Can AI Improve Your Medical Practice?

It's inevitable that AI is going to have transformative effects on every business, including healthcare. In fact, a majority of respondents to The Center for Connected Medicine’s annual “Top of Mind for Top Health Systems” survey listed AI as the technology they were most excited about.

But another survey should give tech-savvy doctors some pause. According to Pew Research Center, 60% of Americans are uncomfortable with AI playing too large a roll in their healthcare. Although that number is bound to come down as AI becomes a bigger part of our everyday lives, at this early stage, doctors need to find the right balance between the benefits of AI integration to their firms and benefits that patients appreciate.

Here are three ways AI can help your practice keep pace with healthcare advancements and improve the human-to-human service you provide.

1. Streamline administration.

AI-powered scheduling and messaging systems can reduce the hassles your patients go through when they're trying to manage appointments or access their records. On the other side of the desk, AI can help automate billing and run insurance checks. That could free up your customer support team to tackle more complex patient questions or assist you, your doctors, and your nurses with other office work. Upgrade your patient intake system and AI could analyze medical history and questionnaire answers to identify potential diagnoses and also personality traits that you might want to be aware of before stepping into the exam room. AI is also very good at writing job descriptions and analyzing resumes. Let your digital assistant scan the applicants in your inbox and put the ten most promising candidates at the top of the pile. And while some patients might not want consultations recorded, AI transcription services specifically designed for healthcare can provide a written record of appointments that could help align all of your team members on important treatment plans and goals.

2. Spruce up your marketing.

What's the first thing that prospective patients see when they search for you online? If it's an outdated, unappealing website that isn't optimized for mobile, they're not going to click around to read about what a great doctor you are. As important as social media is, your homepage is still your digital home. AI tools can redesign your practice's website or design a new logo and color scheme. You can also use AI to draft content, including email blasts, A/V presentations, FAQs, social media campaigns, advertisements, and even videos. Just make sure your marketing and compliance teams work together to vet all AI-created content and to infuse every post with your firm's distinctive brand personality. 

3. Speed up your diagnoses.

Perhaps the greatest promise that AI holds for medicine is a new level of personalized precision. AI-based models for specific diseases are getting better every day at identifying early warning signs by analyzing complex datasets and medical imaging. Combining medical diagnostics and wearables with AI can track patient health in real time, which can be particularly useful at hospitals and long-term care facilities. And while you're combining AI analysis with your medical expertise to care for patients face-to-face, a chatbot on your homepage could be helping chronic worrywarts decide if they need to come to your office or if they can just take an aspirin before bed.

Of course, bad advice from that chatbot or another AI tool could have life-or-death consequences. And if a patient feels like your AI system knows a little too much about them, you might find yourself defending your algorithms in court.

AI medical integrations have to be both practical and ethical. Clearing both hurdles will require a significant investment of your time and money. Make an appointment with one of our Licensed Financial Planners and we’ll help you start working on a financial plan to upgrade both your practice and your Return on Life.