It does not propose to replace health professionals, but to better manage spaces, identify savings opportunities in procuring supplies, as well as generate data. Experience in Argentina.
The application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the field of medicine is accepted and recognized as a way to complement the work of healthcare professionals. A well-known example is the da Vinci robot, a system used in operating rooms to optimize the range of action of the human hand. AI is also used to speed up the diagnosis of certain tumors in assisted fertilization and cardiology, among other fields. But AI and data analytics are also moving forward in hospital management, which allows processes to be automated; use predictive models in the context of patient admission or surgery scheduling; Identify opportunities for savings, for example in the purchase of medical supplies and also reduce staff stress, as in times of burnout, these tools can be used to free professionals from administrative and repetitive tasks , so that they can focus their energy on the patient.
But for this to take place, apart from the resources, it is necessary to have a culture of comprehensive digitization, because if individual functions are digitised, they may soon become obsolete. This and other challenges – such as the use of ChatGPT in health – were the central themes of the AI40PS Summit, a hybrid event organized by the German hospital and Vuru, in which IntraMed participated.
The meeting focused on the idea that AI does not propose to replace doctors, but to help with organization, so that, humans can “concentrate on the most complex tasks and provide increasingly humane care to patients.” Can do.” , according to the organizers in testimony.
The first speaker was Dr. Rudolf Baron Buxhoeveden, a surgeon from a German hospital, who shared the effectiveness of AI in managing his ten operating rooms, which digitize everything from the agenda (surgery scheduling) to billing.
“When analog processes are digitized, they generate data that can be used to improve the experience, but today only 3% of the data generated is used in terms of healthcare management. That is why the challenge before us today is to move from Big Data to Smart Data”, indicated the doctor, while talking about artificial intelligence in the health sector, “actually we are talking about augmented intelligence , Therefore, when it comes to choosing equipment, you should choose simple, intelligent and comprehensive systems (so that they can be added to the previous technologies available in the hospital.”
In his experience, AI has helped convince doctors when scheduling surgeries to optimize timing. Also, by replacing the operating room pharmacy with a digital dispensary of sorts that opens windows to what might be needed, it helped reduce wastage of supplies and record what was actually used (as it identifies is what does not come back). The touch screen also has the ability to record information leading to smart data.
“It should be clarified that AI is another tool, but it does not come to replace health workers, but to cover the deficit. The World Health Organization (WHO) calculates that by 2030 there will be 10 million health There would be a shortage of professionals”, argued Buxhoveden.
The phrase is in line with data from ECLAC (Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean), which indicates that on the continent, health systems with coordination problems, fragmentation of care and fragmented organization generate disparities in access, quality and funding. Is. Health Perhaps for this reason, the inclusion of AI is part of the eight principles of digital transformation in the health sector that the Pan American Health Organization has assigned to countries in the Region of the Americas. as well as the interoperability of information systems and digital health and information security.
With COVID-19 the need for digital transformation became even more apparent. An example of speeding up emergency decision-making in the face of coronavirus cases emerged at a German hospital’s imaging service. Dr. Eduardo Iheremendi recalled: “At the beginning of the epidemic, we expected the appearance of many chest X-rays, so we implemented AI to get the first results, whether normal or pathological. Then we just reviewed. Therefore, without changing radiologists, we determine that a radiologist with AI is better than a radiologist without AI. Because the algorithm works for us.”
