The past few years have reshaped virtually every industry, but none more than health care. From the COVID-19 pandemic to the maturing of artificial intelligence tools, the health sector is undergoing a massive shift, but it may not be shaking out how many people think, according to industry consultant and entrepreneur Aaron Kull.
“Health care has an adoption issue,” says Aaron Kull. “Health care just broadly has an adoption challenge. I think that’s probably the biggest thing that is going to prevent technological advances and innovation. It’s just hard to get [new technologies and ways of seeing the future] proliferated through health care organizations. People are run through different towers, there’s silos. Change management is really challenging.”
While medical advances are among the most sought by researchers and the most anticipated by consumers, the healthcare sector moves slowly. Do you know the latest prescription your doctor sent to the pharmacy? It probably traveled by fax machine.
Aaron Kull: ‘The Coming Crisis Concerns Staffing’
While it took a long time for the industry to fully embrace electronic[2] health records, new realities may not allow for the same leisurely adoption period, says Aaron Kull, who regularly consults with healthcare providers and companies.
“The coming crisis concerns staffing,” Kull says, and sadly, he’s correct: According to the World[3] Health Organization, there will be a staggering shortfall of 15 million healthcare workers by 2030. “That problem is going to be difficult to solve,” Kull continues. “We’re going to see far more reliance on technologies like telemedicine and artificial intelligence, among others.”
Because that’s a distressingly pressing concern for the health care industry, that could be where most AI efforts are directed, he adds. “I think introducing more telemedicine, more AI, ability to access services that don’t necessarily require a face-to-face interaction with a doctor,” he suggests. “Might be satisfied by a nurse or a physician’s assistant or somebody that has prescription abilities. So I think actually looking at aligning care with license and level of service is going to be important.”
Effective Use of AI Could Help, Says Aaron Kull
Generative AI, the kind of software that can write news stories and answer straightforward internet queries, has a problem of sometimes fabricating information out of thin air. That’s OK when the stakes are a web search, but far too dangerous for life-and-death situations. Instead, AI will likely be employed to handle data and assist doctors and nurse practitioners, according to Aaron Kull.
He points out that 2009’s Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act was just the beginning of switching from paper to more efficient methods in the healthcare space. But it also creates new challenges.
“That’s really created, for most organizations, a new problem where they have an extraordinarily large amount of data, or they’re looking for new ways to provide service or experience to patients who are providers and are therefore trying to integrate into this Goliath system that they’ve built,” says Kull.
“What we’re seeing is a lot of trends around integration. We’re seeing a lot of trends around using large amounts of data or figuring out how to even store large amounts of data so that it can be effectively used, and so that it can be effectively accessed when you want to integrate with a third party,” Kull explains. “We’re hearing the words AI a lot, that is very closely tied to this exchange of data. Many times, in a real-time fashion so that artificial intelligence can support and act. Well, that requires a heavy degree of integration and a heavy degree of data management. I think there’s a lot of focus from organizations now on data, technology, around integration. Obviously, around security as well. We know that cybersecurity and [information security] is a huge topic for organizations as well.”
AI has the potential to double-check patients’ diagnoses and ensure that doctors and nurse practitioners haven’t overlooked something — but there’s still the question of whether people will want to be treated by a computer. And, if clinicians begin to lean too heavily on a computer, will their ability to diagnose patients begin to erode?
Right now, the greatest uses for AI come in the form of recordkeeping. AI programs have become adept at transcribing physicians’ notes, relieving much of a daily burden that can take hours. For patients, the most noticeable advances might be invisible. With the coming staffing crunch, technology might preserve the status quo for longer than experts predicted.
“We’re going to see the emergence of more digital care,” says Kull. “We have these organizations — not just telemedicine, but digital X-ray readings, digital lab result readings, things of that nature — where different specialists are stepping in and filling holes for different organizations in more of a digital capacity.”
The post Aaron Kull Unveils Surprising Health Care Tech Transformations appeared first on MineBook.me.