1. New AI Applications and Concerns of the Medical Community
One of the fastest growing trends in health information technology: Recent years have seen the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, and the trend will continue in 2024. Standing among many industries that benefit from AI, medicine mainly applies it to profound diagnostics and detection of diseases, but it’s not limited to them. For example, IBM Watson is one of the AI platforms already available for business and healthcare (including custom medical software solutions).
Let’s see what support AI can offer healthcare and associated industries and how it could become the major healthtech trend in the future.
Computed Tomography Scan Analysis
Since the COVID-19 pandemic has stricken the planet’s population, the strain put upon computed diagnostic specialists (radiologists) has dramatically increased.
A system driven by AI could be a solution. Healthcare AI algorithms can swiftly process computed tomography scans of thousands of patients, detecting pneumonia patterns caused by COVID-19 and reporting these to clinicians. That would compensate for a shortage of skilled human resources in this field.
Innovative projects are unfolding before our eyes. Imaging COVID-19, for instance, was established as a deep learning model for automated detection of COVID-19 patterns on CT scans. Another promising project for computed tomography scan processing is the Microsoft-backed InnerEye research project.
Even though accuracy has dramatically improved, radiologists are still concerned about trusting important decisions to the digital mind. It is impossible to hold AI accountable in the case of a wrong diagnosis or counterproductive treatment. Instead, the specialist who decided to use AI pays for their mistake and must do everything possible to mitigate the negative consequences while making the most of this digital health trend.
For this reason, most advanced clinics use AI as a supplementary tool rather than a solo diagnostic or treatment practice. It is great for confirming existing diagnoses or enriching research data that is collected in traditional ways.
Healthcare IT Trends: Robotics to Automate Hospital Workflows
In 2024, startups worldwide will invest hundreds of millions in the development of AI projects, including different kinds of robotic systems, potentially allowing them to cut the cost of hiring qualified hospital staff.
The idea is not to replace humans with machines, causing unemployment and a decrease in social standards, but to help medical facilities that already experience an acute deficit in nurses and clinicians due to the COVID-19 pandemic that has put the whole healthcare system under unprecedented pressure. Read more about the development of medical HR software that can help HR specialists to cope with the medical workforce crisis in the U.S.
When realizing these ambitious health tech trends and plans, innovative companies should not forget about the limitations the medical community exerts on AI-driven software, its capabilities, and applications. There is limitless potential for using robotic helpers and automated systems in modern medicine: hygiene, surgery, remote diagnostics, etc., but the welfare of medical professionals and the successful treatment of patients remain the utmost priorities of the healthcare system.
With this in mind, AI-driven and robotic systems will be used to augment traditional practices rather than replacing them, creating a powerful merger of the past and the future. The mix of bold initiatives and their sound regulation is among the top digital health trends in the industry. It will allow clinicians to make the most of cutting-edge technologies, learn to apply them in rewarding and safe ways, and avoid possible risks.
Symptom Checker Chatbots
Chatbots are AI-backed computer applications (sometimes not full-blooded AI but sophisticated algorithms) conducting human-like meaningful conversations via voice, textual, or option-based input.
They are becoming popular and widespread in every industry, including healthcare and medical consulting. Such solutions, accessible 24/7 online or via mobile devices, are capable of preliminary medical diagnostics and health advisory based on a patient’s inputs and complaints. Chatbots can also be integrated with custom patient portals for hospitals and clinics.
They can help patients address their health conditions and concerns, even for acute conditions when human medical assistants are out of reach for some reason (such as disaster-induced overloads of call centers, peak or non-operation hours, etc.)
Such chatbots can help patients to identify their next steps and encourage them to seek qualified medical assistance when necessary. However, care must be taken as they can lead to misinformation and incorrect self-diagnosis. We’ve all been there!
If you’re looking to enhance your healthcare website or patient portal with a chatbot solution, get in touch with TATEEDA GLOBAL for a free consultation.
Globalization of AI Requirements in Healthcare
A mighty alliance of the U.S. FDA, Health Canada, and the United Kingdom’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) have formulated ten guidelines that can underlie the development of GMLP (Good Machine Learning Practice). These principles will assist developers and AI engineers in the process of designing and producing safe medical devices, applications, and systems backed by artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) technologies or components. This identifies that governments take AI-related opportunities and threats very seriously and prefer to regulate the practices of AI implementation in healthcare as early as possible.
Adoption of AI-backed Technologies By Hackers Targeting Healthcare
The major downside of artificial intelligence technology enhancement is that AI applications will be used not only to save human lives or assist medical professionals in their daily tasks but also exploited by hackers to attack medical systems and steal protected healthcare information. Sophisticated AI-powered malware is a real issue for medical cybersecurity professionals and one of the rising health tech threats in 2024 and beyond.
What health tech solutions are at risk? Almost anything that might feature insufficient protection or loopholes, including computer-aided systems of healthcare providers and health insurance companies, EMR/EHR solutions, IoT, and wireless systems in hospitals, clinics, or health centers. Patients and company employees can also be targeted with sophisticated social engineering and phishing attacks.
Because of AI’s growing ability to mimic photorealistic 3D faces or organically sounding voices, this feature can be used by hackers to simulate personal identities in the course of next-generation super-personalized social engineering and phishing campaigns that can become as dangerous and deceiving as never before in history. This requires the implementation of high-end data protection mechanisms that can neutralize potential risks imposed by AI-supported hackery tactics.
2. Data Breach Prevention
Despite all the tech precautions and healthcare provider awareness, data breach statistics demonstrate a dramatic increase over the past ten years, with violations reaching their peak in 2021/2022.
These data breaches affect thousands of patients across the U.S. Hopefully, in 2023, healthcare providers pay more attention to their digital ecosystems and data protection. Cybersecurity in healthcare is becoming a hot technology trend for this decade.
How to Prevent Data Breaches in Healthcare?
The US government pays great attention to medical record security, which is regulated by HIPAA and EDI in healthcare.
There are several efficient practices every healthcare provider should adhere to:
- Conduct annual cybersecurity checks to ensure everything stays in compliance with HIPAA security rules and robust technology standards.
- Employ only reliable third-party partners for your ongoing tech maintenance or outsourced projects.
- Keep your medical staff trained and educated regarding data security and cybersecurity principles, risks, best practices, and consequences of non-compliance.
- Keep your devices and healthcare records under professional tech supervision: make sure staff log out of all unattended devices, anti-malware checks are regularly scheduled, etc.
- Make sure all systems are up-to-date and protected against unauthorized access.
- Manage a Wi-Fi network for guests and visitors so that no unauthorized users can access any restricted areas of your facility’s network.
- Manage your IT infrastructure to make sure all hardware is protected and well-functioning.
- Hire a qualified in-house IT manager.
Facial Recognition With Masks
Owing to its convenience, facial recognition became one of the most popular technologies, ensuring authorized access of medical staff members to handheld devices or workstations.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s critical to implement deep learning facial recognition algorithms to correctly recognize staff members with masks on their faces. According to some reports, some companies have already delivered facial recognition of mask-wearing individuals with 99.9% accuracy.