Is Artificial Intelligence Really a Helping Hand for the Healthcare Industry?

Mar 01,2019 by Rahul Garg
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In the business world, systems based on artificial intelligence (AI) are being welcomed with open arms. This is happening because businesses have understood that a better growth rate can be achieved by bringing AI into the picture.

Here are some benefits that come from Artificial Intelligence: 

  • Seamless handling of customer interactions.
  • Personalized shopping experiences.
  • Smoother data mining.
  • Zero non-human errors.
  • Reduction in unnecessary expenses.

However, the question that gets asked so often is, ‘Should AI be used in the healthcare industry?’, since the health of patients is at stake. At this juncture, we would like to opine that AI has emerged as a helping hand for healthcare businesses.

As per reports by Frost & Sullivan, AI will lift the growth rate of the healthcare market up to 40% by 2021. Plus, it will slash treatment costs in half. So, it wouldn’t be wrong to say AI is nothing but a blessing for patients and medical practitioners.

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According to an analysis by Accenture, AI-based applications in the healthcare industry will save around $150 billion dollars by 2026. Quite a number, huh?

Let’s learn how Artificial Intelligence is helping the healthcare industry: 

Smart diagnosis

Well, introducing AI in the medical field can pave the way for higher success and negligible errors, as it makes the process of diagnosing diseases easier. There was a time when doctors were dependent on X-rays, CT scanners and MRI machines to find out whether there is a lump or not in the patient’s body. In addition to this, there was no surety that using these methods would help to get accurate results.

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Since the arrival of AI applications, identifying lumps by using scanning machines is becoming history. Artificial intelligence pre-empts human errors and guarantees highly accurate outputs. If industry reports are anything to go by, AI-based applications can analyze 3D scans 1000 times faster than the technology which was being used a few years ago. In a nutshell, AI promises smart diagnosis.

Apart from this, AI programs also offer great help during cardiology and radiology processes. By means of AI-based systems, it would be very easy to identify cancer cells in the initial stages, which, in turn, leads to better treatment. In similar fashion, AI systems lend a hand during the treatment of heart-related problems.

Proper management of health records

Managing health records has always been a challenging task that medical practices are supposed to do with full responsibility. This is so because if health records don’t get managed in an appropriate manner, there is a likelihood that patients will face unnecessary issues. Moreover, negative WOM (word-of-mouth) could also occur, denting the brand image. This is where AI comes to the rescue as it can easily manage a pile of records.

Customarily, clinical documentation consumes a lot of time, which has a negative aftereffect on productivity levels. But the amalgamation of voice recognition and NLP (natural language processing) can save a significant amount of time and effort. What’s more, information retrieval becomes easier, which is a major boon for doctors.

Another benefit of Artificial Intelligence: doctors don’t have to worry about a drug overdose, wrong combinations, etc. any longer as AI saves patient information in the cloud which is known for its ease of accessibility. Besides the storage and retrieval of information, AI also takes care of routine requests impeccably.    

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Robot-assisted surgery

The prominence of artificial intelligence (AI) cannot be overlooked, especially in matters of life and death. We do have a vivid example to prove this true. Nowadays, AI-assisted robotic surgery gets performed in established hospitals of the United States, Europe, etc. Owing to such surgeries, complications get reduced to a large extent during the operation, which has a positive consequence, improving the odds of success.    

During surgery, robots scrutinize data from the stored pre-op records to guide the surgeon in an efficient manner. As a positive outcome of this, the rate of hospital stay dwindled by 21%. This is a win-win factor as it not only secures higher patient satisfaction but also builds the brand image of the hospital where the surgery has been performed.

Another impressive fact about robot-assisted surgery is that it ensures patients don’t have to heal from large incisions. Owing to the learning capability, AI-based robots use data from past operations to give better suggestions to doctors/surgeons. Besides lifting the success rate, this also prevents the case from turning into a complicated one, which is pleasing from the healthcare business’s point of view.

As per a recent study, around 379 orthopedic patients said AI-assisted robotic procedures result in five times lesser complications in comparison to surgeons operating on their own. Seeking an example of robot-assisted surgery? HeartLander, a mini robot, performs minimally invasive treatment over the surface of the heart and ensures nothing goes wrong during the process.

Final thoughts:         

As far as the healthcare industry is concerned, every minute is paramount as it could be the factor that can make the difference between life and death. Patient safety cannot be compromised at any cost. That’s why bringing AI-based tools into use is imperative for healthcare businesses.

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By writing this blog, we have discussed how artificial intelligence (AI) acts as a helping hand in the healthcare industry. We hope you have got a better understanding after going through the aforementioned pointers. However, if you feel that some other benefit of AI should have been part of this write-up, please do tell us in the comment section.

Thanks for taking the time out to read our write-up!!

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Aishwarya Osp
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Great article !! each and every point is very well explained and great information provided on how AI is used for the medical Industry. According to me, AI provides a helping hand to doctor for proper diagnosis and treatment of patients.

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You have such amazing article!