Artificial intelligence in healthcare operations
The healthcare sector is facing a lot of debates on its operations, and among them is the inclusion of Artificial intelligence in healthcare operations. Artificial intelligence is in layman’s language, the knowledge that is exhibited by the machines. AI can enable the devices to think like humans, solve problems, and act somewhat as human beings do. Artificial intelligence is the stimulation of the knowledge of the social processes by the use of computer systems. Advancements in technology have led to the use of technology in all sectors, including the healthcare sector. AI in healthcare is a debate that is heated as partners argue if it is a two-edged sword in the field of medicine.
There is a workforce crisis in the healthcare department. Among these reasons is that there is a shortage of doctors in the world, there is the availability of aging and burnout physicians in our hospitals and the increasing demand for chronic care among patients. In this case, an effective care system will constitute an available, accessible, acceptable, and good quality of the healthcare workers. The life expectancy levels are slowly increasing, and research shows that the population of 65year olds is expected to increase by the time it’s 2030, thus need for more caregivers. In addition to this, chronic illnesses are on the rise, and for this reason, better healthcare systems are required. Reports state that over 400 million people are not able to access one or two or more health care services. Besides, a third of the world’s physicians are expected to retire in the next decade, and better replacements have yet been decided upon. The new bunch of medical professionals is looking for less working hours, a life balance, and not to be on call specialty, that makes the shortage of medics increase. Chronic patients are increasing daily, and there are shortages of healthcare practitioners because most of them are old, others are tired and burnout, while others want improved conditions regarding more free time, which patients cannot afford to give.
Artificial intelligence has proven to be the solution to all these challenges that are facing the healthcare department. AI has shown that it will not only solve the issue of increasing the workforce but also it will aid in other healthcare operations. AI is dived into three categories. The Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI), Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), and Artificial Superintelligence intelligence (ASI). In the next ten years, the ANI has been reported to be very useful in the healthcare sector through analyzing large databases, supporting the jobs done by caregivers, and finding correlations.
AI is a trend and a debate that has been ongoing in the healthcare sector for some time. The development is significant, and it will help in eradication some of the considerable problems in the industry like less workforce, care for the chronic patients, analyzing of data, diagnosis, and many more. However, AI comes with its limitations. For instance, the project is costly for the developing countries, and as much as its objective is to help the healthcare, the developing countries will be pushed further behind in the sector than they are at the moment. Other treatments like empathy, excellent communication, and the human touch to all processes will ask through the adaption of the AI. These factors are still significant, and a machine cannot be able to feel emotions, and thus, some decisions by the AI may not be very accommodative to humans and the patients.