Romil Bahl is the President and CEO at KORE.
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There was a time in the early aughts when new technology elicited profound excitement. Smartphones took everything from computers to flashlights and put them in our pockets—while social media promised to connect us all. However, in today’s post-pandemic world, that excitement has begun to dwindle.
There seems to be a sense of fear emerging when it comes to some budding technologies. This common fear is that technology will not only put people out of jobs but will also create vulnerabilities and make their lives more difficult. No technology seems to provoke that kind of fear quite like artificial intelligence (AI).
Often written about as the tech that will steal your job or even take over the world, AI is not the boogeyman it’s often portrayed to be. In fact, AI is already here, and you’re probably using it. From chatbots to voice assistants, we interface with AI daily. And while AI might not elicit the same excitement as getting your grandma to use social media, it might just make her life better, especially when it comes to healthcare.
No, that does not mean your doctor is being replaced by a robot. Instead, IoT-powered AI in connected health acts as a support technology, helping healthcare workers improve patient outcomes and fill the gaps left by the pandemic and staff shortages. By leveraging technology like remote patient monitoring (RPM), AI in connected health can improve diagnosis accuracy, aid with medication management and even help prevent diseases before they start—all while helping clinicians get more face time with the patients who need it most.
Pandemic-Proof Care
Post-Covid-19, hospitals around the world are experiencing record-breaking staff shortages (paywall). The remaining staff, namely doctors and nurses, are stretched thinner than ever before as health systems look to manage skyrocketing costs. IoT-powered AI can help.
AI-integrated RPM leverages IoT-connected devices to remotely monitor several patients’ vitals simultaneously. That data is then transmitted wirelessly and analyzed by AI algorithms, which establish individualized baselines for each patient using factors like age and medical history. The AI system then monitors each patient’s vitals and alerts medical staff if anything distressing is detected. This not only alleviates the burden on hospital staff but also enables vulnerable groups like seniors to live independently by receiving care from the comfort of their homes.
Virtual Nursing Assistants: Support, Not Replacement
If you’ve interfaced with any online chat feature in the past couple of years, chances are you’ve interacted with an AI chatbot. From banking to retail, chatbots are a useful tool in determining whether a problem requires human intervention.
The same goes for connected health. Again, that does not mean your nurse is going to look like Rosey the Robot from The Jetsons. AI-powered virtual assistants can help patients identify illnesses based on their symptoms, schedule doctor appointments and connect them to in-person medical treatment or EMS. Think of it like a medical concierge.
Improved Diagnoses And Predictive Care
A key piece of connected health AI is medication adherence, wherein AI uses RPM to monitor patient behavior and predict when they might skip a vital dose of medication. Personalized medication reminders are then automatically deployed, which help patients manage chronic conditions and reduce complications and hospital visits—a chain reaction that can lead to better outcomes and cost savings for patients and healthcare systems alike.
In the future, hybrid-human AI can also improve patient outcomes by using algorithms for breast cancer prediction. It can also analyze X-rays to identify abnormalities such as skin cancer and alert patients and clinicians when a human expert is needed.
A Human Touch
While the use cases for IoT-powered AI offer an exciting glimpse into the future of healthcare, the technology does not come without its limitations. Even with AI diagnoses and predictive analytics, a live clinician is still required to adequately examine patient X-rays and validate the algorithm’s findings. Despite the margin of error closing in terms of diagnosis accuracy, advanced AI models are not without their faults (i.e., false positive test results), which brings into question the overarching human element of telemedicine.
While patient portals and AI chatbots are great for scheduling appointments and receiving instant answers to certain medical questions, highly sensitive information—like a cancer diagnosis—requires nuanced and often difficult conversations with patients and their families that AI is not equipped to handle. Bedside manner doesn’t mean much if there isn’t a bedside, so software developers and clinicians need to keep patient dignity in mind when crafting and utilizing connected health solutions.
Connecting The Dots
As its name suggests, a key element of connected health is connectivity. The current and future uses of AI in healthcare, while exciting and potentially lifesaving, are not possible without reliable IoT connectivity to securely transmit patient data. AI bridges the gap between patients and their healthcare team created by variables like pandemics and staff shortages, as well as factors like disability and location.
Rather than the job-stealing "Terminator" it’s often made out to be, IoT-powered AI in connected health can enable independence and grant healthcare professionals greater insights into their patients. If deployed responsibly and with the proper intentions, it can support, not replace, hospital staff and help restore the human element that is often lost in our changing world.
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{Author}Romil Bahl, Forbes Councils Member{/Author}
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