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Introduction
With the global population growing, we need to produce find ways to lower costs
and find the best efficiency in the healthcare delivery process. Sometimes, healthcare
professionals do not have the luxury of taking their time to gather all the facts. They need
a fast and efficient way to process physiological data to accurately diagnose a patient.
Healthcare information is the best spot to begin the overhaul of the healthcare process.
From Artificial Intelligence (AI) to wearable health monitoring devices to telemedicine,
this is how the industry will change. How are these and comparable technologies going to
improve the healthcare information field?
Types of Healthcare Information Technology
AI has the most potential to fix human inefficiencies or errors in the healthcare
information field. AI can be used specifically for electronic health records (EHRs), which
is also a fairly new tool used in healthcare information. AI can be used to bring together
relevant medical data from different departments (i.e., pharmaceutical, clinical, and
imaging) to produce a correct diagnosis at a faster pace than humans (Alanazi, 2023).
Wearable health monitoring devices have good potential in that they are already
used, mostly by professional athletes, to monitor and track different physiological data
points like heart rate, body temperature, or running pace (Cheung et al., 2019).
Equivalently, remote patient monitoring devices could help clinicians provide more data
for earlier diagnostics and treatment plans. This information can best be used as a
blockchain to ensure the vitality of added information (Jamil et al., 2020).
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Telemedicine has been in use in some form since the 1950s. Telemedicine
noticeably peaked during the COVID-19 and is rapidly evolving. Its main use is to
provide remote medical services to patients who cannot or should not travel long
distances for services that do not require physical examinations (Stoltzfus et al., 2023).
Now, with all these advances in healthcare information technology, we must ask: how do
these advances help with overhauling healthcare processes?
Accomplishment
Starting with AI, it has been used in a wide range of technologies to imitate
human thinking but has mostly been used in integration tactics with EHRs (Alanazi,
2023). AI has several features including predictive analysis, natural language processing,
and machine learning to make EHR systems more accessible to physicians and make
them more interactive (Alanazi, 2023). AI also can take massive quantities of information
in those detailed records at a fast pace and produce a diagnosis or personalized treatment
plan.
Wearable healthcare monitoring devices were made for fitness enthusiasts and
athletes to better take control of improving their performance. Using these helps people
monitor physiological data, but using an internet-of-things integration allows consumers
to share their data with other devices to create more connections in a community and be
more self-aware of one’s health status (Cheung et al., 2019).
Remote monitoring of a patient's vital signs uses a sensor, much like the ones
used for fitness purposes, to generate physiological data. This data is used more for
medical diagnostic or treatment purposes, which is sent in a blockchain format to ensure
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the data gathered is reliable and can be utilized by multiple departments in a healthcare
organization, increasing interoperability (Jamil et al., 2020).
Last, telemedicine, since it’s introduction in 1950 by teleradiology to transmit a
radiograph 24 miles, has constantly evolved to change the method of transfer (Stoltzfus et
al., 2023). Presently, telemedicine is now accomplished by many tools, mostly by video
conferencing or phone calls. Some healthcare providers use a website where patients can
directly message them to give relevant medical data or ask questions (Stoltzfus et al.,
2023). This saves time on traveling and the costs of visiting the physician’s office.
No piece of technology is perfect, though. It is a virtually impossible task to
automate healthcare. There is always the human factor to consider in any given situation.
Sometimes human interaction is needed to fully complete the healthcare process. Now we
should ask: What are the challenges and concerns of implementing this technology?
Challenge of Full Implementation
One challenge for AI implementation comes down to healthcare professional
perceptions. A study done in Saudi Arabia found the biggest issue for AI implementation
is the fear of human employee replacement with AI technology, especially in imaging
and administration departments (Abdullah & Fakieh, 2019). Some other challenges noted
by the study include difficulty using it in situations that were unexpected or controversial
subjects (Abdullah & Fakieh, 2019).
Other challenges with AI usage are more with the adverse effects of streamlining
information transfer. AI is only as good as the data gathered. If the data is compromised
in any way, due to bias or inaccuracy, AI could give a wrong diagnosis and kill
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somebody (Alanazi, 2023). Also, the connectivity of AI can create privacy and
cybersecurity concerns. Authorized personnel with access to the data could misuse or
unintentionally leak sensitive patient information (Alanazi, 2023).
Wearable remote monitoring healthcare devices pose the same risk to privacy in a
comparable manner as AI in EHR applications. However, using blockchain technology
can easily ensure the security and privacy of sensitive patient information, especially
since government regulation makes the guarantee of privacy mandatory (Jamil et al.,
2020).
Wearable wristband fitness trackers pose a privacy risk in the same manner as
remote monitoring devices even though they do not store sensitive information, like what
would be found in an EHR (Cheung et al., 2019). Smartphones today can do most of
what wristband fitness trackers can do with similar accuracy; therefore, consumers are
not buying them as much, resulting in wristband fitness tracker sales that have steadied
over the past decade (Cheung et al., 2019). Making them a relevant tool in healthcare will
be arduous if not impossible.
Telemedicine has gone through many innovations over the decades. In today’s
version, telemedicine technology cannot compensate for the level of care sometimes
required for patients (Stoltzfus et al., 2023). Also, it can depend on the physician’s
decision to implement modern tools for telemedicine. The cost it takes to purchase the
equipment and hire staff to maintain the technology may be too much in the physician’s
opinion to be worth it (Stoltzfus et al., 2023).
Conclusion
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Much of this technology is still new and will take time to fully implement in the
healthcare process. Implementation of remote monitoring of patient vital signs and AI are
is always going to cause privacy concerns and telemedicine is very limited in its
capability to give healthcare, along with AI and wearable fitness trackers. The
technology is not perfect, and it will take time to get it right. This shows we are not ready
to fully overhaul the healthcare industry as of right now, but human innovation will
always keep us moving forward to lower costs and raise efficiency in healthcare
provision. As we move on, we are constantly improving ourselves and our inventions.
With every idea comes the challenge to make it a reality.
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References
Abdullah, R., & Fakieh, B. (2019). Perception of healthcare employees toward utilizing
AI applications in software engineering domain in Saudi Arabia (preprint).
Journal of Medical Internet Research, 22(5). https://doi.org/10.2196/17620
Alanazi, A. (2023). Clinicians’ Views on Using Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare:
Opportunities, Challenges, and Beyond. Cureus, 15(9).
https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.45255
Cheung, M. L., Chau, K. Y., Lam, M. H. S., Tse, G., Ho, K. Y., Flint, S. W., Broom, D.
R., Tso, E. K. H., & Lee, K. Y. (2019). Examining Consumers’ Adoption of
Wearable Healthcare Technology: The Role of Health Attributes. International
Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(13), 2257.
https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16132257
Jamil, F., Ahmad, S., Iqbal, N., & Kim, D.-H. (2020). Towards a Remote Monitoring of
Patient Vital Signs Based on IoT-Based Blockchain Integrity Management
Platforms in Smart Hospitals. Sensors, 20(8), 2195.
https://doi.org/10.3390/s20082195
Stoltzfus, M., Kaur, A., Chawla, A., Gupta, V., Anamika, F. N. U., & Jain, R. (Dec
2023). The role of telemedicine in healthcare: an overview and update. The
Egyptian Journal of Internal Medicine, 35(1), 49. https://doi.org/10.1186/s43162-
023-00234-z
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