We’re more than halfway through the year, and artificial intelligence (AI) remains a hot topic. More than 60 percent of business owners believe AI will increase productivity and improve their customer relationships.
Nearly two-thirds of physicians responding to an AMA survey report seeing advantages to utilizing AI. The highest level of enthusiasm from these doctors is around AI tools that can help reduce administrative burdens.
An emerging area for the use of AI in healthcare is mental health. Approximately 160 million Americans live in areas with a shortage of mental health professionals, and there are 350 individuals for every mental health provider. Only about 10 percent of mental health patients are treated by a psychiatrist, and they face disproportionately high rates of poverty, housing and employment discrimination and criminalization.
AI tools can be employed to disseminate accurate and personalized educational information to patients dealing with a mental health condition. In some cases, they’re integrated into a mobile app to offer mindfulness exercises or send timely reminders for medication schedules. Both uses facilitate collaboration between individuals and their healthcare providers.
Then there’s generative AI, which refers to artificial intelligence techniques used to create or produce various types of new content, including text, images, audio and videos. Along with digital patient engagement, telehealth, wearables and cybersecurity, it’s one of the top five healthcare tech trends in 2024.
1. Generative AI
Used in conjunction with cloud computing, generative AI is poised to bring about major transformations in the healthcare industry. By relying on deep-learning algorithms to create new content, generative AI can take unstructured data sets and analyze them. This represents a potential breakthrough for healthcare operations, which are rich in unstructured data such as clinical notes, diagnostic images, medical charts and recordings.
A prime example of generative AI is conversational AI. This technology consists of complex learning algorithms, which communicate with users through natural language user interfaces involving images, text and voice that automate more natural, human-like interactions. According to Accenture, 98 percent of healthcare providers and 89 percent of payer executives believe that advancements in generative AI are ushering in a new era of enterprise intelligence. These healthcare leaders postulate that 40 percent of all working hours in healthcare could be supported or augmented by language-based AI.
2. Digital Patient Engagement
Proactive patient engagement strategies promote better health outcomes and drive population health goals by encouraging patients to adhere to their recommended care. They enable healthcare providers to more easily identify groups of patients who need specialized care and offer them the resources to improve their outcomes.
Automated technology enables providers to share relevant messages at scale while still maintaining a personal level of communication. Digital tools that offer automation reduce healthcare providers’ administrative burden while managing routine patient education enabling them — and their staff — to communicate across the entire patient care spectrum..
Evidence proves the importance of digital patient engagement. More than 80 percent of patients prefer to use digital tools, and 90 percent no longer feel obligated to stay with healthcare providers that don’t deliver an overall satisfactory digital experience.
Healthcare providers are on the digital health bandwagon, too. Roughly 93 percent of physicians believe digital health tools are an advantage for patient care.
3. Telehealth and Virtual Care
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth visits accounted for only 0.1 percent of all physician appointments. During the pandemic, that number skyrocketed to up to half of all visits. In 2023, telehealth was utilized for 14–17 percent of all physician visits.
Providers can conduct a virtual visit and treat patients remotely from nearly anywhere they have an internet connection. This is a cornerstone benefit of telehealth for patients, making it easier for them to access care.
A majority of healthcare consumers prefer virtual appointments for common illnesses. Why? Because telehealth often eliminates patient wait times and shortens the average exam time. For medical groups, it reduces the average number of no-shows and aids in decreasing burnout by treating low-acuity and high-demand conditions.
Telehealth enables patients to contact a doctor from their home when they need care, avoiding costly and unnecessary trips to the hospital or emergency department. Providers and their staff can more easily follow up with patients who have been discharged from the hospital, reinforcing treatment adherence and preventing readmissions.
As part of an overall virtual care strategy, telehealth allows providers to remotely care for patients located in rural areas of the United States — individuals who previously received lower-quality health care and had worse outcomes compared with residents of more populated areas. These clinical consultations conducted through video visits are associated with high patient satisfaction and lower costs without a difference in clinical outcomes compared to in-person consultations.
4. Wearables
Almost one in three Americans uses a wearable device to track their health and fitness. Almost 90 percent of patients are more likely to choose a doctor who incorporates wearable data into their health care plans. Many wear watches, bracelets and other devices that count their steps and heart rate and can be used for GPS tracking.
Wearables provide several metrics, including sleep patterns, heart rate, body temperature and calories burned. Some such devices are designed with advanced technology that enables them to provide patient monitoring, screening, assistance with chronic disease management and more.
Wearables enable patients to access key health metrics in real-time, often prompting them to create more healthful behaviors to minimize their risk for certain diseases. Patients also can easily transmit that data to their smartphone or another source, negating the need for time-consuming data synchronization.
The advantages achieved by patients who utilize wearables are well-documented. Not only has their use reduced the need for some in-person appointments and been linked with fewer hospital admissions, but also more than 75 percent of individuals who track their health report that it changes their behavior at least moderately.
5. Cybersecurity
Cyberattacks are the fastest-growing crime in the U.S., and healthcare is the second-most cyberattacked industry. That means prioritizing cybersecurity is crucial for healthcare providers because they’re responsible for ensuring the security and privacy of all protected health information (PHI).
Unauthorized access or improper handling of PHI can result in HIPAA fines and penalties, both civil and criminal, along with costly breaches, a damaged reputation and lost patient trust. That’s why stringent measures should be in place to mitigate any risks of exposing PHI and other patient data.
Medical groups need to embrace strategies that not only reduce risks but also cultivate a culture of data responsibility and ethical data management. They must ensure robust data governance, employ stringent guidelines for sharing of PHI and continuously monitor the efficacy of such safeguards.
For example, by deploying stringent access control measures, only authorized personnel with specific roles can access sensitive data. Regular audits ensure these access rights are continually evaluated and updated as necessary.
Every piece of data in transit or at rest should be encrypted using industry-leading methods. Healthcare organizations should only utilize data centers and storage facilities that are fortified with state-of-the-art security protocols.
Also, regular backups ensure that healthcare data is never lost. These backups, encrypted and stored securely, ensure data recovery options are always available without compromising security.
Putting AI to Work for Your Healthcare Practice
You’re already burdened by numerous administrative tasks along with staffing shortages and other such challenges. Adopting any of these healthcare tech trends requires equipping your medical practice with solutions that streamline your workflows – not complicate them.
Providertech.ai automatically answers incoming calls 24/7 using advanced conversational AI, scheduling and updating appointments and providing immediate responses to patients’ commonly asked questions. It’s HIPAA-compliant and built on Azure’s HITRUST-Certified Cloud, allowing you to easily communicate with your patients while safeguarding their information. Listen to a sample recording today!
