AI in Healthcare: Top 7 Transformative Examples & Benefits

What if artificial intelligence could know your patients better than you do? AI now analyses diverse types of medical data and can even identify which patients are at higher risk by scanning their individual patterns and health history.

But this is something that Radiologists and physicians do regularly, and they spend 36.4% of their time reading and interpreting images. Such increased work pressure makes them emotionally exhausted, and it's becoming a growing concern nowadays.

One recent study stated that 54-72% of radiologists experience burnout symptoms. That's taking a toll on their mental health and affects their job performance as well. This is precisely where the integration of AI in healthcare can do the WONDERS.

Not only does it free up radiologists from rote work, but it also excites them as they can take on complex tasks and give quality care to patients.

Let's discuss how AI is a blessing for healthcare professionals, the top 7 benefits it provides, and what companies are using it.

Overview of AI in Healthcare 

AI in Healthcare involves using machine learning algorithms, natural language processing, and deep learning to simplify patients' lives.

It helps doctors and nurses to smooth their daily operations and allows them to provide accurate diagnoses and treatment plans for patients.

With the help of Artificial Intelligence, medical professionals can make informed decisions by analyzing data from various sources, predicting and tracking the spread of infectious diseases, and personalizing treatment plans for specific patients.

A study from Acumen Research shows that the global AI market size in the healthcare industry was valued at 7.9 billion USD and is projected to increase to 201 billion USD by the end of 2030.

The data itself says that demand for AI in the healthcare industry will continue to grow.

Think about the scenarios when doctors and healthcare practitioners have had to deal with ageing patients who turned 65. Such patients should be treated with proactive care, and better healthcare systems should be developed that provide better care to patients.

Various companies, including Google and IBM, are working towards developing AI algorithms.

Today, AI in Healthcare is being used in various areas such as drug discovery, analyzing medical images, disease prevention, and performing clinical trials. This means there is a lot to go on in the long run.

What Are The Types Of AI in Healthcare?

In the healthcare industry, AI can be of different types, which are as given below-

1) Natural Language Processing

This type of artificial intelligence can analyze heaps of data and then provide you with human-generated medical records.

Natural language processing is helping clinicians and medical professionals in 2 ways:

1. Save time from typing EHR notes and automate the documentation process.
2. As 80% of healthcare data is unstructured, NLP does its best job at analyzing and interpreting health data. It will first identify the illness and then suggest personalized treatment plans for each patient.

From analysis of data to sharing insights, NLP does a great job in the healthcare sector.

• Rule-based expert systems 

These are primarily AI programs that have intelligent capabilities to make decisions just like a human expert would. Expert systems follow the if-then condition and action approach. 

For instance: if a person has a fever and cough, then a rule-based system will conclude that a person has flu or malaria. 

SWI-Prologue is a type of expert system used for medical diagnosis. This system inputs patient details such as name, medical age, history, etc., and then the system will tell you whether there is a need for an urgent diagnosis or not. 

Top Use Cases of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare  

Here are a few examples of how AI is revolutionizing the healthcare industry-  

1. Automates Administrative Tasks  

AI helps healthcare professionals get rid of mundane and repetitive administrative tasks.

Integration of AI-powered chatbots in the healthcare industry isn’t limited to helping staff with basic procedures; they also assist patients and engage with them by solving their health-related problems.

Think of a patient who went through a surgical procedure and called a nurse or doctor late at night, around 3:00 a.m. What if there could be a medical chatbot with which they could interact anytime? Such advanced healthcare not only relieves staff but also engages patients.

For instance – Navia Life Care uses an AI-powered voice assistant that tracks the patient's records and understands the medical history of patients. It secures patients' data as this virtual assistant is HIPAA compliant.

It also provides a video consultation feature for patients who cannot travel to the nearest healthcare center. These healthcare chatbots not only handle patient interactions, but they can even have one-on-one conversations with them in an emphatic tone.

2. Robotic-Assisted Surgery  

AI provides surgeons with new eyes, and robotic-assisted surgery is becoming a trend. Many hospitals are leveraging Robotic surgery to perform complex procedures, which offers smoother resolution in post-recovery for patients.  

For Instance – Maastricht University Medical Centre uses AI-powered robots to suture blood vessels no thicker than 0.03 millimetres. Furthermore, Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and medicine is helping doctors and surgeons access real-time information and insights about patients’ health status. 

3. Online and In-person Consultations  

AI applications in healthcare are changing the way doctors conduct consultations. In the current era, it’s becoming difficult for people to visit the doctor’s clinic, especially when they are stuck with their 9 to 5 schedule.   

So, relying on digital consultation is another choice available to those people, enabling them to receive health assistance remotely.  

For Instance – Babylon is an app that uses AI to conduct in-person and online consultations. This app identifies the symptoms of patients against the database of diseases.   

Thus, an increasing trend of online consultations reflects that most patients are willing to engage with AI and robots. 

4. Detects Fraud 

Healthcare fraud is increasing day by day. With the help of AI-powered fraud detection systems, AI is helping healthcare professionals detect scams and stop fraud when it happens.

According to the US Justice Department's projects, around 3% of healthcare insurance claims are fraudulent, leading to a $100 billion loss annually.

Artificial intelligence in Healthcare is there to detect anomalies in healthcare data, analyze the data, and look for similar patterns to identify healthcare fraud. With this technology, it’s possible to detect invalid claims and speed up the processing of valid ones.  

5. Cancer Detection 

If you ask someone about cancer treatment, people prefer to choose a medicine for cancer treatment. But cancer is never a disease. Instead, it is brought by a gene mutation.   

ML–based systems are the best when diagnosing cancer; a group of radiologists’ eyes can’t see everything. An AI model is used to identify the cancerous modules in the patient’s body. Detecting cancer using AI tools is likely to increase the survival rate of patients.  

6. Radiologists Can Read Images Faster Than The Human Eye

Often, radiologists struggle to come up with valuable insights and might not notice abnormalities and other symptoms that affect patients' health in the long run.

For instance, a patient is having shoulder pain, and the radiologist reads the image of that area, but he doesn’t come to know the actual cause. While if that can be done through AI imaging, it points out that a person has a hole in their lungs. That's something that a radiologist wouldn't have thought of.

One study state that radiologists took 4 hrs. to interpret hundreds of scans while AI does that accurately in 90 seconds. Thus, it saves hours for radiologists when reading through a bunch of chest x-rays.

7. Precision Medicine & Clinical Decision Support System 

AI in the healthcare industry analyzes massive sets of databases to provide personalized treatment plans for patients based on their traits, such as genetics, biomarkers, lifestyle, etc.

It also decides which treatment plan will be more suited for a patient and how they will respond to a certain treatment plan. This is done by analysis of genomics data using an AI-powered clinical decision support system.

A study from Huang et al was conducted where AI was used to see how 175 cancer patients could respond to chemotherapy. Result? The model achieved a prediction accuracy of 80% across multiple drugs.

8. Using Predictive Analytics in Population Health Management

Artificial intelligence and predictive analytics are useful in analyzing population data. These ML algorithms analyze past and current patient data to determine whether the patients are on the verge of having chronic or cardiac diseases.

This way, healthcare providers can spot those patients who are at higher risk, take proactive measures and give special attention to them.

Another area where predictive analytics can do wonders is predicting hospital readmissions. Based on patient demographics and medical history, it can tell doctors which patients are more probability to return to the hospital.

Also Read:- Benefits of Blockchain in Healthcare Industry

Real-World AI in Healthcare Examples

Let's talk about a few examples of how healthcare companies are integrating AI in their workflows, how they enhance patient experience, and how they create personalized medication plans for patients.

1) IBM Watson Health

IBM developed a Watson healthcare monitoring system that monitors the health of patients in real-time. This system can analyze heaps of data, such as patient genetic profiles, real-time health data, and medical history, to determine their current health.

Such breakdown of complex medical information and granular level insights helps healthcare professionals and medical institutes to provide personalized care to patients.

Here’s how Watson Health (AI technology) changes the future of healthcare -

1. Help oncologists provide targeted care to every patient. How? It can scan millions and trillions of data, such as medical records, lab results, X-rays, MRIs, etc., and never miss a single detail that a human eye can miss.
2. Engages with patients by answering their repetitive healthcare queries, providing personalized medication, constantly giving them medication reminders, etc.

2) Johnson & Johnson

It's a multinational healthcare company that deals in developing and selling prescription drugs and developing medical technologies for treating complex diseases. Their goal is to make treatments smarter and solutions more personal.

Jim Swanson, Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer of Johnson & Johnson, says -

AI helps their employees to detect diseases quickly, telling surgeons about predicting the best tool for surgery, and assisting them with the drug discovery process.

1. The company developed an AI-powered tool for surgery procedures. Whatever is done in the operating room that used to take hours can now be done in minutes.
2. The new surgeons don’t have to watch the entire footage and can see important parts of the video using “cut, highlight a reel of these videos. The surgeons who are practising can learn how the procedure is performed in the operating room by watching that specific part.
3. They bring clinical trials to patients rather than patients waiting for those treatments.
4. The use of AI technology at Johnson & Johnson helps clinical trial research teams to identify sites where patients can benefit.
5. To provide personalized care to patients, the company developed an AI-powered biomarker test for analyzing digitized images of biopsies to evaluate which patients are more likely to have alterations in FGFR genes.

3) Mayo Clinic

Mayo Clinic uses artificial intelligence to transform healthcare digitally. They’re developing new tools and digital systems that can predict diseases early on so they can cure them before they become a major concern.

It has even partnered with the Microsoft research team to develop foundation models for analyzing chest X-rays. The model can read radiographic data and generate reports on the go. This smoothens the clinical workflow, and they’re able to provide better care to patients.

The model can assess the genomic data of patients and can tell which patients are more likely to have a higher risk in the future. Clinicians can then decide on targeted therapies for each patient.

4) Butterfly network

Butterfly Network, a healthcare company, changes the way healthcare is provided to patients by bringing the power of portable, semiconductor ultrasound-based technology (handheld device).

It can create and analyse 3D visualisations, which speed up the diagnosis process through automation of the imaging process.

5) CloudMedX

CloudMedX, an American healthcare company, developed a cloud computing platform for predictive analytics. It’s helping healthcare professionals manage patients’ data, see the clinical history, and provide a speedy service to patients.

6) Abridge

Abridge developed the most advanced AI platform for recording clinical conversations between doctors and patients. It then summarizes every conversation from A to Z and shares the most important details such as diagnosis, treatment plan, and medication instructions in real time.

They’ve even helped a couple of doctors and medical professionals connect with their patients by saving their time spent on documentation.

This allows doctors to spend less on taking notes and more time serving patients.

Benefits of AI in Healthcare  

Here are a few benefits of AI in Healthcare-  

1. Increases The Efficiency of Diagnostic Processes  

AI algorithms can process large amounts of data, making it easier for healthcare professionals to diagnose diseases. 

For Instance – With the help of AI models, doctors analyze medical images such as X-rays and MRI scans to identify patient symptoms if there is an extreme level of risk and provide an accurate diagnosis. Of course, AI is not there to replace human beings, but it makes the processes more efficient.  

2. Better Patient Care  

Research studies describe that 83% of patients revealed poor communication as the worst part of the patient experience in 2020.

Implementing AI in Healthcare automates the communication process by eliminating tedious yet repetitive tasks such as managing appointments, payment issues, reminders, etc.  

Thus, AI saves most of the time, and lets doctors spend most of their time providing treatment to patients. 

Besides, AI-equipped technology generates reports and instructs patients where to go, provides accurate diagnoses, and develops effective treatment plans.

3. Reduces Overall Costs for Healthcare Providers  

The healthcare industry provides high-quality treatment to patients at a lower cost. To deal with such issues, healthcare professionals can leverage AI technology to automate routine tasks and let the staff focus on complex tasks.  

In addition, AI in Healthcare is a blessing for healthcare providers to diagnose and treat patients.

For Instance – Hospitals are doing X-rays by leveraging AI to identify signs of disease, which helps doctors reduce unnecessary tests and procedures, reducing the overall cost to healthcare providers. 

4. Drug Discovery  

Another advantage of AI in Healthcare is drug discovery. With the help of AI, researchers can extract hidden insights by analyzing large chunks of data. AI helps in drug discovery by forecasting how a drug will interact with specific proteins.  

Moreover, Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare analyses thousands of images, removes repetitive tasks, and saves hundreds of person-hours in the laboratory.  

5. Health Monitoring and Digital Consultations  

AI allows people to keep track of their health. Various wearable devices, including fitness trackers and smartwatches, are used to collect information about an individual’s health. Thus, AI helps individuals analyze their health in real-time and provides expert assistance.  

6. Error Reduction in Prescriptions 

Medication errors have been increasing and have become a significant concern in the healthcare industry. A recent study found that around 1.5% of prescriptions need to be corrected, but if you look at the total number of prescriptions filled in the US by 2022 was 4.76 billion.

By looking at the data, you can understand that a steady rise in prescription errors will likely impact patients’ health. With AI-powered systems, prescription errors will be reduced, and prescriptions will be filled correctly.  

7. AI Assists Doctors in Surgery 

The advancement of AI robots leads to the development of AI surgical systems, which can perform complex operations with reduced errors, pain, or blood loss.   

 Surgeries have been made easier using healthcare robotics, allowing surgeons to perform complex surgical operations.   

Harvard conducted research studies to examine differences between robotic and conventional surgery and concluded that patients were exposed to less pain and fewer complications with AI-assisted surgery.  

8) Virtual assistance becomes easy

Implementing AI-powered solutions in the healthcare industry changes the way patients are being treated by providing personalized health care support and helping health care professionals do a better job. For patients, virtual assistants are truly a game changer.

These AI-powered chatbots can identify the root cause of medical problems, provide medical suggestions, schedule an appointment with the doctor and inform patients about following up with their medication.

It knows the patients inside out by tracking their medical history and what’s something they’re struggling with currently. It then prepares reports and assigns them to the doctors concerned. This reduces their workload and helps them focus on providing quality care to patients.

What does the future of AI look like in the healthcare sector?

AI brings transformation in the healthcare industry, ranging from reading X-ray images and MRI scans to helping doctors provide personalized care to patients.

A report from the World Economic Forum states that 4.5 million people still lack access to medical facilities and that it’s going to become WORSE with the shortage of health workers by 2030.

But AI alone has the capabilities to bridge that gap, but the adoption of AI in healthcare is still below average as compared to its usage in other sectors.

• Agentic AI will gain dominance in the healthcare industry. While fully autonomous agents don’t exist yet, these AI agents will soon be able to make decisions independently.

They will take on more complex tasks such as medical diagnosis, making decisions, or extracting patient data. Consider Agentic AI as a 24*7 assistant that can adapt to the needs of healthcare professionals.

For instance – Transcend, a telehealth provider, was juggling between questions about medication dosages and lab results. Their team had to manually check the patient's eligibility, review the order rules, and verify compliance with each proposed treatment solution.

But employing intelligent agents solves their problem.

It's not a mere chatbot, but rather a personalized assistant that can adapt to the patient's needs. That changes the overall patient experience.

• As the healthcare industry is going through a workforce shortage, then there comes the need for AI-powered HR tools to ease the burden of your healthcare staff.

A research study states that there’s a shortage of 8-9 million clinicians. This number is expected to increase by 11-13 million in the next decade.

Integration of AI tools speeds up the hiring process by finding the most qualified candidate who’s the best fit for the job. The current staff can focus on serving their patients in the best possible way.

• Ambient listening will gain more traction in the coming days. This AI technology records the conversation between clinicians and doctors.

A report from the University of Florida College of Medicine states that burnout is common among 60% of US physicians. Such increased burnout distracts doctors from providing quality care to patients, and that results in reduced patient dissatisfaction.

For instance – the AI-powered SUKI assistant reduces the documentation time and generates clinical notes. This way, they can provide better care to patients.

How can BigOhTech help you with developing AI software in healthcare?

Although AI has a huge potential in the healthcare industry, it often comes with a few challenges, such as providing good quality inputs to AI and training your staff on how to get valuable insights out of AI.

Undoubtedly, AI will be the future of healthcare, so healthcare professionals need to integrate AI into their workflows.

Having expertise of 5+ years in AI/ML consulting services, we know the secret formula for creating smart solutions for your business.

We’ve served a variety of clients in different industries, and some of our favourites are Lufthansa Airlines and nULTA (healthcare technology company).

For Lufthansa Airlines, we transformed their business digitally by creating an AI-driven solution that revamped that outdated technology stack. Result? The time required for customer onboarding has been reduced from 4 months to 1 month.

The other one was nULTA, where we developed a mobile application for Android and iOS platforms. That mobile app acts as a bridge between doctors and patients, ensuring they can connect through video, voice, or any chat feature.

Talk to our dedicated development team and create an intelligent solution for your healthcare business.

FAQs  

Q1. Is AI replacing doctors in healthcare?  

Sangita Reddy (Managing Director of Apollo Hospitals) said that AI won’t replace doctors, but doctors who don’t use AI will likely get replaced. She said, “We need doctors to provide holistic patient care.”    AI is a blessing for doctors; doctors should know when to use this technology to get valuable insights. For Instance –Apollo Hospital launched a clinical intelligence engine, an AI engine to help doctors provide appropriate care. 

Q2. How does AI benefit Healthcare?  

AI in Healthcare offers various benefits, which are as given below-   It increases the efficiency of diagnostic processes: 1. Better patient care  2. Reduces overall costs for healthcare providers  3. Drug discovery  4. Health monitoring and digital consultations  5. Error reduction in prescriptions  6. AI assists doctors in surgery  

Q3. What are the applications of AI in Healthcare?

Here are a few applications of AI in Healthcare-   1. Automates administrative tasks  2. Robotic-assisted surgery  3. Online and in-person consultations  4. Detects fraud  5. Cancer detection  6. Helping radiologists read images faster  7. Precision medicine 

Q4. What is the impact of artificial intelligence on healthcare? 

AI is going to revolutionize the healthcare sector in the following ways-   AI plays a significant role in doing drug discovery process.  It will expand access to healthcare in developing regions where there is a shortage of trained healthcare providers and radiologists.  More and more smart devices are used in the medical environment to monitor patients in the ICU.  

Q5. What are the disadvantages of using AI in healthcare?  

Here are a few limitations that AI presents in the healthcare industry -  

1. While AI can do heavy lifting for you, it can never replace the human touch that a healthcare practitioner provides.  
2. AI-powered health-driven systems are trained on records of patient data. There are privacy and security breaches. If there’s a data leak, then it could harm the patient’s confidential information and also affect the image of your healthcare organization.  
3. The cost of developing AI software in the healthcare industry is quite expensive. A basic AI-powered software can range between $50,000 to $500,000. That, too, depends on how complex your software is and what level of customizations you need.  
4. Artificial intelligence can cook up facts and present them in a way that seems as if it’s real. That’s because AI models also hallucinate, and if it’s the case in the healthcare industry, it might affect patients’ healthcare treatment.