Health Analytics and Artificial Intelligence Insights

The changes that AI will usher into healthcare are already underway. According to an article in the Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law, and Ethics, AI’s in-progress transformation of healthcare delivery can be categorized into at least four major areas: 

• Pushing frontiers of medical knowledge
  AI is being used to predict patient outcomes at high rates of accuracy, enabling clinicians to be more proactive in treating patients and mitigating further risk of disease progression. For example, AI may be used to better predict factors such as suicide risk, the likelihood of re-hospitalization, or the adverse effects of medication on a particular population.  
  
  
• Replicating and democratizing medical expertise 
  AI can be used to supplement provider expertise. For example, some AI programs are using images of the human eye to provide information that otherwise would require an ophthalmologist. Using AI image analysis, a general practitioner or other non-specialist can diagnose after interpreting the results.  
  
  
• Automating drudgery within the medical system
  Providers spend much of their time documenting results in electronic medical records, reading screens, and recording real-time information during patient visits. Using AI to automate these tasks can greatly reduce their administrative burden. 
  
  
• Allocating scarce medical resources 
  AI can be used to manage resources. For example, AI can predict which hospital departments may need additional staffing, suggest which patients might benefit the most from additional medical resources, or identify ways to maximize hospitals’ operational revenues.  

Booz Allen is fully committed to helping our healthcare and life science clients realize AI’s potential to transform medicine while avoiding all-to-common pitfalls such as algorithmic bias or online privacy breaches. Our clinicians, scientists, and bioinformaticians work hand in hand with our analytics and AI experts across health and other industries to share best practices and inspire specialized innovation.

We know you’re wondering how healthcare and life science can better take advantage of all that AI has to offer. The insights below will shed some light on how we can tackle the future, together.