How AI is helping healthcare contact centers to be more efficient?
By Amit Gandhi
Human beings developed machines to make their work easier. Over the years, with the help of technological innovations, they have created technologies and their various subsets that can work with minimal human intervention. After tasting success with automated machines, the next big step was to interlink Artificial Intelligence with machines. Though the latter could only function with a human brain behind, it marred the purpose of chores getting done automatically. For this reason, Artificial Intelligence has become a field with top innovations. Programmed to simulate human intelligence and to think while mimicking human actions, AI has come a long way. Restaurants being managed by robots, classes run by robots, nurses as robots, and contact centers of healthcare are examples of AI finally infiltrating normal lives. The future belongs to AI, with newer avenues opening up.
AI has already taken over the healthcare sector, especially the contact centers. Nowadays, one can easily book appointments, order medicines, book diagnostic tests and get reports with the help of apps that run on Artificial Intelligence. According to a detailed study, global artificial intelligence in the healthcare market was valued at USD 10.4 billion in 2021 and is expected to grow at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 38.4% from 2022 to 2030. Artificial intelligence, combined with machine learning algorithms is being increasingly used to diagnose illnesses at an early stage, to provide early diagnosis and treatment, which is the biggest boon to mankind.
In the fast-paced world, getting an appointment with a doctor and getting a correct diagnosis is a big challenge. Even after booking prior appointments, patients wait for long hours for their turn due to staff shortage, every patient seeking more attention, and mismanagement on the part of the hospital. Some patients, especially those who come for follow-ups, need not require one-on-one consultation and could have been fine with an online consultation too. These barriers prevent patients from accessing healthcare unless it is urgent, crucial and the pain is not being managed.
To deal with these and many more such issues, Artificial Intelligence and machine learning is the answer. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology that enables one to digitize the doctor’s handwriting is being extensively used nowadays. Deep learning models built on machine learning can interpret medical images like X-ray, MRI, CT scan, etc., to perform diagnoses. The algorithms compute and can detect anomalies in medical images, including cancer. Artificial Intelligence, on the other hand, can cut down on waiting lines with the use of Natural language processing. This enables the patient to communicate in various languages, while the AI machine converts it to text, enabling auto diagnosis by it or by a doctor, which will take less time, thereby shortening the queues. Chatbots are another innovative app feature that enables one to access medical help at any time from the convenience of the patient’s home. So, earlier when a patient suffers the entire night till morning for lack of availability of a doctor while suffering from fever or stomach ache, can connect with a chatbot and get instant medical advice.
Not just this, but AI in the healthcare sector has immense potential. The healthcare contact center industry has been revolutionized. To automate everything, AI can help the contact centers of healthcare units like hospitals and diagnostic centers. Appointments with doctors or for tests like MRI, CT scan etc can be booked through apps, cutting down on wait time. AI can also help analyze unstructured data, helping pick out rush hours, where more doctors can be put in to ease the rush. This data can also assist emergency medical staff, enabling them to deal with crises promptly. When information is available in an organized manner, the usage of electronic health records can be reduced, curbing e-waste, apart from paper waste. AI in healthcare and contact centers is set to revolutionize clinical decisions, as a patient can access the best doctors, get a second opinion when needed from the comfort of their homes. It will also decrease the cost of developing medicines.
AI in healthcare has become a reality and brought about significant changes in every realm, be it making doctors across the globe accessible, cutting down on wait time with live tracking of appointments, leading to efficient diagnosis, innovation in the drug development sector, e inventories at every step helping in going paperless as well as making information available to various stakeholders. Healthcare contact center is one industry where AI has made the biggest impact. Today smartphones have turned into a powerful diagnostic tool, which enables access to healthcare across the globe. Parallelly, they have also enabled people from remote areas and developing regions to access world-class healthcare. All this has been possible only because of AI in the healthcare contact center industry. While it is still nascent, there is tremendous scope to grow and the next five years will bring about many more changes.
Author:
Mr. Amit Gandhi, Founder of NovelVox