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AI in healthcare receives upbeat diagnosis


EXCLUSIVE
SARAH-JANE TASKER

JAMES CROUCHER

Strategist Murray Brozinsky says ‘consumerism’ will drive the growth of technology in healthcare
It is now a matter of when, not if, artificial intelligence is widely used across the healthcare system, says technology strategist Murray Brozinsky, who adds it will drive down costs and improve patient outcomes.

US-based Mr Brozinsky, in Sydney to attend CBA’s Future of Healthcare conference, said the convergence of conversational AI with sensors and remote monitoring would significantly improve patient outcomes.

He explained that conversational AI asked the patients questions such as how they were feeling or how a wound was healing, while connected devices were checking signs such as weight and blood pressure via remote sensors.

“By collecting biological information with what the patients are revealing through conversational AI, healthcare professionals get a very good picture of what is happening with that patient on a continuous basis,” Mr Brozinsky said. “These technologies are at an inevitable point because when you look at the people who use it, they love it. The data is pointing to improved outcomes and lower cost.

“I think it is going to take a while to get it adopted widely across the healthcare system, but there is no question it will happen.”

Mr Brozinsky, the chief strategy officer at Conversa Health, said there was a need to transform healthcare from episodic, with limited insight into how a patient was doing in between consultations, to one that leveraged new technologies driving conversational AI.

He added that there was resistance to the move towards AI technologies because of historic healthcare systems based on inhospital care.

“To move away from that is counter to being able to profitably run these institutions,” Mr Bronzinsky said. “In the US we are trying to move from a fee-for-service model to a fee-for-value model and it is difficult because people make their money in fee-forservice.”

The conversational AI expert said the idea of “consumerism” was invading healthcare and would drive consumer adoption of new technologies.

Mr Bronzinsky added that 90 per cent of the time a person spent online was on messaging apps, which had eclipsed social networking.

“People are used to that interface, it’s conversational,” he said.

“Outside of healthcare in customer service, such as in retail, 85 per cent of interactions are projected to be done in an automated way without talking to a person by 2020.”

Mr Brozinsky outlined that in healthcare, the well-designed conversational AI platforms were fully integrated into a patient’s record.

“Research shows that 75 per cent of patients would rather have access to healthcare if it meant they didn’t have to wait 24 days to see a person. We are starting to see patients say access is more important than access to a person if they have to wait,” he said.

Looking to the future and beyond conversational AI, Mr Brozinsky said there was an enormous opportunity for augmented reality. “We could see specialists being able to teleport into the same location as the doctor they are consulting to,” he said. “You could have holographic images in the surgical theatre and everyone can see the same thing and you can talk and see the gestures of the people you are interacting with and ultimately you can have the patient participate in that.”