Aug 28, 2018
The case for focusing AI in healthcare on people, not technology
At a time when health systems and healthcare professionals are under more pressure than ever to do more with less, the promise of intelligent technology that can deliver life-changing insights from all our data is enticing. Will it help to fill the deficit of around 13 million skilled health professionals by 2035? Could it save some of the billions of dollars currently wasted in the US each year? Our position paper looks at what we can realistically expect from artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare. Behind all the headlines and expectations, AI is just a set of tools – powerful ones, certainly, but still tools. The truth is that AI alone cannot deliver insights, or diagnose and treat patients without one crucial ingredient: people. Healthcare will always need the clinicians, nurses, and healthcare executives who have the intimate experience and understanding of the personal, clinical or operational context in which AI tools are used. And as a heath technology company, we apply the same people-focused approach to developing our solutions.
We know that lives can depend on the decisions that our customers make every day. Which means that they need more than just intelligent technology; they need to trust in the solutions they use. That’s why we’re working closely with clinical partners across the globe – healthcare providers, academia, and hospital networks – to develop AI-enabled solutions that are secure, firmly grounded in scientific research, and rigorously validated in clinical practice. We call this combination of AI solutions and domain knowledge: adaptive intelligence. In our paper on adaptive intelligence, we look at how solutions can support our customers by acting like personal assistants, and learning and adapting to the skills and preferences of the person that uses them. The technology runs in the background – deeply integrated into the interfaces and workflows of hospitals, and almost invisibly embedded into solutions for the consumer environment. Our vision is to use adaptive intelligence to ensure that a person’s health journey is a seamless, integrated and highly personalized experience. A journey where every single bit of information adds to a greater body of knowledge which patients, their care professionals, and science and society at large can benefit from. That’s why we’re developing adaptive solutions to help our clinical partners achieve better outcomes and better experiences, both within hospitals and beyond, into people’s homes and daily lives. Download our position paper on AI and adaptive intelligence in healthcare.
