The 21st-century digital citizen
Meet Shaun, the epitome of a 21st-century digital citizen who is extremely proactive about his health. A tech-savvy middle-aged man learns a lot about his health using wearables devices. He monitors his blood glucose level on his own. He is aware of his level of risk for conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease as he has used a DNA testing service to access his genetic information. When Shaun visits his physician, he is armed with related data so he can participate in making decisions about his care plan. He also works closely with his life insurance company to link his lifestyle and well-being efforts to his policy premium. While Shaun is the exception today, people like him are going to drive innovations in care management and digitization of healthcare.
As technologies such as machine learning and IoT increase in the healthcare industry and augment physicians in the care equation, it is 21st-century citizens like Shaun who will lead in a new era where people take better charge of their care and wellness.
How Artificial Intelligence is changing the Healthcare industry?
Human interaction is the core of proper healthcare. The risk of job loss due to automation is lower in the healthcare industry compared to others because of this. AI can enable nurses, executives, and clinicians are efficient and give more time to connect with patients and provide more personalized care.
Recognizing the efficiency AI brings to healthcare, the American Medical Association has renamed AI as “augmented intelligence.”The technology helps doctors and other healthcare professionals take better care of patients.
AI advances can make healthcare efficient and effective in identifying every stakeholder and streamlining who, what, and where of healthcare. This will position the doctors and healthcare professionals in a better position to deliver personalized, compassionate care.
- When AI is used to identify patients with more significant needs, caregivers can spend less time searching for the right care and more time providing patients with specialized care. They can also focus more on engaging with patients’ families, friends, and communities.
- When AI is used to learn from data of millions of patients and advise doctors on diagnoses and treatments, doctors can invest more time in treating the patient most effectively and spend less time searching. AI can transform personalized care by eliminating the need for doctors to rediscover lessons learned.
- When AI is used to forecast admissions and plan staffing, administrators can spend less time managing hospital operations and more time improving care for bigger populations. Management can dedicate more time to devising chronic disease management programs and community outreach initiatives such as volunteer medical projects for underserved people.
Of course, there is the danger that an AI-driven tool will perpetuate “bad habits” because, by default, AI has an inherent bias. That bias is continuously refined by iterating the AI algorithm using more data. So, AI and tools such as robotic process automation need a robust governance process to guard against so-called bias. Administrators, doctors, nurses, and patients are eager for technologies that can improve the quality of care. For healthcare organizations that learn to unite fragmented data systems and apply AI, AI can shift healthcare jobs from administration to human connection, compassion, and personalized care.
How can ONE BCG help?
With more than 20 years of experience, ONE BCG offers a wide range of provider, payer, and life sciences solutions for healthcare organizations around the globe. Our portfolio of healthcare-related services is focused on such areas as digital care transformation and healthcare data analytics. ONE BCG delivers healthcare innovation by tapping into our expertise and resources while leveraging industry partnerships to bring together all the pieces of the healthcare ecosystem. Through our digital-generation services delivery model, we provide intelligent automation at scale to accelerate innovation and transformation in healthcare.