Is AI part of the solution to SA’s health crisis

Henry Adams, Country Manager, InterSystems South Africa.

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The South African healthcare system faces challenges from insufficient resources and suboptimal working conditions that can contribute to professional burnout and systemic inefficiencies. The introduction and effective implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) is one way to address these critical issues, providing innovative solutions to enhance the quality of care, improve operational efficiency and empower healthcare professionals.

As in many countries but perhaps increasingly in South Africa, healthcare professionals endure significant burnout, primarily owing to their challenging work environments, limited support and deep-rooted systemic issues. What AI might introduce is targeted solutions that automate repetitive tasks and provide specialised decision-support tools. These advancements could reduce the cognitive load on clinicians, allowing them more time for direct patient care and complex medical decision-making. In doing so, healthcare AI can improve job satisfaction and raise the standard of care for patients.

The success of AI significantly depends on its ability to integrate and decipher various data sources. In South Africa's resource-constrained settings, AI should become invaluable in using the extensive data generated across healthcare systems. In the future, AI-driven analytic tools will be able to synthesise data and use it to effectively monitor and manage common chronic diseases such as hypertension and tuberculosis, providing healthcare workers with timely and actionable insights.

Operational inefficiencies are a substantial obstacle to healthcare delivery. AI has the potential to remove these barriers by automating administrative processes, which will be particularly valuable for functions such as patient scheduling and claims processing. In addition, AI-driven analytics have shown to be effective at identifying operational bottlenecks and suggesting workflow adjustments that can improve the quality of care and reduce costs. If effectively deployed in local settings, this capability could be a key to bridging the divide between South Africa's public and private healthcare sectors.

There is support for generative AI as a tool to assist in redefining patient and clinician experiences in healthcare. Digital applications can facilitate personalised healthcare pathways for patients, for example, by using AI-enhanced virtual health assistants and tailored wellness tools. For healthcare providers, generative AI offers the potential to simplify the user experience (UX) when using electronic health records (EHRs) to mitigate documentation processes, enabling clinicians to invest more time in patient engagement over administrative duties.

Another area where AI can play a part is to function as a dynamic catalyst for enhanced healthcare research to unveil new and faster insights for developing groundbreaking treatments. AI should help identify the right patients for clinical trials, analyse patient-reported outcomes and unify and correlate the data from different systems needed to accelerate the development and distribution of new healthcare solutions. This is particularly important in South Africa, where advances in healthcare research are critical to improving and reducing the total cost of public healthcare outcomes.

In summary, the most pertinent areas where AI could have a positive impact on healthcare include:

1. AI augmented healthcare applications: where AI is used for diagnostic accuracy, predictive analytics, personalised treatment plans and operational efficiency in both the public and private sectors.
2. Enhanced diagnostics: AI is being used to supplement and enhance human diagnostic analysis of medical images that can identify patterns that human eyes may miss.
3. Operational efficiency: When integrated with operational systems with access to the right data, AI could help optimise scheduling, reduce administrative burdens and streamline workflows.
4. Patient care: Today, there are trials that use AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants to provide continuous patient support and personalised health recommendations.

AI can potentially transform South Africa’s health system and the health of its people by addressing critical systemic challenges to enhance the overall quality of care. It needs to ensure its healthcare providers are already ready for AI to play a pivotal role in creating a sustainable and efficient healthcare system. The benefits of AI will only be realised if the supporting requirements like regulations, training and data access are in place.

South Africa can change its future for the better by investing in responsible AI to make measurable and meaningful improvements in healthcare. And, given South Africa’s unique genetic history and mix, it may help improve the world's health.

InterSystems will be at the HASA conference, Sandton Convention Centre, on 2 and 3 September, and will host the InterSystems SA Summit from 17-19 September. Join us to explore innovations in healthcare technology.