Is AI the future of Healthcare?

Have you ever used ChatGPT or any AI systems? In the past couple of years, AI has become increasingly popular and has been improving exponentially. As AI becomes more efficient a question arises if AI should be used in different work fields, in particular in healthcare. While many argue that AI overall is beneficial to healthcare, others believe that we should be more cautious about how we implement it. Overall,  there are many pros and cons regarding this complex topic of AI use.

  In sectors of the healthcare field, AI has already been used to help prevent and control diseases. In addition, AI has been used in robotic surgeries and has proven to help the success rate of many operations such as oral surgery, prostate, and gynecology among many more. Furthermore, AI has the potential to improve patient care and operations by accessing patient data. This could help with developing the most efficient and optimal treatment plans for patients, by making care much more personalized. Better plans mean AI reduces the amount of errors and mistakes in them improving overall patient outcomes. Moreover, AI has also proven to help with decision-making for patients by offering recommendations in real-time.

An interesting point has even been proven to help with mental health treatments, advancements in technologies have made it possible for AI to better understand emotions from data sources. Making AI better at understanding human emotions/feelings. This makes care faster and less time-consuming for physicians and other healthcare workers, meaning they can help treat more patients. Beyond treatment, AI can also help analyze posttreatment results which can reduce expenses and help minimize the financial burden of healthcare. Though AI has the potential to significantly benefit healthcare, there are some risk factors to address.

There is a wide variety of concerns the biggest being potential biases within AI systems that may widen disparities that already exist in healthcare. This is because many AI systems and algorithms are based on data and if the data does not represent the entirety of the population it facilitates biases for underrepresented groups. This is because of assumptions made by AI which can result in incorrect care. These biased algorithms have been identified and have proven to harm ethnic minorities in comparison to white individuals when it comes to treatment, resources, and diagnoses. 

Furthermore, there are many concerns around patient data and privacy, as not all individuals may want their files put into AI-based systems.  These concerns about privacy violations may also breach HIPAA. Furthermore, not all healthcare professionals want AI implemented into their care and even find it hard to understand/ use efficiently. There is a general lack of trust in AI by healthcare professionals.

Ultimately many argue that AI does have a lot of potential but before it is implemented there must be some established framework to make sure it's being used responsibly. This AI can benefit patients while minimizing the cons.

Works Cited

Backman, Isabella. “Eliminating Racial Bias in Health Care AI: Expert Panel Offers Guidelines.” Yale School of Medicine, 21 Dec. 2023, medicine.yale.edu/news-article/eliminating-racial-bias-in-health-care-ai-expert-panel-offers-guidelines/.

Chustecki, Margaret. “Benefits and Risks of AI in Health Care: Narrative Review.” Interactive Journal of Medical Research, vol. 13, no. e53616, 18 Nov. 2024, i-jmr.org/2024/1/e53616, https://doi.org/10.2196/53616.

HITRUST. “The Pros and Cons of AI in Healthcare.” Hitrustalliance.net, 20 Nov. 2023, hitrustalliance.net/blog/the-pros-and-cons-of-ai-in-healthcare.

Assessed and Endorsed by the MedReport Medical Review Board