ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND ITS POTENTIAL IMPACT TO HEALTHCARE
PREP-PRINT WITH DIGITAL OBJECT IDENTIFIER: 10.13140/RG.2.2.31995.36640
FR. TITO D. SOQUIŇO, OSA, PAOLO G. HILADO, DAVID S. HINOLAN
ABSTRACT
The study engaged in focused research on global developments in Artificial Intelligence (AI). Cognizant of its benefits and drawbacks, it aimed to further raise awareness on AI and its potential impact to healthcare. This documentary research details the utilization of AI in healthcare such as virtual nursing assistants, aids in diagnosis, support for administrative tasks, machine learning algorithms for analysis and AI assistants for surgeries. Improvements in effectiveness and efficiency that it brings to healthcare include reduction in hospital stay, fewer patient complications, better accuracy in diagnosis, faster processing time for analysis and curbing operations cost. Investigation of its negative externalities show that it will redefine the skillset demands in healthcare; mundane tasks and those that can be expressed into algorithms are likely to be accomplished by AI thus redundancy of need from workers. Healthcare jobs that have some percentage of tasks that can be automated or performed by AI machines include medical records and health information technicians, pharmacists, medical technologists, dieticians and nutritionists. Despite the aforementioned, a growth in healthcare jobs is expected for those involved in caring roles. Study findings benefit administrators of healthcare institutions as use of AI provides a competitive advantage. Among healthcare workers, it raises awareness regarding the implication of AI adoption thus putting emphasis on skills upgrading to ensure relevance in the changing demands of work. It also informs the government regarding the need for national policies on the use of AI and means to control its negative externalities.
Key Words: Economics, Manpower, Healthcare, Artificial Intelligence