AI faces many barriers as it changes the future of health care
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Key takeaways:
- Challenges include FDA clearances and showing better outcomes to insurance companies.
- Many health care professionals are apprehensive about AI but optimistic about its future.
AI has been widely discussed in the realm of health care. Like any new technology, it faces barriers in implementation, according to Ronald M. Razmi, MD, cardiologist and cofounder of Zoi Capital.
“AI is a foundational technology,” Razmi, who also is the author of AI Doctor: The Rise of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare – A Guide for Users, Buyers, Builders, and Investors, told Healio. “It’s not like it’s a new drug or a new device. It’s a methodology to evaluate large amounts of data and figure out what that data means.”
He explained that the eventual implementation of AI will have numerous implications in improving clinical care, research, and efficiency. One of the biggest ways AI can improve health care is by introducing systems that can examine thousands of data points at a time and provide immediate analysis.
“For example, in radiology, you have digital images,” Razmi said. “That’s perfect for AI because you can train it to find a tumor or bleeding in a CAT scan.”
AI will also have a significant impact in allergy and asthma care, according to Razmi.
“It’s not like we cured allergy or asthma,” Razmi said. “There are a couple of areas where AI is going to have an impact. The research of what really triggers an allergic response, AI can accelerate that by collecting specimens and analyzing the molecules of the reactions.”
AI has already been shown to be useful in allergy and asthma care by streamlining data management and making the practice of medicine more efficient. Digital monitoring has even been shown to be effective in reducing ED visits for asthma patients.
“Historically, monitoring programs haven’t been very successful because there’s nobody on the other end to receive the data, analyze it, [and] figure out what needs to be done. The amount of manpower needed for something like that is enormous,” Razmi said.
“However, if you have technologies like AI, that data generated from a device used to measure exhalation or the amount of drugs being administered into your lungs can be analyzed automatically and figure out the next best step,” he continued.
For example, devices that measure exhalation or the amount of medication administered into the lungs, as well as the lungs’ reaction, generate a lot of data, he said.
“If AI could sit on top of all that data and figure out what it means, we can actually improve management of these patients,” Razmi said.
Research is another big area where AI can make a long-term difference, according to Razmi. With the power of rapid data analysis, whether it be from genomes; microbiomes, bacteria and viruses in our guts; or even wearable devices that collect data such as the number of steps, blood oxygen, and more, AI can find patterns and clues to our health in all of this data.
“We don’t have any way to analyze that data today,” Razmi said. “The human mind can’t process billions of data points, which certainly the genome and the microbiome include billions and trillions. Using our traditional research methods, it would take decades and centuries to find a lot of these abnormalities in there and figure out how things work.”
AI is already doing just that in COVID-19 research by helping experts comb through data that would lead to the development of new vaccines and even potentially a cure for the virus.
However, the implementation of AI into health care will require numerous factors, many having to do with challenges such as receiving FDA clearances and building trust with insurance companies. Razmi explained that adoption of AI technologies in the medical field has so far been on the slower side, partly due to professional apprehension.
“People resist it because they’re afraid of change,” Razmi said. “They don’t know how to use it. They don’t know how it’s going to affect their jobs, their incomes. They don’t know if this is going to make their jobs easier or if it’s going to make it harder.”
Although many health professionals are optimistic about AI, some are fearful of its potential effects, such as losing their jobs and incomes and becoming replaceable, which is why many specialty organizations have taken a proactive approach in controlling the adoption of AI, as well as the way it is being presented to insurance companies, according to Razmi.
“Major organizations have taken a very hands-on proactive approach to make sure they’re controlling this conversation,” he said. “They are controlling the adoption in a way that their jobs and incomes are not necessarily affected.”
Voice-enabled technology is promising to alleviate burnout and reduce documentation time by 72% in primary care. This is one of the steps Razmi said he is very optimistic about when it comes to paving the path for AI in health care.
“This is the kind of thing where physicians could actually see a benefit right now,” he said. “Yes, it’s not curing cancer. But it’s really important in an area where we have a lack of manpower, people are overwhelmed [and] they’re short staffed. This could provide tremendous benefit.”
Making technologies that help reduce burnout and staff shortages become mainstream is one of the main drivers for the adoption of AI today, Razmi said. When people are seeing the benefits of AI first-hand, he continued, it engenders good feelings and openness to additional applications.
“I think right now, adopting a pragmatic approach and solving immediate problems, using these technologies that benefit people within this community, this is the way it goes,” he said. “That’s perfect.”
For more information:
Ronald M. Razmi, MD, can be reached at ron@zoicap.com.