AI in health care: opportunities, threats

Daniel Shin

The application of AI represents a promising example of leveraging technology to improve efficiency, accuracy and compliance in health care. As AI continues to evolve, we can expect to see further innovations in health care.

The most viable example of using AI in health care is the application of natural language processing, or NLP, and machine learning algorithms to improve clinical documentation and coding processes. Traditionally, clinical documentation and coding involve manually transcribing patient entries into electronic health records and assigning appropriate diagnosis and procedure codes for billing and insurance reimbursement processes.

It can be very time-consuming, error-prone and subject to variability among health care providers. To address these challenges, providers are not only investing in digital transformation but also increasingly adopting AI-driven solutions to automate clinical documentation and coding tasks. These solutions use NLP to extract relevant information from unstructured and even handwritten clinical notes, such as patient histories, physical examinations and treatment plans. Then, machine learning algorithms help analyze data to suggest appropriate diagnosis codes, procedure codes and billing information.

AI algorithms........

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