Creating communications excellence

Artificial intelligence (AI) has taken the healthcare industry by storm. While many look to implement AI to create efficiencies, it is important to approach AI in a larger context to truly understand its long-term implications. What will profoundly affect our business in five to ten years, but may not be readily apparent at present?

The impact of AI on the healthcare industry is transformational. The effective utilisation of (enormous amounts of complex) data has become increasingly crucial and its impact on patient outcomes cannot be overemphasised. As patients gain greater access to and control over their medical data, the healthcare system is moving from a reactive model to a proactive one. By interacting with numerous data systems daily, including those from personal fitness devices, electronic health records or consumer behaviors’ surveys, AI can help detect illnesses earlier and identify interventional opportunities to prevent or slow the progression of disease.

There is also significant value in the information gleaned from so-called collective data. Most doctors’ diagnostic and clinical acumen and subsequent prescriptive choices derive from a combination of personal experience, patient data/physical findings (real-world data), and evidence from large-scale clinical research. As doctors gain access to aggregated clinical data and outcomes (from clinical research and real world evidence), they may be better equipped to treat and prescribe more effective (and dare we say, ‘personalised?’) forms of treatment. Such data-driven decision-making is critical in ensuring that patients receive optimal care specific to their values and preferences, and that healthcare professionals (HCPs) deliver higher-quality services on a larger scale, as dictated by demand. Apart from the data-driven decisions, AI may also help facilitate more productive dialogue between the patients and healthcare providers.

The availability of new methods for obtaining and storing data also opens doors to underserved and underrepresented populations, allowing patients, providers and payers to gain insights into their potential risk factors for and likelihood of developing various diseases.

AI is a powerful tool that, when used by people who are ‘properly trained’, can reconcile traditional biases, potentially leading to improved diagnoses, more effective, efficient and empathetic care, and reduced morbidity and mortality. As society uncovers novel tools that search, collect and analyse medical data, the medical communications industry must re-evaluate its approaches to creating and delivering education for HCPs and patients in this new age of AI transformation.

Jan-Willem van Doorn is HCG Chief Transformation Officer and Chair, HCG AI Taskforce