“ChatGPT can solve health-related problems” is a headline you’ve probably seen in the past few weeks. But do you know that healthcare automation has been a component of the industry for a long time? Well, what AI is doing is indeed unmatched by what it was capable of a few years back.
However, with advancements, one thing is certain – healthcare sector automation will be more effective than ever with AI enhancements.
In the 21st century, Artificial Intelligence and automation are making healthcare processes less complex. Automation takes charge of many functions, such as scheduling, clinical evaluation, diagnosis, prescriptions, follow-up care, and accounting. We will discuss them in the later sections of the article.
Further, the entire industry has welcomed healthcare automation, which is anticipated to increase post-COVID. The reports suggest that within the next three years, about 50% of US healthcare providers will invest in automation.
Top 6 Benefits of Healthcare Automation
The following benefits are the principal reasons behind the rapid rise in automation.
Faster Treatment & Surgery
The healthcare automation process has allowed healthcare professionals to gather data quickly. AI helps to simplify that data for faster diagnosis and treatment.
For instance, you may have seen that ChatGPT was recently able to detect cancer even before it progressed. Hungary is using AI to detect breast cancer in patients amid concerns that AI will take over medical professionals’ jobs.
Also, automation has enabled healthcare professionals to perform procedures through minimally-invasive surgeries. This reduces recovery time and keeps healthcare costs in control in ways that traditional forms of healthcare could never achieve in this short period.
However, the point that AI will replace medical experts is a considerable debate and seems unreasonable. AI can be a part of medicine but can’t be a medical expert.
Decreased Healthcare Costs
Automation is all about reducing healthcare costs by increasing patient outcomes and decreasing the chances of errors, thus reducing risk factors. Robotic automation in healthcare can help organizations save money by 50%.
Hospitals can give AI all the clerical or administrative tasks and give humans the time to be available for real deals. However, automation can not surely reduce the costs of surgeries or medication.
Thus, automation in the healthcare industry is making waves throughout the industry to help providers increase their revenue while decreasing actual healthcare costs.
Automated Scheduling and Managing Appointment Books
With no automation, employees must switch between numerous software applications, physician calendars, etc. This is a laborious job and wastes the time of both healthcare employees and patients.
Whereas healthcare automation services to schedule and manage appointments help save time by automating the process. It simplifies the process while drastically reducing data errors along the way. Because it uses artificial intelligence, you won’t have to worry about errors. It also minimizes the need for human employees by integrating voice- and chat-enabled AI assistants.
Effective Diagnosis with Healthcare Automation
Automation makes diagnosis much more effective and efficient through the various healthcare technologies used in healthcare facilities worldwide.
The clinical decision support (CDS) tools are one such example. These healthcare technologies help gather data that helps facilitate fast and accurate diagnoses. This helps save time for healthcare professionals and patients who might be unable to visit healthcare facilities so often.
Plus, there’s a new super diagnosis expert – ChatGPT/AI. The diagnosis reports AI made were said to be 90% accurate. These are some serious claims, and if the studies find AI to be consistent in results, diagnosis of fatal diseases early will be the most significant benefit.
Communication with Patients
Automation has allowed providers to improve patient communication by making information more accessible.
Bots can answer specific patient inquiries and schedule appointments. AI uses natural language processing (NLP) to conduct surveys and analyze real-time responses. Healthcare automation also enables providers to address patients remotely and make care more accessible.
AI enables the healthcare sector to break communication barriers. Doctors can use AI tools like ChatGPT to help patients and relatives to understand certain things in layman’s language. While doctors will not have to be present for the patient round the clock as AI will answer any questions patients may have.
Data Management System
Automation in healthcare enables faster diagnosis and enables healthcare organizations to automate their data management systems. The automated process creates reports and stores patient information in one centralized repository.
However, the right reporting tools are needed for healthcare providers to make sense of these immense amounts of data. Reporting tools aggregate them into reports or dashboards for medical professionals to read and understand healthcare trends in near real-time.
Some of the trustworthy data management tools for healthcare are –
Types of Healthcare Automation in Action
Robotic Surgery
The mainstay for healthcare providers would be robotic surgery. This is because it’s known for its accuracy, precision, improved speed, reduced invasiveness, and fewer complications.
This type of surgery is used in operations like Kyphoplasty (vertebral augmentation), gallbladder removal, prostatectomy, etc. So, this healthcare automation holds immense potential to alter healthcare delivery services.
Augmented Reality
For healthcare providers, it’s imperative to display correct patient information to make an accurate diagnosis. This is where HoloLens comes into the picture. Microsoft has launched this amazing device that brings virtual healthcare settings to any healthcare facility.
The HoloLens will revolutionize the way professionals think about telemedicine. The patient and provider will no longer be isolated behind two screens with a compartmentalized view of one another’s reality. The HoloLens could let professionals enter the patient’s world and interact more realistically.
AI Chatbots to Help Professionals
Chatbots are automated software that hospitals can load with healthcare information. Nowadays, healthcare professionals receive a lot of healthcare queries through chatbots. So, using healthcare automation allows them to automate answering common healthcare questions.
However, chatbots still need to be more intelligent than professionals but can be programmed to clear general queries.
Internet of Things (IoT)
Outside of a clinic or hospital, healthcare is now being provided in various ways, including smartwatches, wearable medical devices, and smart thermometers. The internet of things (IoT) can automate data collection for analysis.
The latest noninvasive devices (or NIDS) use infrared technology to measure pulse, blood pressure, and temperature. This data helps doctors identify illness and disease clusters.
Electronic Medical Records (EMR)
Electronic medical records are a blessing to the healthcare industry, enabling them to easily monitor healthcare data, diagnose healthcare issues, etc. With the help of healthcare automation, healthcare service providers can access all patient files in one go. They can also check for accurate diagnoses through EMR systems.
Challenges of Healthcare Automation
AI can certainly do a lot of extraordinary tasks that humans may not have access to, but it’s a risk for us. There are challenges to healthcare automation that you can’t simply ignore.
Data Protection
Lately, Italy became the first Western Country to ban ChatGPT. The reason is “privacy concerns” related to users of this AI tool. Considering the importance of patient health data and its value in black markets, AI is still behind in laying down strict terms. Therefore, there’s no way we can trust them with such crucial information that hospitals should protect at all costs.
Regulations
There isn’t any governance laid out for how hospitals will use AI tools. Without the rules, AI can become a dangerous addition. However, automation tools dependent on humans and AI aren’t under the radar. But autonomous AI assistants need some regulations to be under control.
Incomprehension
Not everyone knows AI concepts and their work, making it a challenge to understand. There’s a need to guide people about how AI works, how it can help solve their queries, and much more. This is a time-consuming task for patients and staff, making it nearly difficult to convince people to devote their time.
Final Words
Overall, we can say that automation has changed the healthcare industry for good. It is helping healthcare professionals provide better care to more patients than ever before, improving healthcare outcomes while saving healthcare costs.
So, it is evident that healthcare automation has a lot to offer healthcare providers worldwide. We can expect healthcare technology automation to continue to grow in the coming years for better healthcare services worldwide.
