AI to disrupt healthcare: A prescription for success
The healthcare industry is ripe for disruption. AI stands ready to administer a healthy dose of surprises. If you've been hibernating in a cave trying to avoid the sunlight of the advancing digital world, it's time to wake up and smell the overheated circuitry taking place in healthcare.
Artificial intelligence is no longer just a sideshow in the tech world for "those other industries." Automated algorithms and mock-creative computers are reshaping the way people live, work, and play — that includes you, me, and healthcare.
AI coming to a device near you
Medical imaging. With the help of AI-powered algorithms, systems can identify areas for further research by a healthcare professional, providing valuable insight to aid in interpreting, for example, radiological images. The more objects AI can detect in an image, the more accurate the detection system becomes.
Surgical robots. AI-enabled, next-generation radiology tools will provide accurate and detailed images close enough to replace the need for invasive procedures in some cases. Artificial intelligence is helping to enable "virtual biopsies" and advance the field of radiomics, which focuses on harnessing image-based algorithms to characterize the phenotypes and genetic properties of tumors.
Electronic Medical Record. AI continues to progress into the EMR, creating intuitive interfaces and automating some of the routine processes that consume much of the clinician's time. Some suggest medical services have great potential to be provided with the aid of video — a clinical encounter that is then translated into written documentation.
Integration. Disparate data from all devices, encounters, and locations that we currently struggle to integrate will be brought into one knowledge record. Can you imagine going to the emergency department and the medical team having immediate access to a complete medical record?
AI is becoming an essential component of healthcare delivery — some have described it as maturing from its toddler stage to a full-grown "tech teenager." Learn the importance of AI and its impact on healthcare delivery and healthcare careers — before it's a full-grown adult and you're trying to catch up.
The insight
AI is revolutionizing the way healthcare is delivered — from the front end rather than the back end. This may be the answer many colleagues and healthcare professionals are seeking, especially in the revenue and reimbursement domains, including coding the medical record, billing, auditing, accurate documentation, compliance, and checking on payers and denials.
These functions will be the recipient of artificial intelligence's impact at the start of the continuum of healthcare. The AI revolution is well underway, and the mammoth technology companies are on alert and well engaged in the transformation taking place in healthcare.
Sourced from: "Top 12 Ways Artificial Intelligence Will Impact Healthcare" by Jennifer Bresnick, Health IT Analytics, April 30, 2018; and "Why AI Stocks Could Be Your Key to Profits in 2023 and Beyond," The Motley Fool, May 10, 2023.