AI in Medicine: How Can AI Help Healthcare Providers

Artificial intelligence (AI) in medicine has made outstanding leaps in helping providers with administrative work. Similarly, patients are experiencing the benefits of using AI to help with checking symptoms and talking to chatbots about their mental health concerns. How else can AI help medicine in the future? Plus, what are some current use cases of AI in medicine?

Current Use Cases of AI in Medicine

1. Administrative Work and Documentation

Burnout is also common among physicians. One factor is doing paperwork, which can take up precious time in treating patients. One example of AI that can help medical professionals with their management systems is Microsoft’s Nuance. Not only does it handle charts and diagnostic solutions, but medical professionals can also rely on Nuance for patient experience.

An alternative to Nuance is Augmedix. With Augmedix, healthcare professionals can ensure organized documentation. Also, their AI can convert conversations into notes. Plus, medical providers get timely updates.

2. Improving Patient Experience

AI can simplify and streamline the patient experience. But how can AI help healthcare providers with improving the patient experience? 

One such example comes from Voxco. They use machine learning to get patient feedback and organize patient data. Medical professionals can also personalize the software to communicate with patients outside consultation hours. Additionally, it has the following features:

• Reduced lag
• Real-time alerts
• Know health risks

Another patient experience software is Olive. Their AI focuses more on claims, insurance, and prior authorization solutions. Olive helps healthcare professionals settle any claims and reduce denials. Meanwhile, prior authorization ensures a smooth approval process that will not hinder the patient’s journey.

3. Patient Symptom Checker

Before AI, WebMD was the primary source for symptom checking. Patients would self-diagnose based on their current symptoms, which has turned into memes. However, AI has provided patients with help in suggesting conditions based on their symptoms. 

For example, a patient will talk to a chatbot or choose from various symptoms on the app. From there, the AI suggests several diagnoses. To avoid any issue stemming from a misdiagnosis, some AI apps take it a step further by having it reviewed by a medical expert. In some cases, startups train AI by using medical journals as a reference to suggest a diagnosis. Here are examples of AI symptom checkers:

• Buoy Health
• Babylon Health
• Symptomate
• Isabel Healthcare
• K Health

4. Chatbots

Aside from being a patient symptom checker, chatbots can aid patients in booking an appointment and managing one’s health. One example is ADA. Although ADA focuses on managing health, they help patients with their symptoms. Plus, they also suggest next steps on how you can improve your health and well-being.

However, AI chatbots in medicine can also be used in mental health treatment.

Mental health treatment can be expensive for many patients or people with underlying mental health conditions. Some patients are also hesitant to reach out to mental health professionals due. However, one way to help patients with their mental health concerns before contacting professionals is through chatbots. 

AI chatbots can help patients with expressing their current moods or emotions. At times, the AI can provide a “listening ear” to patients that need someone to talk to at the moment. However, it’s still recommended to go to a mental health provider for further diagnosis and treatment, especially if one’s mental health condition can significantly affect one’s day-to-day life.

Here are AI chatbot examples to try:

• Woebot
• Elomia Health
• Wysa

5. AI-Generated Drug

Even an AI can concoct a drug or at least help scientists develop one.

CNBC reported that a biotech startup, Insilico Medicine, developed a drug that was approved for human clinical trials. The first-ever drug with an approved human clinic trial aims to treat idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. However, they have two other significant drugs that can help patients. One is a COVID-19 drug, while the other is to treat cancer, especially in dealing with solid tumors.

6. Triage

Another way AI can help doctors in treating patients is through triaging. Although symptom checking is one form of triage, here’s a retrospective study on how medical professionals can benefit from AI. Emil Lárus Sigurðsson, MD, Ph.D., and Steindór Ellertsson, MD, conducted a study that could help patients with respiratory concerns before going to a primary care physician.

They found that some patients didn’t need any imaging or physician referral because they didn’t have any urgent concerns. It could also avoid the prescription of unnecessary medicine. That said, AI can aid medical professionals in better assessing which patients need urgent care while some might need medicine or recuperation from any low-risk concern.

7. Detection

Although medical professionals have had years of training to detect any anomalies or issues in medical imaging, sometimes the naked eye can still miss crucial details. AI can help medical professionals point out other areas that need a closer look at. Perhaps, the AI can uncover areas that would require further evaluation.

Medical startups, such as Gleamer and Ezra, help medical professionals view clearer images or create reports after the procedure.

Future Use Case of AI in Medicine

AI still has limitless possibilities in the healthcare industry. But how else can AI become a key player in medicine?

The BBC reported that a medical startup, Genetika+, is planning to match medicine or drugs to patients using AI. They want to ensure that the patient is prescribed the right medication for the first time.

The process involves taking a blood sample to generate brain cells. Once exposed to medicine, they record their findings and changes and call them biomarkers. Aside from the blood sample, the startup will also refer to the patient’s medical information to ensure that a physician prescribes the right medicine and dosage.

Key Takeaways

Currently, healthcare providers can rely on AI for documentation and administrative work. However, with the support of medical experts and scientists, AI can become a dependable AI assistant in treating patients.

So far, one of its main roles is helping healthcare providers with administrative tasks. AI can save time completing any paperwork required to complete a day’s work. However, AI can also play a significant role in pharmaceuticals, especially in developing new drugs to help patients with their treatments.