Using AI in Healthcare: An NP’s Perspective

Applications of AI in Healthcare

The potential uses of AI in healthcare are broad and far-reaching. It can provide early disease detection from scanning radiological imaging to predicting outcomes from the electronic health records. By leveraging AI in hospitals and clinics, healthcare systems can become quicker, smarter, and more efficient in providing care to millions of patients. AI transforms how patients receive quality care while alleviating provider costs and improving health outcomes.

AI in healthcare is expected to redefine how healthcare data is processed, how diseases are diagnosed, and develop appropriate treatments. Healthcare professionals can use AI to make more informed decisions based on more accurate information. This can save them time, reduce overall costs, and improve medical records management.

Natural Language Processing

Natural language processing (NLP) is a type of AI that enables computers to interpret and use human language. It is the ability of computers to understand text and spoken words in a similar way to humans. It is used in a wide range of health data applications. One example is optical character recognition. This is how a computer reads handwritten text and converts it into a digital format. This has been very useful in the transition from paper charting to electronic health records.

NLP helps healthcare professionals understand the meaning of clinical data and improves clinical documentation overall. It advances patient care through better diagnosis accuracy, streamlining clinical practices, and offering more personalized services. It can be applied to medical records to identify illnesses by extracting useful information from health data. NLP can also predict potential health risks to patients based on past health information.

NLP is beneficial in research studies as well. It helps physicians review thousands of medical charts per hour to narrow down patient profiles with the right inclusion criteria. This eliminates a lot of the tedious work researchers have to do.

Administrative Applications

AI is impacting many of the administrative aspects of healthcare. It automates mundane tasks like data entry, claims processing, and scheduling appointments. This frees up time for providers and supportive staff, which allows them to focus more on patient care. AI also provides a faster way to review medical imaging, lab results, and health records. As a result, human error is reduced.

ChatGPT could be used to draft insurance approvals, freeing the time of nurses and physicians. It can also aid healthcare professionals by summarizing scientific literature. This same feature could provide educational material for patients.

The Future of AI in Healthcare

AI has a lot in store for healthcare. Virtual assistants may become more commonly used in healthcare in the near future. They can be utilized to triage patients and verify symptoms. This can narrow down which patients have emergency needs versus those that a primary care provider can see. Conversational AI can be implemented to advise patients on whether they need to fast before an exam, what to wear, or how to prepare for an appointment.

Wearable devices should increase in popularity which will provide more health data. Wearables can provide data related to a patient’s genomics and phenotypes. AI can allow clinicians to develop targeted diagnostics and personalize care based on the data from wearables.

AI-assisted drug discovery is an opportunity for companies to find new drugs to treat diseases in a quicker and less complex process. Researchers can use AI to assess large amounts of patient outcome data to identify substances that are more likely to be effective treatments. AI can analyze vast amounts of data from clinical trials and patient records, to help researchers identify which patients might most likely respond to a specific treatment. It can help clinicians prioritize which compounds to test in the lab, speeding up the new medication’s development process. With a consolidated platform in drug discovery, the overall costs of drugs will likely decrease.

The combination of AI with robotic surgery can drastically impact healthcare. AI systems can absorb tons of information in mere seconds. Surgical robots with AI-based systems can be given thousands of surgeries in seconds. This can be utilized as a learning tool for surgeons at all stages of their careers. AI can educate surgeons on different methodologies while also centralizing access to surgeons in rural or undeveloped areas. It can provide surgeons with a new perspective, which can introduce new methodologies to existing surgical procedures.

AI can enhance robotic surgery by alleviating surgeons’ stress. It can highlight tools, monitor operations and send alerts, ensuring a more streamlined process. It can map out the best steps for the procedure based on individual patient’s needs, saving crucial operating time and relieving surgeons’ cognitive stress. In return, this leads to more favorable patient outcomes. 

AI has grown in its capabilities to impact healthcare and improve medical practices. Machine learning allows for clinical data to be processed expeditiously. Natural learning helps providers interpret this data. And deep learning can help detect diseases more quickly, and provide personalized treatment plans for patients. AI helps increase patient safety and reduces costs associated with healthcare delivery.

The future is bright for using artificial intelligence in healthcare. It can become an invaluable asset that could reshape how providers treat patients and deliver medical care. It can improve the quality of care for patients by reducing human error and preventing physician fatigue from performing routine clinical tasks.