Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare Moves from New to Normal

THANKS TO human ingenuity, new ideas about and innovative methods for practicing medicine continually push the industry forward. In previous generations, brilliant minds solved medical problems and propelled society into an age where doctors could prevent disease with vaccinations, treat disease with penicillin and preserve life with blood banks. Curiosity, innovation and hard work resulted in effective ways to save lives.

But until recently, diagnosis and treatment were limited to what humans could see, test and interpret. From blood tests to PET scans, testing modalities were dependent upon human interpretation, and even the best and brightest clinician was limited. Thanks to artificial intelligence (AI), that’s changing, and it’s changing fast.

More and more, AI is being accepted and embraced as a partner in healthcare. In fact, clinicians are increasingly willing to utilize AI as long as safeguards are firmly in place. As we discuss in our article “How AI Is Changing the Face of Healthcare,” AI is augmenting the clinical team by reviewing test results, interpreting health data and coming up with diagnostics faster than humanly possible. With capacity for predictive analytics and streamlining administrative workflow, AI is making healthcare more targeted and efficient.

The advent of AI and its ability to improve medical efficiency is well-timed for an industry experiencing staffing shortages. Our article “Technological Advancements in Cardiology: Improved Monitoring,” discusses the way AI-augmented cardiac remote patient monitoring (RPM) devices provide real time patient data, helping to bridge the gap between patient need for continuous care and the ongoing shortage of cardiac physicians. AI-powered RPM devices facilitate early detection and prompt intervention. It also brings cardiac care to rural communities that feel the most pronounced effects from the ongoing physician shortage.

And yet, not every change in healthcare is due to AI; some changes come from adapting and adjusting when established systems no longer work. With regard to care delivery, the fee-for-service model may have worked in the past, but it may not be the best choice going forward. We discuss this shift in our article “Rethinking Care Delivery: The Promise and Practice of Value-Based Care.” While fee-for-service focuses on volume, value-based care focuses on collaboration among care teams to support comprehensive patient care that drives positive outcomes. It emphasizes outcomes over volume, and rewards the quality of the care rather than the amount of care provided.

As always, we hope you enjoy the additional articles in this issue of BioSupply Trends Quarterly, and find them both relevant and helpful to your practice.

Helping Healthcare Care,

Patrick M. Schmidt

Publisher