At Auckland City Hospital, New Zeeland’s largest public hospital, a diabetic man died after his medications where mixed up with those of another patient. In Singapore, a one-year old baby was given adult doses of steroid, receiving up to four times of the prescribes dosage (“Baby given adult dose of steroids”, 2017). These are just a few examples of errors in healthcare in which provision of accurate information was lacking.
The capabilities of digital technologies, such as data integration and real-time tracking, have tremendous implications for transforming the healthcare industry. However, the digital technologies also bring challenges with them.
According to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, 50% of patients do not take their medication as prescribed, and 20-30% of new prescriptions are never filled at the pharmacy (“Why You Need to Take Your Medications as Prescribed or Instructed”, 2016). Telemedicine enables remote diagnosis and treatment of patients using telecommunication technology (Sood et al., 2007). Telemedicine applications can, for example, notify patients to take their medications. It can also enable physicians to remotely monitor their patients, significantly reducing costs and improving the overall quality of care provided. Another way digital technologies are being used in healthcare is through electronic health records (EHRs) , which contain and share medical information from all providers involved in a patient’s care (“Definition and Benefits of Electronic Medical Records (EMR) | Providers & Professionals | HealthIT.gov”, 2017). They provide many benefits, including accurate and up-to-date information, reduced medical errors, and lowered administrative costs. By analyzing the data stored in EHRs medical knowledge can be improved. This is where Artificial Intelligence (AI) comes in. AI will assist physicians by using this data to provide outstanding medical solutions (Das, 2016).
Now, let’s take a look at the other end of the spectrum. Would you be concerned if your entire health record is stored in a supposedly secure database? Are there any illnesses you do not want a third party to know about? These are just a few questions to think about. One of the challenges regarding telemedicine, EHRs and AI is privacy issues. Therefore, it is crucial that policy makers reevaluate regulations to ensure patients that their data is stored in a secured manner, and that it will only be accessed by parties for medical reasons. Another challenge facing AI is the lack of computing power. For AI to succeed, the next generation’s computing infrastructure must be able to process a large amount of calculations at a rapid rate, which implicates a lot of processing power (Marr, 2017).
References:
Baby given adult dose of steroids. (2017). AsiaOne. Retrieved 16 September 2017, from http://www.asiaone.com/health/baby-given-adult-dose-steroids
Das, R. (2016). Forbes Welcome. Forbes.com. Retrieved 17 September 2017, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/reenitadas/2016/03/30/top-5-technologies-disrupting-healthcare-by-2020/#492ecdaa6826
Definition and Benefits of Electronic Medical Records (EMR) | Providers & Professionals | HealthIT.gov. (2017). Healthit.gov. Retrieved 17 September 2017, from https://www.healthit.gov/providers-professionals/electronic-medical-records-emr
http://www.providersedge.com/docs/km_articles/Innovation_for_Value_Creation.pdf
Marr, B. (2017). Forbes Welcome. Forbes.com. Retrieved 17 September 2017, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2017/07/13/the-biggest-challenges-facing-artificial-intelligence-ai-in-business-and-society/#616a6ebf2aec
Sood, S., Mbarika, V., Jugoo, S., Dookhy, R., Doarn, C. R., Prakash, N., & Merrell, R. C. (2007). What is telemedicine? A collection of 104 peer-reviewed perspectives and theoretical underpinnings. Telemedicine and e-Health, 13(5), 573-590.
Why You Need to Take Your Medications as Prescribed or Instructed. (2016). Fda.gov. Retrieved 17 September 2017, from https://www.fda.gov/drugs/resourcesforyou/specialfeatures/ucm485545.htm
Thank you, Shaina, for your interesting post about the capabilities of digital technologies within healthcare. As you point out correctly, privacy is the biggest concern in this industry which slows the adoption of new technologies in healthcare. Whereas shared/online data platforms are becoming the standard in other industries, electronic health records are in most countries still regarded as very innovative. I agree with you that regulations should be developed to protect patients’ privacy. It is very important that this will take place in an international setting as the internet obviously is not limited by borders. An international body like the WHO could perhaps take a leading role on this matter.
Regarding the second issue you raise about the lack of computing power, I’d like to add that cloud solutions are currently providing enormous amounts of processing power. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is one of the major providers of cloud solutions which makes high end computing infrastructure very accessible. Although the healthcare industry tends to develop IT in-house, the functionalities that cloud providers (like AWS) offer should be considered as a viable solution for the integration of AI and other new digital technologies. It is for a reason that major companies like Airbnb, 3M and GE are using the computing power of AWS so perhaps the healthcare industry should follow suit.
References:
Case Studies & Customer Success. (2017). Amazon Web Services. Retrieved 18 September 2017, from: https://aws.amazon.com/solutions/case-studies/all/
Thank you for your comment, Rutger!
It is indeed striking that, compared to other industries, the healthcare industry is staying behind when it comes to IT. However, I believe that the use of IT in healthcare can offer promising outcomes and make the industry both more effective and efficient. In order to do so, regulations must definitely support, but also facilitate this.
Great that you bring up the idea of cloud computing. Together with my IS team, I have been conducting research on the use of Artificial Intelligence in medical imaging. Studies have shown that the number of medical image scans is increasing significantly, while the number of radiologists is not. This is where cloud computing, together with AI, can offer a solution. Medical image scans can be sent to the cloud, where AI technology processes the imaging data and examines the patient. By doing so, AI will aid the physician in diagnosis, giving him more time for personal contact with the patient. This is just one example of how AI technology is using the computing power of cloud solutions. I hope to see more of these in the future.
References:
Fornell, D. (2017). How Artificial Intelligence Will Change Medical Imaging. Imaging Technology News. Retrieved 23 September 2017, from https://www.itnonline.com/article/how-artificial-intelligence-will-change-medical-imaging