The potential effects of AI healthcare

It’s easy to assume that artificial intelligence (AI) is only about ChatGPT and other AI chatbots. After all, the most prominent names like Google Gemini and Microsoft Copilot have similar features. Yet, AI is changing how people regain and maintain good health. 

In response, everyone should more about the technology’s potential impacts. Depending on your country, you might not notice AI healthcare’s presence, but it is spreading worldwide. Let’s understand this tech trend further by exploring its potential pros and cons!

What are the benefits of AI healthcare?

Drexel University Information Science Professor Christopher Yang, PhD, explained AI’s effects on medical care. The first he discusses on the Drexel website is real-time analytics.

He said artificial intelligence can help patients access vital data on mobile devices. Also, mobile alerts can inform doctors and nurses of urgent changes in patient statuses. 

This convenience could improve physician-patient relationships. AI healthcare can likewise help medical practitioners analyze deadly diseases more effectively than ever. 

It could track patient progress and obtain vital diagnosis data to assist them in learning more about a medical condition. It can also streamline tasks like appointment scheduling, translating clinical details, and tracking patient histories. 

AI can facilitate reviewing health insurance. It could identify and address mistaken claims before insurance companies deny payment. 

This improvement can save time for hospital staff working through claims. Also, the technology can save the healthcare industry $200 billion annually by improving administrative tasks like filing and resolving accounts.

Surprisingly, it could likewise reduce a physician’s stress. “The most significant contributor to physician burnout is patient load and the nature of the profession,” Yang said.

“However, as AI can assist with more time-intensive operations, explaining diagnoses, for example, medical professionals may experience some stress alleviation.”

What are the risks of AI healthcare?

Drexel and Yang acknowledged the benefits of AI in medical care. However, we still need human experts to supervise AI results.

“AI has been around for a few decades and continues to mature. As this advances, there is more interaction between healthcare professionals and tech experts,” the professor explained.

AI healthcare depends on recorded cases of well-known diseases. However, it would likely churn out inaccurate results for rare illnesses with insufficient documentation. 

“No matter the system, there is always some portion of missing data. In the case of prescriptions, some information regarding certain populations and reactions to treatments may be absent,” Yang noted.

“This occurrence can lead to issues with diagnosing and treating patients belonging to certain demographics.”

The technology may overlook social factors when providing results. For example, it might recommend a hospital to a user without considering their economic status. 

We also need people looking over medical AI systems because they are prone to hacking and malware.

READ: AI can diagnose depression better than doctors

Specifically, we need IT professionals who can deploy cybersecurity measures and respond to online threats quickly. 

Despite the need for human supervision, AI healthcare may also spark widespread unemployment. AI would likely make many jobs across multiple industries obsolete. 

Nevertheless, AI will become an integral part of future healthcare and other sectors. That is why we must know more about the technology to use it to our advantage. Learn more about artificial intelligence at Inquirer Tech.