The South African healthcare system faces challenges
from insufficient resources and suboptimal working conditions that can
contribute to professional burnout and systemic inefficiencies. The
introduction and effective implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) is
one way to address these critical issues, providing innovative solutions to
enhance the quality of care, improve operational efficiency, and empower
healthcare professionals.
Addressing Professional Burnout with
Targeted AI Solutions
As in many countries but perhaps increasingly in South
Africa, healthcare professionals endure significant burnout, primarily owing to
their challenging work environments, limited support, and deep-rooted systemic
issues. What AI might introduce is targeted solutions that automate repetitive
tasks and provide specialised decision-support tools. These advancements could reduce the
cognitive load on clinicians, allowing them more time for direct patient care
and complex medical decision-making. In doing so, healthcare AI can improve job
satisfaction and raise the standard of care for patients.
Harnessing Data to Transform Clinical
Management
The success of AI significantly depends on its ability
to integrate
and decipher various data sources. In South Africa's resource-constrained settings, AI should become
invaluable in using the extensive data generated across healthcare systems. In the future, AI-driven analytic tools
will be able to synthesise data and use it to effectively monitor and manage
common chronic diseases such as hypertension and tuberculosis, providing
healthcare workers with timely and actionable insights.
Operational Efficiency Through AI-Driven
Innovations
Operational inefficiencies are a substantial obstacle
to healthcare delivery. AI has the potential to remove these barriers by
automating administrative processes, which will be particularly valuable for
functions such as patient scheduling and claims processing. In addition,
AI-driven analytics have shown to be effective at identifying operational
bottlenecks and suggesting workflow adjustments that can improve the quality of
care and reduce costs. If effectively deployed in local settings, this capability
could be a key to bridging the divide between South Africa's public and private
healthcare sectors.
Personalising Healthcare with Generative AI
There is support for generative AI as a tool to assist
in redefining patient and clinician experiences in healthcare. Digital
applications can facilitate personalised healthcare pathways for patients, for
example, by using AI-enhanced virtual health assistants and tailored wellness
tools. For healthcare providers, generative AI offers the potential to simplify
the user experience (UX) when using electronic health records (EHRs) to
mitigate documentation processes, enabling clinicians to invest more time in patient
engagement over administrative duties.
Pioneering Healthcare Research with AI
Another area where AI can play a part is to function
as a dynamic catalyst for enhanced healthcare research to unveil new and faster
insights for developing groundbreaking treatments. AI should help identify the
right patients for clinical trials, analyse patient-reported outcomes and unify
and correlate the data from different systems needed to accelerate the
development and distribution of new healthcare solutions. This is particularly
important in South Africa, where advances in healthcare research are critical
to improving and reducing the total cost of public healthcare outcomes.
In summary, the most pertinent areas where AI could
have a positive impact on healthcare include:
1. AI Augmented Healthcare Applications: where AI is used for diagnostic accuracy, predictive analytics,
personalised treatment plans, and operational efficiency in both the public and
private sectors.
2. Enhanced Diagnostics: AI is being used to supplement and enhance human diagnostic analysis of
medical images that can identify patterns that human eyes may miss.
3. Operational Efficiency: When integrated with operational systems with access to the right data,
AI could help optimise scheduling, reduce administrative burdens, and
streamline workflows.
4. Patient Care: Today, there are trials that use AI-powered chatbots and virtual
assistants to provide continuous patient support and personalised health
recommendations.
A New Medical Future
AI can potentially transform South Africa’s health
system and the health of its people by addressing critical systemic challenges
to enhance the overall quality of care. It needs to ensure its healthcare
providers are already ready for AI to play a pivotal role in creating a
sustainable and efficient healthcare system. The benefits of AI will only be
realised if the supporting requirements like regulations, training, and data
access are in place.
South Africa can change its future for the better by
investing in responsible AI to make measurable and meaningful improvements in
healthcare. And, given South Africa’s unique genetic history and mix, it may
help improve the world's health.
InterSystems will be at the HASA conference, Sandton Convention
Centre, on September 2-3, and will host the InterSystems SA Summit on
September 17-19. Join us to explore innovations in healthcare technology.
By: Henry Adams, Country Manager,
InterSystems South Africa
