It’s well documented that healthcare systems globally are facing unprecedented challenges with implications for patient care. For example, The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that around one in every 10 patients is harmed in healthcare. Unsafe care, including medication and diagnostic errors, is responsible for more than 3 million deaths annually. Yet, WHO also states that up to half of that patient harm is preventable.
In a recent webinar, “Responsible AI: How do we do no harm?”, Sheila A. Bond, MD, Director of Clinical Content Strategy at Wolters Kluwer Health, notes that tackling these global issues requires innovative solutions.
“It’s an era in which clinical medicine and technology need to combine,” says Dr. Bond. “And part and parcel of that is making sure we are delivering information in a way that is correct, accurate, meaningful, and responsible.”
There is potential for healthcare innovations like artificial intelligence (AI) and Generative AI (GenAI) to help address larger healthcare challenges, improve patient care, and ease the burden on clinicians. However, it is highly important that companies take a responsible approach when developing and using these new technologies.
Understanding the scale of current healthcare challenges
Clinicians and healthcare providers are facing extensive challenges. For example, WHO estimates a projected shortfall of 11 million health workers worldwide by 2030, mostly in low- and lower-middle-income countries. In Europe alone, up to 40% of existing healthcare workers are grappling with depression and anxiety, while 70% report feeling burned out.
At the same time, the health needs of patients are growing increasingly complex. According to Dr. Bond: “As physicians…, we probably spend the same amount of time with a patient as we did in the past, but the number of decisions we make in that time, the complexity of those decisions, the interaction between drugs, the number of chronic care issues a patient has, have all risen.”
Research shows that clinicians are now making an average of 158 decisions per day, many of which impact patient care and safety. Yet, they are also navigating an overload of clinical information, with medical evidence doubling every 73 days.
Clinicians are also increasingly required to interact with technology. As electronic medical records (EMR) continue to rise in importance, they now often spend as much time with that technology as they do with their patients. However, many are finding that the systems they use don’t integrate with their workflows efficiently, leaving them struggling to achieve the ambitious time and cost-saving targets they face.
