AI in Healthcare
- TCCRI Staff
- 2 days ago
- 1 min read
Updated: 16 hours ago
It could be a powerful tool for improving the system, but is also has the potential to exacerbate its flaws.
House Committee on Public Health
The intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and healthcare in the U.S. is the collision between a seismic technological leap and a remarkably expensive and inefficient system that continues to grow at an unsustainable pace. What the results from this collision will be are unclear. On the one hand, AI offers the potential to better harness human labor in many areas, allowing participants in the system— providers, patients, and payers— to deliver greater value. A recent study in NEJM Catalyst, promoting an optimistic view, has estimated that implementing three types of AI (generative AI, natural language processing, and machine learning) could generate between $439 billion to $811 billion in annual value, although that study omitted one-time implementation costs.
On the other hand, it is possible that AI simply exacerbates flaws in the health care system. As one physician has pointed out, “there’s a risk that AI will just industrialize all those parts of healthcare that are most inefficient and most adversarial.”
This testimony will first examine the potential benefits of AI in health care— improved access to care, better quality, and greater efficiency. It will then turn to the safety and privacy concerns that AI may generate, as well as its potential to increase costs system-wide.
Read the full testimony in the link above.
