Artificial Intelligence (AI) is widely expected to drive important benefits across the health system, from increasing efficiency to improving patient outcomes, but it also may be key to making healthcare more human. Benefits range from increasing the amount of time clinicians can spend with patients and on cross-care team collaboration to enhancing the ability to deliver preventative care.
According to a new study of more than 900 healthcare professionals in the U.S. and the U.K. conducted by MIT Technology Review Insights with GE Healthcare, nearly half of medical professionals surveyed said AI is already increasing their ability to spend time with and provide care to patients. Additionally, more than 78 percent of healthcare business leaders who reported they have deployed AI in their operations also reported that AI has helped drive workflow improvements, streamlining operational and administrative activities and delivering significant efficiencies toward transforming the future of healthcare.
“Of any industry, AI could have the most profound benefits on human lives if we can effectively harness it across the healthcare system,” said Kieran Murphy, President and CEO, GE Healthcare. Based on the study, which examines how AI is currently impacting healthcare professionals and the patients they serve today, roadblocks to adoption and opportunities for the future, GE Healthcare and MIT Technology Review Insights found that AI implementation is pervasive with 7 out of 10 healthcare providers already adopting or considering adopting AI.
Among those surveyed, 81 percent believe AI will improve their performance by making them more competitive, and 80 percent believe it is already helping or will help them improve revenues. Even more notably, institutions that have already implemented AI technologies reported that it is playing a key part in rebalancing physician workload from administrative to patient-focused tasks, resulting in more time with patients and collaborating with colleagues across healthcare disciplines.
AI has also helped alleviate a significant challenge for healthcare providers and institutions facing a rise in health worker burnout over the past decade. In fact, 80 percent of those surveyed indicated that AI has been instrumental in helping to remove barriers and reduce worker burnout. This paves the way for future improvements as AI-enabled technology scales across organizations to help improve data analysis, enable better diagnoses and treatment predictions, and further free medical staff from administrative burdens. Additionally, the vast majority of survey respondents believe AI represents the extension – not extinction – of professional capabilities in healthcare.
Other key survey findings include:
- Medical professionals using AI applications are seeing immediate gains in reducing clinical error
- 75% of medical staff who have AI stated it has enabled better predictions in the treatment of disease
- 78% have reported that their AI deployments have already created workflow improvements
- 60% of AI-empowered medical staff expect to spend more time performing procedures versus administrative or other work
- 68% spend more time collaborating with other staff and across clinical care areas, leading to potential benefits in patient care and precision health
These trends are only expected to grow with survey results indicating that nearly 80 percent of healthcare institutions plan to increase their spending on AI in the next two years, including diverse technologies ranging from medical imaging and diagnostics to patient data and risk analytics. Further, nearly three in four healthcare institutions that use or plan to use AI will develop their own AI algorithms in the next two years.
Detailed survey findings and methodology can be found at: