from hype to help

AI in healthcare:

Artificial intelligence is going to save healthcare... Or is it? If you listen to the stories, AI will soon solve all problems: from staff shortages to work pressure. However, the reality is more complicated: expectations are often too high, implementation is too rushed, and the involvement of healthcare workers is too low. But there is one area where AI can already make a real difference: reducing the administrative burden.

Earlier this year, Conclusion investigated how healthcare professionals view AI in healthcare. The results are nuanced. When it comes to diagnostics and decision-making, healthcare professionals are cautious: only 35 per cent say they have confidence in AI for diagnostics and screening. This is understandable, given the complexity and risks involved.

But when it comes to administrative tasks, the situation is fundamentally different. Healthcare professionals do see potential here: 59 per cent see opportunities in administrative control and file creation, and 55 per cent in processing repeat requests. And the most promising application? Voice-controlled reporting. Almost half of healthcare professionals (49%) cite this as an important future technology, and no less than 73 percent have confidence in it.

These figures are high for good reason. After all, voice-controlled reporting solves a concrete, everyday problem. Doctors, nurses and other healthcare providers spend a considerable part of their day on reporting: taking notes during or after consultations, entering observations, documenting medication changes. Time that is not spent on the patient. Voice-controlled systems can drastically speed up this process; AI converts the spoken input into text, structures it, and places the information in the right place in the record.

So the opportunities are there for the taking, you might say. Healthcare professionals see the added value, the technology is available, and the confidence is there. But: implementation must be done properly, and that is where the problem often lies. For example, almost 40 per cent of respondents in our survey say that AI initiatives in their organisation are mainly driven by IT, while 39 per cent indicate that employees are not sufficiently involved in their development and implementation. The result is predictable: solutions that are technically sound but do not optimally fit in with daily practice.

Truly successful implementation requires a different approach: a balance between people, processes and technology. Don't just involve healthcare workers in the training, but also in choosing the system. Which healthcare providers will use it? For which tasks? How does it fit into their current workflow? Healthcare workers know better than anyone where the bottlenecks are and which solutions are practically feasible. Organisations that take them seriously from the outset see that voice-controlled reporting and other developments are actually used and appreciated.

Of course, realism remains necessary. More than half of healthcare professionals (55%) believe that AI is overrated as a solution to staff shortages, according to our research. AI is a tool, not a miracle cure. But when it comes to administrative burdens, it can make a real difference provided it is implemented properly. Then it becomes a technology that lightens the workload, creates more time with patients and is embraced by the people who work with it.