Healthcare IT Consulting and Strategy

All across the medical landscape, artificial intelligence (AI) is being implemented to leverage data-driven decision-making to improve efficiencies at scale. Artificial intelligence applications in healthcare leverage complex algorithms to streamline, automate, and optimize key operational processes. The result is a more seamless care environment that links medical researchers, doctors, and laboratory clinicians to machine learning (ML) capabilities, driving more efficient decision-making.
AI holds the processing power to dramatically improve the way doctors evaluate, diagnose, and treat patients across community health settings.
Healthcare expenditure on artificial intelligence is projected to grow 40% in 2023, from $4.4 billion in 2022 to over $6.2 billion, according to Omdia Forecasts. Over 96% of healthcare organizations surveyed across 2022 reported feeling confident or very confident about AI’s ability to deliver better medical outcomes and business results for providers.

On December 8, 2022, the US Office of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Information Security’s Health Sector Cybersecurity Coordination Center (HC3) released a detailed brief titled ‘Automation and Hacking: Potential Impacts on Healthcare.’ According to the HC3, healthcare organizations face substantial automated threats involving social engineering operations, phishing, spear phishing attempts, credential stuffing, brute force attacks, and many other new forms of artificial intelligence-generated malware.
Malicious threat actors have leveraged automation to launch attacks with global reach at scale. Hackers use automation at scale to identify personal information, financial data, medical research, and corporate data
At least 590 provider organizations have reported personal health information (PHI) data breaches to the HHS’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) since the start of 2022. The losses impacted 48.6 million individual records—up from just 40 million in 2021.

Is the use of artificial intelligence(AI) in healthcare key to overcoming inefficiencies of scale seen across the healthcare service delivery landscape today? As health providers make investments in digital transformation, the adoption of AI-enabled automation is becoming widespread, bringing incremental improvements that promise a competitive advantage.
Digital transformation in the healthcare sector is challenging due to the myriad stakeholders involved, reluctance to move on from antiquated systems, and the perceived resource drain.
It is no secret that healthcare service providers are struggling with staff burnout, skills shortages, and attrition, making it extremely difficult to maintain business as usual and deliver patients the quality of care their organizations are known for. To maximize clinical outcomes, executive leaders must make intelligent decisions about resource allocation, staffing needs, discharge planning, and managing inpatient capacities.

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the global healthcare system struggled to meet patient demands while remaining compliant with COVID-19 safety protocols.
The result was a perfect storm of opportunity, finally making digital transformation a front-of-mind priority for executive decision-makers. Healthcare technology investment expanded, driving the growth of virtual healthcare services, massive cloud adoption, and the rise of new organizational approaches such as citizen development.
Overnight, new services such as telemedicine platforms, digital health applications, mobile patient portals, and remote care consultations became the new normal. Not long after,  the healthcare industry was rocked by massive data breaches, with losses of personal health information leading to massive, unprecedented compliance fines.