How AI In Healthcare Is Helping Doctors Help Patients

The most rewarding aspect of Tanya’s job as a physician used to be interacting with her patients, caring for them and developing a sense of trust in them. However, over the years, the time she spends with her patients has reduced substantially, not because she wants to but because she is being forced to. This is mainly because she is laden with unwarranted administrative work along with poring over scans, billing records and other paperwork that cuts into her patient-care time. Not only is it taking a toll on her leaving her dissatisfied with her job but affecting her patients’ experiences, too.

However, with the advent of artificial intelligence (AI) and its integration with the healthcare industry, Tanya can once again enjoy her work and focus on making her practice more patient-oriented.

From early detection of diseases like cancer or diabetes to using robotic surgeries to ease the administrative chores, AI is the real deal. From $600 million in 2014 to $6.6 billion in 2021, the growth of AI in the healthcare industry has been forecasted to blow-up exponentially. In this article, we will discuss how AI is acting as a catalyst in better and effective doctor-patient interactions.

Aiding triage

A Danish company has come up with a sophisticated algorithm which enables computer systems to detect heart attacks. It scrutinizes the call and identifies calls about cardiac arrests with 93 % accuracy while humans only have a success rate of 73 %. It assesses what the caller says, the urgency in their voice and the noises in the background to identify critical calls, forewarning ER doctors of the severity of the case.

Similarly, there are systems in place that triage patients by assessing their symptoms and answer to the basic queries. At times, the patients can even completely do away with visiting a doctor as the applications suggest initial medical assistance. This allows physicians to prioritize serious cases and prevent overburdening of ERs.

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Imaging

Microsoft system InnerEye, an AI software aids medical practitioners in the mark-up scans. It generates a 3D image on each prostate that enables the physician to detect tumours with more accuracy. This software enables physicians to reduce time while treating prostate cancer.

Similarly, there are algorithms that can analyze 3D scans almost 1000 times faster than what is possible today.

Such technology not just reduces the time and effort of the physicians but is also increasingly efficient. So instead of wasting hours on analyzing scans, the doctors can now focus on being more in touch with the patients.

Non-care burden

Physicians around the world are facing one major problem: premature burnouts. This is mainly because of the overwhelming number of patients they have to deal with on a daily basis coupled with other non-care tasks that the physicians are also forced to perform. Regulatory requirements like charting, documentation, billing etc., take away the time that physicians could instead have invested in more patient-oriented care. Streamlining administrative tasks using AI, alleviates both time and cost.

 Also read: Medical And Healthcare Applications of Machine Learning

Data processing

Every day thousands of patient records are created, altered, analyzed and referred to. Every hospital has huge chunks of unstructured data stored away. Before AI, doctors would spend hours studying patient records for a diagnosis or to identify a pattern. But with big data mining, compiled summary of the required information is now available to the doctors enabling them to make more accurate diagnosis in record time.

Replacing clinical and administrative tasks with a few simple algorithms can make a world of a difference. It allows a more precise and reliable diagnosis and also unburdens a physician from needless chores to focus on face-to-face interaction with the patients. Apart from improving doctor-patient relationships, AI has also revolutionized the healthcare industry in many different ways.

For further reading, please see Why AI Applications Are A Boon For The Healthcare Future

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