The Future of Patient Care: How GenAI is Revolutionizing Healthcare

The global healthcare system has been in an uphill battle over the past decade. Compared to other industries, there is an acute skill shortage in the healthcare sector. Finding and attracting candidates with specific clinical, medical, and administrative skills is becoming tedious. While we don’t have any straightforward solution to these predicaments, the challenges only mount with the increasing patient population, overstretching the limited resources of healthcare systems. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), by 2031, the country will face a shortage of 195,400 nurses. Additionally, the role of physician assistant (PA) will see a 28% increase in demand within the same time frame. The same report projects that home health aide roles will also shoot up 37% by 2028.

The advent of Generative AI (GenAI), against this backdrop, proves to be a catalytic force; it opens up new avenues, enabling healthcare providers to overcome their human resource challenges and improve care quality.

The Role of GenAI in Healthcare Delivery

GenAI has evolved significantly in the last few years, revolutionizing diagnostic and therapeutic practices. Tasks that were once cumbersome and required heavy investments and human intervention can now be completed efficiently and swiftly. Let’s examine a few use cases.

• Patient Engagement: AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants can perform various tasks, from resolving queries and delivering critical information to educating patients and promoting health behaviors.
• Diagnoses: From medical image enhancements to screening genetic data for crucial insights, GenAI can help detect symptoms much more quickly than before, significantly improving treatments and clinical outcomes.
• Treatment Planning: GenAI can relieve caregivers of routine tasks such as clinical documentation and assist them by generating treatment recommendations.
• Patient Monitoring: AI-powered tools can be effective in interpreting medical reports and helping caregivers make crucial decisions
• Research and Development: GenAI can analyze and summarize large volumes of data to identify patterns and generate hypotheses for further research.

But that’s not all! From scribing prescriptions to risk predictions for devastating health events, the number of GenAI use cases is endless. It has also shown promising results in drug discovery and development. It enables efficient analysis of vast datasets, identifying patients for clinical trials, predicting potential side effects, and more.

Diverse Potential of GenAI in the Healthcare Sector

Opportunities for leveraging Generative AI

• XaaS - Xperiment as a service: Co-research and co-create Generative-AI models and tasks with Clinics and Healthcare providers/Payers
• Enterprise Search/Knowledge Mgmt: Cognitive information retrieval in conversations mode leveraging large language models
• Synthetic Data generation: Generative AI based data augmentation for machine learning models and testing new applications being developed
• Build custom generative AI studio: Experiment with your own Generative AI studio for quick PoC and Pilot for the specific Use cases
• Human-like Chatbot & Voice Bot Experience: Enhance user bot experience and adoption with improved intent mapping and conversations
• Legacy Modernization: Generative AI based code conversion speeds up legacy application modernization
• Responsible Adoption: Help build transparent, unbiased, fair and interpretable AI-powered decision-making process adapting to healthcare industry specific regulations
• Build custom LLM: Building on foundation model for enterprise specific data & copartner with client for building domain specific LLM

The sheer speed, efficiency, and innovation that GenAI can unlock in terms of healthcare delivery and drug development is game-changing. But experts are worried! One of the key concerns amongst healthcare practitioners is bias. AI models trained on biased data could perpetuate those biases, generating adverse outcomes. Mistakes in procedures or protocols to train AI models could lead to devastating outcomes.

Data privacy and security are yet another pressing concern. AI applications use a massive amount of patient data, and a lack of security can jeopardize patient privacy. Cyberattacks and illegal breaches could paralyze the healthcare system, risking patient lives and endangering public health.

As of today, there aren’t well-defined regulations to address these challenges. To tackle them, a multi-pronged strategy requires the involvement of several stakeholders, from drug regulators and caregivers to patients and governments.

At Tech Mahindra, we are pulling every lever to build effective, responsible AI solutions that can benefit doctors, researchers, manufacturers, and hospital staff to deliver higher-quality care while cutting costs by millions of dollars.

How Tech Mahindra Empowers Healthcare Providers for the GenAI Transition

Tech Mahindra is pivotal in helping the healthcare sector leverage the power of Generative AI to enhance patient care, improve operational efficiency, and drive innovation. Through a strategic approach that integrates automation seamlessly into managed services, our dedicated specialists work closely with healthcare organizations to identify and develop AI-powered solutions. This collaborative approach, fueled by the expertise of our Automation Center of Excellence (CoE), ensures that automation initiatives deliver sustained value within the complex healthcare ecosystem. Our deep understanding of the healthcare and life sciences domain, combined with our commitment to shared governance and risk management, allows us to deliver tailored solutions that address specific challenges and priorities. We’re currently working on different PoCs and pilots around:

• AI-Powered Diagnostic Platform that uses advanced algorithms to analyze medical images and provide actionable insights.
• Personalized Treatment Recommendation Engine with GenAI to create tailored treatment plans based on individual patient characteristics.
• Drug Discovery Platform that leverages GenAI to identify new therapeutic agents on behalf of pharma companies.

Proven Testament to Tech Mahindra’s Capabilities

The transformative potential of Tech Mahindra's approach is showcased through several successful case studies. For instance, Tech Mahindra developed a conversational AI platform for a top-ranked hospital, empowering clinicians to quickly search, collaborate, and synthesize information from multiple sources. Powered by Google Cloud's generative AI, this platform streamlines administrative tasks, freeing up valuable time for patient care. The solution also prioritized data governance, privacy, and ethics, ensuring full compliance with HIPAA regulations and safeguarding patient information.

Another notable project involved creating a research application for a cardiology department, enabling the collection and analysis of patient biomarkers from various sources, including wearable devices. This scalable framework allowed researchers to gain deeper insights into disease progression and improve patient outcomes. The project's success hinged on clearly defining technical requirements, managing workflows effectively, and building strong trust among all stakeholders.

Tech Mahindra has also built a mobile-first virtual assistant (chatbot) for clinicians at a major US healthcare provider. This solution leverages Google Cloud's platform to provide timely and accurate data, enhancing physician satisfaction and patient experience while driving faster decision-making. By integrating essential clinical data and incorporating conversational AI, this solution improves the overall care journey and delivers insights through data visualization and analytics. These diverse case studies highlight Tech Mahindra's commitment to developing innovative AI-powered solutions that address the healthcare industry's unique challenges and opportunities, fostering a future where technology and human expertise work together to enhance patient well-being and improve overall healthcare outcomes.

Shaping the Future of Healthcare with AI

Whether it’s administrative work or transformative drug trials, GenAI is poised to revolutionize healthcare in more ways than one. As we look toward the future, I am excited to witness several new trends and emerging technologies powered by AI that ultimately help us build a world where personalized and effective healthcare delivery ceases to be a novelty and becomes a norm.