The field of health and medicine is a trillion-dollar industry that knows no bounds. It continues to grow in staggering heights, especially that it is our primary defense against the pandemic. However, many healthcare centers such as hospitals, clinics, and hospices aren’t doing the fight alone. Many technological innovations of today, found in many industries in the world, have integrated themselves into the field of medicine.
The impact of technology and its power to innovate healthcare can’t be calculated. All forms of technology are flocking into this particular industry, but none of them have a more significant impact than artificial intelligence.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence isn’t an innovation from medicine, but rather it came from computer science. Alan Turing was one of the first pioneers who argued that computers are capable of calculating and reasoning as we do. He and other computer scientists proceeded to invent AI, and by 1957, there were various forms of AI, doing all kinds of work for government agencies and industries. It flourished, and it eventually joined the field of healthcare and medicine.
One can argue that AI has made thousands of innovations in the field of healthcare and medicine. But we are here to only talk about the few that made the most impact on how the industry handles everyday tasks. Here are some of AI’s significant innovations in healthcare and medicine.
Administrative
The main purpose of AI joining the field of medicine is to open up more space for healthcare professionals such as doctors to do their work. Doctors spend a staggering eight to nine hours a week doing administrative and mundane tasks. For many healthcare professionals, these eight to nine weeks are considered extra hours in their job, which they usually do overtime for. These extra nine hours can be impactful in treating a patient, especially during this pandemic. This is where AI comes into play.
Paperwork when giving a specific medicine to a patient, scheduling appointments, and even the documentation of patient history, referral can all be done by AI. AI can even offer payroll solutions to the human resource department of a hospital. There are many things that AI can do in the field of administration, all of which are vital to reduce the burden that many healthcare professionals carry when doing these kinds of work. Without AI, many doctors would spend many hours doing mundane tasks, with many being stressed out by such tasks.
Ultimately, deducting a couple of hours from healthcare professionals can be a lifesaver. Additionally, these hours can also give doctors more time to rest to help them function more optimally in their work.
Chatbots
Many healthcare centers and telehealth companies suffer from thousands of patient inquiries per day. This can be a serious burden, especially when patients as the simplest of questions. Furthermore, just as we have stated earlier, administrative tasks such as scheduling an appointment can be a serious burden to many healthcare professionals. Thankfully, the innovation of AI provided many centers chatbots.
Chatbots are great innovations being used in the field of healthcare and medicine. They answer simpler inquiries in no time at all. They also do not need rest which means they can function 24/7. They can also offer to schedule appointments, give out forms that need to be filled up before the appointment, and even tell patients important things they need to do before the appointment. There are many things that chatbots can do.
Having a chatbot in a healthcare facility means that secretaries can do other complex tasks for healthcare professionals. This increases the efficiency of that particular facility, which means that it can handle more patients in a smaller amount of time.
Diagnosis
Artificial intelligence has become so intelligent they the technology can make its diagnosis on patients with accuracy similar to that of an expert. Although this particular function is still under surveillance and testing, it is still being used as a differential diagnosis by many doctors.
A singular doctor can figure out all the possible illnesses that a patient might have, especially when suffering from many symptoms. Usually, another doctor can take a look at the patient and give their diagnosis as a point of reference for the main doctor. But this takes too much time. Right now, AI is being implemented in some healthcare centers in the world to do this kind of diagnosis, and it has been proven effective. This further increases the efficiency of those centers. Eventually, this service will be rolling out to many healthcare centers worldwide.
Here are some innovations are done by AI in the field of medicine and health. Without AI, many healthcare professionals would be burden by these various tasks. But since AI mostly does these jobs nowadays, healthcare professionals are freer to do more complex tasks in their time.
