Artificial Intelligence: A prescription for the future of healthcare?

Overview

• Artificial Intelligence looks set to be one of the next game-changing developments in healthcare, with the potential to transform patient outcomes while reducing the cost of care and relieving pressure on healthcare systems.   

• We’re already starting to see how AI can help clinicians make faster and more accurate diagnoses, and even support preventative care. 

• The future of AI in healthcare is likely to see it working in harmony with humans, meaning that patients can reap the benefits of AI-enabled healthcare while maintaining a human connection with their provider.  
  
  

Changing the course of healthcare

The history of healthcare is full of game-changing events, from the first anaesthetics to the introduction of X-rays. Now, Artificial Intelligence (AI) already looks set to change the course of healthcare forever, promising to reduce the cost of care, relieve pressure on over-stretched healthcare systems, and transform patient outcomes.  

However, putting these possibilities into practice will demand a deep understanding of ethics and human behaviour, as well as technology expertise. So, who better to discuss these issues with than the acclaimed American futurist and author, David Shrier – Professor of Practice, AI and Innovation at Imperial College Business School, London.

As the author of ‘Basic AI: A Human Guide to Artificial Intelligence’, David is fascinated by what success will look like in an AI-enabled future. And he’s on a mission to improve how AI is understood in professional communities including healthcare.  

AI in diagnoses 

The possibilities for AI in healthcare are almost infinite, from diagnostics to staff management and cleaning rotas, there’s potential in every hospital setting. “We're already seeing how AI co-pilots can help physicians understand scans much more accurately”, David explains.  

He tells of one of his students at Imperial College who has applied AI to the area of Vascular flow, which affects blood circulation to extremities. “These conditions are traditionally diagnosed using ultrasound and a physician listening to the sound of patient’s blood as it pulses around the body”, he says, “It turns out that AI is better than people at making these diagnoses.” 

Examples like this illustrate the impact that AI can have on key reactive healthcare functionalities. Not only could this technology help physicians make more accurate diagnoses, but it could speed up the process and reduce costs. This would be great news for hospital departments that usually rely on ultrasound, but what about other areas of healthcare like preventative care? 

AI in preventative care

AI has an important role to play in preventative care. As David says, “It’s already better than clinicians and nurses in predicting mental health issues.” He refers to a company called ginger.io, which originated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The company builds software that allows clinicians to set up alerting mechanisms that can engage with mental health processes before it becomes a larger problem for the patient.  

“The company has worked with Kaiser Permanente in California, and their solution has been implemented across the entire Kaiser healthcare system”, David explains, “There are plenty more examples like this, where AI is helping to improve preventative care, while reducing the overall cost of care and achieving better patient outcomes.” 

The future of health: human and AI harmony

As is the case with any introduction of new and revolutionary technology, AI’s future in healthcare won’t be without challenges and setbacks. In a sector that’s reliant on highly trained, intelligent and empathetic workers, very few believe that the future will see humans replaced by intelligent machines altogether.  

David agrees: “Quite understandably, people aren’t keen to receive a life-changing diagnosis from a robot. They want to deal with humans who, for example, understand what a cancer diagnosis means to someone’s life, and who can talk empathetically about palliative care options. It’s essential that these situations are handled sensitively. For the foreseeable future, that means by humans.” 

He also uses the example of surgery. For quite some time now, we’ve all heard of machines that can be remotely operated and are accurate and sensitive enough to perform surgery successfully. But it isn’t always about ability. “In theory, we can programme a robot to perform procedures in ways that are technically superior to humans”, David recognises, “But I don’t think people will be comfortable being operated on by robots for a long while.”