By: Kathryn Ruscitto
We are planning a Heritage trip and have spent hours doing research. My daughter pulled up Chat GPT, gave it a few directions and in 30 seconds it listed an itinerary, things to visit, and lots of other info for consideration.
In a moment it became clear to me how Artificial Intelligence can augment my work. I still had to decide who, what, where, and when, but AI took the data that exists, boiled it down and gave me options to start with. It saved time, and while not perfect, gave me info I had not looked at prior.
Can AI do the same thing in health care? From chronic illness , to assisting in the development of new devices and drugs, can AI supplement clinicians work flow? Can it review charts and data, predict at risk patients, and match patients to treatments?
The current use of AI in some phone processes, has proven to be a barrier when a question did not fit the algorithms.
In time, those early designs will be improved. For AI to work in health care, it needs to be integrated into clinician workflows, not added as yet another step.
The debate about AI replacing human decisions is concerning and deserves consideration. But more likely it will free the workforce from analytical tasks and move to higher level thinking. In addition, other concerns relate to the bias of the data. But the advancement of AI will likely be similar to the integration of computers, smart phones and laptops into our daily lives. They didn’t replace humans, but a human without a smart phone or laptop does not have the advantages in easily accessing info and education. If AI can improve care for patients, by adding to the analytical knowledge of clinicians in an era of accelerated information and inventions, it will advance care.
I looked for some examples where AI is integrated in health care and found specialists are using AI in nephrology and cancer treatments. “Penny” at UPenn is helping clinicians with complex patients between visits, “The technology has the potential to improve patient health by guiding them through complex medication schedules, keeping clinicians routinely updated about a patient’s condition, and enabling clinicians to step in at early signs of trouble.”
https://www.aamc.org/news/how-ai-helping-doctors-communicate-patients
Additionally there are many applications already in use for detecting disease through programs that analyze bacteria, and other disease criteria to lead to diagnosis and treatment in radiology, pathology and cancer treatments.
For clinicians to be comfortable with machine learning, or language learning that reads patient records and integrates info to recommend treatment, they will want a clear understanding of the quality of the ap’s learning. Also, it’s track record in making accurate diagnosis, and their ability to integrate their own clinical history and knowledge. The AMA cautions clinicians about bias and inaccuracy in todays AI algorithms, but notes it will continue to improve and tomorrows physicians will see a reduction in paperwork burden and back room operations from chart reviews to billing. https://www.ama-assn.org/practice-management/digital/why-generative-ai-chatgpt-cannot-replace-physicians
In the past 100 years we have moved from an agrarian society, to an industrial society, to an age of information. We have now entered what is being called the age of knowledge, or the creative age. Understanding AI’s potential is our best advantage to adapting it in applications for health care.
Resources
https://www.jnj.com/innovation/artificial-intelligence-in-healthcare?&utm_source=goog
AI Won’t Replace Humans
https://hbr.org/2023/08/ai-wont-replace-humans-but-humans-with-ai-will-replace-humans-without-ai
The Current State of AI in Healthcare:
https://healthtechmagazine.net/article/2022/12/ai-healthcare-2023-ml-nlp-more-perfcon
Kathryn Ruscitto, Advisor can be reached at linkedin.com/ln/kathrynruscitto or at krusct@gmail.com