(FEBRUARY 13, 2019) by Charles Towers-Clark
The healthcare sector is facing a host of severe problems that do not have one overarching solution. Globally there is a shortage of 7.2 million healthcare workers, and a rapidly aging population will only add more strain to the doctors that remain. New technology powered by AI could provide the relief that physicians need, but there are many obstacles in improve in the short term.
The AI healthcare market is expected to reach nearly $20B by 2024, and the big four tech companies have made clear their plans to take their own slice of the pie – but without the right approach, AI and emerging tech may just give doctors more to think about. With so much business potential at stake, and such a complex operational landscape to navigate, will emerging technologies alleviate the burden on doctors, or simply cause more problems?
Anyone thinking of introducing technology into the healthcare sector has to conform with strict regulations around patient information and physician practices, and navigate some of the largest obstacles to entry of any industry. Hospitals are incredibly bureaucratic places that make it difficult for any decision to be made without spending hours on patient administration. This bureaucracy, coupled with a lack of doctors and high instances of burnout, means that learning an entirely new technology-enabled system is not feasible for doctors. ‘You have an enormous cultural shift in behavior that has to happen,’ says Art Papier, CEO of VisualDx an AI diagnostic system, ‘it’s not going to happen overnight.’
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