AI in E-health or digital health is the cornerstone of developed healthcare units. It is escalating at a rapid pace and the E-health business contributes 41% of the healthcare markets. E-health is a prominent tool that should be leveraged by developing and underdeveloped healthcare units to offer optimized patient outcomes.
E-health is widening the facilities & services provided by traditional healthcare units. E-health or digital health systems aim at using telecommunication and digital intelligent technologies at the core to facilitate health improvement and healthcare services. Well-known synonyms for E-healthcare are mHealth, telehealth, and digital health. The E-healthcare systems are the combination of digital healthcare technologies and intelligent systems under one umbrella to offer an enduring cure to the patient’s.
A good example of digital health will be virtual home care solutions. The virtual home care solution platform offers diagnosis via connecting to a physician or doctor in a particular field of expertise through an internet-connected device. Virtual care allows chronically ill or elders in the house opting the best treatment at their convenience. On the other hand, the digital healthcare services reduce the long waiting hours at the hospitals by enriching the time contributed to the diagnosis of individual patients. It helps in providing healthcare services in remote areas, saves costs, and makes healthcare units more resilient.
AI in E-health: enriching digital healthcare
The growth of health and care systems is necessary and vital with increasing medical needs and the evolution of new diseases and viruses. AI integrated intelligent systems can efficiently make a series of actions or vital decisions based on the insights derived after harnessing the data obtained. AI has the potential to escalate E-healthcare in many ways and below mentioned are the few forms of it.
1. Health informatics:
Health informatics is the digital management of patient records, hospital data, disease symptoms, and diagnosis procedures, etc. AI-based intelligent systems by leveraging Deep Learning & Machine learning can help in diagnosing, radiology, automating administrative tasks, and aims at reducing operational costs by utilizing health informatics. The rapid pace of AI in processing patient information and images that are likely to identify the symptoms that arrive at the disease reducing the diagnosing-treatment-recovery cycle of the patients.
2. Telemedicine or Telehealth:
Telemedicine and telehealth focus to facilitate remote diagnoses and clinical care digitally. It helps in eliminating long waiting hours at hospitals and other administrative tasks. According to recent reports from Gartner, soon robots will deliver telemedicine and telehealth services to people. AI systems are advancing the health services by helping physicians in making the right decisions to help their patients in getting a better cure.
3. EHR (electronic health records):
Electronic health records are the digital versions of paper charts in clinicians’ offices. AI systems are well defined for their ability to optimize and provide better insights based on their past learnings. The clinics, healthcare institutions can obtain the data during emergencies to treat their patients. It helps hospitals in providing cure and better patient outcomes.
4. Clinical decision support systems:
Clinical decision support systems help clinics, doctors, and health professionals in making vital clinical decisions when required. AI systems enhance the decisions made by healthcare units to provide advanced cure. AI pathway companion maps patients-specific cure and facilitates real-time factual decisions. Clear mapping of time-time diagnosis and treatments helps in making evidence-based decisions.
5. Consumer health informatics:
Consumer health informatics are the digital devices to monitor exercise, weight, eating habits, and more demographical data of the patients. These systems help in keeping an eye on the patient’s daily habits and their environments. In-case of any emergency, consumer health informatics helps in providing better treatment. AI integrated consumer health informatic systems mostly include chatbots, voice assistants, mobile apps, digital applications, virtual assistants, robots, etc. These AI in E-health systems can play a vital part in collecting, storing, and analyzing the information from consumer health informatics.
The comprehensive state-of-the-art reveals that AI has a prominent role in the E-healthcare domain. The advancement of AI and robotics is increasing the percentage of cure provided to the patients in the niche and unserviceable areas. The boom of digital services is helping healthcare in providing better treatment by integrating digital and intelligent systems. With increasing demand for the doctors required and the emergence of new kinds of viruses & diseases, E-healthcare would be the ultimate tool to reach large geographical regions to serve patients, provide treatment, and create awareness. The e-health data helps patients in taking preventive measures to stop the pandemic situations like during COVID-19.