Sectors of all kinds are relying on Artificial Intelligence (AI) to monitor and make decisions. AI has also been implemented to facilitate decision making in the healthcare industry. Many AI algorithms deployed to provide aid in various hospital departments including critical ones like theatre and the ICU. This article will explore critical areas that Artificial Intelligence can improve in the Healthcare industry. These critical areas include; diagnosis; treatment and care pathway; chronic disease management, and remote OPD assistance.
Diagnosis
Diagnosis is the first step in the clinical decision process. A patient should be accurately diagnosed and doing this before it is too late is the first crucial step towards appropriate treatment. AI-driven models can base on historical patterns in data to give a diagnosis of a patient. The historical patterns include symptoms, family history, clinical diagnosis data, and demographic data. This for instance gives the physician insight into what to look out for in the patient. In the long run, you save time and the benefit of eliminating biases may save many lives. Due to the low doctor-to-patient ratio caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in many hospitals, AI can add much-needed speed to diagnosis.
Treatment and Care Pathway
In a world where technology is connecting all the aspects of our lives, health data can be obtained from multiple data sources. These range from electronic health records (EHRs) to remote sensors and wearables. The same AI technologies can subsequently be used to create more coordinated and efficient treatment and care pathways for patients and can help clinicians make informed care decisions and improve patient outcomes. In an ideal scenario, a medical database would contain billions of data points belonging to millions of patients. AI would use that data pool to draw precise conclusions about a patient’s needs quickly.
Chronic disease management
Managing a patient with a chronic disease is a continuous process. It includes regular check-ups, monitoring, and patient education. In addition, It sometimes requires input and care from multiple specialists which can be demanding. These steps can simply be automated by the advanced application of AI algorithms which can help take the guesswork out of chronic disease management. A doctor can continuously collect the vitals of a patient with chronic conditions like diabetes and heart diseases using wearables. These AI algorithms monitor the patient and provide warning signals and information needed for the patient.
Remote OPD assistance
The surging pandemic caused restrictions in movement as a preventive measure. A sudden spurt in Digital Health Adoption led to an increase in online consulting and remote treatment. AI can improve healthcare even outside hospitals with remote outpatient assistance. Telemedicine is an already popular service for remote patient care and monitoring. The role of AI in telemedicine is only expanding, from tele-assessment and telediagnosis to tele-interactions and telemonitoring. Researchers should further develop these AI algorithms used in these remote care applications in order to achieve wider adoption. We should also educate the public about the fields of usage of these applications of Artificial Intelligence in the Healthcare industry.
This article originally appeared on LinkedIn.
