Historically, artificial intelligence (AI) has been viewed as a disruptive solution that would displace several jobs across a variety of industries. Whilst those fears are justified, the reality of the situation has changed over time as AI technological solutions have developed and matured, especially within the healthcare industry. Whilst AI is now matching or outperforming human abilities in key healthcare tasks, such as diagnosing diseases, it has not displaced the need for human physicians. Rather, AI has provided significant value in empowering human touch aspects with increased accuracy. A feat that could aid in further transitioning the healthcare industry towards preventative medicine and a proactive approach to overall wellness.
With the high-touch nature of the healthcare industry, one of the major fears surrounding the adoption of AI technology was that this would be lessened or removed. After all, as AI technology was introduced into industries like manufacturing and retail, it did displace many jobs. However, within the healthcare sector, the use of AI technology has highlighted the importance of humans in the healthcare industry and is yet to threaten to displace jobs.
Although AI technology may be able to accurately identify a specific patient diagnosis and treatment plan, it's unable to view the overall context behind a patient’s health. The impact a patient's personal home environment, exercise, or dieting routine has on their overall health can’t be analysed by AI technology. It’s up to the intuition of a human physician to analyze the full situation and decide the best solution for the patient.
AI technological solutions have other useful applications within the healthcare industry that empower the human-touch aspects rather than outright replacing them too. Using AI technology, human physicians can anaylse patient data and determine their susceptibility to future illnesses and diseases, thus, improving patient outcomes. AI also enables greater accuracy in the administration areas of healthcare that help support the actions of human physicians. Israeli company MedAware uses AI technology to prevent dangerous prescription errors from being issued. An issue that is the third leading cause of death within the United States behind heart disease and cancer.
The impacts and benefits of AI also extend beyond the accuracy of the data it provides and analyses. It's a great tool for improving efficiency within the healthcare industry, reducing reliance on time consuming manual solutions. Deloitte found that hospitals can save 90% of the time it takes to manually schedule staff when using AI over a manual practice. AI has also revolutionized how new drugs are clinically tested by running intelligent simulations that use data to analyse existing medicines, patients and pathogens. This has resulted in redirection of drugs that already exist to help combat new infections like COVID-19.
The healthcare industry has shown that AI can play a role in enhancing high-touch industries. Rather than disrupting the industry by simply displacing jobs, AI has empowered employees and enhanced their ability to perform critical aspects of their work with fewer errors. Investment into the technology continues to increase and as the risk of the unknown fades, the opportunities are limitless.
