The health care industry is becoming more and more high tech with advanced research and improvement in our clinical abilities to test, diagnose, and treat. New possibilities of genetic testing, Nano-medicine, immunotherapy for intractable and life-threatening conditions like cancer, genetic mutations, and HIV have been found and more are in the pipeline. Robotic surgery with artificial intelligence and extended reality is another such possibility that has barely begun to be implemented in the care of our patients.
While on the one hand, we are becoming extremely advanced, we are regressing in another. Or rather, we have not caught up with the rest of the world. Especially in the areas of Backoffice Processing Optimization, Customer Service, Claims processing, etc. burgeoning technologies in Robotic Process Automation and Artificial Intelligence. Technology innovation in the form of natural language processing and generation, machine learning, etc. bring in a lot of promise to ease the current challenges in healthcare and have the potential to automate many processes. These technologies can bring about a large transformation of Healthcare operations, financials, and clinical processes when completely implemented.
If we were to draw parallels to culinary art, the perfect Seven Courses for a Healthcare Enterprises would be:
The Combination of Robotics (RPA) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) provides the right spices for a healthcare enterprise to Increase EFFICIENCY, Improve EXPERIENCE and Optimize ECONOMICS
Let’s look at what these spices are and what is the art of possible!! The key Spices in the Spice Box of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence are:
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Spice 1 – Natural Language Processing, Natural Language Generation, and Natural Language Interpretation are next-generation domain curated technologies that help the machine converse, interpret, and interact just like humans. For Example, NLP can dig deeper into the vast amounts of medical data to ensure that no serious diagnoses are missed, follow up is ensured and preventive care is enhanced along with enhancing population medicine and predictive analytics.
Spice 2 – Harnessing Right Knowledge at the right time with the right context is extremely important. These curated sets of algorithms help harness the right knowledge elements and when combined with NLP helps ease a lot of process overheads.
Spice 3 – Domain Dictionaries are a curated set of smart algorithms that understand the key aspects of a domain like Healthcare. Cognitive technologies and various learning mechanisms are used to “Train” the AI solution to ensure that it understands the domain it operates in. Supervised and Unsupervised learning methods are common in building domain dictionaries.
Spice 4 – Deep Learning and Machine Learning – These Learning Technologies are the core of any AI System/Solution. Deep Learning and Machine learning have evolved in time and can read and interpret machine data and various other types of data sets and co-relate the data in predictive outcomes or actionable intelligence.
Spice 5 – Reasoning Algorithms have, of-late become very critical for any AI/Robotics construct, especially considering the aspects of Ethics, Security, and Compliance. Reasoning algorithms often provide evidence and specific reasons for why a decision was taken in the AI world.
Combining these spices in the right amounts, following the recipes provides the ‘Art of Possible’ for Automation and Transformation in Healthcare.
- AI and RPA can read handwritten documents/Forms, Digital Forms and transcribe relevant data to 3rd party applications and systems with amazing accuracy.
- AI and RPA can read Emails, Understand Emails, and Classify them to respective action owners thus reducing administrative efforts of handling large email traffic and mailboxes.
- AI and RPA can understand medical reports (if trained well) and can help in the claims process substantially reducing the turn-around times.
- AI and RPA can completely automate the onboarding and credentialing process with high levels of accuracy thereby reducing the manual interventions in the process.
- AI and RPA can scan through huge data sets and detect anomalies that can be used for Compliance Management and Fraud Management.
Artificial Intelligence and Robotics in Health Care will thus come in multiple offerings or “courses,” spiced up by all the technology flavors. In India, where food is King Sized, the equivalent of a Seven Course Meal is often called the “The Chappan Bhog” (The 56 Dishes). The only difference being that it is 8 times larger than a typical seven-course meal!! So, more curated AI and Robotics “Spices” will evolve in the coming years which will help complete the Seven Course Meal or the Chappan Bhog of Healthcare.
These offerings may pertain to basic operations where RPA may be used or in clinical documentation review and patient care where AI and NLP could be applied. Other possible flavors might be predictive analytics by reviewing the multiple risk factors that a patient suffers from or applying measures across a large population using mobile platforms or portals. Tremendous amounts of data can be consumed in Command Centers using advanced analytics and algorithmic thinking to identify high-risk conditions and to respond to them with alacrity. Chronic conditions can take more time with the tadkaa(tempering) and slow preparation on fire from charcoal or wood.
The analogy of a seven-course meal or Chappan Bhog is not entirely facetious. If by using this, one may understand the diverse applications and meals that can be prepared, depending on the situation and the taste of the client, our purpose will be served.
