The healthcare industry is transforming. Healthcare expenditure is growing faster than the global economy, accounting for around 10 per cent of global GDP as per WHO. Developing countries are witnessing the most significant surge with a 6 per cent average annual growth rate. The Indian expenditure on healthcare is touching 2.2 per cent of GDP Indicating a growing government commitment to the sector. Post-pandemic, the government is increasingly emphasising on healthcare infrastructure growth.
To deliver effective patient care, optimisation of the patient care pathways is the key. Patient care pathways are coordinated frameworks by the stakeholders of the healthcare industry, aimed at efficient decision-making and organising healthcare delivery to patients. The Patient care pathways play a vital role in ensuring high-quality evidence-based patient care from timely diagnosis to treatment of the disorder. The patient care pathways enhance the efficiency of healthcare delivery and encourage improved collaboration between all the stakeholders providing patient care.
However, the development of an effective patient care pathway can be extremely challenging. Identifying individual patient needs seamlessly is a humongous task with the needs varying a lot from patient to patient. The resistance to change in the healthcare ecosystem is the preliminary hurdle. Healthcare systems utilise different electronic health record (EHR) systems having limited compatibility. Data security concerns further hinder the sharing of data. Alignment of different stakeholders including doctors, nurses, and administrators gets extremely difficult with each one of them having varied priorities. The ever-changing healthcare regulations pose a challenge of aligning care pathways with these regulations. The new protocols and pathways also result in increased documentation requirements.
The advent of AI is changing how the healthcare industry is responding to these challenges. AI can transform patient care pathways by addressing all the challenges and taking healthcare delivery to the next level. Ai will automate administrative functions like claim processing, report generation scheduling, etc. Utilising analytical & predictive capabilities AI can identify disease patterns resulting in improved diagnostic accuracy & better patient outcomes. AI can also manage loads of patient data & perfectly identify individual needs and recommend better plans for personalised care.
The adoption of AI-enabled medical imaging devices for enhancing the efficiency & precision of diagnosis is having a huge positive impact on overall patient care. Leveraging AI, these devices are assisting radiologists in the diagnosis of potential issues like tumors or fractures in X-rays, MRIs, and other scans. The devices are also playing a pivotal role in streamlining workflows by prioritising critical cases and automating repetitive tasks.
However, for developing efficient patient pathways, multiple functions need to be operated in a streamlined way. For instance, a patient likely to be suffering from cancer goes for diagnosis & treatment at a hospital, however, due to the need for enhanced facilities he is moved from one state to another. The patient is then unable to explain his symptoms due to other language being used in other states. Moreover, there is no coordination between the doctors and hospitals in both states. The record of the patient is also mismanaged & inaccessible everywhere.
Business process copilot, a result of cutting-edge AI technology can resolve these situations & all the challenges of developing patient care pathways. Business process co-pilots utilise discriminative AI, generative AI, governance & wide data for providing enhanced productivity and streamlined operational structure.
The business process co-pilots will facilitate data analytics & predictive modeling to pinpoint opportunities for enhancing patient care pathways and promote continuous improvement resulting in overcoming the stakeholders’ resistance to adopting the change. The data from various electronic health records will be translated into a standardised format by the business process co-pilot. This will facilitate enhanced accessibility & management of the patient records everywhere, thus making it a smoother experience for him and the healthcare professionals. Integrating secure data exchange platforms with the business process co-pilots will ensure data security.
The business process co-pilot will act as a central data platform providing access to all the healthcare stakeholders with language support. The patients, doctors, nurses, and administrators can visualise the larger picture & understand each other’s needs. Real-time monitoring by the business process co-pilot will enable continuous monitoring & identification of the regulatory changes. Equipped with generative AI, the business process co-pilots will enable the automated generation of regulatory submissions to reduce the tedious & time-consuming tasks of healthcare organisations.
In response to the need of time and the challenges, healthcare organisations have begun incorporating the business process co-pilots. The business process co-pilots have been adopted for the management of regulatory compliance by medical device companies. The tool enables the companies to keep up with the dynamic regulatory environment and reduce their time & effort for regulatory submissions up to 70 per cent.The business process co-pilots will prove to be groundbreaking advancement in reshaping healthcare delivery with efficient healthcare pathways redefining the benchmarks of patient care.