Navigating Assurance and Recovery: Harnessing AI in Healthcare

  • admin
  • January 5, 2024
  • 8 minutes reading

Singapore boasts a robust healthcare system that is evidenced by its numerous medical facilities, clinics, and similar establishments. However, the system is currently facing significant challenges such as an aging population, rising healthcare costs, an increase in chronic diseases, long queues, long waiting hours, and a shortage of manpower. The authorities are taking action to address these challenges and deliver a more efficient healthcare system to its citizens.

 

Training and Grooming of Health Workers for Future Generation

It is projected that there will be a shortage of 13 million healthcare workers worldwide by the year 2035. This is a major concern since the aging population is in dire need of healthcare support, and a shrinking workforce can’t meet their demands. Singapore is no exception, where the median age is expected to increase from 39.7 to 53.4 by 2050. However, the Singaporean Ministry of Health has launched a Healthcare Manpower Plan to address this issue.

 

Building Future Skills

Singapore is increasing training opportunities for healthcare workers to upgrade their skills. Doctors and nurses are given access to tools and incentives to encourage their profession.

 

Growing a Strong Local Core

The healthcare sector in Singapore is expanding and creating more opportunities for Singaporeans of all ages to grow their careers while helping others. A multi-pronged approach is used to entice Singaporeans to join the health sector, with many opportunities for them to grow their careers while helping others.

 

A Better Way with Technology

The healthcare industry is witnessing a rapid transformation, with Artificial Intelligence (AI) being at the forefront of this change. In this context, Singapore’s healthcare system is no exception, as it aims to leverage AI to streamline workflows and processes. The ultimate goal is to create a more seamless and efficient healthcare service that benefits both healthcare workers and patients alike.

 

AI in Healthcare

Medical science has made remarkable progress, which has contributed to an increase in life expectancy worldwide. However, with longer life expectancy comes a greater demand for healthcare services, leading to rising costs and a shortage of medical professionals to meet the needs of patients.

 

In recent years, the healthcare industry has embraced the use of AI to bridge the gap caused by the shortage of human resources and support healthcare systems. There are numerous examples of AI applications in healthcare, including:

 

Efficient Diagnosis with Minimal Errors

Early detection of diseases is crucial for successful treatment. PathAI, a company at the forefront of AI-powered medical diagnostics, is developing a machine-learning technology to assist pathologists in making more accurate diagnoses. The company’s current goals include reducing errors in cancer diagnosis and developing methods for individualized medical treatment.

 

Tapping AI to Create New Medicine

In 2007, a robot named Adam was assigned to research the functions of yeast in drug development. Adam analyzed billions of data points in public databases and hypothesized about the functions of 19 genes within yeast. It successfully predicted nine new and accurate hypotheses, marking a significant breakthrough in AI-powered drug development.

 

Streamlining Patient Experience with AI

In the healthcare industry, time is money. This means that the more patients wait to get their treatment, the more money they are spending. With AI providing an efficient and seamless patient experience, hospitals and other medical establishments can treat more patients per day.

 

The Challenges of Integrating AI in Healthcare

With the integration of AI in different medical fields, many have already witnessed the benefits of this technology. However, it is important to note that there are still challenges that come with it.

 

Lack of Technical Skills

One of the biggest challenges is the lack of technical expertise. With the increasing demand for data scientists, developers, engineers, and other similar roles, many professionals are shifting their focus to these areas. As a result, the healthcare industry is struggling to integrate AI into its infrastructure due to the shortage of skilled personnel.

 

One way to solve this is by providing training and upskilling opportunities to existing employees to equip them with the necessary skills for integrating AI into their current systems. Another option is to consider outsourcing AI operations to companies that specialize in this area and have the required expertise.

 

Not Enough Structured Data

Another challenge associated with the use of AI in healthcare is the lack of structured data. Although hospitals have collected vast amounts of data, it is often disorganized, making it difficult for AI to identify important information.

 

High Implementation Costs

The integration of AI technology in the healthcare industry can be a costly affair. Hospitals are required to invest in various equipment, including sensors, cameras, and software, to create an automated infrastructure, which can result in a significant financial burden. However, it is possible to reduce the cost by identifying the weakest area in a medical establishment and implementing AI technology there. This approach can help hospitals enhance their overall efficiency and reduce costs in the long run.

 

Benefits of AI in the Healthcare Industry

The healthcare industry can improve itself through innovative technologies. Artificial Intelligence is one of these innovations that can play a huge role in healthcare. Among the benefits that it can provide the medical industry are:

 

1) Improved Data Management

Data is critical in the healthcare industry. Healthcare systems generate vast amounts of data from various sources, such as electronic health records (EHRs), medical imaging, genomics, wearables, and more. AI algorithms can sift through this data, integrate it from disparate sources, and organize it into meaningful structures for analysis.

 

2) Automated Routine Tasks

By automating routine tasks, medical personnel will have more time to focus on treating patients. With AI handling administrative tasks such as appointment scheduling, answering frequently asked questions, and providing patients with relevant information about their appointments, it reduces the burden on administrative staff and enhances the patient experience by providing 24/7 support. Additionally, AI can help manage a hospital’s billing, inventory management, automated vital data entry, and human resource tasks.

 

3) Minimized Healthcare Costs

AI minimizes healthcare costs through various mechanisms aimed at improving efficiency, the accuracy of data collection and diagnosis, and patient outcomes.

 

4) Improved Accessibility

Medical assistance may not always be accessible to patients, particularly the elderly or disabled. AI can bring quality healthcare services to underserved neighborhoods through remote monitoring or telemedicine.

 

5) Protection Against Fraud

Another way that AI can be beneficial in the healthcare industry is that it can protect the hospital against fraudulent claims. Additionally, it can help secure sensitive information like a patient’s name and other personal information.

 

6) Health Equity Support

AI has the potential to play a significant role in the medical field by improving the transparency of medical research. By reducing human error and bias, AI can go through large volumes of data to produce a streamlined report.

 

In the near future, hybrid models that combine human expertise with AI can support clinicians in diagnosis, treatment planning, and identifying risk factors while retaining ultimate responsibility for the patient’s care. However, the adoption of AI in healthcare still faces challenges, such as the need to meet specific requirements and a lack of trust in the results delivered by an ML system. Despite these challenges, the use of AI in healthcare has already brought numerous benefits to healthcare stakeholders.

 

Introducing CHOPE AI

Artificial Technology Intelligence Solutions (AITS) has developed Chope AI, a solution which transforms building data into a powerful, digitalized resource, facilitating resource optimization with an emphasis on sustainability and green building principles. Its features include environment and resource usage monitoring, location-based asset mapping, contactless access control system, and resource booking for desks, rooms and locker.

 

The solution integrates state-of-the-art technologies such as UWB, Private ChatBot, Predictive ML, Digital Twin, Elastic search engines, and Trend visualization. 

 

Improve tenant comfort, enhance security, optimize space utilization, gain insights into water and power consumption, predict air quality and temperature in specific areas, as well as locate and track the number of people in the vicinity. The data can also be used for future planning and analysis.

 

AITS Delivers Powerful AI Solutions

With CHOPE AI, all you need is a phone, which becomes the key to unlocking a secure and seamless building environment. With just a single sign-on on a mobile app, you can benefit from increased efficiency, security, and convenience.

If you would like to obtain further information on our solutions, please do not hesitate to contact us via email at sales@aitssg.com.

Healthcare