Few industries may gain advantage from financial help as much because the healthcare sector. The high cost of diagnostic equipment, medical supplies and drug therapies — plus the electricity and water required to run medical centers — adds up quickly. Those bills are sometimes passed all the way down to patients, leaving them with massive medical debt. AI may be about to alter that — if we are able to use it well.

How Much Money Could AI Save?

In response to a 2023 report from the National Bureau of Economic Research, greater adoption of AI — a minimum of, the kind currently available on the market — could result in 5–10% savings in U.S. healthcare spending. That equates to anywhere from $200 billion to $360 billion annually. Even higher, this figure doesn’t consider future advancements in AI, which may lead to much more savings.

Where Will AI Save Money in Healthcare?

As artificial intelligence becomes much more advanced, the savings could develop into even greater. Where will AI have the best financial impact?

Streamlining Medical Visits

The word “patient” has never been more apt. In 2022, the typical wait time for brand spanking new patients to see a health care provider for a non-urgent appointment was 26 days, an 8% increase compared to 2017. Desperate individuals are increasingly turning to urgent care centers for help, with almost 71% of those facilities now offering digital radiography to try to satisfy patients’ needs. If AI helped appointments go faster, doctors could see more patients and generate more revenue.

AI could create automated summaries of a patient’s medical history and interactions with a clinic, including their symptoms, diagnoses, treatments and appointment dates. Doctors and nurses could use it to drag relevant info from patient charts, imaging reports or lab results. AI may even provide translation services, helping doctors communicate with their patients without assistance from a human translator.

Lowering Administrative Costs

In 2019, the healthcare industry cost the U.S. $3.8 trillion, with 25% going toward administrative functions like bookkeeping, scheduling, answering phone calls and sending emails. AI can easily take over — or a minimum of streamline — those tasks.

For instance, ChatGPT can draft emails for a wide range of different recipients and specific scenarios in a matter of seconds. It will probably comb through large bodies of text and summarize the fundamental points for the reader. AI could also help pharmacists see how quickly a patient goes through their current prescription or track once they’re due for a refill.

Importantly, AI can power virtual assistant chatbots to assist patients manage their health info or schedule appointments. Reducing the time spent on administrative tasks would mean more time available to assist actual patients.

Aiding Diagnosis and Treatment

Researchers have recognized the potential for AI to assist diagnose patients since the Nineteen Seventies. The conversation about using AI for this purpose is just growing louder.

Scientists consider algorithms could analyze CT scans, ultrasounds, X-rays and MRIs to search for hidden pathologies. AI can detect patterns and anomalies in blood pressure, pulse rate, body temperature, and more. It will probably process large volumes of patient data and estimate potential problems before doctors review the charts, speeding up the diagnostic process to avoid wasting money and time.

Doctors can use AI to find out one of the best treatment options for specific conditions. It will probably help physicians notice drug interactions and follow beneficial guidelines for complex cases. Having multiple data sources gives doctors a clearer picture of patients’ health, improving the accuracy of diagnosis and treatment.

Improving Writing and Recordkeeping

Medical professionals can use AI to dictate their notes about each visit on a tablet or computer. Then, an algorithm can summarize the important thing details of every document, including the patient’s past medical history, current condition, diagnosis and treatment plan.

AI may also help healthcare professionals write medical reports about individual patients, clinical trials or the progression of diseases world wide. It could even be useful for recruiting people for clinical trials. The algorithm could discover individuals who meet a trial’s eligibility criteria and help doctors write highly targeted, efficient recruitment copy.

Creating Symptom Checkers

AI-powered symptom checkers are invaluable tools for helping patients determine what may be flawed with them. Patients select or type of their symptoms on an app, and the software returns an inventory of possible diagnoses.

While symptom checkers are obviously not an alternative to seeing a health care provider, in some cases, they’ll prevent unnecessary medical visits. For instance, if a patient’s only symptom is a runny nose, the software will likely tell them they’ve a chilly or allergies, each of which may often be managed at home. The patient can then avoid wasting money and time on a health care provider’s visit.

Then again, if the symptom checker indicates something more serious is happening, a patient who would normally avoid the doctor might make an appointment. Catching diseases early often lowers the associated fee of treatment and improves patient outcomes.

Monitoring Global Health 

AI has the potential to detect disease outbreaks before epidemiologists do. In 2019, an AI algorithm flagged the sudden spate of pneumonia cases in China as a possible problem around the identical time, doctors noticed the situation. The disease turned out to be COVID-19.

Epidemiologists can use AI to comb through social media posts and search for keywords — like “cough” or “flu” — to flag possible epidemics. It will probably also search for evidence people distrust doctors or vaccines, helping experts determine where one other hotspot may emerge.

AI can monitor and track diseases in real time to calculate the chance of widespread infection. For instance, video footage may also help epidemiologists with contact tracing, determining who’s spreading an illness and where. Experts can then advise individuals who could also be infected to self-isolate or see a health care provider.

Through modeling, artificial intelligence can predict how diseases will interact with different drugs. It will probably determine how pathologies spread and what number of individuals are typically infected in a given area.

A Powerful Recent Tool

Artificial intelligence has the potential to alter the healthcare industry dramatically. By reducing patient wait times, automating administrative tasks, tracking global health, and helping doctors with diagnosis and treatment, AI could profoundly improve patient outcomes. At the identical time, it would lower the associated fee of healthcare overall, making treatments more accessible for countless people. AI truly has the facility to avoid wasting lives.