Craig Richardville Explains How Technology is Changing Healthcare

Artificial intelligence (AI) has many incredible benefits for the healthcare field in Pittsburgh. AI has the capability to transform the way patients receive their care and to provide important cost savings.

With AI in the picture, providers can automate some of their repetitive and time-consuming tasks and spend more face time with patients who truly need their personal attention. AI can also streamline administrative tasks and help offices run more smoothly. Craig Richardville, a healthcare consultant with a focus on technology, describes the potential ways in which AI can benefit patients and providers alike.

Robot-Assisted Surgery

One area in which many breakthroughs have been made is robot-assisted surgery. Robots are incredibly precise and can be programmed to perform surgical tasks with a steadier hand than their human counterparts. With robot surgery, more procedures can be done in a minimally invasive fashion. This reduces the time that patients need to heal from surgery and may lessen side effects such as infections that keep people in the hospital longer.

AI surgery has the potential to eliminate many complications and improve patient outcomes. In a 2017 study of 379 patients at nine different hospitals, AI-assisted orthopedic surgery resulted in five times fewer complications.

AI in Primary Care

An emerging technology in primary care is the use of AI systems as virtual nursing assistants. An AI assistant can take patients’ symptoms and determine the correct medical professional who can help the patient. AI nurses can answer questions and provide timely care to patients. In the future, these systems may be able to diagnose common ailments and provide suggestions for their care. For now, these systems are overseen by doctors and nurses.

Image Analysis

Processing diagnostic images takes a great deal of doctors’ time and effort. Radiologists spend much of their time carefully examining these images to find evidence of disease or injury. AI systems can help radiologists interpret images and greatly reduce the time needed to analyze each one. This helps patients get their results sooner and enables radiologists to increase their workflow.

Help with Diagnostics

On the forefront of AI patient care are systems which help doctors diagnose ailments. Algorithms are able to diagnose heart attacks over the phone when they are given access to 911 dispatchers’ phone calls, and they can also help to diagnose cancer metastasis better than humans. This emerging field has a great deal of potential to help patients, but it is some years away from being rolled out for general use.

Administrative Tasks

Doctors and nurses in Pittsburgh spend a large fraction of their time dealing with paperwork and records. With AI assistance, the time needed to process patient records and handle paperwork can be greatly reduced. Combining technologies like speech-to-text and AI algorithms, these systems are able to give doctors and nurses more time to spend with each patient. The overall quality of care is increased, and the cost is reduced.

Cybersecurity

AI systems can detect unauthorized access to data and warn administrators about privacy breaches. They can also help to combat the effects of viruses and ransomware. Since health data is uniquely sensitive, it is crucial to have as many layers of protection as possible.

Concerns

The primary concern in implementing AI for healthcare is that these systems may mishandle data or violate patients’ privacy. Developers are hard at work on safeguards that will help AI systems handle data in a sensitive fashion.

The AI Revolution

With incredible new developments coming onto the market, AI has the capability to enhance patients’ experience with the health care system while automating some of the tedious legwork performed by providers. AI will form an important part of healthcare in the Pittsburgh area in the years to come.