The AI boom after the introduction of ChatGPT has raised thousands of discussions about the impact of AI on various professions. After all, it is predicted that generative AI will take over 60% to 70% of jobs currently done by humans. Yet, many people do not realize that artificial intelligence is already widely used in many industries – including healthcare. Thus, in this article, we will focus on the current impact of AI on healthcare. If you are intrigued by the topic – read on.
How does AI impact the healthcare industry?
Nowadays, artificial intelligence is used by numerous medical facilities and companies. Its use cases are versatile – AI is introduced both to optimize administrative duties and to improve patient care. So, how exactly does AI impact healthcare currently? Let’s look at some examples.
Mental diseases' identification
One of the main examples of how AI helps healthcare is Thymia – an emotion-AI-based program that helps identify mental health issues. Its principle is simple: the patient’s voice and images are recorded and analyzed to point out stress levels, exhaustion, distress and potential depression. As a result, the diagnosis is more accurate, since artificial intelligence is capable of spotting changes in behavior and human reactions invisible to the human eye.
Helping people with autism
Apart from identifying mental illnesses, AI can impact the way physicians communicate with people with autism. The spectrum disorder makes it much more difficult to understand a patient's emotions, since they are often not expressed as we would expect them to be. Yet, with the use of smart bands, it is possible to fully comprehend what an autistic person is feeling. These tools analyze factors such as heart rate or muscle tension to identify the patient’s emotions. They are usually programmed to change the colors based on the wearer’s emotions, thus informing the physician about the feelings of their patient.
Improving workflow and data collection
If you know what a medical scribe is, you probably realize how their administrative duties are important for the whole hospital’s integrity. Yet, performing all their tasks manually is a strenuous and time-ineffective work. Optimizing this is one of the most prominent benefits of AI in healthcare. Voice recognition artificial intelligence is used to prepare the drafts for medical scribes, which often only need to be proofread and corrected in some areas. As a consequence, the efficiency of the whole process rises, which leads to higher revenue for the hospital or clinic.
Data analysis
AI is also impacting healthcare by providing access to thorough data analysis, since it is capable of handling large volumes of data at the same time. This is used both to improve examinations and to optimize the workflow in whole medical facilities through automation and data-driven decision-making.
The takeaway
There are numerous examples of how does AI work in the healthcare industry. Its impact may be seen both in administrative and clinical duties. As such, it is clear that the future of healthcare will continue to introduce more solutions related to artificial intelligence and find further ways to use AI for the benefit of the patients.
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