globally. In 2020, the number hiked and reached approximately 17 million people (Chaudhari, 2019).  The development of cancer is caused by many factors, one of them being unable to detect the cancer cells early enough.

However, advancement in AI-enabled oncology technology has reduced the number of deaths occurring. Cited by Chaudhari (2019), a report says that AI-enabled oncology has reduced the number of deaths occurring as a result of ovarian, lung, and prostate cancer. This is because the technology has enabled early detection of the tumor that causes these types of cancers. For instance, usually, it is challenging to detect malignant cells in lung cancer. Thus, if the company adopts software based on deep learning, it will help in easy detection. According to a study, AI in oncology has not been fully addressed by companies but several professional societies and national initiatives are educating people on AI in oncology and promoting its adoption (Kann et al., 2019).

To sum up, the company can perform better by adopting different types of AI technologies such as AI-powered Chabot, virtual assistants, robot-assisted surgery, and AI-enabled oncology. The Chabot will help diagnose and medication, virtual assistants will improve management skills and cut service costs, robot-assisted surgery will help perform surgeries, and AI oncology will help diagnose different types of cancers at early stages. The company will not be the first to adopt the technologies as there other companies such as Suki and Medtronic: Mazor X Stealth, and Deloitte that has been using them. Experts like Paul Wellener, vice-chancellor of Deloitte recommend AI and stress that virtual assistants will not replace human physicians. Generally, the different types of AI will help the company perform better in the future by reducing the services administration costs, and offering high-quality services.

References

Burrill, S. (2018, September 11). Digital assistants in health care. Deloitte United States. https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/blog/health-care-blog/2018/health-care-current-september11-2018.html

Chaudhari, P. (2019, November 7). How artificial intelligence is changing the healthcare landscape. ESDS BLOG |. https://www.esds.co.in/blog/how-artificial-intelligence-is-changing-the-healthcare-landscape/#sthash.RqldtPnv.dpbs

Gulf today. (2020, July 29). AI-powered robots will not replace humans, say experts. Magzter – World’s largest digital newsstand with thousands of magazines and newspapers. https://www.magzter.com/stories/Newspaper/Gulf-Today/AI-Powered-Robots-Will-Not-Replace-Humans-Say-Experts

Kann, B. H., Thompson, R., Thomas, C., Dicker, A., & Aneja, S. (2019). Artificial Intelligence in Oncology: Current Applications and Future Directions. Oncology, 33(2), 46-53. https://www.cancernetwork.com/view/artificial-intelligence-oncology-current-applications-and-future-directions

Newmarker, C. (2019, August 2). 7 companies using robot-assisted surgery to transform orthopedics. Medical Design and Outsourcing. https://www.medicaldesignandoutsourcing.com/7-companies-using-robot-assisted-surgery-to-transform-orthopedics/3/

Sennaar, K. (2019, February 19). AI for virtual medical assistants – 4 current applications. Emerj. https://emerj.com/ai-sector-overviews/virtual-medical-assistants/

WebMD.com. (2020, May 20). How many people die of cancer a year? WebMD. https://www.webmd.com/cancer/how-many-cancer-deaths-per-year#:~