The potential and pitfalls of AI in health care
By Robert Coe, AcuityMD
AI is still deep in the hype cycle, but signs of skepticism are emerging. Growing doubt is driven in part by AI proponents who are overpromising and under-delivering. Last summer, Google published a video that they claimed was created by their Gemini AI and showed broad, impressive capabilities – but the video was faked. Google had to take it down and apologize.
In late December 2024, a video of a gymnast doing a tumbling routine from Open AI’s Sora went viral because at times the gymnast had three or four legs and her head rotated around her torso. These public “failures” are obscuring the very real benefits that AI is delivering, especially in health care.
A great example of AI technology that is delivering tremendous benefits in health care is Abridge, which transforms conversations between a patient and provider into structured clinical notes. When thinking of an AI-driven technology that is hugely helpful to healthcare providers, a voice-to-text app probably wouldn’t be the first choice. But if providers were asked what they’d like to have week-to-week, the most popular answer would be “more time.” Abridge’s high adoption rate clearly shows the value in a tool that saves providers hours of transcribing notes each week. AI solutions that enable a user to essentially extend their abilities by automating manual, time-consuming tasks will be a growth segment.
Another example of extending abilities comes from companies like LeanTaaS, which uses AI-based predictions to help schedule infusion clinics and operating rooms. Handling administrative scheduling tasks is not the most futuristic instance, but has real-world practicality of making a shorthanded and overburdened hospital staff much more efficient.
AI is also powerful at synthesizing data across siloed sources. Medical device (MedTech) companies could use this power as a tool that pulls all recent information on a healthcare provider and puts it into a pre-call plan for a sales rep. Now a rep can get all the information they need to prepare instantly, instead of searching through dozens of websites and documents to piece research together. The time it saves sales teams can be returned to the valuable work of direct selling.
Similarly, MedTech reps spend a good portion of their busy weeks on the administrative part of sales, from inventory management to quoting and more. They also spend many hours driving from hospital to hospital to meet with providers. The time they spend behind the wheel is necessary, but also wasted. Imagine the efficiency delivered by a voice-activated personal AI assistant that can complete all a rep’s administrative tasks with a few simple commands while driving.
And on those road trips, much of what MedTech sales reps do is assist surgeons in the OR with their products. With video and image capabilities, AI can augment that sales rep by automatically tracking inventory or provide real-time guidance during a surgical procedure.
That said, there will absolutely be mind-boggling AI-driven innovations in healthcare and medical technology. Ones that go well beyond managing routine tasks.
Some companies are already leveraging AI for cancer detection. Not only can AI systems read more scans than radiologists, but they can also detect markers for cancer invisible to the human eye. This enables very early diagnosis and treatment, which obviously has significantly better patient outcomes.
Computer-aided design powered by AI will also radically change how MedTech develops products. From ultra-rapid prototyping to optimized designs to even bespoke devices for patients, MedTech device design iteration and development will greatly benefit from AI.
Companies that can see through the hype of AI and focus on the instances that will create actual value will avoid distractions and missteps that cost them time and money. The true opportunity in AI solutions is to give people and organizations a chance to enhance their existing abilities, accentuating and extending their best skillsets.
Robert Coe is chief technology officer and co-founder, AcuityMD.