Artificial intelligence to ‘humanise medicine’

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Artificial intelligence could contribute more than $700 million of value and savings to the New Zealand health system annually by 2026 and help to manage 20 per cent of unmet clinical need, a new report says.

The AI Forum of New Zealand’s latest report AI for health in New Zealand/Hauora i te atamai iahiko says, “AI will bring tremendous benefits through increased effectiveness and productivity as well as cost reduction”.

Scaling international analysis to New Zealand shows that AI could help to manage unmet clinical need by saving 20 per cent of nurse time and allowing doctors to see more patients, thereby increasing the effective workforce size.

“The use of AI could help to humanise medicine, by facilitating clinician presence and enabling more time for patient contact. This has been demonstrated to reduce hospitalisations and readmissions,” it says.

AI Forum executive director Ben Reid says AI’s contribution to the New Zealand health system could rise to between $1.6 to $3.6 billion by 2035.

“The health sector in New Zealand is facing challenges. These include increasing demand, rising consumer expectations and the pressures of an ageing population. These factors are straining the health workforce, increasing costs and limiting access to care,” he says.

“AI promises to bring significant clinical, workforce and cost benefits to the health sector, as well as personalise medical care.”

The report predicts that AI in health will mean that some workforce tasks are phased out, such as processing test results or coding medical records, and new roles will be created, such as data science doctors.

“True AI means that clinicians would not always have to validate the outputs of intelligent systems. This is a fundamental change to our conception of healthcare,” it says.

Reid says there are a number of barriers that need to be overcome to enable widespread adoption of AI in New Zealand healthcare, such as a low level of digital literacy among the healthcare workforce and inflexibility of legacy technological systems.

There is insufficient awareness of where and how AI is being applied in the sector. There is a need to slowly introduce clinical staff to new workflows to avoid resistance and there are low levels of AI awareness among health professionals.

New Zealand also has a number of self-imposed barriers including restricted access to non-identifiable data, a lack of standardisation and little cloud data storage, he says.

“AI will only reach its potential with accessible, secure, interoperable cloud-based health data and social license for its use,” says Reid.

The report’s ‘call to action’ says the government should create quality standards and a regulatory framework for AI use in healthcare.

Healthcare professionals should increase understanding of how AI and robotics can help them and patients and the general public needs to become accustomed to AI and discover the benefits.

Developers need to focus on the big issues of resource use that every health system faces and provider institutions will need to ensure evaluation and an evidence base aligned with their adoption of AI.

Research partner Precision Driven Health chief executive Kevin Ross says there are a few AI solutions used in New Zealand, but not many. 

“AI will increasingly outperform humans in translating the unmanageable volume and variety of data and research into practical advice for both our clinical carers and citizens,” he says.

“New Zealand is well positioned to lead this transformation. With high quality digital health records, innovative Kiwi companies, an admired health system and maturing data governance and ethics are required to develop this capability.”

Says the report, “The scene is set for adoption of AI in healthcare, and AI has many benefits to offer. The vision is in place, but more action is needed to achieve these goals”.

If you would like to provide feedback on this news story please contact the editor Rebecca McBeth.

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