Generative AI In Healthcare: Advantages, Use Cases

Modern generative AI solutions are slowly but surely transforming the healthcare industry. Currently, these products mainly handle administrative tasks, allowing professionals to dedicate their time to more pressing activities. But there’s a lot more to AI tools than being an advanced hospital administrator. For these reasons, 98% of organizations worldwide have a strategy for using them or planning to have one.

The latest forecasts show that between 2023 and 2032, the generative AI in the healthcare market will grow with a CAGR of 35.14%. By the end of this period, it’s estimated to exceed $21.74 billion. This article is all about the various applications and advantages of AI in the medical field and the challenges it brings along. 

AI In Healthcare: Advantages and Disadvantages

Like all types of technology, generative AI tools offer perks that make them a great addition to the healthcare industry. 

Data analysis and diagnosis establishment: AI-powered products work with vast volumes of information faster than humans. They scan clinical studies, medical records, and patient data to help professionals make accurate diagnoses.

Health monitoring and digital consulting: Using generative AI for healthcare provides access to virtual doctor appointments from the comfort of smart devices. These consultations can cut hospital visits by 50%.

Personalizing treatments: AI solutions personalize patient treatment by analyzing their genetics, unique physiological traits, and responses to prescribed medicine.

Predicting diseases and epidemics: These products forecast outbreaks, pinpoint high-risk patients and provide valuable insights into disease prevention.

Automating administrative tasks: Modern generative AI healthcare solutions automate mundane tasks such as scan analysis, data entries, and record maintenance. This leaves organizations with more time to handle urgent situations.

Unfortunately, artificial intelligence still has drawbacks medical professionals refer to the most when discussing the use of this technology in healthcare.

Security and privacy concerns: Healthcare organizations work with sensitive patient information that must be kept private. Many institutions are reluctant to give access to such data to AI solutions.

Lack of standards: Medical organizations lack rules and regulations regarding AI use in their daily operations. This leads to potential risks and uncertainties.

Ethical concerns: Regarding the use of generative AI for healthcare, experts don’t like the idea of involving this tech in sensitive decisions. There’s no telling how AI will prioritize patients or provide end-of-life care.

Adaptation: Organizations have little experience in using AI solutions on a wide scale. Training the staff to work with this technology can be challenging and time-consuming.

Integration costs: Medical organizations are discouraged by the financial aspects of developing and introducing AI tools to their systems. They doubt that this process will be worth the price.

Generative AI Healthcare Use Cases

Currently, generative AI healthcare products offer many use cases for organizations to explore. Some are more developed than others, showing tangible benefits of implementation in internal processes at medical institutions.

1. Creating Test Medical Data

Researchers can’t freely work with real patient data for ethical and legal reasons. Creating fictional data helps professionals check health products before using them in real life. There are several ways generative AI solutions aid them.

• Customization. One of the main advantages of AI in the medical field is the ability to fine-tune generative models to create information with specific features. This allows researchers to get datasets for particular purposes.
• Privacy. Modern AI solutions create synthetic data without using real patient records. They ensure that the information generated fits the parameters of various healthcare research studies.
• Realism. These tools help medical professionals get their hands on life-like patient information. They get realistic datasets about various medical conditions, scenarios, and demographics.

2. Drug Discovery and Development

Healthcare organizations conduct experiments and scientific research before introducing new medicines. The potential of cutting down drug development costs by 70% is one of most significant AI in healthcare advantages companies can anticipate. This is accomplished by automating and enhancing several areas of this process.

• Predicting drug interactions. AI products assist pharmaceutical scientists in assessing the safety and efficiency of drug combinations. This research is crucial in designing successful combination treatments.
• Generating compounds. Generative AI solutions propose new chemical compounds and help find potential candidates for new types of medicine.
• Designing clinical trials. AI tools assess previous data and optimize trial design. Generative tools identify suitable patient groups and predict potential challenges.

3. Medical Imaging

These solutions create visual representations of a person’s body for clinical analysis and medical interventions. This information is important in making diagnoses, treating, and monitoring patient conditions. There are several ways generative AI healthcare

products improve medical imaging.

• Image enhancement. Generative AI solutions improve the quality of CT scans, MRI’s, and other images, reducing noise and artifacts. This leads to more accurate diagnoses.
• Pathology prediction. Artificial intelligence tools help identify and predict pathologies, leading to early detection and intervention.
• Visual segmentation. These tools divide images of tissues and organs, allowing doctors to identify abnormalities better.

4. Personalized Treatment

Using generative AI for healthcare opens opportunities for developing individual treatment plans. Generative AI solutions help medical institutions achieve a new level of personal care thanks to several features.

• Clinical decision support. These tools offer real-time recommendations for treatment options based on a person’s genetics. This helps experts make better decisions without having to research clinical data on their own.
• Patient communication. Healthcare institutions use generative AI solutions to improve doctor-patient communications. These products break down complex facts, making it easier for people to understand the benefits and drawbacks of certain treatments.
• Practice standardization. AI solutions aid healthcare organizations in understanding genetic data and implementing personal treatment into their daily practice. Consistency is key to enhancing the quality and reliability of care.

5. Medical Research And Data Analysis

Healthcare organizations work on medical research and analyze data to develop scientific knowledge and lead to better patient outcomes. Legal and privacy constraints, and a lack of standardized systems keep these organizations from fully realizing their potential. Generative AI solutions help them in several areas of these activities.

• Data processing. Generative AI solutions in healthcare analyze large datasets, extract information, and review documentation. This leaves researchers more time to focus on the crucial aspects of their daily work.
• Trend analysis. These tools use the advantages of AI in the medical field to establish and analyze trends and patterns in the field of medical research. With their help, researchers keep up with the latest findings and adjust their approach accordingly.
• Research optimization. Modern AI tools help organizations with limited funding or access to high-end technology through task automation and resource optimization. This allows even the smallest institutions to make their discoveries.

6. Training and Education

Medical institutions keep their experts updated on the latest developments in different areas of research and treatment. There are several use cases where generative AI tools shine the most.

• Realistic simulations. These tools create visual simulations for training new and current medical staff. Institutions use them to run virtual medical procedures, surgeries, and patient scenarios.
• Ongoing education. Organizations utilize AI in healthcare advantages to provide accurate and up-to-date information without spending hours on finding the right data. This ensures constant progress and improvement.
• Mastering new tools. It’s possible to use generative AI in medicine to teach professionals how to work with new pieces of equipment and tools. These products break down complicated manuals and instructions to their basics.

7. Predicting Pandemics Preparedness

The healthcare field still struggles with identifying potential pandemics. This process is imposed by slow pathogen identification and gathering of relevant data. Generative AI tools play an important role in pandemic prediction and preparedness thanks to several applications.

• Early detection. These products process real-time data from health reports, environmental data, and social media posts to find signs of increasing infectious disease cases.
• Vaccine development optimization. Pharmaceutical companies and researchers use generative AI in medicine to quickly discover new drugs. These solutions help achieve this by analyzing genetic data and finding potential vaccine candidates.
• Scenario planning. Using these tools to create hypothetical scenarios based on current conditions and historical data is possible. This information helps healthcare organizations better prepare for different pandemic outcomes.

Generative AI In Healthcare Examples

Organizations involved in medical research and patient treatment already use generative AI tools. Currently, Google’s large language model, called Med-PaLM2 2, is available to a select group of organizations and is one of the most robust on the market. Several healthcare companies use it combined with other AI solutions.

1. Bayer Pharma

This company heavily invests in researching generative AI in healthcare to save costs and reduce the time between drug development and production. Its experts use these tools to access, identify, and mine for research data. Generative AI helps them draft and translate clinical trial communications and automate daily tasks. Google and Bayer work together to streamline the chemical calculation processes the pharmaceutical company uses.

2. HCA Healthcare

Google Cloud and HCA Healthcare develop generative AI solutions for administrative task automation. The healthcare company also works on a product that takes information from doctor-patient conversations to make medical notes. Doctors later review and edit these documents before adding them to the electronic health record database. HCA Healthcare also explores the use of AI to automatically deliver lab results and patient vitals to improve the overall quality of treatment.

3. MEDITECH

This medical software developer works on a generative AI tool to systematize information from different sources. Its goal is to build a comprehensive patient record system and help medical professionals better comprehend treatment and illness histories. The product also automates clinical documentation generation, discharge summaries, and other processes. MEDITECH’s goal is to improve healthcare institutions’ entire care delivery process and efficiency.

Conclusion

Artificial intelligence has great potential to become a valuable aid in all types of medical services and processes. To achieve this goal, AI development companies and healthcare organizations must work together to address these solutions’ downsides.