Embracing AI: How the Healthcare Industry Can Meet the Moment

AI can supercharge the capabilities of clinicians, streamlining operations, and improve both the patient experience and outcomes.

David Niewolny, Director of Business Development for Healthcare/Medical

July 31, 2024

5 Min Read
Artificial Intelligence
Toowongsa Anurak / iStock / Getty Images Plus via Getty Images

For healthcare executives, keeping up with the constant stream of healthcare AI news — from virtual nurse assistants to surgical robots — can feel like drinking from a firehose. And, among trying times for many healthcare operations, the question of whether to adopt AI can feel existential.

From improving public health and enhancing the patient experience to reducing operational costs and boosting care team well-being, AI is proving to be the key to success in this era of digital transformation across the industry. Alongside these important benefits, integrating AI into the healthcare industry has the potential to boost the bottom line, generating wide-reaching benefits for providers and patients.

Clinical value: Improving patient outcomes

Top of mind for every healthcare executive is their number one stakeholder: patients. Improving patient experience and outcomes is central to the mission of every healthcare organization, a goal which AI can support with applications that analyze medical images, genomic data, and patient records to detect patterns or anomalies that may indicate the presence of disease.

AI can help identify the most effective treatments for individual patients based on their unique genetic makeup and medical history. It can also make real-time recommendations to clinicians based on the latest medical knowledge, patient data, and best practices. Leading medtech companies are already seeing results with AI deployments across a variety of use cases.

GE HealthCare’s recently announced SonoSAMTrack is a research foundation model, specifically designed for ultrasounds, that uses advanced tracking techniques to help enhance precision and consistency in diagnostics. The research model has the potential to simplify and speed up ultrasound analysis for healthcare professionals — ultimately reducing the wait time for patients to get results.

Medtronic is implementing AI to enhance patient care in the area of endoscopy. Medtronic’s AI-assisted colonoscopy tool, GI Genius, has been cleared by the FDA to help physicians detect polyps that can lead to colorectal cancer. GI Genius leverages AI in real-time during colonoscopies, providing AI-enhanced diagnostic images that highlight potential areas of concern to improve accuracy of results and patient outcomes.

Kaliber AI is advancing the journey to clinical AI implementation with its tools to assist minimally invasive surgery. Kaliber’s AI-powered solutions act as a surgical co-pilot, providing a wide range of assistance in real-time, including surgical planning and patient communication support, automatic recognition of anatomy, pathology, tools, digital measurement of structures, and more. These capabilities assist with the most critical phases of surgery to ensure consistent, high-quality patient outcomes.

Streamlining healthcare delivery: Provider benefits

AI is the most powerful tool now at the disposal of healthcare providers, enabling them to exponentially increase the number of patients that can be seen while maintaining high quality of care. As the industry faces increased clinician shortages and burnout, AI can ease some of the strain on an overburdened workforce by helping enhance healthcare workers’ skills and optimize workflows.

A new FDA initiative to regulate AI-powered medical devices presents a significant opportunity for innovation in healthcare. The initiative is creating a regulatory framework that ensures safety and efficacy and will support the growth and advancements of AI technology in the healthcare industry by streamlining approval processes and generating trust in the products, driving competition. This framework will guide providers on safe and vetted products and help minimize technical errors when the devices are in use.

Johnson & Johnson MedTech is testing new AI capabilities to accelerate the delivery of real-time insights at scale to support medical professionals at all steps of procedures. Polyphonic is the company’s open and secure digital ecosystem for a more connected surgical experience, supporting surgeons through collaboration, using video technology, and data analysis software to improve surgical proficiency. Increased information accelerates efficiency and allows physicians more time and energy to engage with a larger number of patients regularly. This also supports general accessibility in the healthcare industry, making expensive treatments and diagnoses less exclusive.

Cutting operating costs, boosting the bottom line

Operating rooms are the highest cost and largest driver of revenue for hospitals. By reducing surgical complications and improving the efficiency of the operating room, healthcare providers can cut operating costs, boosting the bottom line and leaving more funding and time to support advancements and new trials. NVIDIA technology is supporting innovation by improving accessibility to cutting-edge AI and generating a larger reach across the industry.

Moon Surgical is using NVIDIA Holoscan and the NVIDIA IGX edge AI platform to power its Maestro System, a surgical robotics system used in laparoscopy, where surgeons operate through small incisions with an internal camera and instruments, enabling increased control and precision. This technology leads to overall greater patient outcomes and systemic efficiency, allowing doctors to spend less time in the operating room and more time helping care for patients. By lowering the cost of care by maximizing efficiency of space and skill, surgical operations will become more affordable and accessible, leaving time and money for higher standards and innovation.

Asensus Surgical is digitizing the interface between the surgeon and the patient to pioneer a new era of performance-guided surgery. Its Asensus’s Intelligent Surgical Unit (ISU), built with NVIDIA accelerated computing technology, delivers real-time augmented intelligent features — such as digital tags, 3D measurement, and enhanced camera control — to enhance efficiency, precision, and safety in soft-tissue surgery.

More accurate surgeries and more efficient use of the operating room decreases costs for hospital providers in the long term. With reduced complication risks due to robotic surgery’s ability to support minimally invasive procedures, patients could experience faster and easier recovery, with lower hospital costs and allowing providers more time for a higher number of operations.

As AI continues to advance and integrate across the healthcare industry, it can supercharge the capabilities of clinicians, save costs for healthcare providers by streamlining operations, and improve both the patient experience and outcomes.

Learn more about NVIDIA-accelerated MedTech and join the wave of healthcare organizations that are embracing AI and already seeing the benefits of investing in the next generation of medical technology.

About the Author

David Niewolny

Director of Business Development for Healthcare/Medical, NVIDIA

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