May 6th, 2024 by Adam Sandman
The AI boom has prompted conversations across the internet and news about bots replacing humans in a variety of fields (most commonly writing and coding). But what about the healthcare and medical industries? These are typically thought of as requiring a human’s touch, intuition, and nuance — but that hasn’t stopped some from suggesting that AI robot doctors will be replacing all humans in the coming years.
As a company, we’ve seen almost two decades of software trends and shifts, as well as how these changes impact different industries. We also work closely with dozens of partners in the biotech and medical fields that rely on cutting-edge software every day. With that in mind, let’s discuss AI’s impact on healthcare today and where we anticipate it going.
Why Now? AI’s Advancement in Software
The past several years have witnessed a surge in Artificial Intelligence capabilities, fueled by exponential growth in data availability and processing power. This has opened a new chapter in software development, particularly within the medical field. AI-powered medical software is no longer science fiction — it's a rapidly evolving reality with the potential to revolutionize healthcare delivery.
How is AI Helping the Medical Field?
AI is transforming the medical field at an unprecedented pace, influencing everything from administrative tasks to improving diagnostic accuracy and patient care itself. Here are some areas where AI is already making a difference:
Medical Scribing & Notes
Historically, doctors will spend a considerable amount of their time documenting patient interactions, leading to inefficiencies and sometimes resulting in input errors. AI medical scribes use natural language processing (NLP) to transcribe consultations in real-time, freeing up physicians to focus on their patients. In addition to transcription, automated scribes can analyze existing medical records and generate comprehensive summaries, highlighting important notes and reducing the need for lengthy note-taking. This significantly improves efficiency and facilitates more accurate and complete medical documentation.
Medical Coding
Assigning accurate medical codes is a critical step of healthcare reimbursement. Unfortunately, it can be a complex process prone to errors. However, AI is revolutionizing this by automatically assigning the correct codes based on diagnoses, procedures, and medications. This minimizes coding errors and streamlines the billing process, saving both patients and providers time and money. Not only that, but AI can identify potential coding inconsistencies, leading to cleaner claims and fewer denials.
Medical Imaging & Early Detection
AI algorithms are already proving remarkably adept at analyzing medical imaging results like X-rays, MRIs, and CT scans. They can identify subtle abnormalities or patterns that may have been missed by the human eye, leading to earlier diagnoses and potentially lifesaving interventions. The trend is moving towards even more sophisticated AI models that can not only detect diseases, but also extrapolate their progression and recommend personalized treatment plans.
Physical Therapy
Physical therapy plays a vital role in rehabilitation, but traditional methods and medical devices often lack personalization. AI programs can incorporate real-time feedback and guidance through wearable sensors, making sure that patients perform exercises correctly and maximize rehabilitation benefits. Even more impressive, AI chatbots can provide patients with ongoing support and motivation throughout their recovery journey.
Medical Device Testing & Development
The development of safe and effective medical devices is a very rigorous process so that each is safe for the lifetime of the device. AI has been helping to accelerate medical device testing through automated scenario simulation and testing to identify potential risks. This might involve evaluating how a device interacts with different patient anatomies or predicting possible device malfunctions. By identifying and testing potential issues earlier in the development phase, AI can expedite the creation of safer and more reliable medical devices, ultimately enhancing patient care.
Reducing Doctor Burnout
Burnout is a major concern in the healthcare industry, with long hours and difficult decisions being large contributing factors to this issue. The automation and streamlining of many administrative tasks, like scheduling appointments, managing referrals, and generating reports, may be able to ease some of this burden. The current trend is on a path toward AI-powered virtual assistants that can handle even more complex tasks, further assisting doctors to manage their workload and improve their well-being.
AI Diagnoses: Will AI Replace Doctors?
Beyond helping with managerial tasks, AI is also making significant strides in the realm of medical analysis and recommendations — but will (or should) they be relied on for official diagnoses?
One of AI's greatest strengths lies in pattern recognition. By analyzing large amounts of medical data (such as patient history, symptoms, lab results, and medical imaging), AI can identify complex patterns that may have otherwise gone unnoticed. They can also leverage vast datasets of medical research and clinical trials, calculating the probability of various diagnoses based on a patient's specific presentation. This statistical analysis can provide valuable insights to doctors and inform their decision-making process.
On the other hand, the quality of AI models relies heavily on the data they're trained on. Incomplete, inaccurate, or skewed data can lead to biased or unreliable diagnoses. Another hurdle is AI's lack of reasoning ability. While AI excels at identifying patterns, it struggles with complex reasoning and judgment. Understanding the nuances of a patient's medical history, social factors, and emotional state requires a human touch that AI simply lacks. Lastly, there are ethical considerations surrounding AI-based diagnoses. Bias in the training data can lead to discriminatory outcomes, and patients might lose trust in a system that lacks human empathy and bedside manner.
AI is not poised to replace doctors, but rather to function as a powerful assistive tool. We can expect to see AI-powered software that provides real-time diagnostic suggestions to doctors during consultations (without having the final say on diagnosis). Despite AI having immense potential to transform healthcare, the answer to this question is a resounding no — at least not in the foreseeable future. Ultimately, the doctor-patient relationship will likely remain central to diagnosis.
The Risks of Not Adapting
While AI probably won’t replace your practitioners and surgeons anytime soon, it doesn’t mean the technology should be cast aside. In fact, medical institutions that fail to adapt to AI risk falling behind:
- Lagging Behind Technology: Healthcare has become increasingly data-driven and as we’ve discussed, AI excels at analyzing huge amounts of medical information to identify patterns. These patterns can inform diagnosis, treatment planning, and even preventative measures. Hospitals and clinics that fail to leverage these capabilities will be at a disadvantage, potentially missing out on crucial insights and advancements that could improve patient care.
- Increased Workloads for Doctors: Administrative tasks and lengthy documentation contribute significantly to physician burnout. AI tools can help automate many of these tasks, freeing up valuable time for doctors to focus on patients. Institutions that don't lean into this risk placing an even greater burden on their physicians, potentially leading to decreased morale, increased errors, and higher turnover.
- Losing Patients to Other Practitioners: Patients today are increasingly tech-savvy and expect their healthcare providers to be on the cutting edge. Hospitals and clinics that are seen as lagging behind in technology or processes might lose patients to competitors that offer more comprehensive services. This may limit patient access to potentially life-saving advancements from AI-powered diagnostics and treatment options.
- Difficulty Keeping Up-to-Date Information: The medical field is constantly evolving, with new research and clinical trials emerging regularly. Keeping up with this ever-growing body of knowledge (and ever-changing patient records) can be challenging for doctors. Hospitals that don't utilize AI risk having their doctors work with potentially outdated information, which might negatively impact their ability to provide the best care possible.
Future-Proof Your Medical Software with Inflectra
As AI continues to evolve, strong software development practices are becoming increasingly critical for building the secure, reliable, and efficient platforms that will power this transformation.
Developing software for AI-powered healthcare solutions comes with unique challenges. Inflectra’s expertise in automated testing and rigorous QA helps your software perform flawlessly, preventing bugs or errors that could lead to patient or provider concerns. Medical data is also highly sensitive, so any breaches could (and have) result in devastating consequences for everyone involved. Secure project management practices and robust QA processes like those offered by SpiraPlan are vital in safeguarding patient information and ensuring compliance with regulations like HIPAA.
The future of healthcare will rely heavily on the responsible development of AI-powered software. As a company driving this innovation, your commitment to thorough testing, comprehensive QA, and secure development is paramount to building reliable and trustworthy medical devices and software platforms. Enhance your development and deployment capabilities with Spira and Rapise today!