The 10 Most Innovative Companies Bringing AI to Healthcare The 10 Most Innovative Companies Bringing AI to He | Page 5

Editor’s Column
AI Playing a Significant Role in
the Reduction of Healthcare Cost
A
ccording to recent estimations, 20% of healthcare costs are wasted, globally. The fact
that this waste includes preventable and rectifiable system inefficiencies such as care
delivery failures, over-treatment, and improper care delivery, is even more
concerning. Such inefficiencies can be minimized by technologies like Artificial Intelligence
(AI) very competently, ensuring significantly more cost-effective and stream-lined health
ecosystems.
This technology has been in debate for a long time now. The potential applications of AI based
systems are vast and spread over a plethora of industries, healthcare is no exception. Although
the technology has not attained its full potential yet, there are strong evidences directing to a
number of ways in, which AI can help domesticate healthcare costs.
Healthcare solution providers are moving towards a standard setup to record, analyze and
store healthcare information securely and systematically. This will enable large sets of data to
become available for analysis by AI-enabled systems. These systems will allow us to tract
patterns following the treatment and also find optimum treatments centered on the patients’
profile. In doing so, AI ensures the right interventions and treatments while empowering
clinical decision-making, creating a personalized line of attack to care. Repetitive, simple
tasks such as the analysis of CT scans and certain tests can be done more precisely by
AI-enabled systems, decreases physician error and aids early diagnosis.
Faster development of life-saving drugs and quicker analysis of patient data in clinical trials,
are another potential application of AI, saving billions in costs. AI opens up the prospective to
truly empower individuals to make improved decisions concerning one’s health. Massive
numbers of people across the globe use wearable technology to gather daily data, from their
heart rate to their sleep patterns. This data integrated with machine learning can notify people
at threat of certain diseases, long before it develops into a critical ailment.
These instances characterize a very small part of what possibilities AI will allow us to unravel.
The possibilities can neither be underestimated nor overemphasized. Assistance amongst the
public and private areas of the industry stakeholders is required if AI’s potential has to be
leveraged to the fullest. ‘Perhaps it’s time to call in the machines!’
Sayali Rane, Editor