GE HealthCare's July partnership with Amazon Web Services to develop artificial intelligence tools for medical data analysis signals a growing push to harness AI in decoding healthcare's vast, underused information.
In clinical settings, AI is making inroads through advanced notetaking systems. These tools use natural language processing and speech recognition to transcribe and analyze patient-clinician interactions.
"By automating clinical workflow activities, including clinical documentation, coding, prior authorizations and medication reconciliation, providers can focus a greater portion of their time on the patient, rather than splitting their attention between the patient and paperwork," Brad Boyd, national healthcare industry co-leader at BDO USA, told PYMNTS.
The shift could be crucial in addressing healthcare's labor shortages, particularly in primary care.
"The primary care relationship has been eroding over the past several years, with patients turning to retail health and urgent care providers given their need for timely medical care," Boyd said.
Ciba Health CEO and founder Dr. Innocent Clement highlighted additional benefits.
"AI-powered clinical note generation can enhance doctor-patient interaction, improve accuracy and empower patients to take a more active role in their healthcare through transparent access to their medical information," Clement told PYMNTS.
However, the integration of AI into clinical settings isn't without controversy.
"There is a special dynamic between a patient and a doctor in terms of personal touch and trust that may be affected," Dr. Terri Shieh-Newton, a member of global law firm Mintz, told PYMNTS. "The patient [may feel] like that doctor is not really paying careful attention to what she/he is stating about their medical condition."
Despite these concerns, many experts see potential benefits outweighing the risks.
"The AI-powered tools act as assistants that can be trained to capture and summarize information in a compliant and accurate manner," Valerie Reich, vice president of healthcare strategy at Hero Digital, told PYMNTS.
Beyond the exam room, AI could impact drug development. Traditional methods often rely on educated guesswork and time-consuming trials. AI has the potential to make this process more targeted and efficient.
"These drugs elicit a chain reaction of immune events in our immune system, akin to a complex domino network falling one after the other," Noam Solomon, CEO of biotech company Immunai, told PYMNTS. "Ultimately, this series of immune events helps the body achieve a clinical cure."
Solomon also highlighted AI's potential in drug discovery.
"One of the biggest challenges drug discovery and development is facing is that despite significant scientific progress, so much of the early R&D is still guesswork, and this is where AI has the biggest potential."
Shieh-Newton added that AI's capabilities extend further, allowing for a "multi-omics approach where datasets from disparate viewpoints can be combined in a way that would be possible only through computation."
However, as with any powerful tool, AI in drug discovery raises ethical questions. Clement pointed out that concerns about "accessibility, affordability and potential unintended consequences of new treatments" are a concern.
Solomon asked: "What will happen if, thanks to AI, people live 400 years instead of 85? Do we have the financial resources to cope with the population explosion?"
Brad Stewart, national life sciences industry leader at BDO USA, pointed out a more immediate concern.
"A more pressing ethical issue in the near term is the use of AI to review data that has traditionally relied on human expertise and redundant review," he said. "This shift could introduce new risks and challenges that need to be carefully managed to ensure the integrity and reliability of the data."
AI's reach in healthcare extends to pharmacy operations as well. The technology is valuable for supply chain planning, inventory management and pricing strategies. By processing vast amounts of data, AI tools can help pharmacies optimize their operations and stay competitive.
The collaboration between GE HealthCare and AWS is one sign of the growing momentum behind AI in healthcare. As these tools evolve, they promise to turn the tide on wasted healthcare data, potentially ushering in an era of more personalized, efficient and effective care.
