Even as AI enables better quality healthcare at a lower cost, providers must address new exposures across an evolving regulatory and liability landscape according to insurer cfc.com.
A recent blog on company’s website says AI is growing rapidly and this is driving a digital health revolution.
From assistive diagnostic and medical triaging tools to medical scribing and chatbots, providers worldwide are finding new, efficient ways to optimise systems, reduce errors and cut costs. The AI-healthcare market is set to explode from $14.6bn in 2023 to $102bn in 2028.
The blog said there is no doubt that AI is making a huge impact across healthcare but the danger of rapidly introducing any new technology is that it can pose major risks to the provider and AI is no different.
While the benefits of AI are clear, the pace of technological advancement is making it hard for us humans to keep up with these advances. The US medical licensing examination recently passed two AI programmes but it is still possible for software to be released without third-party testing and before the Food and Drug Administration reviews it. In the US, steps are being taken towards regulating AI in healthcare and science sectors, with a blueprint for an AI bill of rights.
In an industry where lives are at stake, the inability to validate a technology can have severe consequences down the line. The blog said one only needs to look at the potential for algorithmic bias in diagnostic tools.
The Framingham Heart Study cardiovascular score showed how AI can be a double-edged sword, effectively diagnosing heart disease in Caucasian patients and underperforming for all other ethnicities. This led to an inaccurate and unequal distribution of care and directly increased the likelihood of non-Caucasian patients suffering from heart attacks.
At the same time, a perfect storm of increased regulatory scrutiny and little case law is creating a landscape of uncertainty; if AI is involved, who is liable when something goes wrong, the healthcare professional or the software that failed?
AI has the potential to transform healthcare but clinicians, patients, data providers, healthcare systems and regulators need to play their part. M