#ai-in-healthcare

#ai-in-healthcare

American healthcare has long suffered from a structural mismatch: the system generates enormous demand for patient communication while the clinical workforce available to meet it continues to shrink. The World Health Organization projects a global shortage of 10 million health workers by 2030, and the gap is already visible in overloaded intake queues, missed follow-up calls, and patients left without support between appointments.

AI plays an important role-but not by fixing fragmented data on its own. The work of organizing, connecting, and interpreting healthcare information still belongs to people and the systems they build. Where AI helps is after that foundation is in place: by bringing the right information forward at the right time, reducing the effort it takes to find what matters, and supporting better decisions in the moment of care.

As OpenAI launches ChatGPT Health, allowing users to connect medical records and wellness apps for AI-driven health guidance, a new survey from Drip Hydration confirms Americans are increasingly turning to AI for medical advice. The nationwide survey explores the motivations, demographics, and regional trends behind this growing phenomenon. The data reveals where and why people are choosing AI alongside traditional medical channels in their healthcare journey.

I was in San Francisco earlier this week, debating the AI dividend with a dozen CEOs of major hospital systems at a dinner sponsored by Philips. If you're Suresh Gunasekaran of UCSF Health, which consistently ranks among the world's best in health outcomes and medical research, AI is becoming baked into a more seamless patient experience. "Being a medical student, a pharmacy student, a nurse is no longer the same in the age of AI," Gunasekaran said.

Anthropic is selling Claude for Healthcare as a HIPAA-compliant way to plug its model into the plumbing of US medicine, from coverage databases and diagnostic codes to provider registries. Once wired up, Claude can help with prior authorization checks, claims appeals, medical coding, and other administrative chores that currently clog up clinicians' inboxes and sanity. "Claude can now connect to industry-standard systems and databases to help clinicians and administrators find the data they need and generate reports more efficiently," Anthropic wrote.

Health tech gadgets displayed at the annual CES trade show make a lot of promises. A smart scale promoted a healthier lifestyle by scanning your feet to track your heart health, and an egg-shaped hormone tracker uses AI to help you figure out the best time to conceive.Tech and health experts, however, question the accuracy of products like these and warn of data privacy issues - especially as the federal government eases up on regulation.

An AI-powered appointments system developed by UK health-tech company DrDoctor could save the NHS up to £300 million a year by dramatically reducing missed hospital appointments, one of the health service's most persistent and costly problems. Missed outpatient appointments cost the NHS close to £1 billion annually, tying up staff time, wasting clinical capacity and lengthening waiting lists. DrDoctor believes its new AI platform, Smart Centre, can cut non-attendance rates by around 30% by predicting which patients are most likely not to turn up and adjusting clinic capacity in advance.

In 2035, AIs are more than co-pilots in medicine, they have become the frontline for much primary care. Gone is the early morning scramble to get through to a harassed GP receptionist for help. Patients now contact their doctor's AI to explain their ailments. It quickly cross-checks the information against the patient's medical history and provides a pre-diagnosis, putting the human GP in a position to decide what to do next.

The Rural Health Transformation Fund is a carveout that will provide $50bn over a period of five years to states who meet certain application criteria, including consumer-facing, technology-driven solutions for the prevention and management of chronic diseases, and providing training and technical assistance for the development and adoption of technology-enabled solutions that improve care delivery in rural hospitals, including remote monitoring, robotics, artificial intelligence, and other advanced technologies.

Kaiser declined several requests for an interview, but said in a statement that AI tools don't make medical decisions or replace human care. Rather, they hold "significant potential to benefit health care by supporting better diagnostics, enhancing patient-clinician relationships, optimizing clinicians' time, and ensuring fairness in care experiences and health outcomes by addressing individual needs."

Cancer is not a monolith. "We speak about cancer like it's one disease, but it's more like thousands of different diseases," said Simone Korsgaard Jensen, CEO and founder of Radical Health. "On top of that, every single individual is so different. But right now we still treat it with a one-size fits-all approach. And that's where data and AI can especially step in to help."

When implemented effectively, the healthcare LMS benefits extend far beyond training. It enhances clinical decision-making, minimizes human errors, and fosters continuous professional development. AI-driven analytics detect performance gaps early, recommending refresher courses to prevent skills degradation. By ensuring that every staff member-whether clinical, technical, or administrative-stays updated, healthcare institutions can significantly improve patient outcomes and safety standards while meeting stringent regulatory requirements.

Ensemble Health, a major player in healthcare revenue management, is seeking a potential $13 billion sale or IPO next year, Business Insider has learned. Ensemble, owned primarily by private equity firms Warburg Pincus and Berkshire Partners, has tapped JPMorgan to pursue a sale, five people with knowledge of the deal told Business Insider. At the same time, Ensemble is considering an IPO and has pulled in Goldman Sachs to support the dual-track approach, three of the people said.

For more than a decade, researchers have wondered whether artificial intelligence could help predict what incapacitated patients might want when doctors must make life-or-death decisions on their behalf. It remains one of the most high-stakes questions in health care AI today. But as AI improves, some experts increasingly see it as inevitable that digital "clones" of patients could one day aid family members, doctors, and ethics boards in making end-of-life decisions that are aligned with a patient's values and goals.

The use of artificial intelligence in healthcare could create a legally complex blame game when it comes to establishing liability for medical failings, experts have warned. The development of AI for clinical use has boomed, with researchers creating a host of tools, from algorithms to help interpret scans to systems that can aid with diagnoses. AI is also being developed to help manage hospitals, from optimising bed capacity to tackling supply chains.

One of the biggest examples in the commercial consumer industry is GPS maps. Once those were introduced, when you study cognitive performance, people would lose spatial knowledge and spatial memory in cities that they're not familiar with - just by relying on GPS systems. And we're starting to see some of those things with AI in healthcare," Amarasingham explained.

The survey of 2,000 adults found nearly a third (29%) have put off seeking care due to long waits, while more than one in five (22%) admit they have avoided seeking care altogether. Alarmingly, one in five (20%) delayed seeing a doctor even after noticing possible cancer symptoms. Doctors warn this behaviour could mean hundreds of cancers are going undiagnosed, or being caught later when survival chances are reduced.

That feeling of being on top of the world-quite literally-was a very fleeting moment. I thought I was invisible at that point.

As artificial intelligence becomes a buzzword in nearly every healthcare startup pitch, investors are finding it increasingly challenging to distinguish which ones are actually worth the hype. That's why, during a Thursday panel discussion among venture capitalists at the MedCity INVEST Digital Health conference in Dallas, this question was posed: What metrics do you want to see founders highlighting more often when they're pitching, and what is one red flag that makes you question the validity of their technology? The session was moderated by Neil Patel, head of ventures at Redesign Health.

Co-authored by Stephen O'Brien and Michael Hogan As AI becomes more autonomous, its potential for higher status and increased authority in human-AI teamwork scenarios is concerning. A serious problem arises when human trust in AI masks inappropriate reliance on AI and poor human-AI teamwork performance. This is particularly concerning in life-or-death situations where erosion of human agency can be fatal.

The world-first technology analyses brain CT scans of stroke patients arriving at hospital, taking just a minute to identify the type and severity of stroke and the most appropriate treatment. It means doctors can then offer drugs or surgery much more quickly, with the system shortening the average time between patients arriving at hospital and starting treatment by one hour from 140 minutes to 79 minutes.

But even in the best-funded clinics with the most committed professionals, standards can still fall short; doctors, like the rest of us, are working with stone age minds. Despite years of training, human brains are not optimally equipped for the pace, pressure, and complexity of modern healthcare. Given that patient care is medicine's core purpose, the question is who, or what, is best placed to deliver it?

A significant number of patients are turning to AI for medical advice, often out of a sense of urgency as many hospitals refuse to accept new patients.

Continuous exposure to AI might reduce the ADR of standard non-AI assisted colonoscopy, suggesting a negative effect on endoscopist behaviour.