Artificial Intelligence is here. It’s behind the searches you do on the web, it’s in the apps you use to order cabs; it’s in the voice assistant on your smartphone. And there’ll be more of it to help and assist us in our daily lives, with further advancements in technology. But speak to the A.I. trendspotters and you’ll hear them echoing about the great potential A.I. has for healthcare. It has the potential to make people stay healthy without the need for a doctor, or at least not as much, at reduced costs.
Today, a doctor checks your vital signs, diagnoses, and gives a prescription when you feel ill. With A.I. assistants, doctors can get access to comprehensive data including the patient’s medical history, treatment data etc. Further, they can get real time information on the patient’s health related parameters from wearables and sensors.This can enable doctors to understand the ailment thoroughly, take more informed decisions and prescribe treatment better. Further, access to doctors can become easier. Patients can interact with doctors real-time through digital devices from their homes.
A.I. along with machine learning can also help add value in the health insurance field. Machine learning can automate much of the claims management and handling process by analyzing massive data in a short period of time. Claims can be fast-tracked reducing the processing time and handling costs thereby enhancing customer experience. This will also allow underwriters to move away from routine work and focus onresolving complex risk related issues and thereby provide better value add to customers. Further, fraudulent claims can be recognized by identifying patterns in the data, thereby speeding up settlement of genuine claims.
Another area that one needs to look at is Big Datacombined with A.I. By identifying lifestyle and health habits of customers through Big Data applications, insures can offer personalized content as well asrelevant & customized offerings to help their customers understand and manage their health better. By identifying illnesses at an early stage, insurers can use Big Data to reduce severity of ailments and the treatment related complications. They can thus enhance their role beyond merely settling claims once the ailment is detected and treatment sought.
When it comes to the applications of A.I. today, these use cases may well just be the tip of the iceberg. By making sense of the data available, A.I. and machine learning can help answer a lot of questions in healthcare and best health insurance. While these new technologies are sure to influence the healthcare and health insurance space, how fast do they make an impact and to what extent is something that only time will tell.