How AI can augment the human experience and drive productivity in healthcare

From diagnostics to acute patient monitoring and self-management of chronic disease, artificial intelligence has shown strong potential to support healthcare providers and patients at every stage of the care continuum. But AI in healthcare is only as strong as the patient outcome and human experience it supports.

As such, when we talk about AI in healthcare, we largely focus on “augmented” intelligence. This is where technology works with the healthcare professional to augment and improve their experience and assist with their decision making; putting healthcare professionals and patients front and centre.

In this article, we’ll cover how using innovative technologies to augment the human experience can help drive productivity in healthcare and address key challenges that the NHS is facing, focusing on image acquisition, data interpretation, decision making and supporting the workforce.

Improving acquisition with faster scans and better image quality

The main strength of AI methods like deep learning is that they can detect, quantify, and classify even the subtlest of patterns in data. This makes them ideally suited to support pattern-centric medical disciplines like radiology and pathology, which face ever-mounting workloads coupled with growing staff shortages.

It’s no secret that the NHS is continuing to face and tackle huge backlog challenges. But equipped with the right AI initiatives, we can support healthcare providers to perform at their best, help staff to feel satisfied in the work that they do, and ultimately help improve patient outcomes.

For example, in MRI we have pioneered speed applications to deliver fast high-quality imaging for a wide range of patients, including those who are in pain, who struggle to hold their breath during the exam, or who may find the experience unpleasant and claustrophobic.

Smart Workflow technology can also support with patient set-up, reducing and simplifying the number of steps needed for patient preparation and automation where possible.

Using AI to support with time-consuming tasks not only helps to increase diagnostic confidence and consistency, but it also saves time, enabling healthcare professionals to focus on interpretation of images and delivering patient-centric care.

Assisting clinical decision-making to drive productivity

As a next step, AI can support with decision-making by acting as a second set of eyes, pointing healthcare professionals to areas of interest or incidental findings they may have overlooked.

For example, plug-in AI can augment the radiology workflow by ensuring the most urgent patients get to the right clinician, at the right time, depending on how critical the situation is. Based on an initial screening of images, AI can alert the appropriate subspecialist to key findings that need urgent inspection, such as a pulmonary embolism.

For time-pressured radiologists who must interpret more images than ever before, such AI-enabled support can make a meaningful difference, ensuring they remain in charge of diagnosis, but spend less time on manually prioritising case load, and more on patient care.

Optimising resources to improve patient outcomes

Productivity in healthcare is not always about pushing more patients through. It’s also about driving better outcomes for these patients, upskilling the existing workforce, and creating capacity within it. This is particularly important at a time where one in three (34 per cent) NHS professionals say they feel burnt out because of their workload.

Fortunately, AI can help improve the staff experience and meet some of the unmet needs of healthcare professionals by streamlining operations within and across departments and supporting them in their workflows or routines. By reducing waste in the system and mitigating pain points, staff can focus on what matters most – delivering quality care.

In addition, we can use AI to upskill the workforce, supporting those who want to further their career in a technical way, ultimately contributing to staff satisfaction and retention.

Partner with purpose

The opportunities for harnessing AI in healthcare are huge. But there can be challenges and it’s difficult for hospitals to do it alone. As digital transformation picks up speed across the NHS and wider industry, more healthcare leaders are recognising the need to partner with experts like Philips to innovate and make use of the many benefits of AI.

Want to know more? Learn about our long-term strategic partnerships.