Introduction
The evolution from virtual consultations to AI assistants
Capabilities of AI-driven virtual healthcare assistants
Benefits for patients and healthcare providers
Integrating AI assistants into healthcare systems
Ethical and privacy considerations
Future trends and developments
Conclusion
Resources
Further reading
Artificial intelligence (AI) has become increasingly integrated into healthcare offerings. This trend was already apparent pre-COVID-19, the global pandemic, however, accelerated the evolution and adoption of AI-driven healthcare solutions due to the increased digitization of the sector thanks to the sudden demand for remote and virtual appointments.
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Introduction
AI-driven healthcare assistants are AI-enabled solutions that are designed to assist both healthcare professionals and patients in a wide number of tasks, including getting access to medical information and records, scheduling appointments, monitoring health conditions, getting access to health education, and more.
The healthcare industry is undergoing a transformative shift, and the increasing sophistication and integration of artificial intelligence in healthcare is driving this. AI is changing healthcare, it is revolutionizing diagnostics, medical imaging, treatment personalization, drug discovery and development, preventative care, robotic surgery, and telemedicine and virtual consultations.
Here, we explore the impact and potential of AI-driven virtual healthcare assistants in modern healthcare settings.
The evolution from virtual consultations to AI assistants
AI-driven healthcare virtual healthcare assistants have evolved from simpler technology that enabled virtual health consultations. Before 2010, the concept of connecting digitally with healthcare professionals began to gain traction and the first video-conferencing systems connecting patients with healthcare professionals emerged.
In the early 2010s, patient care technology advanced further, alongside the advancement of high-speed internet. As a result, telemedicine platforms began to emerge.
Following this, further digital health innovations that occurred in the mid-2010s, such as the development of basic AI elements including chatbots and decision support systems, helped to provide the basis for the rise of AI healthcare assistants. Other developments such as the development of wearables and remote monitoring patient care technology also contributed to the development of AI healthcare assistants.
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Capabilities of AI-driven virtual healthcare assistants
AI healthcare assistants have a wide range of capabilities. They can schedule appointments and perform other administrative tasks, reducing workload for human workers, and freeing them up for more skilled work.
AI healthcare assistants also represent a vital addition to patient care technology, performing tasks such as remote monitoring, where real-time data is collected and analyzed from wearable devices. AI-driven healthcare assistants also utilize natural language processing (NLP) to understand queries from patients and provide suitable responses.
Additional capabilities include medication adherence support, health information retrieval, and patient engagement. In the coming years, this list of capabilities will likely expand.
Benefits for patients and healthcare providers
There are many benefits of AI-driven virtual healthcare assistants for both patients and healthcare professionals. First, AI healthcare assistants can provide virtual health consultations, which overcome the restrictions posed by in-person appointments, allowing more people to access the healthcare services they require.
Virtual assistants can also streamline administrative tasks, therefore, improving the efficiency of healthcare systems. Additionally, AI healthcare assistants can reduce costs by automatic routine tasks. Finally, this technology is available 24/7, therefore, patients can access the healthcare services they need around the clock.
Integrating AI assistants into healthcare systems
There are some challenges involved in adopting AI healthcare assistants into existing healthcare infrastructures. The seamless integration of new technologies with existing healthcare records can be complex.
Incompatibility issues can arise when attempting to integrate novel AI platforms into diverse healthcare IT systems. Planning and executing such integrations can be lengthy and costly.
Further to this, new patient care technology that is adopted by healthcare systems must be accurate and reliable. Thorough testing of AI healthcare assistants must take place to ensure patient safety.
Ethical and privacy considerations
The use of AI in any sector evokes privacy concerns and the healthcare industry is not immune to these. With the adoption of AI healthcare assistants, healthcare systems will need to adopt appropriate practices regarding the handling and storing of sensitive patient data.
Future trends and developments
As technology continues to evolve, we will likely see further innovation and development in the use of AI-driven virtual healthcare assistants. Over the next few years, key areas of focus may include the continued development of NLP capabilities that will allow AI healthcare assistants to respond to patients in a more natural way, which will improve the experience of interacting with these assistants.
Additionally, predictive analytics will likely improve, which will lead to better personalized healthcare - AI healthcare assistants will be able to make better recommendations and anticipate the needs of the patient.
Finally, virtual healthcare assistants of the future may be integrated with emerging technologies such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR).
Conclusion
AI-driven virtual healthcare assistants have a transformative potential for the healthcare sector. They stand to improve patient access to healthcare services and reduce the costs of running healthcare systems.
In the future, we will likely see new capabilities continue to emerge as the technology develops. AI-driven virtual healthcare assistants may help to advance personalized healthcare.
Resources
- Alowais, S.A. et al. (2023) ‘Revolutionizing Healthcare: The role of Artificial Intelligence in Clinical Practice’, BMC Medical Education, 23(1). doi:10.1186/s12909-023-04698-z.
- Bajwa, J. et al. (2021) ‘Artificial Intelligence in healthcare: Transforming the practice of medicine’, Future Healthcare Journal, 8(2). doi:10.7861/fhj.2021-0095.
- Better health outcomes with AI-powered virtual assistants [online]. IBM. Available at: https://www.ibm.com/thought-leadership/institute-business-value/en-us/report/ai-assistants-healthcare
- Bohr, A. and Memarzadeh, K. (2020) ‘The rise of Artificial Intelligence in healthcare applications’, Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare, pp. 25–60. doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-818438-7.00002-2.
Further reading
Use of artificial intelligence to diagnose lagophthalmos