Top 10 Benefits of Artificial Intelligence in the Healthcare Industry

From what we have seen in 2020, it’s no wonder that healthcare is now one of the largest and fastest growing industries. Globally, the healthcare market was nearly worth $8,452 billion in 2018 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8.9% to a nearly $11,909 billion industry by 2022. The CAGR percentage has seen a major upward spike thanks to a worldwide pandemic and among other things, it has made the push for digital adoption in healthcare all the more urgent.

While emerging technologies were making their presence felt long before in 2020, last year’s seminal event initiated that major push that those on the fence and those waiting to see how things change for others, really needed. With many business leaders, the reluctance to digital transformation is rooted primarily in the following concerns:

• Lack of clarity on how to initiate and go about it
• Data security concerns
• Apprehension about returns on investment
• Lack of technical expertise

It’s understandable that the “digital transformation” concept often sounds outlandish. We know it’s important but it’s also so vast a subject that people are often overwhelmed with all the changes it could bring. For true digital transformation is a fundamental shift in the way an organisation functions. However, there’s always scope to start small, change one thing at a time, assess results and take things forward. One can look at a specific technology, think about the areas of operation which could benefit from its attributes and execute a small project to start with. Taking a series of byte-sized approaches such as this can simplify the process of deploying AI applications in healthcare to a large extent.

Speaking of selecting a technology, artificial intelligence is all the rage when it comes to the healthcare industry. So much so that it’s being referred to as the new nervous system of the healthcare industry. Artificial intelligence in healthcare is significantly changing and improving various key processes and the potential is even more diverse and amazing. From chatbots and computer aided detection (CAD) for diagnosis and analysis, to training, AI can help providers to understand ailments and better manage patient’s health. Owing to its versatility, the AI-powered healthcare market is slated to exceed $34 billion by 2025.

So let’s take a look at the various ways AI can lead the advancement in healthcare in the coming years.

Benefits of AI In Healthcare:

1. Accurate diagnosis: Incomplete medical records, inefficient sequencing, and a large number of cases can often lead to human errors. However, once reports are fed into a computer, advanced machine learning algorithms can arrive at the right diagnosis, eliminating mistakes and significantly improving the efficiency of medical facilities.
2. Accelerated drug development: the traditional ways of manufacturing drugs can often be prohibitively expensive and time consuming. This is a major hindrance especially when a pandemic is threatening the world and there’s an urgent need to speed things up. Typically, it costs about $2.6 billion for clinically trying drugs and only 10% of those drugs eventually make it to the market. In 2007, when scientists were researching the various functions of yeast, Adam, a robot, quickly went through billions of data points to determine 19 genes that makeup yeast and predicted 9 new and accurate hypotheses. Adam’s companion robot, Eve, conducting her own research, found out that triclosan, which is commonly found in toothpaste, can prove effective against malaria-based parasites.Such findings ensured the technology’s continued and growing influence in the field of medicine and resulted in faster drug production at fractions of the previous costs.
3. Enhanced patient experience: crowded healthcare facilities, mounting volume of reports, confusion around insurance and more, make for a chaotic experience on a daily basis. AI has emerged as a savior in such situations by rapidly scanning through data, getting reports ready and facilitating patients to know exactly where to go and whom to contact, on mobile devices. In the era of remote consulting, AI is the backbone of some of the most sophisticated digital solutions which not only enable connection and communication, but accurate updates on timings, report availability, appointment scheduling and a lot more.Check out this instance of how Pulsara was able to bring all essential communication related to healthcare within a single, intuitive platform by leveraging digital technology. The solution resulted in the company achieving commendable success and various innovation awards.
4. Data security: when it comes to healthcare, protecting sensitive patient data is of prime importance. Rapidly advancing AI algorithms help in encrypting personal information, clinical reports, diagnostic findings and more, preventing them from being hacked and securely storing them in the cloud for patients and professionals to access anywhere.
5. Robot-assisted surgery: complex and critical surgeries demand extreme care, precision and expertise. Using AI-enabled robots, the number of successful surgeries is soaring. The robots are equipped with cameras, mechanical arms and surgical instruments. They can be custom made to reach every space within the human body and provide a clear, magnified view of the surgical site that’s way better than what the human vision can offer. These surgeries lessen pain, take significantly less time and help patients recover faster.
6. Remote monitoring: Connected devices can save lives by leveraging real-time monitoring of events like heart attack, asthma attacks. Remote monitoring devices use IoT networks to connect and track activities in a human body. Data can be accessed via wearable devices or mobile applications and with the usage of AI, rapid decisions can be made. The wearable technology market is expected to reach $74 billion by 2026.
7. Streamlined training: AI allows healthcare providers to go through simulations based on a huge database of scenarios  which assists trainees to make decisions and learn from previous responses to meet training needs.
8. Risk prediction: Using pattern recognition to identify patients’ risk for developing a certain disease. Machine learning in healthcare supports timely decisions and actions by providing valuable insights.
9. Smart health insurance: Insurance companies can leverage connected devices to capture health data for their underwriting and health claims and risk operations. It provides transparency between insurers and customers and eliminates fraudulent claims.
10. Location tracking and alerts: Smart medical devices enable real-time alerting, tracking, and monitoring, which permits hands-on treatments, better accuracy, quick intervention by doctors, and improves complete patient care delivery results. Wheelchairs, scales, nebulizers, pumps, or monitoring equipment, can be tracked with sensors, making it easier for staff to track.

Conclusion:

In spite of such major advancements already, AI adoption in healthcare is still in its formative years. Ongoing research keeps adding new capabilities to the technology which will result in bigger breakthroughs in the coming years across multiple industries. In the crucial healthcare segment which is seeing one of the most rapid transitions towards digital at the moment, AI and ML have a lot to contribute and facilities have the potential to significantly increase customer experience, create new digital lines of business and reach research targets faster, which will all go towards making the world better and safer for everyone. However, as discussed earlier, it could be tricky to figure out where to start and how to formulate the right transformation strategy, which is where digital native organisations such as [x]cube LABS comes in. Get in touch to talk about how your healthcare/medical devices enterprise can benefit from the adoption of AI and other new age technologies.